Key Account Management Research Articles

Influence tactics, relational conditions, and key account managers' performance

Building on the adaptive application of influence tactics, this study explores the contingent nature of influence tactics in buyer-seller exchanges. Specifically, we examine the differential effectiveness of various influence tactics (i.e., promises, threats, recommendations, information exchange, ingratiation, and inspirational appeals) used by key account managers in driving sales performance under social (i.e., trust) and economic (i.e., switching costs) relational condition. We test the hypotheses with data collected from 250 matched dyads consisting of key account managers from transnational corporations and purchasing managers from the buyer firms in China. The results indicate that when the buyer trusts the seller, emotional tactics are the best; when the buyer has high switching costs, coercive tactics are the most effective; and when the buyer trusts the seller and has high switching costs, rational tactics are recommended. This study contributes to the literature on influence tactics by focusing on the fit between interpersonal influence tactics and interfirm relational condition.

Uloga finansijskih i marketing pokazatelja u funkciji rangiranja ključnih kupaca

This paper describes the importance of developing key accounts as important business customers in organizations in Serbia. The paper presents the theoretical development of the emergence of the concept to key account in organizations that emerged due to dynamic changes in the market. Financial and marketing indicators are especially explained. A survey of 15 companies was realized within the sales department in the Serbian market. Respondents were employed at two levels: key account managers and sales managers. The results of the survey show the financial and marketing indicators in the key customer department that employees consider being the most important for business results. The most important are financial indicators: annual values of delivered goods, average value of delivered goods, profitability, and settlement of liabilities. Marketing indicators for ranking key customers include: market share, number of years of cooperation, growth potential and satisfaction with business relationships. The paper summarizes how the ranking of customers in several categories is important for the company and provides guidelines in creating a strategy for different key account groups.

Supplier capacity and key account management performance: a stochastic frontier analysis

Taking the influences of operational, organizational and relational factors on key account management performance into account, present research examines the antecedent variables of key account management performance. Using a questionnaire, data from 112 ready-made garments companies in Bangladesh were used to evaluate Capacity Oriented Key Account Management Performance through Stochastic Frontier Model. Results show that in the case of medium key account serving capacity, log-likelihood estimation of Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) is found same as the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimation whereas for both high and low key account serving capacity, MLE is found better than OLS estimation. It is observed that perceived risks of serving key account, supplier relational investment, and relational intimacy are significant in case of both MLE and OLS estimation methods while in case of MLE team effort and supplier relational investment are recorded significant for the high, medium and low key account serving capacity oriented performance of Bangladeshi ready-made garments companies. Again, most of the companies with high key account serving capacity are found showing above average performance, the performance of the companies with medium key account serving capacity is homogeneous. On the other hand, the performance of low key account serving capacity garments companies are more volatile than garments companies with medium and high key account serving capacity. Implications, limitations, and further research options are suggested.

Key account management as a firm capability

Firms manage numerous inter-organizational relationships. Key account management (KAM) is a concept used to manage a specific subset of these relationships, i.e. a supplier firm's relationships with strategically important customers. Scholars have studied different elements of KAM such as actors, resources, or relationships. Surprisingly few studies discuss the link between KAM and competitive advantage. By adopting a capability perspective on KAM, we seek to develop a theoretical basis to better explain its performance-implications. The capability perspective is compatible with extant approaches and complements them with new arguments concerning the value that a KAM system has in competition. The purpose of our article is to develop a conceptual model of a supplier firm's KAM capability and to indicate avenues for future research.

The role of formal information sharing in key account team effectiveness: does informal control matter and when

Team selling is a useful approach for retaining strategically important accounts in business-to-business markets. For key account sales teams, ensuring adequate access to information about customer needs offers sustainable competitive advantages. However, the internal alignment of market information remains a recurring managerial issue in key account team selling. This study develops a moderated mediation model to identify management strategies that encourage team members' formal information sharing, which in turn improves team effectiveness. Analysis of a multilevel data set comprising 37 fluid key account teams reveals that customer orientation and task interdependence increase formal information sharing among team members. Managers' exercise of professional control strengthens the positive impact that formal information sharing has on team satisfaction. However, the practice has a dysfunctional influence on the positive effect of task interdependence on formal information sharing. Firms with key account management (KAM) programs must decide whether the marginal benefits attained by advocating such professional control outweigh the possible drawbacks.

