Ideal-typical competence profile of industrial buyer-seller relationship controllers in technology firms - empirical evidence from Austria

Abstract

Customer relationship managers in dynamic technology markets are not able to control industrial buyer-seller relationships both efficiently and effectively without support for two reasons. First, the characteristics of industrial goods and services are becoming more and more complex. Second, the organizational structure of the procurement process in technology firms causes a diversity of management tasks. This requires manifold competencies of controllers supporting the relationship managers. The aim of this paper is to widen the traditional internal business view of controllers by incorporating an external perspective and introducing a theoretical competence model for industrial buyer-seller relationship controllers. To test this model, data from a large-scale survey with 251respondents from the Austrian technology sector was used. This paper provides the first empirically backed ideal-typical competence profile for buyer-seller relationship controllers. The findings enable human resource managers in technology firms to recruit the most suitable person and to choose adequate qualification programs.