Catherine Pardo

Unpicking the meaning of value in key account management

Purpose – This article aims to build on existing literature on value and proposes new perspectives and facets of relational value in key account management (KAM).Design/methodology/approach – Building on traditional value perspectives, value in KAM is conceptually deconstructed and linked with strategic value approaches.Findings – The article finds that a multifaceted key account value perspective includes three different types of value: exchange value, proprietary value, and relational value. Depending on the type of value constellation within a KAM relationship, a number of distinct key account value strategies are presented and discussed.Originality/value – The article provides an innovative concept of value in strategically important business‐to‐business relationships. Based on this, several strategic implications regarding the management of value are derived which enable further empirical research and a more nuanced managerial approach towards KAM.

Key account management in the business‐to‐business field: a French overview

Aims to analyze the process of key account management in the industrial sector by highlighting the most recurrent problems that arise linked to this process. The research is based on a period of six years, during which several major industrial groups in France either set up or developed their key account management programs. It represents both a theoretical positioning according to the process of key account management, and the discovery made early on of an emerging picture of this process and the absence of any real understanding of it. Proposes two terms that best sum up key account management research: co‐ordination and transversality.

Key‐account‐management in business markets: an empirical test of common assumptions

Purpose – The concept of key account management (KAM) has received considerable attention from practitioners and scholars for well over 20 years now. However, numerous articles build on a set of tacit assumptions for which we lack empirical evidence. This paper seeks to propose an empirical test of several of these assumptions.Design/methodology/approach – The contribution draws on a study conducted among 297 purchasing managers in two industries (packaging goods, market research data).Findings – The findings indicate that parts of the foundations of KAM are not as solid as they may appear at first sight.Practical implications – This paper invites managers of KAM programs to carefully consider the objectives they assign to such programs by integrating the idea of value created both for key customers and for suppliers implementing such programs.Originality/value – The paper extends knowledge of key account management in the business field by providing new – and, in the light of the extant literature, somet...

Portfolio of supplier-customer relationships

The main body of research on industrial marketing over the last 20 years has concentrated on giving a relational framework to an activity which had previously been understood to be essentially transactional. Therefore, the management of business relationships is today considered as a critical task on which a companys very existence depends. Consequently, allotting limited company resources between several relationships has become a major task for marketers who must decide how to divide and allot time and money for customers and prospective customers. In this renewed context, the portfolio concept for supplier-customer relationships are of a continuous nature and when the boundaries of the customer are easy to delimit. In order to widen the scope of their relevance, we propose to re-embed the supplier-customer relationship into the network of business actors that influences it and to be very careful in defining who is the customer.

Managerial implications of research on inter-organizational interfaces

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify what managerial implications research related to inter-organizational interfaces has been produced in marketing. For this aim, the authors focus on a specific concept implemented in many firms that operate on business-to-business markets, which is key account management (KAM). Design/methodology/approach – The authors used the Ebsco Database entering “account management” as a key word in the title row. The search provided 51 papers to which the authors added four MSI reports written by Moriarty and Shapiro between 1980 and 1984. The authors then identified such keywords as “managers”, “practitioners”, “marketers”, “managerial”, “business”, and their variations as well as normative words such as “should”, “must”, etc. in order to identify managerial implications. Findings – Four main findings are provided: a clear managerial purpose is affirmed by KAM academic works whether as a central “purpose” of the works or as “implications”; these managerial implicat...

Dynamics in a distribution triad – a case study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to deal with business-to-business distribution, with a strong focus on the relationships developed by a distributor with its customers and its producers. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on an in-depth analysis of a wholesaler specialized in fresh fruit and vegetable distribution. Data were gathered on the basis of 18 in-depth interviews. An additional important work of second-order data analysis was also conducted (sector analyses; statistics; companies’ Web sites). Findings – This paper qualifies the different stages a wholesaler goes through in the relationships with its suppliers on the one side and its customers on the other. This work also identifies the nature of the impact of one type of relationship (wholesalers/producers) on the other (wholesalers/customers). Research limitations/implications – Practical implications The findings allow distribution firms to view distribution channels as places where they can have some latitude to find new p...

PRICE ASSESSMENT IN BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS: AN ANALYSIS OF NET AND COMBINATORY EFFECTS OF RELATIONSHIP ATTRIBUTES

In the business market, prices are typically subject to negotiation between exchange partners and buyers’ perceptions of the relationships with suppliers have a central role for supplier success and for establishing profitable prices (Hinterhuber & Liozu, 2015). Suppliers that seek to achieve price levels above the average market prices of offerings need to convince buyers of a favorable price/quality ratio (Toytari, Rajala, & Alejandro, 2015). To date, however, research on absolute prices paid by buyers to suppliers, relative prices paid as compared to the average price level in a product category, or exchange partners’ perceptions of prices charged in business relationships remains limited. Extant work on buyer-supplier relationships has most commonly focused on costs rather than prices as economic outcomes of interest (e.g., Cannon & Homburg, 2001; Kalwani & Narayandas, 1995). The purpose of this research is to deepen the understanding of buyers’ price assessments in business relationships. Specifically, this research seeks to further illuminate how relationship inputs provided by suppliers influence buyers’ assessments of the price level charged and their satisfaction with the price/quality ratio provided by the suppliers. The relationship inputs examined include buyers’ perceptions of supplier relationship-specific investments, long-term orientation, and relationship planning. In addition, this research considers two relationship parameters, that is, buyers’ commitment to the supplier and dependence from the supplier. Based on a sample of executives of different buyer firms, this research examines net effects and combinatory effects of the relationship factors on buyers’ evaluations of economic outlay. While the study of net effects offers insights into the effects of single antecedents on the outcomes across a sample of cases, the analysis of combinatory effects delineates (configurations of) antecedents sufficient for bringing about the outcomes of interest (e.g., Leischnig, Henneberg, & Thornton, 2016). Knowledge of these effects helps assess what relationship inputs and what combinations thereof may act as potential remedies for buyers’ price-related resentment in business The findings of this research show alternative configurations of relationship inputs and relationship characteristics sufficient for the two outcomes of interest. In addition, this research shows that individual relationship inputs and characteristics can have opposite effects on the outcomes, depending on how they combine with other antecedent conditions. Moreover, the results of this research reveal that specific antecedent factors differ in terms of causal coreness for the two outcomes of interest. In summary, these findings add to the net effect analysis and provide a more detailed and nuanced understanding of how relationship attributes impact buyers’ price assessments in business relationships.