Search

This paper gives a contribution in SMEs and European Funding projects literature exploring European SME funding project applications leading to failures by adopting the IMP perspective on business relationships and the actor-resource-activity (ARA) model as theoretical framework. In line with the explorative nature of the research question a multiple case study analysis is performed by taking into account three SME-Instrument projects undertaken by Italian SMEs with the support of consulting firm Omega.

The theme of the special issue is how firms develop and manage their business relationships in the rapidly changing global market environment. There is no doubt that fast political changes, technological advancement and, not the least the global pandemic, impose new issues and challenges for B2B marketing. Businesses are challenged but also are exposed to opportunities. The evolution of the contemporary business environment worldwide confronts both marketing scholars and practitioners with the need to re-examine how the marketplace functions and how to deal with forthcoming changes.

Prior research has shown that new ventures can complement their capabilities and extend their limited internal resources by drawing on suppliers. Yet, our knowledge of the supplier mobilization process in new ventures is limited. In this paper, we take a relational perspective on the mobilizing process, which entails investigating the scope for mobilizing suppliers in new ventures and new ventures’ attractiveness to suppliers. Drawing on three new venture cases, we posit that for new ventures the scope for mobilizing suppliers: 1) ranges from the use of suppliers for the procurement of well-defined existing inputs to the co-development of various resources and capabilities with suppliers; 2) varies across ventures, reflecting the new venture’s distance to market; and 3) depends on the supplier’s assessment of the new venture’s attractiveness as a customer. We also argue that the attractiveness of new ventures as customers to the suppliers is based on elements that differ from those found in studies of ongoing businesses, and include: 1) stimuli to innovate and develop new competencies, 2) reputational benefits and prestige, and 3) personal satisfaction.

The innovation camp described in this chapter is addressed to third-year nursing students at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). It aims to introduce students to the need for innovation in healthcare and to enable future nurses to identify tasks that require innovation in their everyday work. This is done by providing students with real-life challenges from external stakeholders. The camp, which is a mandatory part of the bachelor’s degree in nursing, is a three-day, action-based course run at the very beginning of the first semester.

As a research field, entrepreneurship emerged from an increasing interest in fostering new business ventures. Over the past decade, interest in entrepreneurial phenomena also triggered several studies in the IMP research stream. We examine connections between these two research streams in terms of the phenomena in focus, key concepts, and approaches to identify research areas fruitful for advancing our understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena. In pursuit of this aim, we analyzed 48 IMP-based entrepreneurship studies and the abstracts of the 227 most cited papers in eight main entrepreneurship journals; among the latter, we conducted an in-depth analysis of 30 articles, in which we found connections with IMP studies. Based on our analysis, we identify four directions for future research, where confronting and bridging the key concepts has the potential to contribute to conceptualizing entrepreneurial phenomena and related theory development. The four areas are: variety in the context of new ventures; multiplicity of networks embedding new ventures; connecting the new venture to its context; and the new venture's learning and management.

This book explores customer-supplier relationships in B2B markets focusing on interaction between parties. Drawing on three fields of research – studies of relationships in marketing, social interactionism in sociology, and sense-making in social psychology – the author explores the concepts and roles of actors in business relationships and how the behaviour of actors within an interaction affects the development of those relationships. Based on a review of prior research and an original empirical study, the author argues that the presence of continuous close relationships between the customer and supplier organisations bestows features of a business network on B2B markets, with distinct interdependencies and ubiquitous interactions. Exploring buyer-seller interactions, the author contends that actors’ mutually perceived identities – continuously emergent and relationship-specific – are the main factor in the development of business relationships and discusses the implications for management practice and research.

Research in marketing has shown that service guarantees can contribute to gaining a competitive advantage. However, studies of perceived benefits have mostly been investigated in a consumer marketing context while prior research in B2B has been limited. Given the peculiarities of B2B marketing we investigate the value of service guarantees for industrial customers. We report findings from two studies of attitudes to service guarantees and their effects on purchase intentions and customers' willingness to pay a price premium. Our findings based on conjoint analysis show that service guarantees can deliver added value to B2B customers with implications for positioning strategies. Buyers in B2B markets are encouraged to consider the potential positioning effects of service guarantees for their organization.