A Qualitative Research Review of the CRM Strategies of the Selected Pharmaceutical Firms in Delhi

Indian Pharmaceutical sector that was practically non-existent in 1970s, is now considered as one among the top five pharmaceutical emerging markets of the world. Marketing has always been a major thrust area for pharmaceutical industry. Personal selling through MRs was the only method of promotion of pharmaceutical products till about a decade ago. However the period post liberalization saw many changes in Indian pharmaceutical Industry(IPL). Huge expenditure, upto 15-20% of the annual product revenue on the sales force, with a questionable ROI was putting a lot of pressure on these firms. To intensify the competition The Indian Patents (Amendment) Act was implemented in 2005. This resulted in a paradigm shift in the marketing and promotion strategy adopted by the industry. The traditional model of promotion through personal selling was replaced by newer sales models like channel management & key account management through customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. This research paper gives a qualitative research review of the CRM & e-CRM strategies adopted by the selected pharmaceutical companies of India with the help of secondary data sources and opinion survey of company officials in Delhi.Although Indian Pharma industry has adopted the newer technology to build and enhance its relationship with doctors but the ironic fact is that it is still staggering with the proper and effective implementation of the selected CRM Software. The major reason for the same is lack of willingness on part of the sales team (as found during personal interactions with the sales managers of these firms), to accept and adopt this new technology.

Mind the gap: A process model for diagnosing barriers to key account management implementation

Today, many firms develop and implement key account management (KAM) programs to manage the relationships with strategically important customers. The implementation of KAM programs requires the configuration of special activities, actors, and resources dedicated to key accounts, which poses major challenges for managerial practice. Firms often underestimate the fundamental organizational change required for a successful implementation of KAM. The objective of this article is to advance extant knowledge on KAM by developing a framework that outlines essential processes to assess and diagnose barriers to KAM implementation. In our article, we integrate extant knowledge on KAM organization and enactment, and we propose a four-step process model that links the concepts of embeddedness, differentiation, integration, and alignment. In addition, we illustrate our model in a case study analysis with a large-scale European industrial company. The findings of our study allow us to derive avenues for further research on KAM implementation as well as implications for management practice.

The role of senior executives in managing key customers in Arab context

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role of senior managers in managing intra-and inter-organizational relationships with key customers and the factors that influence such involvement in a novel context in the Arab Middle East region.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory qualitative research design was used in which 68 face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted in Jordan with endogenous and Western firms.FindingsTop/senior managers play a significant role in Arab business relationships and in creating value for the firms. Their involvement in key accounts is imperative at all levels – strategic, operational, and relational – mainly due to cultural and institutional factors that are unique to the Arab context.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to operations in one emerging country situated in a novel setting in one particular region of the world, which is the Middle East.Practical implicationsArab senior managers’ participation is imperative and should continue with their relatively intense involvement with key accounts. For foreign investors operating in that part of the world, it is highly recommended that senior management have a more a hands-on approach when dealing with the Arab key customer and to focus more on the relational aspect of key account management than on the organizational aspect.Originality/valueThis paper adds to the very limited number of studies on senior management involvement in key account management, making a theoretical and practical contribution and adding insight on how to manage the relationship with the Arab key customer.

Within-Seller and BuyerrSeller Network Structures and Key Account Profitability

In business-to-business (B2B) markets, the success of key account management (KAM) teams depends heavily on how they are structured and how they handle the relationship with customer accounts. The authors conceptualize the relationships among selling team members as a within seller (intrafirm) network, and the relationships between selling team members and buyer representatives as a buyer-seller (interfirm) network. Drawing on the motivation–ability framework, the authors examines how the interplay between these two networks drives seller account profitability. The authors argue that buyer–seller tie density and within-seller tie density can be conceptualized as motivation, whereas buyer-seller similar-function ties, within seller cross-function ties, and within seller centralization can be conceptualized as ability in this context. Using field data from 207 key account managers from a variety of B2B industries, in a regression model that corrects for unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, the authors find a negative interactive effect of motivation factors and a positive interactive effect of ability factors on seller account profitability. These findings suggest that motivation factors serve as substitutes, whereas ability factors serve as complements, across the two KAM networks. The findings also suggest that aligning the motivation and ability aspects of buyer–seller and within-seller firm KAM networks can improve account profitability by up to 4%.

