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This paper seeks to define a new construct, salesperson opportunity recognition, which contributes to solutions selling effectiveness and efficiency.

A framework for the composition of salesperson opportunity recognition as well as antecedents and outcomes is constructed from an analysis and synthesis of the extant literature on entrepreneurial cognition and creativity.

The paper identifies salesperson opportunity recognition as a distinct, multi‐dimensional construct that mediates the relationship between key organizational variables and solutions selling outcomes.

The paper is conceptual and requires empirical development.

This paper describes key cognitive processes necessary for salespeople to succeed in today's solutions‐oriented, customer‐centric environment. The discussion should help sales scholars embark on new research into salesperson cognition.

Research has shown that companies focus their internal processes when they adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, the ERP systems need to expand their functionality to include customers and suppliers (with e-commerce functionality) to reach their full potential. The purpose of this paper is to consider business relationships as a resource but also a limitation when companies strive to get an extended ERP system.

The paper presents an illustrative case study of an industrial company's process of developing an extended ERP and how the company's portfolio of business relationships has affected the solution. The analysis is supported by the markets-as-networks theory.

The process of developing an extended ERP system needs to incorporate the company's business partners (customers and suppliers). It is a simultaneously bottom-up and top-down process given that the operative frontline staff hold the knowledge about the company's business relationships while the corporate management has the means of extending the ERP system functionality and align it with the focal company's strategy.

Companies need to consider the fact that the technological and financial status of their customers and suppliers differ. Thus, an effective and flexible extended ERP system needs to include both a high-end and low-end solution as well as understand that a full interorganizational integration might not be realistic.

The paper puts forth business relationship portfolios as an important factor to consider when extending the ERP system functionality in the supply chain and toward customers.

Siemens Medical Solutions (SMS) offered innovative products and systems, clinical solutions, and services for medical professionals. Its latest project, transforming a hospital to digital records and processes, was experiencing serious delays that had damaged the relationship with the client. Management believed the underlying problem was that SMS was not using the correct approach to organization and processes for solutions marketing. The executives in charge of on-time completion and successful delivery of the project must now agree on a different recommendation.

Students will examine the infrastructure, customer offerings, and competitive landscape for Seimens Medical Solutions, as well as evaluate three potential organizational models (transient solutions, solutions streamlined enterprise, and adaptive solutions) to determine which represents the ideal structure for SMS. They will be able to identify the role of leadership in the organization, recommend how SMS should prepare for this change, and recommend how it would measure the transformation's success.

Customer-obsessed organizations put customers first, create exceptional value and enhance business performance. This paper aims to offer a framework for implementing the customer obsession construct.

Using relevant customer value literature, syndicated research and a qualitative analysis, customer obsession insights are offered.

Customer-obsessed companies know their customers’ needs and engage with them to offer the best solutions. Four customer-centric stages are evaluated, and applications of customer obsession in the Now Economy are discussed.

This analysis of customer obsession is largely conceptual and presents a case study in one metropolitan statistical area. Although the findings are insightful, it may not be representative of the US or global health-care market.

Strategic implications relate to a bias for action, types of business obsessions, values alignment and benchmarking. This paper features an in-depth case study on Baptist Health South Florida which assesses customer obsession using a customer value framework.

Customer obsession is a strategic mindset built upon strong leadership, a sound business culture and superior value. While critical to business success, there has been limited scholarly work in this area. This paper fills that gap by providing a managerial approach for understanding this key business priority.

Social media is widely regarded as a strategic resource to improve firm performance. However, there are mixed findings on how businesses can use social media for better performance. This study aims to propose and test a mechanism through which social media can influence firm performance.

A survey approach was used to collect data from 262 small businesses in South Africa. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) to assess the hypothesised relationships.

The findings support the significant role of social media in fostering firm performance. It is observed that the use of social media influences firm performance through three key customer-centric constructs: the strength of customer–firm relationships, customer orientation and customer co-creation. Additionally, the relationship between the strength of customer–firm relationships and firm performance is moderated by customer co-creation.

The study provides new insights into the mechanism through which social media fosters firm performance. Due to a lack of universality in establishing the direct effect of social media use on firm performance, providing evidence of an indirect path becomes vital for advancing knowledge on social media use in business. As such, this study contributes to the literature on social media and entrepreneurship by demonstrating a novel mechanism through which social media influences firm performance.

