Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing Personal interaction and customer relationship management in proj ect business Mainela Tuija, Ulkuniemi Pauliina, Article information: To cite this document: Mainela Tuija, Ulkuniemi Pauliina, (2013) "Personal interaction and customer relationship management in project business", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 28 Issue: 2, pp.103-110, https://doi.org/10.1108/08858621311295245 Permanent link to this document: https://doi.org/10.1108/08858621311295245 Downloaded on: 01 November 2018, At: 23:35 (PT) References: this document contains references to 34 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@ emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 3946 times since 2013* Downloaded by Northumbria University Library At 23:35 01 November 2018 (PT) Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: (2013),"Customer relationship management: the evolving role of customer data", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 31 Iss 6 pp. 584-600 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-05-2012-0055">https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-05-2012-0055</a> (2012),"Customer relationship management capabilities: Measurement, antecedents and consequences", Management Decision, Vol. 50 Iss 1 pp. 115-129 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211194903">https:// doi.org/10.1108/00251741211194903</a> Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:462515 [] For Authors If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/ authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 j ournals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. *Related content and download information correct at time of download.
Personal interaction and customer relationship management in project business Tuija Mainela Department of Management and International Business, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland, and Pauliina Ulkuniemi Department of Marketing, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of personal interaction in customer relationship management in the project business. The research question addressed is: How is personal interaction intertwined with the management of customer relationships in the project business? Design/methodology/approach – The authors connect an extensive knowledge of personal interactions in industrial business relationships with research on social interaction in the project business to enrich their understanding of customer relationship management in that business. Exploratory case study is used to empirically examine two firms providing project business solutions: one provides highly-tailored technological solutions to the process industry, and the other provides professional engineering services to that same industry. Downloaded by Northumbria University Library At 23:35 01 November 2018 (PT) Findings – The study reveals two specific functions that connect personal interaction with customer relationship management. These two functions explain the importance of personal interaction and disclose the contents of interaction that should be considered in relationship and project management. Furthermore, the authors illustrate how two situational factors influence and are influenced by personal interaction. Originality/value – The study suggests specific conceptualization of personal interaction as a part of project business management. Keywords Customer relationship management, Project management, Business relationships, Personal interaction, Project marketing, Interpersonal relations Paper type Research paper An executive summary for managers and executive 1996) occurring in project business relationships. When the readers can be found at the end of this article. economic relationship between the business parties ends at the point of project completion, personal relationships are often maintained and may be utilized in some future project Introduction bidding process (see Havila and Wilkinson, 2002). Therefore, Project business represents an industrial marketing setting in social relationships and personal interaction are important which the business is built around discontinuous, unique and determinants of project business management. complex deliveries of projects (Cova and Hoskins, 1997; The personal interaction is acknowledged to represent one Mandja ´k and Veres, 1998). It has attracted considerable of the key issues in business and industrial marketing, both in research interest, especially during the last two decades terms of practice and theory. Organizational relationships are (Tikkanen et al. , 2006). Management of project business is always a result of the actions of the individuals representing said to involve two primary levels – management of projects the organizations (Granovetter, 1985) and social relationships or project portfolios and management of customer form the channel for doing business (Halinen and To ¨rnroos, relationships (Skaates et al. , 2002). Management at both 1998). Personal interaction was defined as a key element of levels is complex especially owing to the unique qualities of interaction between organizations already in the interaction the projects and the discontinuity of relationships inherent to ˚kansson, 1982). Later research has defined approach (Ha the project business (Cova and Hoskins, 1997). basic and complex functions for social relationships, with One of the main characteristics of the project business – the positive and possibly negative influences on business fact that projects are unique – results from the specific relationships (Halinen and Salmi, 2001). Different types of requirements of the customers that are turned into project social relationships may also be activated for different offerings through intensive interaction between the purposes (Mainela, 2007). Discontinuous relationships and individuals involved (Skaates et al. , 2002). Personal unique and complex projects make personal interaction a interaction can also be a means of managing discontinuity, salient aspect of the management of the business relationships for instance the “sleeping relationship” phase (Hadjikhani, Received 17 February 2011 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at Revised 22 August 2011 www.emeraldinsight.com/0885-8624.htm Accepted 3 November 2012 The financial support of Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation is gratefully acknowledged. The authors wish Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and the 28/2 (2013) 103–110 organizations for their invaluable collaboration. The authors have q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624] contributed equally to the paper. [DOI 10.1108/08858621311295245] 103
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