How to cope with emerging tensions in operational processes: the case of a SMA facing contemporary market challenges

Framing of the research. Marketing Agencies are a particular type of Professional Service Firms (PSFs) (Lone et al., 2021) that play an essential role in the development and diffusion of marketing-related innovations, acting as valuable knowledge providers for firms operating in a wide variety of sectors (Moorman and Day, 2016; Lynch, 2019). PSFs - and Marketing Agencies - are typically characterized by high knowledge intensity, low capital intensity, and professionalized workers (von Nordenflycht, 2010; Vafeas and Hughes, 2020). The main resources of this type of business are intangible and substantiated in human capital, namely knowledge, relational skills, and reputation (Kaiser and Loscher, 2015) Recent changes in the business context, such as increasing competition and emerging technologies, and dramatic events as the Covid-19 pandemic, are putting strong pressure on PSFs in terms of capabilities and organizational models (Empson, 2021; Kronblad and Pregmark, 2021), questioning established strategies and pushing towards the adoption new organizational structures and expansion of their offerings (Rubik, 2021). In such an evolving context, Marketing Agencies are called to be no more just technically competent, but also experts in digital and technical skills, data interpretation, customer engagement, and value-added processes (Cluley et al., 2019). Studies have started to show how market changes are reflecting into the emergence of paradoxical tensions within PSFs (Manzoni and Volker, 2017; Gaim, 2018). Operational processes of such firms are challenged by the need to respond to increasingly volatile market requests in a more flexible, quick, and effective way. On the organizational standpoint, this implies revising a series of diffused routines, mechanisms, and practices, inevitably leading to hard-to-solve tensions (Loch and Sommer, 2019). This is particularly evident for Small Marketing Agencies (SMAs), characterized by limited size and resources, seem to be especially hindered by the emerging tensions brought by new market dynamics. For instance, the increasing wish to adopt mobile work practices is raising tensions about the already limited context of human resources (Raguseo et al., 2015). Notwithstanding the difficulties smaller companies face in the attempt to overcome organizational tensions, the topic seems to be still under-investigated. In particular, there is fragmented research on the typology of emerging organizational tensions faced by SMAs along their operational processes. Furthermore, even less attention has so far been paid to possible coping managerial practices that firms can implement to deal with such tensions. Purpose of the paper. In light of these considerations, this paper aims to investigate the emerging tensions along operational processes that SMAs are called to face in contemporary markets, with the intent to understand if and how coping practices are helpful in solving them. To do this, the following research questions are addressed: Which organizational tensions emerge when SMAs change their operational processes to face contemporary market needs? How can SMAs deal with such tensions? To achieve this goal, this paper discusses an explorative case study of a SMA located in central Italy, which has undergone organizational changes to sustain its growth in the market of marketing-related business services. The analysis relies on the Actors-Resources-Activities (ARA) framework (Håkansson and Snehota, 1995): for the three dimensions, emerging paradoxical tensions have been identified along with the organizational responses implemented to manage them