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Closeness to the Customer in Industrial Markets : Towards a Theory — Based Understanding of Measurement , Organizational Antecedents , and Performance Outcomes

This paper describes an ongoing research project at Johannes—Gutenberg—University Mainz, Germany. Its purpose is to provide the reader with an understanding of the project's main features, the issues to be addressed, the underlying theoretical reasoning, and the methods to be used. The paper should serve as a basis for discussion with other researchers. Any comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. I would like to thank Professor Hermann Simon for directing my research interests towards, the topic of closeness to the customer and for many helpful discussions that have had a significant impact on my work. Support by the Deutsche For-schungsgemeinschaft (DFG) is also acknowledged. This paper was written while I was a visiting scholar at ISBM. During this stay I gained a number of important insights on how a research project of this orientation and scope should be carried out. Special thanks are therefore due to ISBM's directors Gary Lilien and David Wilson.