New business ventures have rather limited resources, generally suffer from liabilities of smallness and newness and rely on external business relationships, typically with suppliers, for developing and acquiring necessary resources. Yet, to date, research on how new ventures develop initial relationships with suppliers and how these affect the nascent business has been limited. Taking the business network perspective and relating it to studies of supply chain and supplier involvement in product development, our study contributes to the rather limited body of knowledge on new ventures' supplier relationships. Empirically, we draw on a longitudinal, in-depth single case study of the first two years of operation of a start-up. Our study shows that the development of the key initial supplier relationships starts from open-ended expectations of mutual future relational benefits and involves a stepwise ‘inter-definition’ of solutions in interaction between the parties. We observe that interdependences arise between the new venture and its key suppliers and these enable but also limit, the development paths of both partners. We argue that the key initial supplier relationships extend a new venture's resource and capability base and are an integral part of a new venture's business model.

Purpose – While several studies have focused on the initial phases of new ventures and their first customer and supplier relationships, we have a limited understanding of how the new venture’s portfolio of customer relationships emerges. This paper aims to explore the emergence of the customer relationship portfolio of a new venture and to investigate the effects of early relationships on subsequent ones. Design/methodology/approach – Methodologically, the authors rely on a longitudinal single case study of a new venture which develops, implements and sells customized cost-management software. The study is exploratory and based on 24 in-depth interviews. Findings – The findings show that the development of a customer portfolio depends on the cumulative effect of heterogeneous elements and network connections. These include the initial link between the new venture and the first customer and a subsequent series of interconnections that develop with the emerging network capability of the new venture. Originality/value – As one of the few studies that explore the emergence of new ventures’ customer relationship portfolio, this study demonstrates the value of applying a relational/network approach for studying relationship portfolio dynamics.

Purpose – The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to summarise the key findings of the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) research – especially for those who are unaware or unfamiliar with this research community – and above all, to point at some directions of development. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw on IMP research studies. Findings – The authors identify three avenues for further research. The first is related to the need for a sharper, more elaborated and nuanced pictures of the business world, which is in a state of continuous evolution. Second, to present research on business movements from new angles and elaborate sequences of effects and larger patterns of change, there is a need for methodological and conceptual development. The third avenue for further research concerns the provision of normative recommendations to business and policymakers on how to cope with, and make use of, interactivity and interdependences. Originality/value – The authors outline the areas in which they currently see the greatest “need for better understanding”, aware of the limits in what they know.

La concezione di mercato, giusta o errata che sia, è importante perché orienta i comportamenti di vari attori di mercato e diventa pertanto un fattore decisivo per la performance di clienti e fornitori. La concezione dei mercati business-to-business, definiti come mercati dove i clienti sono aziende e altre organizzazioni, è spesso sfocata e le caratteristiche di questi mercati appaiono piuttosto diverse da come vengono presentate nella concezione generica di mercato proposta nei testi canonici di economia e management. In quanto consumatori e pertanto attori di mercato, abbiamo una conoscenza diretta del mercato e del suo funzionamento che può però essere fuorviante nell’approccio al mercato business-to-business che ha delle caratteristiche e un funzionamento piuttosto particolari. Le caratteristiche del mercato business-to-business riflettono le logiche e i comportamenti di acquisto dei ‘clienti business’ - aziende e altre organizzazioni - che si distinguono dai comportamenti di acquisto dei clienti consumatori per motivazioni e modalità di operare. Aziende, imprese ed altre organizzazioni, come clienti, si contraddistinguono per strutture e processi spesso inattesi e forse anche sorprendenti se approciati con la lente dei mercati dei beni di consumo. Le azioni ed i comportamenti basati su una concezione ‘canonica’ del mercato, che ci viene proposta nella teoria economica, tendono ad essere inefficaci e talvolta addirittura disfunzionali. È questa la ragione per cui in questo capitolo ci occuperemo dell’anatomia del mercato business-to-business e di una concezione di mercato volta a favorire un’efficace comprensione dei possibili meccanismi di azione.

