Kimmo Alajoutsijärvi

Beautiful exit: how to leave your business partner

Interorganisational buyer‐seller relationships have been primarily studied from the perspective of relationship development and the benefits accrued from relationships. There is a lack of research concerning problems with relationships and relationship dissolution. The dissolution of a business relationship can be either desirable, freeing badly deployed resources, as indicated by the customer portfolio approach, or harmful, involving costly legal disputes and the loss of company reputation. By employing a theory‐driven case study approach we examine the exit strategies available for the disengager in dissolving interorganisational buyer‐seller relationships. We show that the quality of dissolution is affected by the disengager’s choice of exit strategy. Managerial suggestions are provided for achieving “beautiful exits”, i.e. such communication strategies which minimise damages of the dissolution to the disengager, the other party, and the connected business network.

The role of communication in business relationships and networks

Owing to the strong position of traditional marketing communications (especially advertising) research and consumer marketing related theories in the general field of marketing, the prevailing concepts of communication can be labeled as “mass communicative” in current marketing discourse as a whole. However, along with the rise of various “relational approaches” in marketing, the focus of marketing research seems to shift from products and firms as a central unit of analysis to people, organizations and the social processes that bind actors together in ongoing relationships. In these interactive relationship/network contexts, the nature of communication is hardly mass communicative. This article aims at presenting a theoretical framework on the role of communication in business relationships and networks. The interaction/network approach to marketing means moving from the current perspective of marketing’s mass‐communicative effects and consequent communicative behaviors of organizations to the “lower level” of interpersonal communication processes occurring within business relationships and networks.

Sponsorship as relationships and networks: implications for research

Despite the fact that commercial sponsorship nowadays is a common phenomenon with salient effects on different aspects of developed societies at large (e.g. sports, the arts, the public sector, the media), academic research interest in this closely marketing‐related field seems to be rather low. Although there have been significant changes in marketing thinking during the 1990s, current research on sponsorship seems to be “stuck” in the more traditional, marketing‐mix management – and mass communicative effects‐based discourse. This paper aims at presenting a theoretical overview of how current sponsorship research could be developed further by applying the basic ideas and concepts provided by the interaction/network approach to the study of sponsorship‐related phenomena. Adopting an interaction/network perspective means that, instead of measuring the mass‐communicative effects on various audiences, the focus is on understanding the development of sponsorship relationships and networks, as well as on interpersonal communication processes going on between the sponsorship parties.

Customer relationships and the small software firm: a framework for understanding challenges faces in marketing

Abstract This paper identifies the major marketing challenges small software firms face during their growth and internationalization processes. It starts with an analysis of small software company activities along a continuum from ‘project business’ to ‘product business.’ This is followed by a brief analysis of the two major schools of thought in marketing, in which there is a paradigm shift from the traditional notion of marketing-mix management towards ‘relationship marketing’ is discernible. Finally, the discussion is summarized in a framework for identifying the major marketing challenges facing software company managers at the beginning of the next millenium.

The Concept Of Satisfaction in Industrial Markets: A Contextual Perspective and a Case Study from the Software Industry

Abstract The starting point for this study was the obvious “mismatch” between the dominating, consumer marketing-oriented way of approaching customer satisfaction on the one hand and our current understanding of industrial buyer–seller relationships and networks on the other. The purpose of this paper is to present a relational and contextual perspective on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction in industrial markets. To illustrate the usefulness of the perspective, this paper presents a case study on the emergence of dissatisfaction in a buyer–seller relationship within its network context in the software industry. On the basis of the three-level framework highlighted in this paper, i.e., the inner context of a buyer–seller relationship, the connected network of a buyer–seller relationship, and the outer context of the connected network, it is argued that it is possible to develop a richer understanding of the emergence of satisfaction in industrial markets.

Customer satisfaction in industrial markets: opening up the concept

The purpose of this paper is to “open up” the concept of customer satisfaction in industrial markets through arguing for a broader, contextually sensitive perspective to the phenomenon in its real‐life settings. The conceptual argumentation put forward in this paper is based on an action‐oriented research project on customer satisfaction in industrial markets conducted in two globally operating case organizations, the first one in paper machine manufacturing and the second one in production of high quality steel for industry. On the basis of the three steps highlighted in this paper – the inner context of a business relationship, the connected network of the customer‐supplier relationship, and the outer context of the connected network – it is argued that one can gain a more complete understanding of the context within which customer satisfaction actually emerges in industrial markets. The main function of the three steps proposed in this paper is to structure the inherent complexity and multiple facets of different contexts affecting customer satisfaction as a managerial phenomenon.

Customer relationship strategies and the smoothing of Industry-Specific Business Cycles : The Case of the Global Fine Paper Industry

The purpose of this study is to argue for the importance of customer relationship strategies in smoothing industry-specific business cycles. We use the global fine paper industry as an example of a ...

Social and cultural capital in project marketing service firms: Danish architectural firms on the German market

This article analyses the marketing activities of three Danish architectural firms in Germany during the 1990s from a perspective that is new to project marketing, in that the Bourdivan concepts of social and cultural capital are applied to the offerings and activities of firms. In architecture, cultural capital accumulation entails such things as building visible buildings, winning design competitions, or obtaining important tenders, whereas social capital is accumulated through the recognition by other construction industry actors that one is a member of their circles. The cases presented provide support for our claim that the accumulation of social and cultural capital is crucial to acquiring architectural projects, while also indicating that cultural and social capital are internationally transferable to a limited extent only. This in turn suggests that national construction industries are best viewed as distinct project marketing milieus.

Dynamic effects of business cycles on business relationships

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to identify the effects of business cycles on industrial business‐to‐business relationships within extremely volatile industries.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is an in‐depth case study on Outotec plc, a leading provider of technologies for the mining and metal industries.Findings – The study identifies the changes in a business relationship during a business cycle as the dominance between the parties and the cooperative and the competitive nature of the relationship alternate.Practical implications – The study identifies ways to smooth the effects of business cycles in extremely volatile industries from the viewpoint of a project‐based technology provider.Originality/value – While a significant amount of macroeconomic research on cycles and a few studies on industry‐specific business cycles can be found, this study is a rare example of company‐specific research on surviving business cycles.

The international marketing of professional service projects: to what extent does territoriality matter?

Many types of commercial professional services are commonly sold as projects. Therefore this article draws on the project marketing literature to elucidate the international marketing of professional service projects. After an initial literature review, the project marketing milieu concept’s a priori territorial definition is critically examined on the basis of cases concerning the internationalization of Nordic architectural firms. It is hypothesized that territoriality plays the biggest role in situations where a firm is moving from one national milieu with well‐established norms, rules, and representations to another national milieu with similarly well‐developed norms, rules, and representations, yet that there also exist global milieux. Managerial implications concerning professional service firms’ preparation for entering a foreign milieu as well as subsidiary or office establishment abroad are provided.