Search results

Explains the concept of global account management and the forces driving it. Provides a framework to help managers to recognize why and when to use it and how to implement it successfully. Discusses examples from the advertising, computer, telecommunications, electrical component and banking industries and provides an in‐depth case study from one of the leading practitioners of global account management, the Hewlett‐Packard Company. Concludes with a guide to successful implementation.

Global Account Management (GAM) is not a recent phenomenon. Xerox first appointed global account managers in 1988 and Citicorp has a history of using GAM processes that go back over twenty‐five years. What is new is that GAM has emerged as one of the major strategic issues facing multinational companies operating markets that are thinking globally. As a consequence GAM has stimulated growing interest among academics and a flurry of experiential articles in practitioner journals and “How we did it” presentations at conferences. Over the past few years a number of major research initiatives have produced papers that attempted to build upon the rather fragmented outputs addressing GAM related issues that began to emerge during the middle of the 1990s. Three of the recent studies of particular interest are: The SRT/SAMA Global Account Management Study; The GAM Contingency Model; and The St.Gallen GAM Study. Even though each has provided valuable insights into the GAM process the new conceptual model provided in this paper is the first attempt to integrate all of the individual findings. A number of propositions are offered in an attempt to stimulate research in the area.

This paper aims to analyze the role of management accounting in international entrepreneurship. Its role, thus far, has been a neglected topic in research on accounting and international entrepreneurship, although some quantitative findings indicate the positive influence of management accounting on internationalization capability.

This paper is based on a multiple case study of Austrian firms and draws on the resource-based view of the firm as well as effectuation/causation logics. Data for this study were collected via semi-structured interviews, press reports, company chronicles, organizational brochures and websites of the analyzed case firms.

The paper finds that management accounting may indeed serve as a key capability for international entrepreneurship. However, reliance on this capability seems to be contingent on the phase of international entrepreneurship and pathway and mode of internationalization.

The findings add to the accounting literature by showing that the phase as well as the mode and pathway of international entrepreneurship may serve as contingency factors for management accounting, which have been overlooked in the literature. At the same time, they also contribute to the international entrepreneurship literature by offering an initial view on the neglected capability of management accounting.

This is the first study to analyze the role of management accounting in international entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevance to situated managerial practice of the implementation frameworks contained in the global (key) account management (GAM) literature and to explore what specific GAM-related issues may be faced by key account managers working for an MNC based in Japan.

Following a critical literature review, including a discussion of sales management in Japan, an exploratory case study is conducted of a chemical supplier that claims to be making the transition toward GAM.

The findings confirm that intra-organizational contextual and cultural factors appear to influence the adoption of GAM programs by the focal firm. This suggests there is not a “one size fits all” strategic pathway to implementing GAM, and that western theoretical perspectives on KAM/GAM do not appear to have permeated the sense-making of some Japanese managers.

While the study indicates that the US/European approach to KAM and GAM does not appear to fit well with the Japanese business culture, this conclusion must come with the caveat that this is not necessarily a generalizable case.

Much of the prior B2B marketing literature on KAM and GAM has investigated only western firms. This is possibly the first empirical research on GAM in a Japanese company. The paper offers a number of implications for theory and ponders the wisdom of making recommendations from such a culture-bound study.

Emerging thoughts and models in strategic management increasingly involve complex hypotheses at different levels of analysis and multiple sides of relationships. Such complexities often result in less than ideal empirical testing, with the ensuing implications being limited or sometimes even wrong. One such case is global relationship management (GRM). The effective implementation of GRM has been argued to be a principal source of a firm's value creation but the testing of GRM scenarios have been very limited. Using GRM as a case example, we introduce a new methodology to the strategic management literature that alleviates many of the limitations of existing techniques – static triangulation simulation (STS). A series of GRM hypotheses are briefly introduced and then tested via the STS technique. Starting values for the simulation, based on input from companies, are included from two sides of each GRM relationship (customer and supplier) and two levels (company and account) from each side. Such elaborate testing is typically not feasible via “normal” methodology – the STS technique, however, allows for a robust assessment of the different drivers that affect GRM outcomes.

The increase in cooperative global arrangements between suppliers and customers has grown precipitously in the last five years. These global account management (GAM) programs are frequently brought about owing to the initiative of the global customers, requiring their suppliers to service their total global needs. Suppliers in turn perceive GAM programs as a means to develop long‐term relationships with key global customers in order to hinder competitive inroads. The managerial issues in implementing GAM strategies/programs and developing GAM teams are the focus of this paper. Based on the bargaining framework of relational contracting theory, a step‐by‐step process for management to follow when implementing a GAM program is proposed.

