Robin Wensley

Boxing up or Boxed in?: A Short History of the Boston Consulting Group Share/ Growth Matrix

This paper looks critically at the history, mainly from public sources1, of the development of the Market Share/Market Growth matrix by the Boston Consulting Group and its popularization in both the practitioner and academic domains. The application of the “Boston Box” became a powerful means of simplifying and “boxing up” complex issues of marketing strategy. However, of particular interest is the question of whether this central technique in any marketing strategy analysis of the seventies or eighties also bred its own form of “marketing myopia” and “boxed in” strategic discussions to a limited set of options and prescriptions. A short survey of marketing lecturers in the UK was also conducted to establish the current state of undergraduate teaching of the “Boston Box” itself, which suggests that there are still considerable areas of concern in terms of the teaching of such techniques.

Marketing knowledge and the value of segmentation

This paper reports findings from a study into how marketing academics and MBA students view segmentation. The research indicates that both respondent groups view segmentation as being more valuable in helping to understand customers than improving business performance. For MBA students there appears to be no relationship between their reported marketing knowledge and the value attributed to using market segmentation. The findings for academics suggest inconsistencies in how they interpret the value of segmentation and appraise the usefulness of analytical and evaluation approaches.

Segmentation analysis for industrial markets

The underlying managerial rationale for segmenting markets is well established, with the marketing literature citing a range of benefits for businesses adopting a segmentation approach. Yet organisations frequently encounter difficulties in implementing segmentation principles. Even in the industrial marketing literature, where the most practical implementation guidance is offered, it is suggested that organisations tend to over‐emphasise the mechanics of segmentation, while failing to correctly implement the findings. This suggests that, if organisations are to benefit from applying segmentation principles, two fundamental questions should be addressed. The first concerns the basic conditions which must be met if implementation is to be effected. That is, it must be possible to map the dimensions developed on to usable customer characteristics. The second concerns the costs and benefits of the segmentation solution in relation to the proportion of variance in customer requirements which it explains. Addresses these questions in an industrial marketing context, using a literature review and quantitative analysis of data from the European car parts after market. The analysis shows that whilst traditional segmentation methods can be used to identify certain segments, these segments do not readily map on to implementable dimensions. Furthermore, it is suggested that even a relatively wide use of structural independent variables explains only a very small proportion of the individual variability in customer requirements. This suggests that much segmentation analysis may be poorly directed and also of rather limited practical value.

In search of 'interfirm management' in supply chains: recognizing contradictions of language and power by listening

Abstract This paper reports on a study designed to investigate the ways in which first-tier suppliers, primarily in the auto-supply industry, respond to significant changes in key customer requirements, particularly those related to costs, and how they do or do not transmit such demands to their own suppliers. The key managerial informants, particularly in Brazil but also retrospectively in the UK, raised much more fundamental questions that challenged various central assumptions in the way that supply chain management approaches portray interorganizational choices. Challenges also arose to the extent to which management researchers and their research should be seen as embedded in a particular set of social and political networks that strongly influence the way in which they interpret issues of power and control.

“The Voice of the Consumer?”: Speculations on the Limits to the Marketing Analogy

The basic assumptions underlying the marketing approach, both in terms of theory and practice, are considered. Particular emphasis is placed on two issues: the degree to which the specific market transaction is user or supplier specified and the degree to which the user is regarded as active or passive. This analysis results in a typology of forms of relationship between supplier and user which can be used to illustrate some of the problems of extending the marketing analogy to the public services sector as well as some of the remaining contradictions in much marketing practice itself.

A bridge over troubled water

Much of the discussion about the relationship between marketing academe and practice assumes that there is a wide, and indeed sometimes widening, gap between these two domains which is itself fraught with problems. In marketing, as in the wider field of management, this leads to prescriptions based on building more links and bridges and hence requirements for academe to move closer to practice. This paper argues that in a number of ways this is both a flawed diagnosis and also an ineffective prescription. A flawed diagnosis because the domains of academe and practice are themselves actually heterogeneous and overlapping. An ineffective prescription because institutional structures and incentives, including the existence of a substantial range of intermediaries, reflect legitimate and differing demands on each domain. In particular marketing academe needs to be at least as concerned about its links both with the wider academic community and intermediary organizations.

Darwinism, probability and complexity: market-based organizational transformation and change explained through the theories of evolution

The study of transformation and change is one of the most important areas of social science research. This paper synthesizes and critically reviews the emerging traditions in the study of change dynamics. Three mainstream theories of evolution are introduced to explain change: the Darwinian concept of survival of the fittest, the Probability model and the Complexity approach. The literature review provides a basis for development of research questions that search for a more comprehensive understanding of organizational change. The paper concludes by arguing for the development of a complementary research tradition, which combines an evolutionary and organizational analysis of transformation and change.

Research in UK Business Schools or management research in the UK

Purpose – The purpose of this paper takes an overview of the history of both the funding and the assessment of research within Business Schools in the wider context of social science research which examines the practice of management.Design/methodology/approach – Historical archives and current statistical data are both considered in the context of various writings on the nature of management and business school research.Findings – Many of the issues are deep seated but overall it is particularly important to emphasise the importance of “translation” in both engagement and interaction and also better links through intermediaries.Originality/value – The paper adds to the on‐going debate about the relevance of management research as well as the role of business school.

Strategic behaviour:: The driving force of strategic management

Strategic management is well developed in its understanding of both strategic thinking and the strategic decision-making process. But the precise role of behaviours within strategy-making teams and the influence of these behavioural patterns is less well understood. This paper is based on intensive action research within a key strategic team at British Telecom. It explores a number of models of strategic behaviour which are useful both in explanatory terms and as diagnostic techniques. It also gives managers some practical guidelines for managing strategic behaviour.

The Dynamics of Business Orientation: the case of the Volvo Car Corporation

Abstract The traditional marketing literature generally sees the adoption of business orientation either from a static, cross-sectional viewpoint or as a one-way evolutionary or catastrophic process from production to sales to marketing. An examination of the changes in business orientation in the Volvo Car Corporation suggests that the pattern has been rather more cyclical than linear: market–production–market. The rationales of this pattern are analyzed in the context of both the nature of the particular market context and the evidence available. Both the managerial and academic implications are discussed.