AMS Review (2018) 8:80–83

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-018-0119-x

COMMENTARY

The journey towards customer centricity and service growth in B2B:

Received: 25 April 2018 / Accepted: 3 May 2018 / Published online: 23 May 2018
# Academy of Marketing Science 2018

In this issue, AMS Review launches a new section, BTheory + The topics raised throughout the interview give rise to nu-
Practice,^ providing a space for discussing cutting-edge chal- merous interesting research questions. In this commentary, I
lenges faced by managers. The forthcoming series of inter- would like to highlight six promising research avenues,
views with senior executives explores pressing issues of stra- among many others. The first three directions refer to research
tegic significance. This new initiative represents a particularly on customer centricity in business markets, while the remain-
fertile ground for identifying promising research avenues. The ing three avenues relate to scholarly research on customer
endeavor also responds to the call among scholars for ground- solutions.
ing research in marketing with both academic rigor and man-
agerial relevance (Jaworski 2011; Reibstein et al. 2009;
Varadarajan 2003). In a recent preview of its approach, the
Journal of Marketing forthcoming editorial team calls to mind Research on transformation towards
that the marketing discipline’s Bmost interesting and important customer-centric organizations
questions arise from the confluence of theory and the real
world of marketing^ (Moorman et al. 2018). It is in this spirit Customer centricity and its relevance to firms’ long-term suc-
that I would like to comment on Jaworski (2018). cess have been widely discussed for many years (Shah et al.
In their conversation, Professor Bernie Jaworski, the Peter 2006). Nonetheless, many companies are still struggling to
F. Drucker Chair in Management and Liberal Arts, and Nabil build a customer-centric organization. Against this backdrop,
Shabshab, President of World-Wide Diabetes Care and Digital one may argue that scholarly research has predominantly fo-
Health at Becton Dickinson, discuss two major shifts faced by cused on the why and what of customer-centricity in business-
companies in business markets today. The first shift refers to to-business markets. Building on prior knowledge about the
firms’ transition from a goods-centric to a customer-centric relevance and role of customer centricity, we need to better
orientation, while the second relates to companies’ move to- understand how decision makers can successfully bring cus-
wards providing customer solutions, instead of focusing on tomer centricity to life in their respective organizations. In
manufacturing and selling products. Both fundamental trends short, researchers could explore how to implement the strate-
are interrelated. The two experts discuss challenges managers gic imperative of becoming more customer centric, especially
face in both areas. Becton Dickinson’s transformational jour- in a B2B environment. Thus, several interesting research av-
ney in both domains represents a particularly interesting con- enues emerge in this domain.
text: the global healthcare industry. First, in the interview, Shabshab notes that the transforma-
tional journey towards a customer-centric organization is typ-
ically longer than expected. Managers must simultaneously
tackle multiple issues. They must encourage and facilitate
the emergence of new behaviors, help employees grow com-
* Wolfgang Ulaga petencies and skills in new areas, change existing manage-
[email protected]; [email protected]
ment processes, systems, and performance metrics, and trans-
1
INSEAD Europe Campus, Marketing Area, Boulevard de
form organizational cultures. Therefore, there is a need to
Constance, 77300 Fontainebleau, France better understand the entire journey of becoming a customer-
2
Department of Marketing, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona
centric organization. Which key factors drive success or fail-
State University, 4-25 BAC Building, PO Box 874106, ure of such a fundamental transformation? How can these
Tempe, AZ 85287-4106, USA elements be integrated in a consistent framework? What are
AMS Rev (2018) 8:80–83 81