This study aims to investigate the cultural factors that influence global account management (GAM) in the context of Indian buyers and German suppliers from a wide perspective.

After conducting a critical literature review on key account management (KAM), GAM and organizational culture, the authors conducted an exploratory case study with 23 global account managers (GA managers) who work for German-based multinational companies and manage global accounts from India. The results of a qualitative data analysis are demonstrated using consensus and template methods.

The findings of this study indicate that language, communication, the concept of time, conflict avoidance, organizational structure, decision-making, trust and relationship are among the cultural factors that can influence GAM in a German and Indian context.

Given the substantial cultural disparities between Northern India and Southern India, it is especially difficult to generalize cultural factors in GAM. On the other hand, these factors can be used as a prerequisite for the development of cultural dimensions when collaborating with individuals and organizations from diverse cultures.

This research is essential for global sales managers, GA managers and executives who intend to collaborate with Indian buyers or suppliers.

Prior business-to-business marketing literature on KAM and GAM has been mostly on the western context. This study is the first step in examining the cultural effect on GAM relationships between Indian and German organizations.

The paper aims to look at a joint venture (JV) set up by a Portuguese company and a global corporation (GC) in the hospitality sector. The paper seeks to examine how, and why the JV's managers introduced variations in the management control (MC) rules and procedures in institutionalizing the global MC system imposed by the GC.

The paper relies on qualitative data collected through a case study of the JV over a period of two years. Insights from recent neo‐institutional work in accounting, complemented by the notion of multiple logics and the Orton and Weick perspective on loose coupling, are drawn on to interpret the case findings. The MC literature in GCs is also reviewed to explore whether and how practice variation can occur in these complex institutional settings.

Although institutional and technical criteria were not in dialectical tension, the global MC system was adapted by the JV's managers. They developed loosely coupled MC rules and procedures to satisfy the multiple logics informing it.

More qualitative studies on the adoption of externally imposed practices in other global/local settings are needed to refine the understanding of this phenomenon.

The present study extends the scope of neoinstitutional analysis in accounting by showing and explaining how and why individual organizations, which are dependent on dominant others, can introduce variations in imposed systems and practices. In so doing, the paper also contributes to a fuller understanding of MC practices in GCs.

This study aims to present a brief overview of developments in management accounting research and practice in German-speaking countries, locate the contributions of this special issue in historical trajectories and provide an outlook of expected future developments in this area.

This study reviews the literature and draws a critically reflective approach.

A century after Schmalenbach, Germanic management and cost accounting have significantly changed, even though the roots of the cost accounting tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are still visible in practice and teaching, which is true for both organisational practice and research. In both cases, an encroachment of the global on the local can be seen but, paradoxically, as Hopwood (1999) noted, the seemingly globally standardised accounting systems allow for local idiosyncrasies to specifically stand out. The anchoring of management accounting in financial accounting, the country-specific ownership and financing models, the importance of capital and labour markets (e.g. strong codetermination) for companies, regulations on corporate governance and the determination of the tax base are examples of institutions that can shape the behaviour of management and, thus, also idiosyncrasies of management accounting in a country.

The contributions of this special issue provide insight into developments in management accounting research and practice in German-speaking countries and, thus, enhance our understanding of the different historical trajectories and traditions in management accounting. The papers by Weber and Wiegmann and by Gisch et al. demonstrate how specific idiosyncratic practices and understandings of management accounting in German-speaking countries mediate global influences on management accounting in private- and public-sector organisations. The papers by Endenich et al. and by Kreilkamp et al. show that the influence of international developments in management accounting research has become stronger in German-speaking management accounting academia.

Three major environmental changes are taking place regarding business-to-business salesforce. The first trend is the marketing discipline's shift from a product-focus to a service-focus. In response, firms are shifting their salesforce from a product-focus to providing integrated products and services or solutions to their customers. The second trend that is affecting salesforce is the enhanced utilization of technology, as technology is being used to handle some selling tasks (e.g., information provisioning). The third trend is globalization that is evolving to a stage where global salesforce originating from different countries is interacting with customers from different countries. This chapter suggests that these three trends are changing salesforce strategy, structure, and processes. The chapter reports on the decline in product-based salesforce, growth in customer-focused and global salesforce, globalization of salesforce, and the broader business and research implications. The shifts are dramatic and for researchers, it will be a new and fertile area of research.