مدیریت حساب جهانی: مدیریتی دیدگاه طرف تأمین کننده

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theory-based explanation for the adaptive variations in a supply manager's role within a global account management (GAM) relationship. The variations in a supply-side manager's role are explained using a combined knowledge-based view and relational contracting theoretical perspective. The demands of the global customer, which constrain the supply managers' role adaptation, present a unique set of challenges to organizations supplying in global accounts. The new managerial competencies, required for effective global account supply management under global customer's constraints, are described. In conclusion, specific managerial actions are recommended for effective global account supply management, which are intended to engender the development of trust and social capital in the global customer–supplier relationship.

The turbulent rate of environmental change has contributed to the growth of the global account management (i.e., GAM) form of organizing a firm's supply chain [1], [2] and [3]. GAM is a structural alternative of providing worldwide exclusive mutual interdependence between the supplier and customer organizations [4] and [5]. This high customer–supplier interdependence is intended to create on a global scale a connected set of assets (i.e., value chain) between the organizations, which is difficult to be replicated by competitors [6], [7] and [8]. The achievement of such an interconnected relationship, while creating considerable competitive advantage, however, also dramatically increases managerial role ambiguity in the organization supplying the global customer [9] and [10]. The role of a global account supply manager is to build critical linkages for the firm with the globally dispersed customer's units, while simultaneously managing the internal functional and cross-functional relationships within the supplying firm [11], [12], [13] and [14]. The resulting plurality of goals in the internal and external global account settings greatly complicates the supplying manager's task [15], [16], [17] and [18]. There has been a plethora of research on GAM primarily focused on the structural and relational fit between the global customer and its supplying organizations [19], [20] and [21]. However, the managerial issues in supplying global account customers and maintaining global account processes have curiously been neglected in the past research in both international marketing and management literature. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theory-based explanation for the emerging role adaptation/variations of managers in organizations supplying global account customers. First, the concept of global account is defined and the multiple changes in the supply manager's role orientation outlined. Second, a combined knowledge-based view and relational contracting theoretical perspective is used to derive the dimensions influential for the manager's role variations. Third, specific global customer's constraints and managerial challenges and competencies associated with the global account supply task are outlined. Fourth, practical recommendations for manager's behavior in supplying a global account are suggested. In conclusion, a number of managerial actions, designed to stimulate the development of trust and social capital in the global customer–supplier relationship, are proposed.

As many global organizations are shifting from hierarchical to network governance demanding the GAM supply capability from their partners, it has become necessary to clearly define the evolving role variations of a global account supply manager (i.e., to gain insights into the associated aspects, dimensions, emerging issues, challenges, and required competencies). Because the central task of the global account supply has become one of structuring options and networks rather than managing markets and hierarchies, the changing role of the GAM supply manager in the global network economy will become the indispensable topic in the future supply chain management research. The manager's role is changing because the demand for supply of global accounts is more chaotic than orderly. Global account suppliers are increasingly trusted with growing latitude for autonomous actions, which frequently engenders a creative tension while knowledge is shared across the global account relationship. Therefore, the manager's efforts to both nurture and contain functional conflicts, inherent in most entrepreneurial efforts, as well as to foster a shared global mind-set by communicating the shared vision, are critical to stimulate the development of new ideas by the diverse units involved in the successful implementation of the new global account relationship. Their shared global mind-set provides the necessary glue for the units' collaborating to solving complex problems [83] and [84]. The ultimate success of the GAM supply effort rests on the manager's ability to assert leadership, to identify and clarify key participants' roles in the global account supply, and to facilitate the building of social capital (i.e., development of trusting interpersonal relationships), all of which are necessary conditions for a GAM effectiveness.