L’interessamento per l’innovazione e lo sviluppo di nuovi prodotti, nuove tecnologie, nuovi metodi o approcci caratterizza i mercati B2B contemporanei. Di conseguenza la problematica della gestione dello sviluppo di nuovi prodotti e dei processi di innovazione in generale è diventata, ormai da alcuni anni, il centro dell’attenzione sia nella funzione marketing sia nel top management. Gestire l’innovazione nelle imprese rappresenta una sfida per il management; per poter concepire e adottare comportamenti aziendali atti a sostenere e favorire l’innovazione occorre capire i processi che sottostanno all’innovazione. In questo capitolo ci soffermeremo su due idee e relativi approcci che emergono da esperienze aziendali evidenziate in un crescente numero di studi sull’innovazione e che sono utili per orientare l’azione di management dell’innovazione nei contesti B2B. La prima riguarda la necessità di adottare la prospettiva di ‘soluzione’, invece di quella di prodotto-servizio, mentre la seconda enfatizza l’importanza di essere consapevoli che l’innovazione è un processo che richiede il coinvolgimento di numerosi attori, in primo luogo i clienti stessi. Di conseguenza l’innovazione è un processo tutt’altro che lineare poiché implica un confronto di logiche diverse tra gli attori. In questo capitolo ci occupiamo di capire cosa rende i processi innovativi ‘tortuosi’ e come gestirli in modo adeguato. Il capitolo si apre con alcune considerazioni sull’innovazione nei mercati B2B e la necessità di mettere al centro dell’attenzione lo sviluppo di ‘soluzioni’, piuttosto che prodotti-servizi, ed in seguito esamina le conseguenze per il management dell’innovazione nelle imprese B2B, partendo da un caso di sviluppo di una nuova soluzione.

This book examines healthcare innovation processes, shedding light on the controversies endemic to innovation, which make such processes notoriously challenging. While, in the heat of action, controversies may be seen as barriers to innovation, observations reported in this volume point to controversies also having an energizing role. Students and academics studying innovation, organization, and health management and economics will find this book a valuable read as it provides empirical case studies on innovation processes in practice. Controversies in Healthcare Innovation will also appeal to practitioners of health care management, innovation project managers and policy-makers in the health care sector.

In Chapter 7, Araujo, La Rocca and Hoholm examine the role of public policy interventions in reconfiguring the relationship between primary and secondary care sectors and the means through which these interventions take place. Drawing from the “governmentality” school of thought (e.g. Miller and Rose 1990) the focus of this chapter is on how these interventions mobilize different forms of expertise in an attempt to both reconfigure agencies as well as the relations these agencies enter into. The authors suggest that the ability of policy instruments to work depends on the ability of the subjects of government to use the spaces of discretion afforded by their incompleteness, to embed them in existing practices without creating much disruption.

In Chapter 10, La Rocca presents a systematic literature review on healthcare innovation, focusing on an examination of the extent to which this research has acknowledged the networked nature of innovation and the inter-relatedness of intra- and inter-organizational innovation processes. The review of the literature shows that research on innovation in healthcare has largely explored the process of translating innovation into local contexts but is also increasingly turning attention to how innovation is spread across organizations. Drawing on the literature review, the author concludes that the understanding of how the interplay of innovation processes at the local level and those outside the organizational boundaries impact the innovation journey in healthcare remains limited. A research agenda on networked innovation in healthcare is outlined.

Purpose – The expanding body of research on business models generally assumes that firms operate in a “transactional” context. Several recent studies suggest that the concept of business models in contexts where relationships matter, such as business markets, involves issues that the transactional microeconomic perspective is ill suited to capture. In the expanding literature on business models, the role of context in how business models emerge and evolve is a topic that appears under researched. The purpose of this paper is to review the findings of these studies and explore how “relational context” affects the emergence and evolution of business models. Design/methodology/approach – The authors review the literature on business models in business markets where high-involvement relationships with customers and suppliers are common, and report a case to illustrate the critical issues involved. Findings – The authors find that context where high-involvement relationships are common implies that business models are relationship specific and tend to be different across key relationships of a business; the involvement of others limits the autonomy of a single business in developing its business model; business models are continuously emergent and transient. Originality/value – This study is among the few that examine the emergence and evolution of business model in business network in a longitudinal perspective. The value of the study also lies in the implications of the relationship-centric business model for management practice and research.

