Authors: Jane Tonge
One of the key determinants of the success or failure of a small firm is the role andimportance of business relationships and business networks. Membership of a businessnetwork can enhance the performance of an entrepreneurial firm (Chaston, 2002), assist increating new ventures (Curran et al. 1993), acquiring information, and contribute to awidening customer base (Shaw, 1998). However, research has tended to focus on the structureof networks rather than on interactional dimensions, with the process of networking, thecontents of network relations, and perceptions of networking as a business practice oftenremaining unexplored.A particular field where business relationships are central is the area of services, andespecially professional services. The relationship between professional service consultanciesand their clients emerged in a number of studies in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g. West andPaliwoda, 1996), yet one professional service has received little attention in terms ofrelationship research and yet cites relationship building as central to its very practice. This isthe area of public relations, which is concerned with handling organisational relationships. Asa rapidly expanding professional service worldwide which casts itself in the role ofstakeholder relationship management, public relations warrants further investigation.This working paper outlines the findings of a pilot study undertaken as part of a PhDinto how public relations practitioners build and maintain business relationships, and theextent to which networking contributes to practitioner performance and consultancy value interms of acquiring and retaining clients. The interest in the public relations sector stemsspecifically from the researcher’s own practitioner background working in public relations forover 12 years. The paper offers a brief overview of several areas of literature, and presents theresearch aims and methodology. It concludes with the findings – which offer an insight intothe content, style and barriers to networking for practitioners a conceptualisation ofnetworking within consultancies and an initial identification of ?types? of networkers – andfurther stages of the study.
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Publish Year: 2004
Conference: Copenhagen, Denmark (2004)