Hanna Salojärvi

Customer knowledge processing and key account performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions of customer knowledge processing (CKP) in the context of key account management (KAM), and to examine its relationship with the suppliers key account performance.Design/methodology/approach – The findings of the paper are based on empirical survey data collected among large industrial firms in Finland.Findings – The findings of the research show that CKP is a three‐dimensional construct made up of acquisition, dissemination, and utilization. The degree of acquisition and utilization are found to be significantly associated with the suppliers key account performance.Practical implications – In order to improve key account, performance managers need to recognize customer interaction as a source of customer knowledge. In addition to acquiring knowledge about their customers, they also need to learn to utilize the knowledge residing in them in their customer‐value‐creation processes.Originality/value – CKP is represented in this paper as a co...

How customer knowledge dissemination links to KAM

Purpose – This study aims to identify the organizational antecedents of intra‐organizational customer knowledge dissemination in the context of key account management (KAM).Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected from large industrial companies in Finland by means of a structured survey. Linear hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.Findings – The findings of the study show that esprit de corps among employees and the formalization of key account management facilitate customer knowledge dissemination in industrial key account organizations. Moreover, the findings show that the intra‐organizational dissemination of customer knowledge is positively related to the suppliers KAM performance and dissemination fully mediates the relationship between esprit de corps and KAM performance.Research limitations/implications – The study contributes to research on key account management in providing quantitative empirical evidence about the antecedents and consequences of the in...

Synergistic effect of technology and customer relationship orientations: consequences for market performance

Purpose – This study aims to examine the effect of firm-specific customer relationship orientation, technology orientation and the marketing–R & D cooperation on market performance. Although the importance of customer focus in R & D has been widely recognized in the literature, less attention has been paid to customer relationship orientation and the simultaneous effect of the three constructs on market performance. Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses are tested on a multi-industry survey study of 209 R & D-intensive firms in Finland using hierarchical regression analyses, including both direct and interactional effects. Findings – The findings show that customer relationship orientation has a direct positive effect on market performance and that technology orientation also has a positive, yet non-significant effect. In addition, the effect of both of these strategic orientations is accentuated when collaboration between marketing and R & D departments is high, providing evidence on the significant moderating effects of these types of processes. Research limitations/implications – The implications of the research can be interpreted as being generalizable at least to some extent due to the multi-industry nature of the sample. However, the research is bound to a certain type of firm (R & D-intensive) and to a certain national context (Finland), which poses limitations to the study. Practical implications – The results suggest specific benefits for integrating specialist, complementary knowledge into a firm in terms of R & D and marketing knowledge. Practicing managers across departments should thus consider not only focusing on their specialist areas in markets (e.g. customers or technology) but also utilizing complementary insights within the firm to reap benefits in their fields. Originality/value – The study focuses on the less-researched concept of customer relationship orientation in parallel with the more established technology orientation. It also provides novel evidence on how the effectiveness of these orientations benefits from firm-internal knowledge transfer between the marketing and R & D departments.

Market knowledge competence – a driving force or a roadblock for radical innovations?

There has been a debate on the role of market and customer knowledge in new product development, especially with regard to radical innovations. Although it has been stressed that market knowledge competence influences both innovative and business performance, the effects of its elements on different dimensions of innovation radicalness have not been investigated. This paper examines the radicalness of innovations from the technological, market and business perspectives. Empirical evidence in this explorative research was obtained through analysis of survey data collected among 213 companies. It was found that acquisition and dissemination of customer and competitor knowledge are accentuated in innovations with high technological radicalness, whereas, more general knowledge integration including close interaction in the marketing-R&D interface is more important in the case of high business radicalness. Contrary to other researchers, we found a higher level of knowledge acquisition and use for innovations w...

CSR-Driven Entrepreneurial Internationalization: Evidence of Firm-Specific Advantages in International Performance of SMEs

This study examines an emerging yet somewhat neglected theme in international and global marketing literature, namely, the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and market-sensing capability in international enterprises. Specifically, we illustrate how CSR and market-sensing capability impact international performance in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results from a sample of 85 internationalized Finnish SMEs indicate that social responsibility serves as a mediator of market-sensing capability on international performance. Moreover, market-sensing capability along with social responsibility also has a positive direct effect on an SME’s international performance. Thus, the study links global marketing, strategic management, and sustainability literatures to explain the emerging paradigm of sustainable international entrepreneurship.

Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility in Internationally Operating SMEs: Implications for Performance

Concepts relating to corporate sustainability (CS) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have remained vastly under-explored in international entrepreneurship literature. The recent reviews by Jones et al. (2011) and Peiris et al. (2012) do not find a single study of CSR and indicate that sustainability is discussed in the traditional sense of the word in the literature (i.e. referring to the competitive advantage of companies), rather than as social responsibility and sustainability in a more holistic sense. The latter refers to the ‘triple-bottom line’, i.e. business that is sustainable from the point of view of the firm – profit, of the society – people, and of the environment and ecology – planet (see Elkington 1997). Moreover, in the Journal of International Entrepreneurship, only one paper (Kirkwood and Walton 2010) has during this decade considered the role of sustainability-related practices in international entrepreneurship. That study explored ecopreneurs in New Zealand through a case study, but we still do not have a clear view on whether it is worthwhile for internationalizing SMEs to invest their time and resources to develop socially responsible and sustainable business practices for foreign markets, as extant research on these topics in the context of international business overall tends to focus on large multinational enterprises (MNEs) rather than on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Jamali et al. 2009).

Sustainability and Knowledge Dynamics in Entrepreneurial Growth: Evidence from Internationalizing Finnish SMEs

Abstract The impact of environmental sustainability and knowledge dynamics on entrepreneurial growth and internationalization could do with added research focus. However, the rising importance of corporate sustainability and social responsibility in global business and entrepreneurship increasingly requires that these interdependencies be assessed. We assess these dynamics empirically through both quantitative and qualitative analyses. With the former, we employ a cross-sectional sample of Finnish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to illustrate the impact of learning orientation and environmental sustainability on their growth and internationalization. Specifically, we find that their impacts on entrepreneurial growth depend on the stage of their internationalization: Learning orientation predicts first foreign market entry among the enterprises, while environmental orientation predicts the subsequent performance among internationally operating enterprises. In addition, we find no moderation or mediation effects between learning orientation and sustainability, suggesting that their impacts are distinct from each other. We conclude by discussing these results and their implications on international entrepreneurial growth, and knowledge and sustainability dynamics in the entrepreneurial context.

Do All Roads Lead to Rome? The Effect of the Decision-Making Logic on Business Model Change

Business models and business model change have drawn increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners across various disciplines, including the domain of entrepreneurship. However, even though the importance of business model innovation as a driver of firm performance has been widely acknowledged, empirical studies explaining the business model change remain limited. This study contributes to prior research by examining the effects of effectual and causation-based decision-making logics on the degree of business model change in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises in Finland. The findings of hierarchical regression analysis show that both causation and effectuation-based logics have positive effects on business model change, thereby highlighting the need for both strategizing and seizing of opportunities in business model development.