IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aumajo/v16y2008i1p30-47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Professional Service Firms are Relationship Marketers: But does size matter?

Author

Listed:
  • McColl-Kennedy, Janet R.
  • Sweeney, Jillian C.
  • Soutar, Geoffrey N.
  • Amonini, Claudia

Abstract

There are few research-based insights into professional service firms’ (PSFs) contemporary marketing practices. This is unfortunate as the professional services sector is a key contributor to growth in the Australian and other economies around the world. As professional services are unique in a number of ways and their operations and marketing activities inextricably intertwined, the present study investigated the extent to which PSFs practice marketing and whether this differs according to size. Depth interviews were held with thirty seven Australian senior managers in four key industries. We examined the extent of relationship marketing, conceptualised at an overall managerial level as well as four sub-practices identified in research by Coviello and colleagues. We found relationship management and interaction marketing were the most common practices, which is consistent with the inseparability concept, and that relationship management and database marketing were more common in larger firms, which is consistent with their relative resource strength.

Suggested Citation

  • McColl-Kennedy, Janet R. & Sweeney, Jillian C. & Soutar, Geoffrey N. & Amonini, Claudia, 2008. "Professional Service Firms are Relationship Marketers: But does size matter?," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 30-47.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aumajo:v:16:y:2008:i:1:p:30-47
    DOI: 10.1016/S1441-3582(08)70003-X
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S144135820870003X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/S1441-3582(08)70003-X?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coviello, Nicole E. & Brodie, Roderick J. & Munro, Hugh J., 2000. "An investigation of marketing practice by firm size," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(5-6), pages 523-545.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hollebeek, Linda D., 2013. "The customer engagement/value interface: An exploratory investigation," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 17-24.
    2. Aspara, Jaakko, 2011. "Documentation and continuous development of processes for customer management: Implications for profitable growth," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 267-280.
    3. Scott E. Sampson, 2018. "Professional Service Jobs: Highly Paid but Subject to Disruption?," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 457-475, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gutiérrez-Villar, Belén & Montero-Simó, María José & Araque-Padilla, Rafael Ángel & Castro-González, Pilar, 2014. "Intensidad exportadora e interacción entre fortalezas del marketing mix: un análisis basado en redes neuronales artificiales || Export Intensity and Interaction between Marketing Mix: An Analysis base," Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa = Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, vol. 18(1), pages 88-111, December.
    2. Kim, Joon Ho & Kang, Kyung Ho, 2018. "The effect of promotion on gaming revenue: A study of the US casino industry," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 317-326.
    3. Shi, Lei & Miles, Angela, 2020. "Non-effectual, non-customer effectual, or customer-effectual: A conceptual exploration of the applicability of the effectuation logic in startup brand identity construction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 168-179.
    4. Archita Pal Choudhury & Amit Kundu & Dev Narayan Sarkar & Arabinda Bhattacharya, 2023. "Practitioners’ perspectives on the marketing strategies in Indian banking sector: a framework for strategy formulation," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(1), pages 146-177, March.
    5. Alina Filip, 2011. "Loyalty Programs. Role, Structure and Potential Benefits," International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 1(2), pages 88-93, September.
    6. Alvarez Bassi, Daniel & Lado, Nora & Duque, Lola C., 2010. "Current marketing practices and market orientation in the context of an emerging economy : the case of Uruguay," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB wb104207, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    7. Gruber, Marc, 2007. "Uncovering the value of planning in new venture creation: A process and contingency perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 782-807, November.
    8. Laure Ambroise & Céline Bérard & Isabelle Prim-Allaz, 2020. "Performance implications of exploration and exploitation in SMEs: The mediating role of interaction orientation," Post-Print halshs-02570780, HAL.
    9. Peterson, Robert A. & Crittenden, Victoria L., 2020. "Exploring customer orientation as a marketing strategy of Mexican-American entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 139-148.
    10. Seo, Joo Hwan & Perry, Vanessa G. & Tomczyk, David & Solomon, George T., 2014. "Who benefits most? The effects of managerial assistance on high- versus low-performing small businesses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2845-2852.
    11. Vasileiou, Efi & Georgantzis, Nikolaos & Attanasi, Giuseppe & Llerena, Patrick, 2022. "Green innovation and financial performance: A study on Italian firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    12. Isacsson, Annica & Alakoski, Leena & Bäck, Asta, 2009. "Using Multiple Senses in Tourism Marketing: The Helsinki Expert, Eckero Line and Linnanmaki Amusement Park Cases," MPRA Paper 25456, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 26 Aug 2009.
    13. Mora Cortez, Roberto & Johnston, Wesley J., 2018. "Needed B2B marketing capabilities: Insights from the USA and emerging Latin America," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 594-609.
    14. Morgan, Todd & Anokhin, Sergey Alexander, 2020. "The joint impact of entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation in new product development: Studying firm and environmental contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 129-138.
    15. Insik Jeong & Jong-Ho Lee & Eunmi Kim, 2019. "Determinants of brand localization in international markets," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(1), pages 75-100, March.
    16. Wang, Xinchun & Lou, Tianyang, 2020. "The effect of performance feedback on firms’ unplanned marketing investments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 441-451.
    17. Song, Michael & Di Benedetto, C. Anthony & Parry, Mark E., 2009. "The impact of formal processes for market information acquisition and utilization on the performance of Chinese new ventures," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 314-323.
    18. Clemens Koob, 2021. "Determinants of content marketing effectiveness: Conceptual framework and empirical findings from a managerial perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-25, April.
    19. Athanasios Papadimitriou & Antonios Kargas, 2012. "The relationship between organizational culture and market orientation in the Greek telecommunication companies," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 1-23, April.
    20. Linder, Christian, 2019. "Customer orientation and operations: The role of manufacturing capabilities in small- and medium-sized enterprises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 105-117.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aumajo:v:16:y:2008:i:1:p:30-47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/australasian-marketing-journal/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.