Derrick Gosselin

Strategic account management: customer value creation through customer alignment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an innovative conceptual view on the management of strategic or important customers in business markets, so‐called (key) account management. Central to this new perspective is customer value creation through external customer alignment. The paper additionally proposes two propositions, based on quantitative empirical analysis and rooted in congruency, transaction cost economy and economic rent generation theory.Design/methodology/approach – The study is quantitative research based on questionnaire survey.Findings – The papers proposition is that account management can create important competitive advantages for companies which can acquire and develop the necessary organisational competences to implement an integrative process through alignment with strategic or important, well selected, customers.Originality/value – Traditionally, most companies view account management as a sales activity. Views that are more recent consider it as a marketing activity wit...

Corporate social responsibility and the strategic management process

The adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles in strategic management is propagated in the relevant literature as a criticism of reckless corporate misconduct or as an appraisal of business resources and power. At the same time, the business logic and management challenges of adopting CSR principles in the strategic management of companies remain fairly underdeveloped. To study its management challenges and business logic, we have conducted an explorative case study that investigated the management of a CSR proxy, viz. Health Safety and Environment (HSE), in a multinational company in the petrochemicals. Our study suggests that the adoption of CSR principles in strategic management is a challenging task even for well prepared companies, which requires a portfolio of activities and resources, i.e.: symbolic actions (e.g. commitment), intangible resources (e.g. communication and training), tangible resources (e.g. equipment), and incentives (e.g. financial benefits, audits). These are apparently based on plausible strategic logic, since their purpose is to minimize risks, save costs, and enhance intangibles such as reputation, trust and social capital. Overall, corporate social responsibility is not only an ethical issue but also a strategic one and therefore it requires a comprehensive managerial approach.