Neither Intended nor Expected Market Shaping

The idea of market shaping is that instead of reacting to changes in the market, marketers act proactively to influence market change and re-shape the business (Gavetti, Helfat, & Marengo, 2017). Literature on market shaping stresses the importance of intentional acts in achieving desirable outcomes, on how their deliberate efforts trigger engagement processes and how they are naturally associated with achieving superior levels of competitiveness. (e.g., Fehrer et al., 2020; Mele et al., 2018). However, it has also been recognised that despite the intentionality of actions, sometimes the outcomes are not as they were originally intended. Some authors argue that it be because markets respond differently to market shaping power, because of random emergences, or unexpected uses of new technologies (e.g., Kaartemo & Nyström, 2021; Nenonen & Storbacka, 2018).I’ll discuss how on two different studies market shaping had delivered both intentional and unintentional outcomes. In the first study, (Tóth, Biggemann, & Williams, 2022) we examine touring exhibitions organised by museums in Australia, the UK, and New Zealand. Some outcomes conform to intended market shaping actions, such as aiming overall for an increased number of visitors to the museums, and therefore increased revenues, while other outcomes were rather unintended outcomes, mostly positive, but not as originally planned. For instance, one of the touring exhibitions prompted overseas museums, to return objects that the country of origin had been claiming as their property for years without any success. In the second study (Biggemann, Kowalkowski, Maley, & Brege, 2013), we examine the process of developing and implementing customer solutions in the global mining industry, finding that the forces that drive customer and supplier interests and motivation to co-develop customer solutions change over time, thus redefining the aim and scope of solutions and creating failure risks. While a novel solution can have a market-shaping effect the dynamics that market introductions of solutions trigger are difficult to predict as they are not necessarily deliberate. We argue that one difficulty in predicting market shaping effects lies in the difficulty of the representational practices subject to shared market models of the parties planning and executing marketing acts that are limited their knowledge and experiences. Drawing on an energy system metaphor and the fact that market shaping actions open doors for new parties to join in interaction, changing the energy levels of the system, challenging the shared mental models thus, opening the opportunity for new market representations, which became apparent when the system reaches a point of bifurcation and the outcomes of market shaping actions are divided between intentional and expected and unintentional, being the latter sometimes more significant that the former. Novel forms of markets can be created unintentionally through feedback loops that reshape the very definition of what the role of the organisation is, questioning elements of the offering, their components, and who their stakeholders are.

Zoom link: https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/91538195073?pwd=PtmI0hlPjZ7hxvEO3tvurOay5a4Ox4.1

Meeting ID: 915 3819 5073
Passcode: 748589

Bio:

Associate Professor Sergio Biggemann, University of Otago, New Zealand

Sergio holds a Doctor of Business Administration from Macquarie Graduate School of Business at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. His thesis "Understanding and Modelling the Dynamics of Business-to-Business Relationships" was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's commendation for a doctoral thesis of exceptional merit. He also holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Management and Public Policy from the Catholic University of Bolivia (both with Distinction) and a bachelor's degree in Mining Engineering. He has hold teaching roles at Masters and Executive levels and consulting extensively throughout Latin America, Europe, Turkey, and the US. Sergio was also Research Director at the Latin America Logistics Centre, a leading logistics organisation through which more than 800 Latin American companies participate in an annual logistics benchmarking exercise. Sergio's professional affiliations include being a member of the IMP Group, the Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy, the Bolivian Society of Engineers, and holding the position of Honours President of the Bolivian Logistics Association. He has been a member of New Zealand Business Mentors for the last ten years.