Does Centralising Global Account Management Activities in Response to International Retailers Pay Off?

This study provides insights into how manufacturers adopt their Global Account Management (GAM) activities in response to the increasing expansion of retailers. Specifically, we focus on the manufacturers’ central coordination of two types of GAM activities: strategic and tactical activities. We analyse the manufacturers’ associations with international retailers and with GAM effectiveness and efficiency by using data from 172 manufacturers. Moreover, we consider the suppliers’ dependence on their key retail accounts to be an important moderator within the consumer goods sector. In particular, manufacturers respond to the centralisation of the retailers’ purchasing activities by centralising strategic GAM activities, such as customer strategy, information processing, or price systems. Additionally, manufacturers respond even stronger by centralising tactical activities, such as category management, marketing, or logistics. Although the centralisation of strategic activities drives GAM effectiveness and efficiency, the centralisation of tactical activities does not. This finding might be explained by the specific context of manufacturer-retailer relations. Finally, we find that, although the decision to centralise GAM activities pays off, the benefits are contingent on the particular type of GAM activity and the level of customer dependency.