Market conditions may lead firms to increase offensive marketing activities aimed at attracting new customers, and/or to enhance defensive relationship building intended to retain current customers. Characteristics of the marketing environment are examined, including firms' interest in...

Purpose – As companies become more aware of their role in the business network and their own value contribution hereto, the question of the companies’ sourcing strategy and use of suppliers has simultaneously come more and more into focus of their decision making. The purpose of this paper...

Purpose – The involvement of lead‐users in product development has been emphasised as a rewarding method for companies in various industries to strengthen their development efforts. The argument is that these leading edge customers can generate innovative and appealing new product concepts....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss a contextual framework, which is based on different purposes of segmentation. A matrix is proposed for segmentation that distinguishes between strategic and operational levels and the degree to which new value is created....

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss business incubation to enter foreign markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) countries through the lens of an “international business incubator” (IBI). International market expansion offers huge opportunities for companies to increase their...