Developing effective customer solutions: an associative learning perspective

The intensification of competition has urged the firms to shift from selling products to offering solutions in the search for a more sustainable competitive advantage. However, the difficult-to-master development of effective solutions has been hindering the firms’ ability to execute the solution-based competitive strategy and consequently their ability to benefit from the superior rent generation potential that a more sustainable competitive advantage would provide. This circumstance raises the quest for new insights that could guide the managerial actions in the development of effective solutions. Through the application of the associative learning perspective in the solution development space, this paper suggests several managerial practices whereby effective customer solutions can be achieved: matching domain ties coupled with contingent hierarchy, multiple-expertise teams, informal narratives and storytelling sharing, customer interactor stability, co-location of assets, and cocreation of boundary objects. From a methodological point of view, this paper first discusses the theoretical premise that learning takes place through association across related knowledge, borrowed from the cognitive and behavioral sciences, providing the rationale for the role of two preconditions-prior knowledge and strength of association-in enabling learning processes. It then applies this learning perspective in the context of customer solutions, advocating its role in guiding effective customer solution development practices. This paper both provides a conceptual contribution, by advocating the role of the associative learning perspective in guiding effective customer solution development practices, and has practical implications, by discussing several managerial practices that could be employed within a solution development context, which would lead to effective customer solutions.