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In this special marketing abstracts issue of Marketing Intelligence & Planning a variety of topics of interest to the marketer are highlighted from the international selection of journals which feature on the Anbar coverage list. The value of a forum such as this is that quality material can be brought to the attention of the reader to which they would not otherwise be exposed. For example, would you normally take Datamation, Industrial Engineering, or The Ohio CPA?

This section contains a range of topics from diverse, international, primary journals, including: an evaluation of PR effectiveness; a look at total quality management at Girobank, which was the first bank to win a British Quality Award; an examination of the principles of competitive marketing based on a case study; a discussion of how companies can sustain competitive advantage; and a report on retail‐oriented risk for bank branch operations.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Developments in digital technology means many customers enjoy wider access to information than previously. Poor reliability of certain sources risks potential clients having information gaps or in possession of knowledge that is inaccurate or misleading. Salespeople in B2B contexts must therefore determine the knowledge status of potential customers and accordingly adapt and use appropriate sales information tactics to make desired outcomes more attainable.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Understanding a brand’s equity is difficult for researchers. Building on means‐end theory, describes a method – laddering – which has proven useful in uncovering insights related to the source and the nature of a brand’s equity. Through laddering interviews, a meaningful “mental map” can be developed that visually links a brand’s attributes, the benefits or consequences of using it, and the personal values it satisfies. An analysis of 1,200 laddering interviews indicates that a combination of only seven basic values are at the core of most brand purchases. A number of illustrations of laddering insights and their implications for the marketing mix are given to show how laddering can help marketers understand and revitalize brand equity.

This research examined the relationships between improvisational behavior, adaptive selling behavior and sales performance of direct sellers in Thailand. This research also investigated whether these relationships are moderated by the degree of challenge orientation and sellers' knowledge about the products.

The data were collected through a survey with sellers from a subsidiary of a multinational corporation located in Bangkok, Thailand (n = 172). Partial least squares–structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Results from data analysis revealed positive relationships between improvisational behavior, adaptive selling behavior and sales performance. The relationship between improvisational behavior and adaptive selling behavior, as well as the relationship between adaptive selling behavior and sales performance, significantly depended on the degree of challenge orientation and the sellers' knowledge about the products.

The data were collected using self-report measures; the sample was sellers from a single sales organization, and cross-sectional data were used for the analysis. Overall, this study is the exploratory research that does not intend to prove the causal effect of improvisational behavior, but rather to provide new insight on some conditional factors that influence its effectiveness.

It is essential for sales organizations to ensure that their sales force has adequate improvisational skills to handle sales adaptations effectively during unexpected sales situations. Some training may be offered to the sales force to develop these imperative improvisational skills.

The results regarding the moderating effect of challenge orientation and product knowledge provided additional insight to prior research about the potential conditions that influence the effectiveness of improvisational behavior and adaptive selling behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive model of the relationship between control and sales performance contingent upon the commitment and adaptive selling variables. Specifically, the study tests the mediator effects of adaptive selling and organizational commitment on the effect of managerial control systems on self-assessed performance of the salespeople working in the field of industrial marketing.

In total, 472 firms active in the industrial marketing field for tangible industry products in Turkey were selected for the research. The proposed model that tested posits relationships among management control variables and adaptive selling, organizational commitment and sales performance measures. Management controls are related to sales performance through the mediating effect of adaptive selling and organizational commitment. Management control styles (output as formal and professional as informal) were the independent variables, while changes in organizational commitment and adaptive selling were tested both as mediators and sales performance as dependent variable, consistent with the reciprocal effects model under analysis.

The findings demonstrated that “control” is positively associated with “sales performance” and “commitment” and “adaptive selling” mediate this relationship. Findings indicate that control impacts sales performance through a mediating mechanism that involves adaptive selling and commitment. Taken together, results showed that adaptive selling and commitment played a critical role in sales performance.

This research is the first to empirically analyse the model regarding the relationship between sales performance, control, adaptive selling and commitment variables.

The principal purpose of this study is to examine the moderating influence of selling experience on the following two relationships – adaptive selling and job satisfaction and customer orientation and job satisfaction – using unionized salespeople as respondents. It also tests for the mediating role of adaptive selling in the customer orientation–job satisfaction relationship.

This paper uses data from a survey conducted on 208 pharmaceutical unionized salespeople from 46 pharmaceutical firms in India. The model was tested using structural equation modeling. Moderation hypotheses were estimated using process macro and the Johnson–Neyman technique.

