Exploring Factors and Elements of Coordination between Key Account Management Units and Non-key Account Management Units

Abstract

Studies in key account management (KAM) have identified the importance of cross-functional coordination in firms to effectively implement KAM. However, these studies have ignored how companies integrate KAM and other customer management (non-KAM). This paper explores coordination design between KAM units and non-KAM units by analyzing a case study through three dimensions: frontend coordination, back-end-coordination, and organizational translation at the beginning of research. The case study shows that non-KAM conditions can require a modification of the coordination design. This research performs an in-depth analysis of changes in the implementation of sales reforms for an IT-related machinery and system vendor in Japan. Data sources include interviews with KAM units and non-KAM sales units and an analysis of secondary data. This paper suggests that studying the coordination between KAM units and non-KAM units will further our understanding of internal coordination in KAM research.

Keywords

• key account management (kam)
• cross-functional coordination
• knowledge management
• sales force automation (sfa)