Andre Morgado

Reference marketing plays an important role in business markets. Customer references have a positive impact on vendors' reputations. It also portrays customer references as a source of competitive advantage, as a foundation for competitiveness and at the same time, they are presented as decreasing buyer uncertainty and perceived risk.

Business schools play a key role in training marketing professionals. However, there is a strong divide between the expectations held by marketing professionals and those held in academia. This article considers this phenomenon from a theoretical point of view and explores its causes. The author argues that business schools are able to play a key role in bridging theory and practice in marketing. The article closes by offering several suggestions for how business schools might increase the relevance of marketing research while reducing the gap between marketing theory and practice. In particular, the article suggests the adoption of an inductive approach to research and offers a set of policies that business schools can implement in order to close this gap.

Purpose
The purpose of this research is to study organizational purchasing and relationship formation in interactions between customers and suppliers of capital equipment and the factors affecting the ability of reference marketing programs to deliver their expected purchasing benefits.

Design/methodology/approach
This work adopts an inductive research strategy and combines a critical realist approach with a qualitative research method consisting of in-depth interviews with purchasing managers from the energy industry.

Findings
By presenting a new theoretical model that aims to explain the referencing phenomenon, this study offers a deeper understanding of referencing and thus new perspectives on how and under what circumstances the customer–supplier relationship can be leveraged.

Research limitations/implications
Because of the qualitative nature of the research, no claim to statistical significance can be made. The model presented here helps the authors to understand the empirical phenomena as exhibited in the recorded interviews, but it does not allow for statistical generalization. The model allows for a certain degree of analytic inference but only within the study’s boundaries and limitations because the above findings are specific to the electric power industry.

Practical implications
A deeper understanding of this phenomenon allows suppliers to pursue strategies based on efficient reference marketing programs. The paper ends by presenting useful recommendations for reference marketing best practices and suggestions for improving the use of references in organizational purchasing.

Originality/value
The available literature on referencing does not clarify the factors that affect the ability of reference marketing to deliver its purchasing benefits. Thus, the facts and circumstances associated with the influence that reference marketing programs have on purchasing behavior have yet to be determined.

As empresas de serviços profissionais são, cada vez mais, uma actividade essencial no tecido económico português, e têm-se afirmado em campos tão diversos como a auditoria, a consultoria, a contabilidade, a arquitectura, a advocacia, a publicidade e até mesmo na medicina. Contudo, a literatura de gestão não tem atribuído a atenção que esta actividade merece e necessita. Este artigo começa por revisitar a fórmula de DuPont e recuperar a fórmula de Maister  para categorizar os três principais modelos de negócio seguidos por empresas de serviços profissionais.

A sociedade e o mundo empresarial estão a evoluir a um ritmo nunca antes visto. A gestão de empresas está mais complexa e os gestores sentem necessidade de se preparar melhor para enfrentar os actuais desafios do mercado. A digitalização da economia fez emergir uma nova realidade social, muito distinta do contexto que se verificava no passado recente. Esta nova realidade necessita ser estudada, não só a partir de novas perspectivas epistemológicas, mas também com o apoio das novas metodologias de investigação que hoje se encontram disponíveis. Por estes motivos, o investimento em investigação no campo da gestão empresarial nunca foi tão necessário como nos dias de hoje.

The literature on referencing takes a firm stance on the value that vendors derive from marketing customer references. What the literature lacks, however, is empirical work that supports our current understanding of the value of customer references to the potential customer. The present exploratory research aims to demonstrate the value of customer references from the perspective of the potential customer. This goal will be achieved by considering a single case study that provides evidence for the value of customer references to potential customers in business markets. Three theoretical
propositions emerge as key conceptual contributions: i) customer references allow buying companies to establish their suppliers’ competence, assess the buying decision risk and forecast return on investment; ii) customer references deliver value by helping potential customers to identify new business needs; and ii) potential customers benefit from being exposed to customer references insofar as they are sources of organizational learning. This work concludes by presenting recommendations for practitioners who wish to reap the full benefits of customer references.

In the process of marketing references, existing customers act as advocates for the firm. With their enthusiasm they provide testimonies, receive visits from potential customers, and yield information on the characteristics of the solutions adopted and their performance. This activity becomes highly valuable for firms as they are able to build strategic assets that allow profitable marketing action, either by increasing credibility and reputation, or by reducing the perceived risk derived from the purchasing of services or products from a particular supplier. In this work the authors suggest that organizational buying behaviour literature still lacks empirical work that may support a theory of customer referencing. In particular, they evince that the potential customer view is missing in the study of the customer reference practice. In fact, empirical research has favoured the supplier as its unit of analysis and has ignored the other two constituents of the reference triad: the reference customer and the potential customer. Therefore, empirical work featuring the potential customer as the unit of observation is an open research opportunity that will allow for a deeper understanding of customer reference relationships and their impact in the buying behaviour of industrial firms. The authors propose to fulfil this gap and to raise the following research question: “what role does customer reference marketing play on capital buying decisions?” The authors aim to respond to this question by developing a conceptual framework for analysis which is empirically tested in a single case study from a firm acting in the Portuguese energy industry. The case validates the adoption of the proposed framework for the study of customer referencing. This research work features a critical realism approach.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to describe a case that looks at how an innovative plastics packaging company in Portugal integrates itself into the value chain of company clients. The pedagogical objectives are: to present a success case in technological, processes and business innovation; to present a success case in business strategy, based on the build‐up of partnerships; and to construct a platform for discussion of a first mover strategy, and precautions to be taken in its pursuit.

