The performance of industrial and consumer product managers

Abstract This comparative study investigated how senior marketing executives from both industrial and consumer goods firms viewed the importance of the four basic roles that were found to describe the activities of product managers. Further, the performance levels of product managers in industrial and consumer goods firms were contrasted. The results show that industrial and consumer marketing executives do not view these roles to be of equal importance. In addition, the analysis indicated that the performance of the two types of product managers varied.