IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v47y2001i11p1441-1456.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Leveraging the Customer Base: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge Management

Author

Listed:
  • Elie Ofek

    (Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts 02163)

  • Miklos Sarvary

    (INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77305 Fontainebleau, France)

Abstract

Professional services firms (e.g., consultants, accounting firms, or advertising agencies) generate and sell business solutions to their customers. In doing so, they can leverage the cumulative experience gained from serving their customer base to either reduce their variable costs or increase the quality of their products/services. In other words, their "production technology" exhibits some form of increasing returns to scale. Growth and globalization, coupled with recent advances in information technology, have led many of these firms to introduce sophisticated knowledge management (KM) systems in order to create sustainable competitive advantage. In this paper, the authors analyze how KM is likely to affect competition among such professional services firms. In particular, they first explore what type (supply-side versus demand-side) of economies of scale are likely to be exploited in KM systems. In the former case, KM's role is to reduce the operating costs of the firm, while in the latter case, its role is to create added value to customers by significantly increasing product quality. Second, the authors analyze the competitive dynamics and market structure that emerge as a result of firms competing with KM systems. The results shed light on the current literature exploring the deployment of KM systems by suggesting that in a competitive setting, when firms' ability to leverage their customer base is high, KM should lead to quality improvement rather than cost reductions. In a dynamic setting, it is also shown that when firms use their KM system to improve product quality, higher ability to leverage the customer base may actually hurt profits and lead to industry shakeout. Beyond normative insights, the results also support a number of recent market trends in management consulting, including the increased emphasis on knowledge-creating activities in modern KM systems, the wave of mergers between consulting firms, and the recent emergence of "retail consulting" services.

Suggested Citation

  • Elie Ofek & Miklos Sarvary, 2001. "Leveraging the Customer Base: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(11), pages 1441-1456, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:47:y:2001:i:11:p:1441-1456
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.47.11.1441.10249
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.47.11.1441.10249
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.47.11.1441.10249?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Farrell, Joseph & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "Installed Base and Compatibility: Innovation, Product Preannouncements, and Predation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 940-955, December.
    2. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    3. J. Miguel Villas-Boas, 1994. "Sleeping with the Enemy: Should Competitors Share the Same Advertising Agency?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(2), pages 190-202.
    4. Nicholas Economides, 1997. "The Economics of Networks," Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, vol. 1(0), December.
    5. Bonanno, Giacomo & Haworth, Barry, 1998. "Intensity of competition and the choice between product and process innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 495-510, July.
    6. Katz, Michael L & Shapiro, Carl, 1985. "Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 424-440, June.
    7. Alvin J. Silk & Ernst R. Berndt, 1993. "Scale and Scope Effects on Advertising Agency Costs," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(1), pages 53-72.
    8. A. M. Spence, 1981. "The Learning Curve and Competition," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 12(1), pages 49-70, Spring.
    9. Economides, Nicholas, 1996. "Network externalities, complementarities, and invitations to enter," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 211-233, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicholas Economides & Brian Viard, 2003. "Pricing of Complementary Goods and Network Effects," Working Papers 03-12, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    2. Kari Kemppainen, 2004. "Competition and regulation in European retail payment systems," Microeconomics 0404008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Corrado Benassi & Marcella Scrimitore, 2017. "Income Distribution in Network Markets," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 251-271, September.
    4. Persson, Lars & Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Tåg, Joacim, 2013. "Acquisitions, Entry, and Innovation in Network Industries," CEPR Discussion Papers 9585, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Hess, Mike & Ricart, Joan E., 2002. "Managing customer switching costs: A framework for competing in the networked environment," IESE Research Papers D/472, IESE Business School.
    6. Naskar, Mili & Pal, Rupayan, 2020. "Network externalities and process R&D: A Cournot–Bertrand comparison," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 51-58.
    7. Nicholas Economides, 1997. "The Economics of Networks," Brazilian Electronic Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, vol. 1(0), December.
    8. Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars & Tå̊g, Joacim, 2014. "Acquisitions, entry, and innovation in oligopolistic network industries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 1-12.
    9. Matthew G. Nagler, 2008. "Network Externalities, Mutuality, and Compatibility," Working Papers 08-37, NET Institute, revised Oct 2008.
    10. Heli Koski & Tobias Kretschmer, 2004. "Survey on Competing in Network Industries: Firm Strategies, Market Outcomes, and Policy Implications," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 5-31, March.
    11. Shrivastav, Sumit, 2021. "Network compatibility, intensity of competition and process R&D: A generalization," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 152-163.
    12. Dietrich, Antje-Mareike, 2016. "Governmental platform intermediation to promote alternative fuel vehicles," Economics Department Working Paper Series 16, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Economics Department.
    13. Snellman, Heli, 2006. "Automated teller machine network market structure and cash usage," Bank of Finland Scientific Monographs, Bank of Finland, volume 0, number sm2006_038, July.
    14. Xavier Lecocq & Benoît Demil, 2005. "Les effets de l’introduction d’un système ouvert sur la structure d’un secteur : le cas de l’industrie américaine du jeu de rôle," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 8(3), pages 105-123, September.
    15. Keshab Bhattarai & John Whalley, 2006. "The Division and Size of Gains from Liberalization in Service Networks," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 348-361, August.
    16. Costa Climent, Ricardo & Haftor, Darek M., 2021. "Business model theory-based prediction of digital technology use: An empirical assessment," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    17. Netsanet Haile & Jörn Altmann, 2016. "Structural analysis of value creation in software service platforms," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 26(2), pages 129-142, May.
    18. De Bijl, Paul W. J. & Goyal, Sanjeev, 1995. "Technological change in markets with network externalities," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 307-325, September.
    19. Li, Jian & Zhou, Junjie & Chen, Ying-Ju, 2021. "The Limit of Targeting in Networks," ISU General Staff Papers 202112081957590000, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    20. Weiss, Avi & Etziony, Amir, 2015. "The role of critical mass in establishing a successful network market: An experimental investigationAuthor-Name: Ruffle, Bradley J," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 101-110.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:47:y:2001:i:11:p:1441-1456. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.