Effects of channel members’ customer-centric structures on supplier performance

When do customers perceive customer centricity? The role of a firm’s and salespeople’s customer orientation

“…This article Perceived customer centricity: The degree to which a customer perceives a firm to put customers' interests at the center of all of its actions Firm First, most articles that we reviewed analyzed customer centricity as a phenomenon on the level of the firm (e.g., Sheth, Sisodia, and Sharma 2000;Shah et al 2006;Crecelius et al 2019). This means that extant research typically conceptualized firms (rather than specific functions or individuals within these firms) as the entities that exhibit customer centricity.…”

“…Second, most definitions emphasized that high customer centricity is characterized by a strong focus on addressing customers' interests (e.g., Bolton 2004;Shah et al 2006;Kumar, Venkatesan, and Reinartz 2008). Seeing that these interests are typically not universal for all customers, some works considered customer centricity to entail a customer-segment-specific consideration of customers' interests (Burmann, Meurer, and Kanitz 2011;Frankenberger, Weiblen, and Gassmann 2013;Lee et al 2015;Crecelius et al 2019).…”

“…For example, Shah et al (2006, 115) stated that "all decisions start with the customer," and Jayachandran et al (2005, 179) understood a customer-centric management system as a management system where "actions are driven by customer needs and not by the internal concerns of functional areas." Other studies however did not go this far and merely conceptualized customer centricity as adaptations of firm structures and processes to customer interests (e.g., Bolton 2004;Lee et al 2015;Crecelius et al 2019).…”

“…Although customer centricity has been regarded as important for firms for several decades (e.g., Sheth, Sisodia, and Sharma 2000;Shah et al 2006;Gummesson 2008a), research investigating consequences of customer centricity empirically is relatively scarce. Existing marketing literature mainly concentrates on how objective firm characteristics classified as customer centric affect firm performance (e.g., Lee et al 2015;Sheth, Sisodia, and Sharma 2000;Fader 2012;Crecelius et al 2019) and on how customer-centric marketing strategies perform (e.g., Homburg, Workman, and Jensen 2000;Kumar, Venkatesan, and Reinartz 2008).…”

“…Customer centricity is defined as putting customers' interests at the center of a firm's actions (e.g., Burmann, Meurer, and Kanitz 2011;Gummesson 2008a, b;Shah et al 2006;Sheth, Sisodia, and Sharma 2000; see also Table 1) and can be achieved by implementing customer-centric organizational structures (e.g., Galbraith 2005;Shah et al 2006;Lamberti 2013), customer-centric information technologies (e.g., Wagner and Majchrzak 2006;Waisberg and Kaushik 2009), and customer-centric marketing strategies (e.g., Lenskold 2004;Gur au, Ranchhod, and Hackney 2003;Sheth, Sisodia, and Sharma 2000). Implementing such changes to instill customer centricity can improve firm performance (e.g., Sheth, Sisodia, and Sharma 2000;Fader 2012;Lee et al 2015;Crecelius et al 2019; see Figure 1).…”