Background: In Norway, a government reform has recently been introduced to enhance coordination between primary and secondary care. This paper examines the effects of two newly introduced measures to improve the coordination: an ICT-based communication tool/standard and an economic incentive scheme. Method: This qualitative study is based primarily on 27 open-ended interviews. We interviewed nine employees at a hospital (the focal actor), 17 employees from seven different municipalities, and a representative of a Regional Health Authority. Results: ICT-based communication is perceived to facilitate information exchange between primary and secondary care, thus positively affecting coordination. However, the economic incentive scheme appears to have the opposite effect by creating tensions between the two organizations and accentuating power asymmetry in favor of secondary care. Conclusions: The inter-organizational nature of coordination in health care makes it crucial for policymakers and management of care organizations to conceive incentives and instruments that work jointly across organizations rather than at only one of the health care organizations involved. Such an approach is likely to favor a more symmetrical pattern of collaboration between primary and secondary care.

NA

Research on customer–supplier relationships in businessmarkets has evidenced the centrality of interaction processes. However, while several studies examine interaction processes and their consequences in relation to the resource and activity layers of business relationships, the actor layer has not attracted the same attention. This raises the question: how adequate are our methodological approaches for investigating interaction processes in business networks? In this paper, we examine how practice-based approaches, with their preference for ethnography and techniques such asmulti-site observations and analytical interviewing and treating actors as emergent entities, can help orient the research on business interaction.We argue that some of the themes emerging in practice-based approaches, applied to studies of interaction in business networks, could yield a better understanding of the dynamics of organizing across organizational boundaries. We conclude that research on interaction in business relationships would benefit from(1) zooming in and zooming out of multiple sites of interaction to better understand interaction processes and the role of controversies and interdependences among the different interacting roles; (2) including fluid multiple roles in business relationships that treat actors as emergent entities and transcend the ‘fixed’ conceptualization of two actor levels – individual and organizational; and (3) paying major attention to the reproduction of interaction practices and the role of materiality that permit relationships to be temporarily stabilized.

This book offers a novel perspective on starting-up new business ventures through examining the process by which they become part of the existing business environment. The book highlights the importance of inter-organizational business relationships. Asserting that new ventures need to interact and connect with customers and suppliers, alongside policy actors and universities, Starting up in Business Networks demonstrates how beginning a new venture demands initiating and developing business relationships. Noting a lack of prior research into the process by which start-ups embed into an existing business network, this book presents examples from countries such as Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands and China to analyse the emergence and evolution of start-up business networks.

This chapter explores the issue of an outsider entering an existing business network in an interactive, interdependent and interconnected business world. Developing the new venture appears a ‘mission impossible’ as the new venture has no relationship in the relevant network or a tenuous one at best. The critical issue and major difficulty for the new company are to make established business actors perceive that there are good reasons to admit the new venture into the existing business network. The fate of the new venture, its acceptance by at least some other business actors, will largely depend on how the incumbents perceive the new company to affect their existing relational assets which result from past investments. In attempting to become a new node of a business relationship, the ‘management’ of the new venture has to address two issues. First, it has to find some actors interested in relating to the new venture and to engage them in developing the initial business relationships. Second, the new venture has to manage the networking that is combining the initial relationships with each other. The authors identify and discuss six spaces for action for new business ventures related to these two challenges.