Although not yet frequently used in marketing management, design thinking (DT) encompasses a creative, proactive, and empathic approach that connects different bodies of knowledge to shape innovative product and service solutions. Based on lean progress models, DT combines a manufacturer’s strategic objectives with the customer’s business requirements. This model focusses on the most important ‘pains’ the customers actually have in order to co-develop and more successfully sell products or services that provide value to specific customer groups or segments. This chapter aims to shed light on the potential of applying DT in new product or service development processes in different business fields to incorporate significant customer requirements a priori. The goal of this method is twofold: to reduce the extremely high risk of unsuccessful product launches and to make the integration of important customers during the product development phase easier.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive integrated model which helps in explaining the impact of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) dimensions (complaint resolution, customer knowledge, customer empowerment and customer orientation) on customer loyalty and competitive advantage of a bank. The study also explores the mediating role of customer loyalty in the relationship between CRM and competitive advantage in retail banking.

The research is based on a theoretical model which consists of four CRM dimensions and two exogenous variables. These have been used for establishing the hypotheses to analyze relationships between the variables constituting the CRM model. The data have been collected from 278 customers of a private bank. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The scale was developed and purified through factor analysis (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis). SEM was then used to examine the causal relationships and “model fit” of the proposed model.

The results provide evidence that the four CRM dimensions have a positive effect on customer loyalty and competitive advantage of the bank. Among the CRM dimensions, customer knowledge is most influential of all the dimensions. Furthermore, customer loyalty acts as the mediator in the CRM model between CRM and competitive advantage.

Since, the study involved a single bank and therefore the results should be generalized cautiously. Only four CRM variables were included in the study; additional variables can be introduced in further studies involving different contexts.

The study highlights and supports the need for mangers to devote additional resources toward developing a better CRM system. Therefore, mangers need to think beyond the technological aspects and should focus on these four dimensions, especially customer knowledge, to enhance the loyalty and competitiveness.

The paper investigated hitherto unexplored relationships between customer-centric CRM dimensions instrumental in providing competitive advantage to a bank through mediational analysis. Thus, it contributes to the information on the implementation of CRM practices valuable for banking sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and contribute to the understanding of the critical issue of “driver turnover” in the USA long-haul trucking environment which is becoming a malaise in the transportation sector not only in the USA but also worldwide. Most importantly, it accomplishes this through an exploration of the perceptions of the “drivers” themselves regarding the external customer-base in the trucking industry. This, to the best knowledge of the authors, has not yet been done and so becomes the missing angle in focus on driver turnover research.

This exploratory study employs a qualitative research methodology via in-depth interviews of a select sample of drivers in a field setting followed by content analysis of the responses. This methodology, by and large, is the most suitable for this type of exploration.

A content analysis of the perceptions of drivers reveals several important reasons (or causes) for driver turnover. This paper elaborates on those and offers customer-centric solutions to alleviate the plight of the driver and improve overall performance in the trucking sector.

Needless to say, this exploratory research should be replicated in several other locations within the USA, other settings (e.g. trucking in extreme conditions), and other countries in order to enhance the external validity of the findings and recommendations.

All implications of this research are practical as they have direct managerial significance.

The value of this research lies in the fact that, to the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that explores the perceptions of long-haul drivers regarding the external customer-base of the trucking industry. The findings have direct implications for management in the trucking sector.

This paper draws on the experiences of project marketing and solution selling to improve the understanding of how to create superior value for customers. Project marketing and solution selling have both developed approaches to deal with complex marketing situations for a number of years now. The upstream mobilization of customer network actors and the downstream enlargement of the content and scope of the offering are the key features of these approaches.

This paper presents two case studies to focus attention on elements that are crucial to this twin-track approach. The downstream extension of the offering relies on services supporting the customer's action (SSC), which supplement traditional services that support the supplier's product (SSP). The upstream extension leads to an introduction to other types of services or elements of the offering – the services supporting the customer's network actors (SSCN).

Furthermore, the paper proposes a marketing process that takes the supplier's viewpoint, for whom the entire approach is a network mobilization, into account. This approach to the offering, which included SSP, SSC, and SSCN, is typical of a network strategy in which the supplier recruits and enrolls new actors to (re)model the buying center.

This marketing process is in tune with the latest developments of the service-dominant (S-D) logic, as it proposes a move from the value chain toward a value-creation network/constellation. Consequently, creating superior value for customer means mobilizing and servicing actors far beyond the boundaries of the buying center, supply chain, and customer solution net.