The data fitted the model well. This research found that customer orientation drove adaptive selling behavior and job satisfaction, and that adaptive selling influenced job satisfaction (all positively); it was found that adaptive selling partially mediated the relationship between customer orientation and job satisfaction. Results revealed that job experience negatively moderated the adaptive selling behavior–job satisfaction and customer orientation–job satisfaction relationships.

The results show that pharma firms may hire young recruits and, importantly, measure their customer orientation and adaptive selling levels. For the purposes of training to enhance customer orientation and adaptive selling, pharma firms may send only their less experienced salespersons.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study could be the first to examine the interaction of job experience and customer-directed selling behaviors such as adaptive selling and customer orientation on job satisfaction. Moreover, this is possibly the only study in this domain that uses unionized salespeople in an emerging market (India).

During recent years a number of techniques have been developed to aid in the forecasting of corporate sales, individual product demand, economic indicators, and other related series. These techniques have included classical time series analysis, multiple regression and adaptive forecasting procedures. As a result of these developments, the individual company and decision maker is faced with the task of selecting the forecasting technique that is most appropriate for his situation. This article reports research conducted at INSEAD on how simulation can be used to compare and evaluate alternative forecasting techniques for a specific application.

The purpose of the study is to test the effect of relationship managerial behavior (i.e. managerial coaching) on frontline employee performance (i.e. sales performance) and the mediating effect of employee's relationship behaviors (i.e. customer orientation and adaptive selling) in a Chinese banking environment.

Data were collected using a survey from 242 frontline employees working at a large commercial bank in Dalian (China). Measures on managerial coaching, customer orientation, adaptive selling and sales performance were adapted from the literature. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS 26.

Results indicate that (1) managerial coaching positively affects employee customer orientation, (2) employee customer orientation positively affects employee adaptive selling behavior and (3) adaptive selling behavior positively affects sales performance. Bootstrap analysis confirmed the significance and stability of all the direct paths (suggesting that every mediator fully mediates the effect of its antecedent on the criterion) but none of the indirect paths found support (full mediation model).

The study makes a contribution to the nomological network of managerial coaching by introducing a construct that has not been used previously (i.e. employee adaptive selling behavior) and testing its relevance in a commercial setting.

The results suggest that (1) managerial coaching is a central managerial behavior for companies that would like to implement a relationship marketing strategy because it helps promote specific employee relationship behaviors like customer orientation and adaptive selling, (2) there seems to be little cultural differences in the banking industry between the Chinese and the Western banks, suggesting that coaching and other management tools can be transferable from one culture to the other and (3) that coaching is an effective tool to help employees achieve higher sales performance.

The paper contributes to the literature on the use of managerial coaching in commercial areas to increase frontline employee relationships behaviors. The identification of adaptive selling as a mediator is an original contribution because it has received little attention in scientific research. Additionally, the use of a Chinese sample of bank employees responds to recent call for more research in cross-cultural settings.

This paper aims to explore the usage of selling influence tactics across prospective customers with differing information-related needs.

The research study uses an exploratory critical incident technique (CIT) methodology to identify and examine salesperson influence tactics.

This study identifies and explores the use of salesperson influence tactics across three information-based conditions often encountered by salespeople (i.e. information seeking customers, informed customers with information inaccuracies and informed customers making sub-optimal decisions). Regardless of condition, salespeople readily used non-coercive information exchange tactics. Whereas, recommendations and ingratiation tactics were applied by more effective salespeople when interacting with informed customers with information deficiencies. Furthermore, salespeople report executing less effectively with prospects with inaccurate preexisting information and with prospects making flawed or sub-optimal decisions.

Findings illustrate the need for a renewed focus on salesperson influence tactics, the conditions under which they are effective, and how salespeople adapt their influence tactics to various situations. The exploratory nature of this study limits the generalizability of findings.

A framework of adaptive selling strategies is proposed to help tackle new challenges faced by B2B salespeople in today’s information intensive market. When interacting with more informed customers, pre-existing information is often inaccurate and incomplete. Thus, salespeople must assess and address these flaws and gaps and can adapt their influence strategies to do so effectively.

Industrial buyers today have virtually unlimited avenues to conduct extensive research and gain supplier information without the aid of interactions with salespeople. Thus, salespeople often enter sales interactions when their prospects have significantly more information than ever before. By examining salesperson influence techniques in selling situations that vary based on prospective customer preexisting knowledge, this research provides guidance on how selling may need to change in a more information intensive era.