Powerful CRM strategy as tool to increase KAM B2B performance Fast food series applied study ( Suppliers’ Perspective)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a term that includes how it works, and its attributed benefits. it is the term for a business strategy that grants the customer continuous improvement, increasing his internal operations performance, increases the economic value added EVA, satisfaction, loyalty, trust, increases cooperation commitment, continuity, and grabs additional investments throughout integrated parties. CRM is broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and development a company’s interactions with customers and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes, principally sales related activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new customers, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former customers back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and customer service. CRM gives the most value to customers by tightly integrating their sales, marketing and support efforts. CRM's primary objective is to provide the entire organization with a complete, 360-degree view of the customer, no matter where the information resides or where the customer touch-point occurs. CRM is a business strategy that can be applied to software that works by gathering information concerning potential and targeted customers and analyzing the information starting and/or continuing closer relationships with customer, adding mutual benefits, giving businesses an interdependable opportunities to overcome “relationship gaps” and strengthen their competitive advantages. Using automated CRM applications to analyze customer complaints, and customize the internal processes accordingly, which will in return increase the business efficacy, mutual benefits, maintaining long term relationships, and intense the competitive advantages. Implementing CRM KPI’s improve customer service, which will subsequently improve customer satisfaction, maximize revenue upgrades the customers core competences thought the right products with the right quality, and quantity to the right people at the right place at the right time. CRM increases the customer’s efficiency of the managerial applications the entire organizational performance and its chain suppliers. Research Methodology and limitations The research methodology has been conducted on two folds, the first covered a detailed literature review for Business-to-Business (B2B) Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Key performance Indicators KPIs, suppliers’ managerial efficiency activities, Business-to-Business (B2B) Key Accounts Management (KAM)Key performance Indicators KPIs, and the suppliers’ performance activities. On the other fold, the results of the empirical study of the research based on a limited survey that has been distributed to 10 fast food suppliers, throughout Great Cairo, Egypt. The research was targeting 180 managers, and the received surveys are 120 respondents. It was recognized that further research is necessary to establish the exact nature of the causal linkages between proposed applications of CRM and Fast-Food Series suppliers to enhance managerial performance of business-to-business (B2B) key account management (KAM) on Fast-Food Series suppliers, in order to gain insights into practice elsewhere.

Key Account Management in Business-to-Business Relationship: Identifying Top K Persuaders Using Singular Value Decomposition

Purpose - Key account management is a supplier company initiated relational approach that has received great attention from both academics and practitioners manifested in the business-to-business relationship literatures. However, there is widespread debate and contention on what should be the underlying theoretical base for defining this vital part of relationship marketing. With the insights from the social exchange theory, present paper explores how social exchange affects the dynamic nature of key account management relationship at the organizational level.Research design, data, and methodology - The paper follows a comprehensive review approach to examine the relationship between social exchange theory and key account management approach. Conceptual arguments and findings are assessed across studies with the main objective of showing how social exchange theory develops the governance mechanism in maintaining the key account relationship.Results - Since relational norm is considered as a glue for the maintenance of buyer-seller relationship in social exchange theory, factors develop the non-contractual governance mechanism ‘relationship’ in business-to-business relationship and this norm replaces or supplements more formal governance mechanisms such as contracts are explored.Conclusions - This paper advances central relational norm to manage the company’s most important key customers and demonstrates how this norm can be developed in buyer-seller key account relationship.Implications from this new perspective are forwarded.

Firm-internal key account management networks: Framework, case study, avenues for future research

Key account management (KAM) is used for managing relationships between a supplier and its strategically important customer firms, that is, the key accounts. KAM activities typically involve a firm-internal network of actors. While there is a rich body of literature on key account managers' work with external networks in customer firms, this study focusses on the much less explored KAM activities in interaction with the firm-internal network that is required to mobilise resources and develop activities towards key accounts. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework explaining how the firm's capability to manage the internal KAM network contributes to firm performance. We illustrate our framework using case study material and develop avenues for future research along the elements of our framework.