Developing new products, and customer involvement in the process, have been frequent topics in the management literature. Focusing on the benefits and risks of customer involvement, prior research mostly blackboxed the process through which customers are involved. Little has been reported on the activities and timing related to customer involvement in new product development (NPD), and the literature provides limited guidance for how to orchestrate customers' involvement. Building on a longitudinal case study of the development of a new product over five years, we offer a comprehensive model of customer involvement in the NPD process, and elaborate on the role of sales in customer involvement. The contribution of this paper is threefold: first, we develop the concept of customer involvement as a pattern of interactions at the interface of the customer and supplier organizations. Second, we posit that NPD in a B2B context is an iterative process consisting of various parallel sub-processes. Third,we demonstrate that in a B2B context, sales function plays a central part in interfacing the supplier and customer organizations. Based on our findings we identify organizational capabilities critical for developing an effective customer-supplier interface.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how corporate associations emerge in business networks focusing on mutually attributed identities in customer-supplier relationships. The role of the mutually perceived identities for interaction behaviours of the parties is examined and consequences of multiple emergent identities for management are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a conceptual one starting from an overview of prior research on corporate associations in marketing, findings on distinctive features of business markets and review of studies on identity in interaction processes. Findings – Departing from various strands of research on the origin and role of corporate associations in the literature the authors argue that corporate associations, in business networks are relationship specific and continuously emergent, and that businesses acquire multiple identities in relation to main stakeholders as customers and suppliers. The relationship specificity, emergent nature and multiplicity of relationship-specific identities have consequences for management. Originality/value – This study is among the few that explore the role of corporate associations in business-to-business context. It results in two propositions: first, that corporate associations are relationship specific and continuously emergent and, second, that businesses operating in business networks have to cope with multiple relationship-specific identities. Both propositions are original and contribute to the understanding of dynamics of business relationships and networks.

Simulation games have become widespread in business courses, yet the understanding of their learning effects remains limited. The effectiveness of using simulation in marketing classes is not uniform, and not all students welcome it to the same extent. Drawing on a survey among 173 students engaged in a simulation game as part of a course in a 2-year business graduate program, we employ “expectation–confirmation theory” and the “unified theory of acceptance and use of technology” to develop a model to investigate the relation between Learner Satisfaction and Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy with a marketing simulation game. In addition, we examine the influence of Age, Gender, Course Type, Course Stage, and Recalled Performance. We report that Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy drive Learner Satisfaction. We also find Recalled Performance of students to be related to Learner Satisfaction. We discuss the implications of our results for the use of marketing simulation games in business programs in relation to experiential learning theory linking Learner Satisfaction to learning outcomes. In light of our results, instructors can affect the learning experience from simulation games by acting on Performance Expectancy and Effort Expectancy as antecedents of Learner Satisfaction.

The paper “Storytelling by the sales force and its effect on buyer–seller exchange” by Gilliamand Flaherty (2015) is one of the first attempts to empirically explore the use of storytelling in customer–supplier relationships. In this commentary we acknowledge that the topic is original and timely, and the issues addressed are relevant to an inquiry into the role of storytelling in B2B sales. However, we also argue that a more thoughtful discussion on the nature of sales and the characteristics of buyer–seller relationships in B2B markets would be more effective in capturing the scope of storytelling in B2B sales. In particular, we argue that buyers are not merely passive listeners of salespersons' stories, but actively participate in the storytelling process by initiating, interrupting, complementing or disseminating these stories.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address an issue related to the role of interaction processes in the development of customer-supplier relationships in business markets. Design/methodology/approach Focusing on the role of cognition in interaction behaviours in business relationships, the authors examine two research streams that offer perspectives on interaction processes akin to the IMP – the socio-cognitive perspective and the practice-based approach to markets and marketing. Findings The two research streams analysed contribute to understanding the link between cognition and interaction behaviours by pointing to the construction of meanings as an important factor in interaction behaviours and indicating storytelling as a tool to construct meanings among the actors. Originality/value This paper is among the few studies that focus the attention on communication processes in business relationships and networks.

In customer-supplier relationships individuals representing respective companies interact to solve a number of adaptive problems and how the relationships will develop depends on the solutions they jointly devise. Their interactive meetings are characterized by conditions of limited time, information, and processing capacity that render extensive information gathering and analytical cognitive elaboration impracticable and lead the individual actors to adopt behaviors based on rules and heuristics. In this paper, we review the extant literature on heuristics in management and present the findings of an exploratory study on the use of heuristics in interactions in customer supplier relationships. We found that preparing for meetings and during them actors use six sets of heuristics. Heuristics used in interaction during the meetings concern the degree of adaptation to the specific counterpart, how to react to unexpected developments, and a general code of conduct. In preparing for meetings, heuristics are used to define the information to collect, its sources, and how to use it. Our study suggests heuristics used are personal, originate in both organizational norms and personal experience, and are seldom shared with others.

