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Although individual and business actors are often mentioned as an important part of clarifying the stages that firms and their networks go through from starting up to becoming established, most studies have emphasised activities and resources rather than actors. Therefore, more needs to be known about how actors shape and are shaped through and within firms’ networks.

To clarify the process of reshaping business in networks, the focus of this study is on the role of actors in firms’ networks during the main stages of development. The major events for each stage are described in terms of how these events affect the interaction, alignment and interfaces between individual actors and business actors with a focus on individual and collective interests.

The individual actor plays a key role in the start-up stage, whereas the business actor has a key role in the final stage when the firm has become an important player in the industry. In later stages, the individual actor plays a gradually decreasing role and the business actor an increasing role. However, it appears that an analysis of the interplay between the two levels of analysis provides deeper insight into the shaping.

This study provides new insights into the role of the actor and how the actor shapes and is shaped by a firm and its network in different stages. Further, the study contributes by clarifying actors’ roles on two levels of analysis and shows the roles of interests, conflicts, interfaces and alignment in shaping firms and their networks.

Successful segmentation and implementation are crucial for firms. This paper aims to focus on what areas small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) consider when implementing new target segments in the organization. If firms do not understand the potential complexity and plan for implementation, they risk overlooking important areas that cause organizational resistance and failure in the market.

This paper builds on a literature study and five SME case studies based on 44 interviews and 10 intervention workshops.

The authors identify key areas of change that SMEs consider when planning to implement segments in the organization, including marketing strategy and plans, organizational aspects and implementation processes. Organization changes and sales plays are key considerations among SME managers. The authors further identify four categories characterized by different degrees of marketing and organizational changes that SMEs face when implementing new target segments, reflecting SMEs former choices.

This research is based on interviews and workshops that bring managers into a situation where they can evaluate needed changes to implement segments. The managers can express the complexity and the effect of the implementation.

This paper presents considerations and insights derived from SMEs and discusses how firms can be better equipped to implement new segments.

This paper offers new insights and directions for segmentation literature, focusing on implementation and proposing how to advance the segmentation literature.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the discussion about customer portfolios beyond simple identification of models and how they can be used for balanced resource allocation to a discussion about how portfolios should take into account views from relationship partners and how they should be aligned in internal as well as a relational context.

The portfolio literature is reviewed (most recent, seminal, IMP related) and considered in the context of both the sales organization and the customers involved in the portfolio. A conceptual framework is introduced that helps improve the understanding of how customer portfolio models can actually be applied from a relational perspective.

The key aspects of the conceptual framework relate to how alignment of the relationships in the portfolio is achieved. Critical to this are the interaction spaces that facilitate communication relating to alignment and provide the context for the legitimacy of these actions to be discussed.

This framework needs to be empirically explored.

Understanding of alignment and misalignment processes in customer portfolios gives managers a tool to help to cope with the dynamic aspects of the customer portfolio. Recognition of the importance of communication to the process, the development of trust and the role of legitimacy also provides areas that managers can focus upon in their relationship management processes.

This conceptualization moves the consideration of relationship/customer portfolios beyond simply that of a resource allocation tool into a process that facilitates the use of the portfolio in relational processes and thus aids their understanding of how portfolios can be usefully applied.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the research domain of Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) beyond the hard issues by focusing on soft issues in S&OP processes. This paper aims to investigate how consciousness of different personality types can affect S&OP processes.

This paper is based on a single longitudinal case study from a medium-sized enterprise with a data collection period of more than two years. This paper is based on observation and interviews gathered at several stages during pilot implementation and operation phases.

This paper indicates that a focus on behavior using personality type theory and key behavioral indicators has provided a common framework for understanding how the S&OP process is impacted by different personalities and behavior. This knowledge has increased the awareness of which behavior sustains a silo mentality and which behavior breaks it down. Quotations are used to provide substance of this explorative topic.

As a single case study, this paper only provides results for analytical generalization.

Consciousness of behavioral elements in S&OP processes is proposed here as a complement to key performance indicators as levers to implement and obtain sustained operation of S&OP.

This paper is the first explicitly integrating personality type theory for a better understanding of implementing and operating S&OP processes. This paper contributes with a new understanding of S&OP success factors and how a common language may improve process efficiency.

As companies become more aware of their role in the business network and their own value contribution hereto, the question of the companies’ sourcing strategy and use of suppliers has simultaneously come more and more into focus of their decision making. The purpose of this paper is to describe some managerial challenges on the sourcing side, which companies must address in order to be able to act appropriately in relation to their own role and the cooperation with others in the network. The paper aims to focus on managerial implications of deliberate strategic sourcing.

Based on empirical observations, discussions with managers, and previous research the paper discusses six significant strategic managerial challenges that companies must address in their quest to form their role in the network.

Strategic sourcing is not a stand alone activity, but an activity impacting the whole network. The paper pinpoints how important it is to address the raised managerial challenges when relationships are to be terminated, maintained or developed.

The paper helps managers to navigate and focus in discussing their strategic sourcing process.

This chapter contains a discussion of interdependencies as an explanatory construct in conceptualising the business world and explaining managerial behaviours. Specific interdependencies that exist in business networks influence the outcomes of business relationships. Such interdependencies can be more or less clearly acknowledged and perceived by the practitioners (managers), who can act upon them and create new interdependencies. Interdependence thus also plays an important role in developing effective explanations and conceptualisations of the business world. Some of the interdependencies are consequences of actions focusing on rationalisations, development or positioning, while other interdependencies are made with the intention of creating a specific position or some other effects. To live with, and be competent in, handling interdependencies is thus imperative in the interactive business landscape; as a consequence interdependencies need to be addressed when theorising the business world and its dynamics.

Danish municipalities are undergoing continuous changes. An important part of these changes are the introduction and implementation of a wide range of development projects. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the challenges of initiation and implementation of development projects in municipalities.

The focus is on development projects, which are defined as projects undertaken to improve the workflow and processes of administrative functions in municipalities. The empirical component is based on two pilot interviews in two municipalities and a quantitative questionnaire distributed to all Danish municipalities.

Extant literature contains limited contributions regarding the overall management of development projects in municipalities. There seems to be an awareness of the importance of developing working procedures to ensure greater efficiency in Danish municipalities, but this development is often not prioritised relative to operational tasks. The absence of prioritisation is an indication of the potential for improving the portfolio management of development projects.

The response to the quantitative questionnaire is provided by one employee in a municipality. As such, the research may reveal the views of one individual in particular and not those of the municipality in general.

The paper provides empirical evidence of the ambidextrous challenges in the context of public sector management. At a more generic level, the paper highlights the importance of improving portfolio management of development projects.

This paper is the first that one to focus on the orchestration of development projects in the public sector (here analysed through Danish municipalities). Management and control of such projects is much more sensitive to political decision processes than are similar tasks in the private sector.