Relational marketing in knowledge-intensive business services: an analysis of the computer services sector

This paper addresses the marketing approaches adopted by Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) companies, whose main production factor and outcome is knowledge. Given the key role that client-provider cognitive interactions play in the provision of such services, the study adopts the conceptual framework of Service-Dominant (S-D) logic, that the recent literature considers being fully in line with the core characteristics of KIBS companies. Starting from the assumption that service is the fundamental basis of any economic exchange, this logic suggests a shift from the traditional ‘market to’ approach, which has been developed for tangible goods, to a ‘market with’ approach, where customers and providers collaborate along the whole marketing process. The research was carried out by means of a multiple case study of 20 small computer services companies in Italy, and aimed to understand if (and to what extent) the marketing initiatives of such companies are consistent with the S-D logic, and to discuss the major challenges that they have to face in order to follow the new logic.