Purpose – Growing awareness that value for the customer is created in relationship between the supplier and the customer has consequences for sales and marketing functions, and businesses are increasingly experimenting with new organisational approaches and solutions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate organisational issues involved in implementing value programs in B2B firms and examine implications for managerial action. Design/methodology/approach – After a literature review on value creation in business relationships, the authors illustrate the case of a large industrial business experimenting with organisational solutions to support value-creation processes in customer relationships. Findings – The authors identify three issues management has to address in organising the customer interface: involvement of a variety of actors to access elements of effective customer-value solutions; supporting and orchestrating the interaction processes among those involved; and differentiation of the customer interface and sales approach to match the substantial differences in customer relationships. Research limitations/implications – There is a need for further, more systematic empirical studies of value-creation practices and solutions in how businesses organise the customer interface for value creation. Practical implications – Coping effectively with creating value in customer relationships implies experimenting with novel approaches and solutions in organising the sales and marketing activities as open networked sales organization and requires specific managerial capabilities. Originality/value – While creating customer value is generally believed to be positively related to the firm’s performance and development, the organisational implications of focusing on creating value have been less explored. The original contribution of this work lies in zooming in on the organisational solutions to support the customer value-creation processes.

This paper deals with a small Italian company in the automotive business attempting to enter an existing business network in order to sell cars in the Italian market. The analysis focuses on the process of embedding the new venture in an existing business network and on the interaction strategies such embedding requires between the businesses involved. We identify and discuss the critical issues a new venture faces as a new entrant in developing a position in the relevant network. Drawing on an empirical case regarding the development of a distribution network, we discuss how firm’s development strategy is always contingent on the involvement of external actors and their resources and activities. This paper contributes to the discussion on strategizing by analysing the interactive nature of strategizing at the actors level and by focusing on an overlooked case of strategizing, namely when a new venture tries to acquire a position in an existing network. We argue that strategy development in business networks is dependent on other actors co-operating in creating new solutions and conceding space to the new entrant.

Various empirical studies have evidenced that interaction is a critical process in the development of buyer–seller relationships in business-to-business markets. Research examining the different aspects of interaction processes and the consequences of interaction in business relationships for the development of the businesses involved has tended to black-box the interaction process. Limited attention has been given to how interaction behaviors of individuals arise and the interplay between cognition and behaviors in interaction. At the same time, recent research offers some insights into the use and role of heuristics in contexts analogous to those individual actors face when they interact in business relationships. In this paper we review current research on interaction processes in business relationships as well as on heuristics in the management context and argue that focusing on heuristics used in interaction in business relationships offers valuable insights on how interaction behaviors emerge. In particular, we discuss the notion of heuristics as an “adaptive toolbox,” and how it relates to adaptations in business relationships. We also discuss implications for management and outline a future research agenda.

Purpose – This article aims to analyze a set of features in the managerial implications of the most-cited business-to-business (B2B) marketing articles which are related to their managerial relevance. The purpose is to further identify which are the most recurrent features of managerial implications, as well as the connections between such features. Finally, the articles aim to verify if these features of managerial implications vary depending on the scientific impact of the article. Design/methodology/approach – The 60 most-cited articles were selected from both generalist and specialized academic journals and a content analysis was conducted. Then the article assesses the formal features (e.g. dedicated space), the language (e.g. consulting or normative), the translation of scientific results (e.g. message efficacy) and such other features as time orientation, specificity and abstraction of the managerial implications in these high-impact articles. The article also analyses patterns and associations between the aforementioned dimensions across the 60 articles, also depending on their level of scientific impact (i.e. their number of citations). Findings – The results point that six out of nine features contributing to managerial relevance are the most frequently present in the implications (dedicated section easy to find, balance between academic and consulting language, partly scientific approach, overlap with scientific findings, message neither too complicated nor too simplistic, and long-term orientation). However, three other features reducing managerial relevance afflict nearly half of the articles: non-normative, generic and abstract implications. The ten articles lacking completely managerial implications are slightly more frequent among highest impact ones, which also often include overly complicated implications; while speculative and overly simplistic implications typically appear more among lowest impact articles which, however, also stand for very spec

Few studies have looked at the innovation process in the early stages of new business ventures in the context of business networks. Reporting on eight years of development of a new venture, we examine how the development of initial business relationships in an ever-changing business network affects technological innovation. We conclude that technological innovation is contingent on the development of business relationships that are a critical mechanism permitting a new venture not only to access but also to produce knowledge essential for innovating. For management this implies the need to strike a judicious balance between internal focus and closure to produce novel solutions and external focus and openness to experiment in business relationships.

