International Key Account Management in Manufacturing Companies: An Exploratory Approach of Situative Differentiation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this article is to develop a framework that differentiates situations of industrial companies to set up different international key account management (IKAM) programs. Methodology/Approach: The article is based on literature review, qualitative interviews, and a written survey among manufacturing companies. A combined factor and cluster analysis is used to identify the different situations, which we analyze in detail. Findings/Research Implications: Complexity of the company in the international arena and complexity of the products and services offered internationally are used to differentiate four situations: simple product and service supplier, complex product and service supplier, simple capital equipment and system supplier, and complex capital equipment and system supplier. Their IKAM approaches should be different concerning the dimensions of IKAM programs that can be described as strategy, solution, people, management, and screening. Three situations are identified empirically. Based on the description of the clusters, we define different setups for IKAM programs. Practical Implications: While earlier key account managers would intuitively handle their clients, today it is far more important to understand IKAM as a strategic concept for the entire company. It is therefore necessary to have an orientation framework that fits best to a company's situation. Such a framework is presented and should help to professionalize IKAM in practice. Originality/Value/Contribution: This article offers the first approach to differentiating companies' situations. This is a substantial contribution to the research in the field of IKAM because it offers a suggestion on how the existing concepts can be improved by tuning them according to different situations of business-to-business companies.