Design/methodology/approach
– A range of evidence, including primary and secondary data, was used in the writing of this case, namely: direct observation, interviewing, press releases and press cuttings, annual reports, customer records and organization charts.

Findings
– Logoplaste has gained a leadership position and has successfully managed to achieve a relevant position in the international landscape by seeking a vertical integration of its activities, in order to obtain a better value proposal for its clients, which, at the same time, allows it to capture a part of that value for itself. This practice has permitted this company not only to grow overseas but also to reveal a customer loyalty performance of 100 per cent. These results are deeply connected with their innovative value proposal, e.g. product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation and business model innovation.

Originality/value
– This study provides insights into the nature of a company, which has successfully developed its activity based on a strong investment in innovation since its genesis. Logoplaste's strategy can be considered distinctive as it combines and integrates the following strategic vectors: integration of the client's logistical and value chains, based on a process of partnership developments; investing in R&D of packaging engineering, with the offer of an “vend‐to‐end” solution; and production process based on a “wall‐to‐wall” model.

La literatura que aborda el tema de proyectos y megaproyectos es algo incipiente y ambigua en lo que se refiere al proceso de gobierno. Este texto propone discutir la posible contribución del Modelo de Política de Empresa como una forma de superar esta brecha en el gobierno práctico de megaproyectos. Se ha seleccionado la categoría de megaproyectos pues son organizaciones con algunas semblanzas a empresas en lo más amplio del término, aunque con diferencias fundamentales. En el ámbito de los megaproyectos, puede verificarse una arquitectura de gobierno que tiene paralelismo con la doble tier del gobierno de empresas. Así en megaproyectos tenemos un Project Manager, que en muchas situaciones es nombrado Project Director, como es el caso de megaproyectos en la industria de petróleo. Dicho Project Manager o Director en general tiene un equipo semejante a una empresa tradicional. Este lo podemos conceptuar como el Executive Board o Estructura Directiva de una empresa tradicional. Pero hay en estos proyectos en general un Project Steering Commitee, que es una estructura de gobierno no ejecutiva respeto al ámbito del proyecto y que en todo lo podríamos comparar con un Non-Executive Board (o consejo de supervisión) en organizaciones tradicionales. Los autores proponen para discusión un ejemplo de gobierno de megaproyectos con doble tier, desde el punto de vista del Modelo de Politica de Empresa, haciendo la separación ejecutiva de la no-ejecutiva. El texto termina con una elaboración sobre el área de Configuración Institucional de la política de empresa en el contexto de los megaproyectos, así como una reflexión sobre la validez del enfoque propuesto.

The current literature on organizational buying behaviour presents customer references as a source of competitive advantage (Jalkala & Salminen 2010) and suggests that they have a positive impact on vendor reputation (Helm & Salminen 2010; Salminen & Möller 2003; Salminen 1997; Salminen & Möller 2006). It also suggests that customer references play an important role in increasing vendors' credibility and brand equity by raising their perceived competence. At the same time, customer references decrease buyer uncertainty and perceived risk. The literature on industrial buying does not have the empirical support necessary for a theory of customer referencing. This is because, when it comes to the study of customer reference practice, the potential customer's point of view is altogether absent (Morgado & de Castro 2015a). Empirical research has favoured the supplier as its unit of analysis while ignoring the other constituents of the reference triad: the reference customer and the potential customer. Empirical work that features the potential customer as the unit of observation remains an open research opportunity and would allow for a deeper understanding of both the customer reference network and its impact on the buying behaviour of industrial firms. This research aims to contribute to filling this gap by responding to the following question: ―How does customer referencing influence capital equipment buying decisions?‖ To achieve this aim, this study adopts as its theoretical framework the conceptual model offered by Morgado and de Castro (2015b), adapted to the context of a capital equipment buying decision. The main purpose of this research is to contribute to the literature on customer referencing by studying the case of EDP, which features the acquisition of a pump hydro energy storage system by an incumbent firm operating in the field of electrical power production. The study draws on empirical research and uses a case study research strategy. The data were gathered via interviews with key people and analysis of secondary data sources, such as corporate reports and other relevant documentation.

In recent years, marketing practice has increased in complexity, becoming more challenging. This situation demands that marketing professionals be better prepared to face the difficulties of the market. Business schools play a key role in training marketing professionals. However, there is a strong divide between the expectations held by marketing professionals and those held in academia. This chapter considers this phenomenon from a theoretical point of view and explores its causes. The author argues that business schools are able to play a key role in bridging theory and practice in marketing. The chapter closes by offering several suggestions for how business schools might increase the relevance of marketing research while reducing the gap between marketing theory and practice. In particular, the chapter offers a set of policies that business schools can implement in order to close this gap.