 Identification as a challenge in key account management: Conceptual foundations and a qualitative studyLeonore Peters,
Björn Sven Ivens and
Catherine Pardo
Post-Print from HAL Abstract: Managing business relationships requires that boundary-spanning actors, such as key account managers, perform their task at the interface between two relational networks, the internal firm network and the network on the side of the key account. Several streams of research have suggested that similar situations raise questions of identification, but the business-to-business literature has not yet paid much attention to this issue. This study focuses on key account management (KAM) as a typical task of inter-organizational interface management. The conceptual foundations of identification in a sales-related interface context, such as KAM, are first discussed. It then pursues with a qualitative exploratory study that uses data gained through 40 semi-structured interviews with key account managers to identify their identification anchors. The qualitative data suggest four identification foci, namely organizational identification, key account identification, leader identification, and occupational identification, which are illustrated in a conceptual model. The study concludes with a discussion and avenues for future research. Keywords: Key account management; Key account manager; Identification; Semi-structured interview (search for similar items in EconPapers) Published in Industrial marketing management, 2020, 90, 300-313 p There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02946098 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Post-Print from HAL |
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