Purpose – Online communication technologies have profoundly affected consumption and buying behaviours, and put pressure on businesses to find ways of dealing with these developments. Businesses are increasingly experimenting with new approaches and tools to keep up, and netnography – ethnography applied to the web – has become popular. However, exploiting the potential of netnography requires companies to cope with new problems and acquire new capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational and managerial implications of using the netnographic approach in market research. Design/methodology/approach – After a literature review on netnography in marketing research, the authors present a case study of best practice of netnography for market research: the research project of Dash-Procter & Gamble on Motherhood Support. Findings – The authors found four issues as critical for exploiting the potential of netnography as a tool of market research: first, immersive involvement; second, mediated participation; third, the use of multiple techniques and distributed specialized capabilities; and fourth, the need for orchestrating the emergent network organization of the project. The quality of the research outcomes is related to the resources available and the integration of different roles and competences in the project. Research limitations/implications – Since netnographic studies involve collaborative research, further studies of experiences in organizing netnography projects are needed. These studies are bound to yield valuable insights. Practical implications – Exploiting the potential of netnography implies experimenting with novel approaches and solutions in marketing research practices to orient management decisions and calls for developing skills to orchestrate research project networks. Originality/value – The value of this work lies in zooming in on the methodological principles of netnography and zooming out on the networking manageria

customer relationships for a new venture. All companies face the challenge of new-relationship development in order to achieve growth and to replace relationships which have been lost or are in decline. But the challenge of developing the first customer relationships of a new venture is likely to be particularly acute because the new venture's marketing function and its offering to customers are likely to be undefined and undeveloped. This paper is based on a case study of initial customer relationship development in a new venture of an established business. The paper analyses the issues that the company faced in developing these initial relationships and the approaches to relationship development that it took. The case analysis leads to the conclusion that the development of initial relationships can be facilitated by an ‘open marketing function’ involving a number of functional areas both in the supplier and in the initial customers. The paper draws managerial implications from the case analysis for the task of marketing in this situation.

Diffused interdependences and the centrality of interaction processes evidenced in research on business markets imply the need to re-examine some of the central concepts in marketing and to reflect on how research can address them. This particularly applies to the concept of actor that from an interaction perspective appears rather different from how it is generally intended in management and marketing. Two research traditions in particular − symbolic interactionism and the actor-network theory − can be related to the discussion of the approach to actors from the IMP perspective. In this paper, we first examine the traits that characterize actors in business relationships, in particular the variable entity of actors, their relational specificity, and their emergent nature. We then discuss the implications of these traits regarding how actors can be approached in empirical research.

Various beneficial consequences can accrue when a customer is perceived to be an attractive customer, particularly in a business-to-business context. Opinions differ as to what makes for customer attractiveness and a number of different features have been suggested as contributing to it. Currently there exists no comprehensive view of what factors constitute customer attractiveness and how this may be valued, measured and evaluated. Drawing on various facets of customer attractiveness suggested in the literature, this paper seeks to delineate the customer attractiveness construct and develop an instrument to measure it. The paper concludes by discussing how the scale developed can be used as a tool to address some critical issues in assessing customer attractiveness.

There has been a lot of interest in the management literature in knowledge. Research in the IMP tradition has investigated the role of interaction in business relationships particularly with regard to the production of resource and activity related knowledge. In this paper we turn our attention to the knowledge actors in business relationships use when they interact, and specifically to knowledge about the counterparts with whom they interact. We start by reviewing the literature that inspired our study, and then report the findings of our empirical study of actors’ representations of their counterparts in 32 business relationships, where we collected actors’ mutual interpretations of the counterpart before and after an interaction episode (meeting). Our findings are based on 128 interviews with actors involved pre- and post- meeting. Our data show that the knowledge actors use when they interact in business relationships has two features: one is that the knowledge in use is emergent and changes continuously; another is that it is relationship specific and consequently varies between relationships. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of the findings for research and practice.