An Exploratory Empirical Verification of Blue Ocean Strategies: Findings from Sales Strategy

Abstract

This paper reports on a study on sales management organization in a survey of CEOs and sales directors of Finnish companies across industries. The study investigates the role of totally new value creation mechanisms in a company’s sales strategy. Using value creation and strategic marketing as theoretical approaches, the survey finds that active strategic networking aiming at creating totally new a) network roles, b) value creation logics and c) benefits feeds into profitable growth among respondents. This is one of the first empirical verifications of so-called ‘blue ocean strategies’ globally.