From Depicting Dyads to Picturing Network: The Key "Actor Gets Actor" Relationship Function

Increasing attention has been recognized to the value generated by business relationships. Even if most of the research focused its attention on the customer’s perspective of value, only recently research on business markets seems to shift its focus from a customer’s perspective to a supplier’s one. The key questions can be in this way synthesized: what value customers can generate from a suppliers’ point of views? Moreover, what are the drivers of this value? What are the features of key customers? The paper investigates these research questions analysing, in a case study, the approach adopted by an Italian firm to identify its customer relationships and its relationships portfolio management approach. The results underline that the most of the value generated by key customers resides in the new market interconnections they generate.