Jordi Montaña

The role of corporate culture in relationship marketing

Purpose – The role of corporate culture in relationship marketing is significantly under‐researched, although there is evident consensus in the literature about the importance of this topic. The purpose of this paper is to present a model for the corporate culture of a relationship‐marketing‐oriented company.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology involving 58 in‐depth interviews that were analysed and interpreted from a grounded theory standpoint was adopted in order to build a conceptual model.Findings – The two key shared values required to successfully put relationship marketing into effect are client orientation and a high degree of concern for employees. Furthermore, another six shared values (trust, commitment, teamwork, innovation, flexibility, and results orientation) also seem to facilitate the development of a relationship marketing orientation.Research limitations/implications – Although the research methodology is qualitative and does not allow statistical generalisation, the ...

Market orientation and design orientation: a management model

Market orientation and design orientation as strategic concepts have a proven impact on business results, but the direct relationship between these concepts has not yet been analysed. This research attempts to prove the relationship by studying the managerial implication of design orientation as it relates to market orientation. After analysing 28 case studies of Spanish companies well-known for their business excellence and their design orientation, a management model is proposed. The model is a management tool that offers companies a scheme for auto-diagnosis and a review of best-in-class design practices that have shown to improve business results.

A cross‐cultural assessment of leading values in design‐oriented companies

Purpose – This study is an attempt to approach design management from a cultural perspective. Specifically, the paper assumes that design orientation reflects an underlying organisational culture that distinguishes design‐oriented companies from the rest and reinforces their capability to generate competitive advantage from design management. The aim is to disentangle the main characteristics of this culture.Design/methodology/approach – A case study research approach was adopted to gain some initial insights on the cultural characteristics of the population considered in the present study.Findings – The results of the field study identify a set of general values and product‐related values shared by the design‐oriented companies considered in this research. In addition, the existence of functional sub‐cultures and cross‐cultural differences is analysed, together with a discussion on how organisational culture and functional sub‐cultures can co‐exist in this specific context.Research limitations/implicatio...