Search results

The customer retail experience is frequently interrupted by disturbances such as ringing phones and other people. Employees must be able to respond to retail disturbances effectively to ensure that customers have a satisfactory experience in the retailer. Using Affective Events Theory as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model for understanding how retail disturbances affect customers outcomes and how retail employee response mitigates the negative impact of retail disturbances.

The model was tested using a pre-study of retail managers and consumers, a survey study and four experimental studies.

Retail disturbances reduce interactional justice and customer positive emotions. Customers pay attention to how employees address retail disturbances, even when they are not directly involved.

The research experiments focus on sound-based disturbances. Other stimuli (e.g. olfactory or visual) should be examined in more detail.

Employees can mitigate the negative effects of retail disturbances on customers with a positive response to the disturbance and to customers. Employee responses influence customers currently receiving service and nearby shoppers.

The findings demonstrate the deleterious effect of solicitation calls on small retailers and provide recommendations for reducing solicitation calls.

This research shows that retail disturbances reduce customer outcomes, employee response becomes part of the disturbance event, and that it is possible for employees to address a group of nearby customers indirectly through unintentional observation.

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether consumer values influence work-related attitudes. Employees often feel conflict among different aspects of their lives. Although most extant research has focused on the effect of family values on work attitudes, we investigate whether a fit between employees’ socially responsible consumption orientation (SRCO) and firm corporate social responsibility (CSR) influences employee higher-order quality of work life.

Survey data from 112 members of an engineering association in Australia.

The results show that employees’ consumer life roles can influence their work-related perceptions. However, contrary to expectations, the positive influence of CSR on higher-order quality of work life is weaker for employees who are more socially responsible consumers.

Further research should examine other industry contexts and cultures. Also, because the SRCO construct is very broad, further research should examine specific social issues.

CSR can be an important strategy for retaining employees, even those with lower SRCO.

This research shows that customer values influence important work-related attitudes, such as higher-order quality of work life and organizational commitment. Furthermore, we show that “fit” between consumption orientation responsibility and firm CSR does not necessarily enhance work-related attitudes because employees high in SRCO likely hold the firm to a different standard of social responsibility.

The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of servicer and cross‐seller functional performance on salesperson perception of cross‐functional conflict.

Frontline employees often specialize in selling, servicing, or cross‐selling to customers. Two studies separately examine the effect of servicer and cross‐seller functional performance on salesperson perception of cross‐functional conflict.

In Study 1, salesperson conflict with frontline specialists who do not directly sell, called servicers, is examined and it is found that salespeople perceive less cross‐functional conflict when servicers perform well. Group cohesion decreases conflict directly. The effect of servicer performance on conflict is less pronounced as cross‐functional training increases. In Study 2, salesperson conflict with employees who cross‐sell additional goods and/or services to customers, called cross‐sellers, is evaluated and it is found that salespeople perceive more cross‐functional conflict when cross‐sellers perform well. Cross‐functional training decreases conflict directly. The effect of cross‐seller performance on conflict is less pronounced as group cohesion increases.

The research was carried out in a single setting, automobile dealerships, and only two controls, one formal and one informal, were examined.

The results indicate that salespeople view the performance of each type of specialist differently depending on the specialists' goals. Based on this finding, the paper provides guidelines for which formal and informal controls are likely to be effective for reducing conflict between different frontline functions.

The paper shows that salespeople view servicer performance positively and cross‐seller performance negatively. Thus, the research adds to the understanding of cross‐functional relationships among specialized frontline employees.

The aim of this paper is to examine when it is appropriate to provide dedicated support for a sales activity, and in cases where support is desirable, to explore the choice between core team support and external support.

Sales transactions typically require a diverse range of sales activities, including customer contact, scheduling appointments, internal meetings, processing orders, and preparing financing applications. This research develops a framework for understanding how to structure sales support for specific sales activities.

Each sales activity has four dimensions, i.e. workload, customization, complexity, and prequalification risk. Support structure (self‐support, core team support, and external support) moderates the influence of the four sales activity dimensions on sales activity performance and salesperson role stress. These, in turn, impact overall sales performance.

This research presents a broad conceptual model of sales support structure. Further research should test this framework using empirical data.

