Riassunto analitico
Over the last few decades, the rise of knowledge-based economies based on services has occurred. Business service companies started to play a more and more important role, especially thanks to the contribution of innovation and specific knowledge that they still infuse in the sectors in which they operate. Today small, medium and large manufacturing companies require greater flexibility and they are characterized by labor specialization and are focused on their core activities. So, they have been increasingly relying on these service companies, especially for projects with specific knowledge contents. This growth in business services demand has resulted in the emergence of many new business service companies, so today Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) have become an important reality. Despite the increasing interest in this topic, there are only few studies concerning KIBS and their activities. Thereby, this study tries to contribute to increase the knowledge on this topic and hopefully to generate future studies and insights. The aim of this thesis is to study a strategic marketing approach mainly through segmentation, targeting and positioning process and to identify new potential customers, with a specific focus on KIBS companies, in the business to business market. In order to empirically support the thesis’ goals, a specific case-study regarding Astra Research Srl was analyzed. Astra Research Srl is a mechanical design office, which provides design activities, experimental activities, finite element method activities and software for sale activities. For this company the thesis outlines a strategic marketing approach form the theory to the empirical case. The whole analysis is supported by the literature. For the whole analysis have been utilized data from specific books, scientific journals and articles, conferences, websites. Moreover, the company inner data and external purchased data have been used to develop the empirical part. For what concerns the structure of this thesis, the first chapter will provide a literary review about services, business services and knowledge intensive business services. While, the second chapter will expose a literary review about strategic marketing and its main points. Then, the third chapter will show the strategic marketing analysis done for the company Astra Research Srl in its industry, every steps completed with the segmentation and targeting phases, then depicting some considerations about the company competitive environment and its positioning. Finally, the conclusion paragraph will explain the results obtained through the whole process and some future perspectives.
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Abstract
Over the last few decades, the rise of knowledge-based economies based on services has occurred. Business service companies started to play a more and more important role, especially thanks to the contribution of innovation and specific knowledge that they still infuse in the sectors in which they operate. Today small, medium and large manufacturing companies require greater flexibility and they are characterized by labor specialization and are focused on their core activities. So, they have been increasingly relying on these service companies, especially for projects with specific knowledge contents. This growth in business services demand has resulted in the emergence of many new business service companies, so today Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) have become an important reality.
Despite the increasing interest in this topic, there are only few studies concerning KIBS and their activities. Thereby, this study tries to contribute to increase the knowledge on this topic and hopefully to generate future studies and insights. The aim of this thesis is to study a strategic marketing approach mainly through segmentation, targeting and positioning process and to identify new potential customers, with a specific focus on KIBS companies, in the business to business market. In order to empirically support the thesis’ goals, a specific case-study regarding Astra Research Srl was analyzed.
Astra Research Srl is a mechanical design office, which provides design activities, experimental activities, finite element method activities and software for sale activities. For this company the thesis outlines a strategic marketing approach form the theory to the empirical case. The whole analysis is supported by the literature. For the whole analysis have been utilized data from specific books, scientific journals and articles, conferences, websites. Moreover, the company inner data and external purchased data have been used to develop the empirical part.
For what concerns the structure of this thesis, the first chapter will provide a literary review about services, business services and knowledge intensive business services. While, the second chapter will expose a literary review about strategic marketing and its main points. Then, the third chapter will show the strategic marketing analysis done for the company Astra Research Srl in its industry, every steps completed with the segmentation and targeting phases, then depicting some considerations about the company competitive environment and its positioning. Finally, the conclusion paragraph will explain the results obtained through the whole process and some future perspectives.
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