Alternative pathways to utilizing customer knowledge: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

This study explores alternative configurations of causes to customer knowledge utilization using a set theoretic approach with fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The study uses a previous empirical dataset of Salojärvi, Sainio, and Tarkiainen (2010) to assess organizational factors that enhance customer knowledge utilization. The results show that use of key account management teams and customer relationship management systems are core predictors for high degrees of customer knowledge utilization. However, these core causes are not sufficient on their own; they need to be accompanied by different degrees (i.e. high/low) and combinations of other peripheral antecedents, such as customer relationship orientation, top management involvement, and formalization. This study shows that many firms make trade-off decisions regarding the use of these core and peripheral conditions. The present study identifies alternative pathways to customer knowledge utilization, discuss their differences, and suggest managerial implications and future research directions.

Managing value co-creation/destruction: a longitudinal education capital programme/project case study

Drawing on a longitudinal empirical study of an education capital programme/project, value interactions are investigated at the interface between programme customers, project stakeholders and construction providers. Empirical evidence is provided that value formation is not only associated with value co-creation, but also with value co-destruction. The case study showed that a mature and synergistic network relationship (that successfully aligned the expectations of a strong key account management team (KAM team), multi-headed customer and wider project stakeholders) could, if not well managed, turn into incongruent relationships, relationship uncoupling and resource withdrawal. These findings suggest that project managers must drive strong KAM team relationships, so that they can align and adapt to customer requirements, and control the response to often changing wider stakeholder expectations.

Exploring Factors and Elements of Coordination between Key Account Management Units and Non-key Account Management Units

Studies in key account management (KAM) have identified the importance of cross-functional coordination in firms to effectively implement KAM. However, these studies have ignored how companies integrate KAM and other customer management (non-KAM). This paper explores coordination design between KAM units and non-KAM units by analyzing a case study through three dimensions: frontend coordination, back-end-coordination, and organizational translation at the beginning of research. The case study shows that non-KAM conditions can require a modification of the coordination design. This research performs an in-depth analysis of changes in the implementation of sales reforms for an IT-related machinery and system vendor in Japan. Data sources include interviews with KAM units and non-KAM sales units and an analysis of secondary data. This paper suggests that studying the coordination between KAM units and non-KAM units will further our understanding of internal coordination in KAM research.

Exploring Factors and Elements of Coordination between Key Account Management Units and Non-key Account Management Units

Studies in key account management (KAM) have identified the importance of cross-functional coordination in firms to effectively implement KAM. However, these studies have ignored how companies integrate KAM and other customer management (non-KAM). This paper explores coordination design between KAM units and non-KAM units by analyzing a case study through three dimensions: frontend coordination, back-end-coordination, and organizational translation at the beginning of research. The case study shows that non-KAM conditions can require a modification of the coordination design. This research performs an in-depth analysis of changes in the implementation of sales reforms for an IT-related machinery and system vendor in Japan. Data sources include interviews with KAM units and non-KAM sales units and an analysis of secondary data. This paper suggests that studying the coordination between KAM units and non-KAM units will further our understanding of internal coordination in KAM research.

Managerial implications of research on inter-organizational interfaces

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify what managerial implications research related to inter-organizational interfaces has been produced in marketing. For this aim, the authors focus on a specific concept implemented in many firms that operate on business-to-business markets, which is key account management (KAM). Design/methodology/approach – The authors used the Ebsco Database entering “account management” as a key word in the title row. The search provided 51 papers to which the authors added four MSI reports written by Moriarty and Shapiro between 1980 and 1984. The authors then identified such keywords as “managers”, “practitioners”, “marketers”, “managerial”, “business”, and their variations as well as normative words such as “should”, “must”, etc. in order to identify managerial implications. Findings – Four main findings are provided: a clear managerial purpose is affirmed by KAM academic works whether as a central “purpose” of the works or as “implications”; these managerial implications may display different forms (dimensions to be considered, consequences to anticipate, advices); though the managerial scope of KAM works is clearly visible, the sophistication of managerial recommendations remains … limited; the identification of who is exactly “the manager” targeted by the implications remains vague. Research limitations/implications – The authors discuss the notion of managerial relevance of academic research. Practical/implications – The authors explore sources for practices (whether they are the ones of scholars or managers) that could help “spelling out more effectively the managerial implications. Originality/value – To the knowledge this is the first work that reviews so precisely how academic articles address to the managerial audience on a precise issue. Furthermore, the authors believe that KAM is an interesting and appropriate field for such a review because it is widely implemented on business markets.

