An agent-based fuzzy cognitive map approach to the strategic marketing planning for industrial firms

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Strategic marketing planning Industrial marketing Fuzzy cognitive map The relevance problem Design science Industrial marketing planning is a typical example of an unstructured decision making problem due to the large number of variables to consider and the uncertainty imposed on those variables. Although abundant studies identified barriers and facilitators of effective industrial marketing planning in practice, the literature still lacks practical tools and methods that marketing managers can use for the task. This paper applies fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) to industrial marketing planning. In particular, agent based inference method is proposed to overcome dynamic relationships, time lags, and reusability issues of FCM evaluation. MACOM simulator also is developed to help marketing managers conduct what-if scenarios to see the impacts of possible changes on the variables defined in an FCM that represents industrial marketing planning problem. The simulator is applied to an industrial marketing planning problem for a global software service company in South Korea. This study has practical implication as it supports marketing managers for industrial marketing planning that has large number of variables and their cause–effect relationships. It also contributes to FCM theory by providing an agent based method for the inference of FCM. Finally, MACOM also provides academics in the industrial marketing management discipline with a tool for developing and pre-verifying a conceptual model based on qualitative knowledge of marketing practitioners. Strategic marketing planning is the part of strategic planning that defines the strategies and tactics that form the sequences of activities needed to achieve company missions and objectives, considering the external and internal environments of the company (Byars & Neil, 1987). Strategic marketing planning results in well defined marketing strategies and tactical plans that direct, implement, and control activities. Industrial marketing planning deals with the marketing planning issues of industrial firms (firms that produce industrial products or services), and has been widely implemented to coordinate and control their marketing activities (McDonald, 2002). Formal strategic marketing planning is known to have a positive relationship with the financial and nonfinancial performance of firms, coordinated decision making, and specialization of marketing and distribution activities (Claycomb, Germain, & Droge, 2000). However, strategic marketing planning is a typical example of an unstructured decision making problem due to the large number of variables to consider and the uncertainty imposed on those variables. Compared with consumer marketing planning, the problems in an …