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The purpose of this paper is to explore the sales and marketing interface and to identify some of the elements that may influence collaboration between sales and marketing and provide a framework demonstrating how these elements may interrelate.

This paper explores the sales and marketing relationship through qualitative research using one‐to‐one, tripartite interviews with senior executives and sales and marketing managers of three, UK‐based business‐to‐business organizations.

The paper indicates that there are two types of factor that affect collaboration between sales and marketing. Those that are out of the control of sales and marketing staff – management attitudes to coordination, interdepartmental culture and structure and orientation, and four that are internal to the interface – inter‐functional conflict, communications, market intelligence and learning. The paper also identifies that senior managers play a critical role in influencing this interface.

Improving collaboration in the sales and marketing interface should be a focus for senior managers. The paper is limited by the number of cases.

The factors identified may be used by organizations to improve collaboration between sales and marketing.

The identification of factors that may improve collaboration between sales and marketing, and provide a conceptual framework for further study. The paper increases the understanding of the sales and marketing interface by identifying two additional factors that may influence the interface – learning and market intelligence, and demonstrates how the various factors may interrelate to create improved collaboration.

This study examines the collaborative impact of networking capability and balanced agile project management (APM) on firm performance through the mediating role of market orientation and business process agility of medium and large telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia.

Research data were collected from the executive management of telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia via a questionnaire survey to obtain 150 valid questionnaires for analysis. This study analyzed the overall model fit and causal relationship using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results indicate that market orientation fully mediates the link between networking capability-business process agility and balanced APM-business process agility. Furthermore, business process agility mediates the relationship between market orientation and firm performance.

This study is based on a cross-sectional nature and might fail to capture the dynamic of the studied variables over an extended period.

The study extends the knowledge that dynamic capabilities, represented by networking capability and balanced APM, must be framed by market orientation to create customer value and improve bargaining position. However, market orientation alone is not enough in a highly dynamic business environment. Organization also requires business process agility, responsiveness and adaptability to timely address customers' needs and requirements.

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.

Given the often-heated rhetoric of politicians and the street protest sometimes organized against symbols of American capitalism and culture, a casual observer could be forgiven for concluding that Europeans are deeply opposed to globalization. That impression, however, would be wrong. Many Europeans do worry about the effects of globalization on jobs, economic equality, and culture, but the European anti-globalization movement is actually a small if vocal minority. Most Europeans, in fact, recognize that increasing global economic, political, and cultural exchange is good for them. What they want is not to stop globalization but to manage it, and for this they turn mostly to the European Union (EU). Most Europeans believe that the EU can help to protect them from the downsides of globalization, and this paper argues that they are correct.