Wengler Key Account Management in Business-to-Business Markets

An Assessment of Its Economic Value
2006
ISBN: 978-3-8350-9355-3
Verlag: Deutscher Universitätsverlag
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 294 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: Business-to-Business-Marketing

Stefan Wengler provides a well founded answer to the question of the economic value and shows the need for the implementation of key account management. He presents a comprehensive, but easy-to-handle decision-making model that supports the decision on the most efficient key account management organization for individual companies. In addition, he gives a comprehensive overview on the key account management conception and its controlling tools.

Dr. Stefan Wengler war wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter von Prof. Dr. Michael Kleinaltenkamp am Institut für Marketing der Freien Universität Berlin. Er ist als Assistent der Geschäftsführung des Logistikdienstleisters LEHNKERING tätig.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wengler, Stefan

Weitere Mitwirkende

Kleinaltenkamp, Prof. Dr. Michael

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Foreword;6
2;Preface;8
3;Contents;10
4;Figures;14
5;Abbreviations;15
6;1 Introduction;16
6.1;1.1 Key account management - a seemingly evolutionary phenomenon;16
6.2;1.2 The efficiency of key account management;19
6.3;1.3 Objective and structure of the thesis;23
7;2 State-of-the-art of key account management in academia and science;27
7.1;2.1 Relationship marketing and the concept of key account management;27
7.2;2.2 The conception of key account management;40
7.3;2.3 Research and empirical evidence on key account management;64
8;3 Key account management controlling;81
8.1;3.1 Defining the task and objectives of key account management controlling;82
8.2;3.2 Tools in key account management controlling;86
8.3;3.3 Requirements of an implementation decision model;100
8.4;3.4 The theoretical foundation of the decision model;102
9;4 Analyzing key account management from the perspective of transaction cost economics;113
9.1;4.1 The fundamentals of transaction cost economics;114
9.2;4.2 Applying the framework of transaction cost economics;129
9.3;4.3 Bilateral governance and the relevance of the marketing organization;137
10;5 Challenging the organization: the implementation of key account management;150
10.1;5.1 The relevance of implementing key account management in marketing management;151
10.2;5.2 The implementation of key account management as a strategic marketing management decision;158
10.3;5.3 The (institutional) environment in transaction cost economics;162
10.4;5.4 Institutional and organizational change in transaction cost economics;168
10.5;5.5 The necessity of a comparative institutional analysis as a sound basis for deciding on the appropriate key account management program;178
11;6 Determining the economic value of key account management in business relationships;181
11.1;6.1 Design alternatives of the key account management programs;181
11.2;6.2 Defining the transaction cost relevant determinants;189
11.3;6.3 The decision model;214
12;7 Management implications;233
12.1;7.1 Implementing key account management;233
12.2;7.2 Application of the decision model;252
12.3;7.3 Assumptions and limitations of the decision model;259
13;8 Conclusion;265
14;9 Bibliography;269

State-of-the-art of key account management in academia and science.- Key account management controlling.- Analyzing key account management from the perspective of transaction cost economics.- Challenging the organization: the implementation of key account management.- Determining the economic value of key account management in business relationships.- Management implications.- Conclusion.

Leseproben

6 Determining the economic value of key account management in business relationships (S. 166-167)

In the previous chapters WilHamsons approach on transaction cost economics has been explained in depth and the various challenges have been described which arise within the internal organization due to the implementation of a key account management program. Drawing upon these insights, a comprehensive approach for analyzing and evaluating the correct marketing organization, i.e. in our case the correct key account management organization, needs to be developed. With respect to our previous explication on possible key account management organizations, the relevant alternatives for the decision-making model will be identified.

We will then derive - building upon the essential characteristics of transaction cost economics (asset specificity, uncertainty and frequency) - the relevant variables and their determinants for the decision process of the internal marketing organization. These variables will be integrated in a decision model, whose structure will be rolled out and described in depth. In the final section the model will be applied in a comparative analysis of organizational arrangements - on the basis of transaction costs.

6.1 Design alternatives of the key account management programs

For a long time, the primary focus in marketing research was on the different types of selling activities (McMurray 1961, Moncrief 1986, Marshall et al. 1999) as well as their evolutionary development (Powers et al. 1987, Powers et al. 1988, Wotruba 1991). With the increasing complexity of sales activities as well as interest on customer-orientation and market-orientation (e.g. Kohli/Jaworski (1990), Jaworski/Kohli (1993)) it becomes clear that the marketing &, sales department requires its own organizational structures which may differ from traditional approaches.

As a very specialized form of the marketing organization key account management is of prime interest: the set-up of a key account management program is related to considerable investments so that its organizational design needs to be efficient as well as effective. In the context of key account management it seems extremely difficult to choose the correct organizational form: for Pardo (1999, p. 286) the problem of key account management is primarily an organizational one.

Kempeners/van der Hart (1999, p. 310/312) even think of the organizational structures of account management systems as one of the most interesting and controversial parts of account management systems - because of the variety of organizational alternatives. Concerning the implementation decision on the key account management program, the existing literature offers a vast amount of the alternatives and alternative designs of the key account management organization (e.g. Shapiro/Moriarty (1984a), Colletti/Tubridy (1987), Diller/Gaitanides (1988), Gaitanides/Diller (1989), Rieker (1995), Kleinaltenkamp/Rieker (1997), Lambe/Spekman (1997), McDonald et al. (1997), Kempeners/van der Hart (1999)). As illustrated in Figure 22, we will distinguish between ten decision alternatives which include: no key account management program, key account management as a staff organization at the functional, divisional as well as corporate level, key account management as a line organization at the regional, functional, divisional as well as corporate level, and key account management as a matrix organization at the functional as well as divisional level.

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Stefan Wengler war wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter von Prof. Dr. Michael Kleinaltenkamp am Institut für Marketing der Freien Universität Berlin. Er ist als Assistent der Geschäftsführung des Logistikdienstleisters LEHNKERING tätig.