critical milestones on this journey? Is this a top-down or a Research on customer solutions in business
bottom-up process? Under what conditions? markets
A second research avenue relates to the role of the main
change agent(s) involved in facilitating the process of becom- The move towards growing value-adding services wrapped
ing more customer-centric. Once firms have a better under- around goods and offering customer solutions represents a
standing of the nature of such a transformational journey, and second main topic addressed in the interview. This transition
its success factors, who should be in charge of driving the has received much attention among managers and academics
process? What is the role of top management? Who, within alike (Kowalkowski and Ulaga 2017; Worm et al. 2017). I
the top management team, should be involved? What are the define servitization as a firm’s strategic transition beyond its
respective roles and responsibilities of frontline managers and traditional focus of manufacturing and selling goods and sys-
intermediary management levels? Which personality traits, tems to a focus on leveraging resources and competencies
leadership skills and behaviors are needed to successfully through the provision of activities that achieve customer-
steer such a shift? desired business outcomes. This definition suggests numerous
Third, in their conversation, the two experts refer to research opportunities as our knowledge of how these activi-
the fact that customers today increasingly evaluate their ties can be deployed profitably is still in its infancy. In this
suppliers on the basis of total customer experience, rather commentary, I would like to highlight three promising ave-
than forming judgments on their perception of individual nues for scholarly research.
transactions. As Shabshab explains, a company’s ability A first research direction relates to the growing focus on
to deliver outstanding customer experiences has become how value-added services deliver business outcomes for cus-
a main lever for organizations to become truly customer- tomers. Shabshab recalls that a supplier’s ability to combine
centric. Customer experience management and its suc- products, services and intellectual capital to address challeng-
cessful implementation represent a particular promising ing customer problems and drive measurable business value
research avenue (Lemon and Verhoef 2016). Creating for customers is key to successfully growing a solution busi-
superior competitive advantage through customer experi- ness. This shift towards outcomes achieved – rather than a
ence management–especially in Business-to-Business focus on goods and services sold – is fueled by several fun-
Markets–still represents a vastly under-researched do- damental trends. First, in many markets, suppliers have
main offering promising avenues for future scholarly in- learned that to fight commoditization, declining prices and
quiry (Ulaga and Michel 2014). What are unique aspects margins, they must (co-)create and deliver more value than
of customer experience management in organizational next-best alternatives, rather than focus on selling products
buying contexts? How to measure customer experiences and services. To unlock new growth opportunities, vendors
in B2B buyer-seller relationships? How does customer are increasingly challenged to put themselves in their cus-
experience relate to other relationship-relevant constructs tomers’ shoes and search for opportunities related to asset
in B2B? How can customer experience management con- optimization and productivity gains for (and with) customers.
tribute to differentiating suppliers in increasingly compet- Similarly, a growing number of customers in business mar-
itive markets? These are only a few of many interesting kets have come to understand that they can (and should) ask
research questions. for more. Business customers increasingly ask suppliers to
To understand the journey towards customer centricity, Bshow them the money^, take responsibility, and help them
scholars might consider using multiple research methods. achieve results rather than merely sell goods. In the process,
Qualitative research methods using a discovery-oriented many customers do not want to invest, they don’t want to own
theory-in-use approach could provide new insights (see, for equipment or machines any more. Instead, they look for out-
example, Challagalla et al. 2014). Research approaches comes achieved from goods sourced, and they expect vendors
should further balance exploratory and hypothesis-testing re- to make performance commitments. Third, the growing im-
search. Further, longitudinal research could help better under- portance of data and analytics accelerates this movement. The
stand the key building blocks, interactions and critical mile- digital transformation of industries favors the emergence of
stones of this complex process. Finally, scholars could lever- entirely new outcome-based business models firmly grounded
age new data and analytics methods for analyzing customer in data and analytics.
experiences. For example, can artificial intelligence and ma- Collectively, these trends point to the growing importance
chine learning provide novel insights into business customers’ of customer success in business markets. Yet, our understand-
experiences when sourcing goods and services? Such new ing of customer success is still in its infancy. It is commonly
techniques could not only help better understand purchasing agreed that suppliers must not only make value propositions
and procurement interactions; they might also generate deeper but also ensure that customers obtain business outcomes
insights into organizational customers’ perceptions of a holis- promised. Likewise, simply identifying value creation oppor-
tic buyer-seller relationship. tunities in customer solutions is not enough. Buyers and
82 AMS Rev (2018) 8:80–83

sellers must ensure that value is not only identified, created B2B firms take into account before experimenting with
and delivered, but also measured in performance metrics tied new pricing schemes?
to customers top-and bottom-line results. The mechanisms of To address the above-mentioned research avenues on
how to ensure lasting customer success still merit further at- value-added services and customer solutions, scholars might
tention. Research is needed to clearly define customer success rely on multi-method designs. Exploratory research in the
in business markets. What are the construct’s key dimensions? form of case studies and in-depth interviews with key-
How can customer success be measured in Business-to- decision makers would allow gaining deeper understanding
business contexts? What is its relationship to other key of key concepts, such as customer success, and their respec-
relationship-relevant constructs when it comes to understand- tive dimensions and sub-dimensions. Combinations of survey
ing the growing role of performance-based offerings in busi- and archival data related to solution sales and deployment
ness markets? would provide new insights into antecedents and moderators
Extant research suggests that suppliers often find it hard to of solution profitability. Finally, experimental research de-
turn customer solutions into profits (Reinartz and Ulaga 2008; signs could shed new light on making better decisions when
Tuli et al. 2007; Ulaga and Reinartz 2011). Despite a growing pricing B2B services and solutions.
body of research on customer solutions, more research is In conclusion, I found the interview between Jaworski and
needed to understand why solution suppliers often wrestle Shabshab insightful in many ways. It clearly demonstrates
with disappointing financial results of solutions deployed. some of the most pressing issues executives face when
Among many other research directions, two avenues appear steering their companies from an inward-oriented to a more
as particularly interesting in this domain. First, solution sales customer-centric organization. The discussion also illustrates
structures and processes are complex, and our understanding key challenges faced in servitization and solution growth.
of the determinants, outcomes and moderators of successful These topics are intertwined, and a focus on achieving true
solution sales is still at an early stage (Ulaga & Kohli 2018). customer success in B2B may well appear as the common
Second, in addition to difficulties encountered in selling solu- thread to both transformational journeys. Yet, research on
tions, B2B companies also often find it hard to maintain prof- this fundamental theme is still lacking. Moorman et al.
itability in the deployment and post-deployment stages. (2018) remind us that researchers must focus on substantive
Therefore, suppliers often shy away from such far-reaching marketing questions and ensure that theories are Bgrounded in
engagements. Indeed, executives often find themselves faced important marketing problems, that models are in the service
with a trade-off. On the one hand, they perceive a potential for of marketing questions, and that research offers implications
unlocking value creation by implementing a customer solu- for firms, policy makers, or society^. Against this backdrop,
tion. On the other hand, they also face growing complexity of Jaworski (2018) provides us with a good basis for identifying
managing the customer-supplier relationship within a solution attractive research avenues in this field. I hope that the direc-
contract. Addressing this state of tension is still a nascent area tions discussed in this commentary contribute to stimulating
in academic research. Clearly, deeper understanding of the further research on these two important transformational
interaction between unlocking value creation opportunities journeys.
and the complexity of managing interfirm relationships during
solution deployment is needed.
Finally, a third interesting research avenue refers to
pricing of services and customer solutions in business
markets. Shabshab underlines the important roles of set-
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