Building relationships with industrial buyers in the new venture setting
Brian Nagy, Rajesh Iyer, Jim MuncyPurpose
The purpose of this study is to examine potential ways new venture leaders can establish relationships with industrial buyers by understanding and using knowledge related to the liabilities and assets related to organizational newness.
Design/methodology/approach
Impacts of two assets of newness and four liabilities of newness are explored within a relationship marketing context. A sample of 398 organizational buyers in India is used to measure the effects of six inherent elements of newness on three marketing performance attributes.
Findings
Using structural equation modeling, evidence suggests that organizational buyers’ perceptions of newer firms are enhanced by perceptions of organizational flexibility and organizational energy. To a lesser degree, two liabilities, legitimacy and availability, also impacted buyer perceptions of new ventures in the industrial buying context. Lack of reliability and lack of accountability had minimal impacts on buyer perceptions. In sum, these findings inform entrepreneurs regarding their vital entrepreneurial marketing (EM) efforts in business-to-business contexts.
Originality/value
This study’s results suggest new venture leaders may benefit more from their maximizing their firms’ assets of newness rather than from minimizing their weaknesses related to newness, although focusing on minimizing the perceptions of the lack of legitimacy and the lack of availability may be helpful in managing buyer relationships as well. Given the paucity of research related to how entrepreneurs should best use the inherent firm characteristics related to organizational newness to facilitate the marketing of their offerings within the new venture setting, the timing of this study is fitting.