Column 14 · Supply Chain and Networks · Era 3, Competitive Advantage (1980s)
Interaction Approach
Implementation, process · Landmark · Cluster V, Interfirm Networks
Description
The IMP Group's interaction approach treats industrial marketing and purchasing as a two-sided process of interaction between active buying and selling organizations within long-term relationships, an atmosphere, and an environment.
Managerial Implications
In business markets, buying and selling are long-term interactions between two active organizations, not isolated transactions. Both sides adapt products, processes, and routines to each other over time. Managers should map these adaptations, because they create switching costs and dependence in both directions, and should staff key relationships with stable teams, since the relationship's value lives in people who know each other.