Affective trust in buyer-seller relationships: a two-dimensional scale

Purpose– This paper aims to develop and validate a scale measurement of trust in long-term relations, specifically in the maintenance phase, between buyers and sellers. Relying on a cognitive conception, existing scales do not measure the affective trust occurring in the maintenance stage of the relationship.Design/methodology/approach– Three surveys were conducted with purchasing managers of enterprises in various business-to-business (B2B) sectors to build a bi-dimensional measurement scale of affective trust as a sentiment of security and affective attachment. For measurement scale development, established construction procedures were followed, including qualitative and quantitative surveys. The process can be summarized as: domain specification, generation of questionnaire items, empirical survey and iterative process of scale purification based on reliability assessment and validity checks.Findings– The results indicate satisfactory psychometric properties of the new Affective Trust Scale (ATS). Furthermore, they demonstrate the scale’s measurement invariance across business sectors. The research confirms the importance of affective aspects of trust and supports the reliability and validity of the measure. Nomological validity assessment of the scale shows that sentiment of security-based trust impacts investment in business relationships.Research limitations/implications– The ATS developed and tested in the B2B French context needs to be evaluated taking into account several limitations. First, the specific context was a sample of buyers in France experiencing lasting relationships, suggesting that an extension of the study to other countries would be desirable. Also, the ATS needs to be further validated and confirmed in other contexts, for instance, within buyer–supplier relationship intensity.Practical implications– The ATS can help firms to identify key parameters in buyer–seller relationships. It is important for the seller to collect information to determine the stage of the relationship before spending money on targeting customers, as they may not be ready to broaden the scope of their contract. The ATS can be very useful for companies to assess the state of the relationship and the strength of the bond in a timely manner and, therefore, anticipate the relational orientation. Segmentation based on relational phases requires tailoring to each form of trust strategies and hence the accurate identification of the relationship phase could help to better categorize and subcategorize customers with respect to the sentiment of security and affective attachment degrees. Furthermore, an understanding of the two dimensions is useful for key account managers to adjust relationship management toward specific actions (e.g. sentiment of security and/or affective attachment). The ATS could be very useful to guide managers in taking the right decision, by focusing both on sentiment of security and affective attachment dimensions of affective trust.Originality/value– Affective trust is important to B2B managers, who frequently struggle to build and maintain close relationships with customers and suppliers. This paper adds insights into the complex but important construct of trust. The scale could be used for empirical studies of affective trust in B2B relationships. It may also help marketing managers develop better relationships with partners.

The mediation role of key account management effectiveness on key account management practices and market performance

The implementation of KAM (KAM) increase market performance of organisations and achieve effectiveness. Nevertheless, the arguments on what determines KAM effectiveness and market performance are unresolved due to inconclusive literature evidences. Thus, this study aims to propose a conceptual framework of the determinants that affect the KAM effectiveness and market performance. It has been confirmed that top management involvement, inter-functional coordination and formalization play an important role. Therefore, this paper extends the existing literature by introducing these dimensions to the framework of KAM. It is recommended that future survey can be conducted to investigate the significance of these factors.

Perspectives on social media ant its use by key account managers

Social media has recently received increased attention from practitioners and academics. Although social media helps build relationships, no academic study to date has investigated the use of social media by key account managers, although building and developing relationships with key customers are at the core of these managers' expertise. This research contributes to building the first level of understanding of how key account managers use social media and the major issues. To address this topic, we perform a qualitative research study using the grounded theory methodology. We present a model of key account managers' use of social media derived from our empirical data and relate it to a key customer engagement model.