THE CONCEPT OF EXPERT PARTNERSHIP AS A BASIS FOR THE COMPETITIVENESS OF MODERN INTERMEDIARY ENTERPRISES IN THE INDUSTRIAL MARKET

Abstract

The article develops the conceptual foundations of expert partnership as a means of strengthening the competitive position of intermediary enterprises in the industrial market. The intermediary tier is shown to be among the most difficult in terms of building a sustainable market position, since an intermediary owns neither the design nor the production technology of the product and therefore cannot differentiate itself at the level of the functional core. The specific constraints that narrow the differentiation space of an intermediary are systematized: the derived nature of demand, a limited customer base, the absence of control over the product, high price transparency, low entry barriers, the threat of disintermediation. The traditional set of competitiveness sources (price, assortment breadth, logistics service) is shown to be exhausted, since each of them is easily replicated and creates no switching barriers. The evolution of the external environment along the SPOD, VUCA, BANI, PLUTO sequence changes the nature of uncertainty, so that the resilience of inter-organizational ties becomes the key issue. A comparative analysis of relationship marketing, partnership marketing and collective marketing is carried out and the limits of their applicability to intermediary enterprises are defined. The concept of expert partnership is proposed, understood as a form of inter-organizational interaction in which the intermediary assumes part of the functions of the customer's quality management system, primarily the function of expert selection, verification and adaptation of the product and technology solution. A three-level model of expert partnership is developed, comprising transactional, expert and integration levels.

The notions of "expert marketing" and "expert partnership" are delimited. The forms, types and methods of implementing the concept are systematized. A positioning matrix for an intermediary enterprise is developed on the criteria of the uniqueness of its expert competence and the degree of its institutionalization within the customer's quality management system.