Dealing with market dynamism: the role of reconfiguration in global account management.

Zusammenfassung

---

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

Auszug

---

Dealing with market dynamism: the role of reconfiguration in global account management.

Abstract

Following a dynamic capabilities approach, this study offers a contingency view of global account management in a highly dynamic market.

Specifically, the paper proposes that among the three processes of global account management--i.e., intelligence acquisition, global integration, and reconfiguration--reconfiguration plays a central role for supplier firms in achieving global account competitiveness when market dynamism is high.

Based on survey data collected from global account executives in a diverse set of industries, the findings support the above proposition and further suggest that intelligence acquisition and global integration can facilitate a firm's reconfiguration processes in global account management.

Keywords: Global account management. Global market dynamism Dynamic capabilities approach - Global marketing strategy

Introduction

Globalization of the world marketplace is fundamentally transforming the ways in which companies manage their customer-supplier relationships. One noticeable change among multinational corporations is the establishment of global accounts to centrally coordinate activities with their demanding global customers in offering standardized pricing, logistics, and customer service (Yip and Bink 2007). Global account management (GAM) refers to the organizational forms and processes of a multinational supplier by which specialized personnel or teams centrally coordinate worldwide selling activities to serve these global customer accounts (Montgomery and Yip 2000). GAM is considered to be one kind of key account management (KAM) approach whereby a supplier serves global customers that have presences in multiple countries rather than in the same country (Homburg et al. 2002). As multinationals strive to globally integrate and coordinate their organizational strategies and processes, they often face increasing challenges brought forth by the difficulties of implementing their global accounts and the uncertainties related to the rewards of this new organizational form (Homburg et al. 2002).

Despite the importance and the challenges of GAM, our knowledge in this field is rather limited. Most of the existing literature centers on several issues, including the drivers and performance implications of GAM strategies (e.g., Montgomery and Yip 2000; Shi et al. 2010), the selection of global account customers (e.g., Arnold et al. 2001a; Toulan et al. 2002), the design and implementation of global account programs (e.g., Birkinshaw et al. 2001; Harvey et al. 2003; Homburg et al. 2002; Yip and Bink 2007), and the role of global account managers (Wilson and Millman 2003). While such research offers interesting insights for multinationals to better manage their global accounts, several issues remain to be resolved. First, although previous studies on the design of global accounts have classified the different forms of GAM and offered practical roadmaps on how to implement those accounts (e.g., Homburg et al. 2002; Yip and Bink 2007), few have been devoted to delineating the processes necessary for a supplier to manage its global accounts effectively (Millman and Wilson 1996). This can be problematic considering that global account programs require special interorganizational processes for key global customers that are not available to other customers (Homburg et al. 2002; Shi et al. 2004; Shi et al. 2005). Second, the literature lacks the sound theoretical framework and empirical support to explain the relationship between the capabilities embedded within a supplier's GAM processes and the supplier's GAM program effectiveness. Third, even though establishing global accounts is well recognized as an organizational response to the heightened competitive intensity and globalization of the market environment (Homburg et al. 2002; Montgomery and Yip 2000; Yip and Madsen 1996), the literature has largely ignored how changes in the global market influence the performance outcomes of global accounts. As noted by Homburg et al. (2002), the internal design and formation of key accounts, such as global accounts, are strongly influenced by the characteristics of the external market environment. Therefore, it is important to veri...

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

---