L10 - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance: GeneralReturn

This research compares customer-centric strategies against product-centric strategies as different dimensions of competition, from a need for a more purposeful and clear concept of customer centricity (CC). It aims to contribute to a general roadmap for CC, as one strategic management direction and to prevail over the key managerial challenges to achieve it. The goal of the paper is to examine current maturity in adopting CC to scrutinise business process management (BPM) - a key dimension of transformation in the CC roadmap. This paper uses deductive analysis to constitute an analytic theory and structure for evaluation then uses 18 case studies as an evaluation of the analytic theory. Evidence of movement on the customer-centric roadmap is found. BPM in European telecommunications, banking, utility, and retail sectors support the roadmap for CC from the process view, the process alignment and the process optimisation. However, the movement is partial and not flawless, as BPM has not been examined in terms of supporting many of the customer-centric dimensions. Companies have a need for clarity, feedback, and the tools to succeed in an increasingly competitive and demanding world which, in the years to come, may demand a customer-centric approach in order to compete. In parallel, the work theoretically contributes to the importance of the relationship between CC and BPM and provides the first data analysis of its intersection.

The need for this research stems from the dynamic development that the brewing industry has undergone since the Velvet Revolution when the market was split between seventy-one regional breweries. In the 1990s, customers began to prefer the larger nationwide breweries, a trend that led to the bankruptcy of some regional breweries thereby creating a market niche that was quickly filled by microbreweries. By 2015, there were 44 industrial breweries and around 300 microbreweries. By then, the beer market had diversified, and since the brewing industry had been highly dynamic, managers had to change strategy regarding customer requirements. Strategic change has since been reflected in the pricing and quality of the beer, marketing communication, and merchandising. Knowledge of developments in the industry and adapting strategies to meet these changes have been key factors in determining future survival. The purpose of this study is to describe the development of the brewing industry and the resulting strategic changes of different breweries. Historical knowledge is required for future research into the perception of the brewery managers' strategic thinking. This paper is the first step in longitudinal research focused on strategy formulation at the business level in the brewing industry and brewery performance. The study is based on qualitative approaches and a two-step research design: the first phase is historical research, where the data was obtained from contemporary newspapers, professional and scientific journals, and annual reports from breweries. The second phase is composed of interviews conducted at four breweries, which are representative of the population. The results of this study help to clarify industry behaviour and are intended as a source of knowledge that practitioners can use in their strategic decision-making process. The study reflects previous industry behaviour and describes current trends in customer requirements that can be used when forming a business level strategy and identifying an appropriate generic strategy.

At present, enterprises are forced to serve their customers as quickly as possible if they want to succeed on turbulent global markets. Enterprises are looking for regions with high-quality infrastructure where they can establish new logistics centres that enable enterprises to serve their customers quickly. This paper focuses on the segmentation of the European Union market for enterprises that are willing to set up logistics centres in order to be able to distribute products fluently and more quickly to their customers in Europe. An agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm was used and Ward's criterion applied for the purposes of market segmentation. A Logistic Performance Index and the indicator Dealing with Construction Permits were used as two relevant dimensions reflecting the market attractiveness of identified clusters. Based on the given statistical output, fundamental marketing concepts were formulated for each cluster composed of EU countries with similar characteristics.