Tobias Kesting

Marktsegmentierung als Voraussetzung für Kundenverständnis

Als wichtige Triebkraft fur die steigende Bedeutung von Marktsegmentierungsstrategien ist ein Paradigmenwechsel anzufuhren, der sich auf eine veranderte Sichtweise von Anbietern bezieht. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) gewinnt daher immer mehr an Bedeutung. Zielsetzung dieses kundenorientierten Beziehungsmanagements ist die Erhohung der Kundenloyalitat zur Steigerung der Kundenprofitabilitat.85 Mittels moderner CRM-Systeme lasst sich jeder Geschaftsvorgang zur Gewinnung zusatzlicher Kundeninformationen nutzen,86 u. a. zur Identifizierung von Kaufverhaltensmustern.87 Marktsegmentierungen liefern in diesem Zusammenhang zusatzliche und detaillierte Informationen uber Markte und Kaufer und ermoglichen so auch eine leichtere Identifizierung von Kundenbedurfnissen. Dementsprechend bilden Segmentierungsanalysen und aus ihnen ermittelte Kundenprofile die Grundlage fur ein erfolgreiches CRM.88

Market segmentation in German business practice: relevance, procedures and challenges

The market segmentation concept, which aims at meeting the specific needs of different customer groups, has been part and parcel of marketing science for many years. Primarily the technical literature focuses on the different ways of creating segments. Up till now, the way in which companies operate a market segmentation process in reality, has only been surveyed sporadically. For this reason, a qualitative field study was conducted from November 2006 to January 2007, comprising companies from the consumer as well as the industrial goods industries, from B2C services, from B2B markets and the retail industry. This paper highlights the general procedures, as well as the challenges arising in the context of developing and implementing market segmentation concepts. On the one hand, it becomes apparent that segmentation activities may differ considerably, depending on issues like sector, industry and company size. On the other hand, the field study also identifies some remarkable trans-sectoral similarities concerning segmentation issues.

Improving Innovation Process Performance and Service Quality in Innovation Networks

The prevalence of innovation networks is ever increasing, with the role of universities in national innovation systems increasingly being emphasised. This chapter investigates the use of an innovation management application (IMA) by the technology transfer office of a university-focused innovation network that focuses on commercialisation of technologies developed by university researchers. Innovation process performance emerged as an important mediator between characteristics of the innovation management application (compatibility of the technology, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) on attitude towards the technology, and toward the intermediary’s innovation orientation and service quality. Our research addresses marketing issues in the innovation context by relying on IMA as a means for fostering the underlying processes. Furthermore, the results extend the emerging literature on innovation process performance by not only establishing its relevance for an innovation network context but also by demonstrating its role as a mediator between IMA characteristics and attitude towards technology. The chapter concludes with an outline of managerial implications and future research directions.

Developing University-Business Cooperation through Evidence-based Management: A German Case

As every new field of practice, university-business cooperation UBC is undergoing growing pains in the search for successful approaches toward linking the scientific and business world. These growing pains are often based on the lack of market-oriented thinking and acting and the focus on day-to-day operations as opposed to a critical evaluation of the actions taken in the past. In line with this, this article aims at evaluating the opportunity to advance university-business cooperation through evidence-based management. More specifically, it reflects how a scientific-analytical UBC unit might complement the strategic and operational perspective of UBC, contributing to the advancement of an institutions UBC but also knowledge on UBC in general. Taking the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre at Munster University of Applied Sciences as a case study, the article highlights how such an analytical-scientific UBC unit can generate various benefits, provided that the right setup and the acknowledgement of specific success factors are given.

Direkte und weiterführende Nutzenpotenziale eines marktorientierten Hochschul-Wissens- und Technologietransfers

Literature in the context of (university) knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) often neglects benefit-related matters. The following article counteracts this circumstance by highlighting direct and additional, indirect benefit potentials. Hence the focus of this article does not solely lie on science-to-business marketing in the narrow sense, but indirect benefit potentials resulting from transfer activities are also examined. It is shown that on the basis of marketoriented transfers, numerous and occasionally intertwined benefit potentials can be achieved that go far beyond the transfer as a direct market activity.