Key account management configurations and their effectiveness: A quasi-replication and extension

Key account management configurations and their effectiveness: A quasi-replication and extension

Two important areas in the key account management (KAM) literature deal with different KAM frameworks and KAM performance drivers. In particular, scholars have derived taxonomies of KAM configurations and identified organizational determinants of KAM effectiveness and performance in the market. The present paper contributes to the KAM literature with a quasi-replication and extension of two seminal papers providing an update of different KAM configurations along with the determinants of KAM effectiveness and performance in the market. Using recently collected survey data from a sample of 411 managers, and considering KAM capabilities and KAM communication, we find evidence of five unique KAM configurations that differ from the findings of Homburg et al. (2002), thereby doubtless reflecting a professionalization of the KAM domain. Furthermore, updating Workman et al. (2003), we find that KAM capabilities are important determinants of KAM effectiveness and performance in the market, and that social media communication increases KAM effectiveness. These insights contribute to building a cumulative up-to-date body of knowledge about KAM and provide guidance for managers to improve their KAM.

大客户管理（KAM）文献中的两个重要领域涉及不同的KAM框架和KAM绩效驱动因素。特别是，学者们已经得出了KAM配置的分类法，并确定了KAM在市场中的有效性和绩效的组织决定因素。本文通过对两篇具有开创性的论文进行准复制和扩展，为KAM文献做出了贡献，提供了不同KAM配置的最新情况以及KAM在市场中的有效性和绩效的决定因素。利用最近从411名管理者样本中收集的调查数据，并考虑KAM能力和KAM沟通，我们发现了五种独特的KAM配置的证据，这些配置与洪堡等人（2002年）的研究结果不同，这无疑反映了KAM领域的专业化。此外，对沃克曼等人（2003年）的研究进行更新，我们发现KAM能力是KAM在市场中的有效性和绩效的重要决定因素，并且社交媒体沟通提高了KAM的有效性。这些见解有助于构建关于KAM的最新累积知识体系，并为管理者改进其KAM提供指导。