Immaterial matters strategic mode and the management of intangibles

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the strategic management of intangibles. It is composed of five articles and addresses two fundamental questions in strategic marketing: first, how to achieve market success; and second, how to manage intangibles. The former takes the process view of strategy, the latter the resource based view; the thesis then goes onto integrate the two perspectives. The achievement of marketing success focuses on strategic mode, and the first article in the dissertation explores the relationship between strategic mode and business performance. The management of intangibles looks at brands and relationships. Thus, the second article in the thesis focuses on how to achieve market success through branding, whilst the third article looks at the value precursors of business relationships in international ecommerce. Articles four and five explore the intersection of strategic mode and the management of intangibles by developing a conceptual framework for the strategic positioning of services in two disparate industries: medicine and the music industry.