Normative recommendations are made for managers about how to allocate sales activities to sales support.

This research proposes four relevant dimensions of sales activities that should be considered when allocating sales activities to members of the selling center. The framework will help managers, academicians, and business students understand how sales support structure impacts sales performance.

Collaboration has been referred to as the driving force behind effective supply chain management and may be the ultimate core capability. However, there is a fairly widespread belief that few firms have truly capitalized on its potential. A study was undertaken to assess the current level of supply chain collaboration and identify best practice.

Supply chain executives provided insights into collaboration. Survey data, personal interviews, and a review of the collaboration literature were used to develop a conceptual model profiling behavior, culture, and relational interactions associated with successful collaboration.

Positive collaboration‐related outcomes include enhancements to efficiency, effectiveness, and market positions for the respondents' firms.

The small sample size represents a limitation, but is balanced by the quality of the respondent base and their expertise/experience. Another limitation involves securing input from only one party to the collaborative relationships. Developing a longitudinal study would help determine how collaboration‐related factors and relationships change over time.

Several respondents mentioned a “blurring of lines” between organizations contrasted to an “us vs them” approach. This was expressed in a number of different ways – treating the arrangements as if they both were part of the same operation, treating them as co‐owned, and employing a new focus on the best common solution. Many of the respondents indicating rewards are not distributed evenly still admitted they get enough “out of” the collaborative arrangements to make it worthwhile.

Real‐world practical experiences are recounted involving many of today's top companies.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in management research is still nascent and has primarily focused on content analyses of text data. Some method scholars have begun to discuss the potential benefits of far broader applications; however, these discussions have not led yet to a wave of corresponding AI applications by management researchers. This chapter explores the feasibility and the potential value of using AI for a very specific methodological task: the reliable and efficient capturing of higher-level psychological constructs in management research. It introduces the capturing of basic emotions and emotional authenticity of entrepreneurs based on their macro- and microfacial expressions during pitch presentations as an illustrative example of related AI opportunities and challenges. Thus, this chapter provides both motivation and guidance to management scholars for future applications of AI to advance management research.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of effective, knowledgeable and accountable management and board structures in business organisations. Using the case of Swissair, the paper aims to demonstrate the importance of competent industry knowledgeable executive boards, with regard not only to company profits and sustainability but also to stability and socially responsible decision making.

An explanatory and descriptive case study approach was undertaken utilising historical data and literature‐based information and research on Swissair. The analysis of the case is guided by the use of the Resource Dependence and Group Conformity theories.

The findings suggest that the alliance and acquisition strategy pursued by Swissair's management and the lack of leadership and accountability by the CEO and Chairman of the board were the main contributing factors to the company's collapse.

The implications include impacts on the way in which European organisations are governed and the composition of the management teams and Board of Directors. Additional implications include changes to the legislation in Europe, more specifically Switzerland and the European Free Trade Alliance, aimed at the prevention of similar future collapses.

The paper's originality stems from the application of decision making and group theory, coupled with corporate governance ideas applied in a practical sense to the contemporary case of Swissair in a manner previously not considered, to demonstrate the importance of effective, knowledgeable and accountable management and board structures in organisations. Value is demonstrated with the recent issues experienced by Austrian Airlines and its subsequent acquisition by Lufthansa, indicating a need to address the corporate governance requirements in the European airline industry.

Private foundations in the United States are powerful actors in contemporary society. Their influence stems in part from their lack of accountability – they operate free from market pressures or finding sources of funding, and they are not subject to formal democratic systems of checks and balances such as elections or mandatory community oversight. In recent decades, foundations have become increasingly influential in shaping public policy governing core social services. In US education policy, for example, the influence of private foundations has reached an unprecedented scope and scale. Although economic and electoral accountability mechanisms are absent, foundations are aware that their elite status is rooted in a wider acceptance of their image as promoters of the public good. They are incentivized to maintain their role as “white hat” actors and, in balancing their policy goals with the desire to avoid social sanctions, the ways in which they exert influence are shaped and limited by institutional processes. Drawing on rare elite interview data and archival analyses from five leading education funders, we observe that foundations seek to sustain their credibility by complying with legal regulations and by drawing on cultural norms of participation and science to legitimize their policy activities.