| Summary: | How should capabilities and resource-constrained High-Technology New Venture (HTNV) companies deal with selling and marketing? I answer this question by developing a conceptual model for viewing supplier-customer (business to business or business to consumer) relationships for HTNVs. I call this model the HTNV Purchaser-Stakeholder Model (P.S.M.). I set the scene of the inquiry by outlining the difficulties HTNVs face and the competitive environment in which they operate. I accomplish this through the theoretical lens of the Resource-Based View of the firm. I take a holistic view of HTNV-customer-supplier interaction by analysing how different starting resource configurations are related to the role of purchasing-stakeholders and their purchasing behaviour. I incorporate elements of the resource-based taxonomy with the seminal “buyer model” of Webster and Wind (1972) to create a more holistic model with customer-supplier interactions. This model helps a business to break down its customers or potential customers on the basis of its Decision Making Units (DMU) or “buying centres” into initiator, influencer, gatekeeper, decider, buyer and user and outlines appropriate strategies to take given its relationship with each of these DMUs. This model is useful because managers in new companies can then view the model as integrated with a customer’s business processes, rather than isolated evaluations of discrete product or service offerings. This model provides a useful tool for new companies to determine the most appropriate marketing, selling and growth strategies. It is hoped this model may provide some guidance for early stage HTNVs when planning and implementing marketing, selling and growth strategies.
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