Marketing Knowledge Management – The Example of German Companies in Japan

Much research on knowledge management has focused on the research and development departments of companies. However, despite the fact that marketing departments deal with great amounts of information and knowledge, research on marketing knowledge and its management is still scarce.

The present study focuses on marketing knowledge management in the Japanese market, which often has been identified as a special case for marketers. Indeed, some researchers have argued that Japanese companies emphasize relationships more than their Western counterparts and those scholars have also pointed out their systematic search for and use of customer information and knowledge.

In this presentation I will try to combine the two concepts of marketing knowledge management and the Japanese marketing style. By exploring marketing knowledge transfer processes of MNCs in Japan, I aim to derive structures for effective marketing knowledge management taking into consideration typical Japanese techniques. First insights from interviews held in January and February 2008 in Japan will be presented to the Study Group.