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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of formal [ethics training (ET)] and informal [psychological ethical climate (EC)] controls in reducing service sabotage (SS) and increasing employee commitment to service quality.

Data were electronically collected from a national survey of hotel/motel customer contact employees leading to a usable sample of 316 employees. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The findings indicate that ET can be used to positively influence the EC of customer contact service employees, which, in turn, reduces their SS behavior and increases their commitment to service quality.

Management should incorporate both formal (ET) and informal (EC) controls to bring about less SS and greater commitment to service quality among customer contact employees in service settings.

This research furthers the understanding of SS by finding an important variable, EC that may be used to reduce its incidence in service settings. Further, it shows that EC is an important contributor to improving ECSQ. As such, this research gives important direction for companies wishing to improve the customer service experience.

Grounded in ethical decision-making theory, this paper aims to develop and empirically tests a model that examines the relationships between ethical leadership, customer orientation, ethical values person-organization fit, commitment to service quality and service sabotage among customer-contact service employees in the lodging industry.

Data were electronically collected from a national survey of 316 hotel/motel customer-contact employees.

Results revealed that perceived ethical leadership behavior is positively related to customer orientation, ethical values person-organization fit and commitment to service quality. Customer orientation is positively related to commitment to service quality and mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and service sabotage. Ethical values person-organization fit mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and service sabotage.

The study is cross-sectional, limited to customer-contact employees in lodging settings and examines merely the employee perspective.

Lodging leaders can benefit significantly in many areas by practicing ethical leadership. For example, service sabotage behaviors can be reduced indirectly by aligning the customer-contact employees’ ethical values with those of the organization, as well as when this employee is customer-oriented. An ethical leadership style also can positively influence customer-contact employees’ customer orientation and increase their commitment to service quality. Lodging properties must hire and cultivate managers and supervisors with ethical values.

This research helps to better understand leadership behaviors useful for improving the ethical conduct and performance of customer-contact employees in the lodging industry, while simultaneously improving their commitment to service quality and guest-oriented behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to attempts to better understand the role of ethical leadership in the business-to-business customer value creation process. Drawing on job demands-resources theory (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001), this paper develops and tests a model that examines the relationships among ethical leadership, customer orientation, commitment to providing superior customer value and job stress in the salesforce.

The sample includes 408 business-to-business salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Findings suggest that ethical leadership directly and indirectly (via customer orientation) influences commitment to providing superior customer value. Furthermore, both ethical leadership and salesperson commitment to providing value directly influence salesperson job stress.

This paper develops and tests a model that examines the relationships among constructs not previously examined, as they relate to business customer value creation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between grit, unethical behavior and job stress among business-to-business salespeople.

The empirical analysis includes 240 business-to-business salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Results suggest grit is directly related to less frequent unethical behavior and customer-directed deviance. Neutralization techniques positively moderate the relationship between salesperson grit and both unethical behavior and customer-directed deviance. Grit is indirectly related to job stress through the positive relationship between unethical behavior and job stress.

Given research on grit in sales is relatively new several opportunities to pursue additional research in this area are presented.

Sales leaders may benefit from administering the salesperson grit scale as part of the screening process and developing grit among salespeople through training and coaching. Sales leaders should emphasize the negative impact of adopting neutralization techniques (excuses) in condoning unethical behaviors. The indirect effect of grit in reducing job stress through ethical behaviors underscores potential ways to mitigate costly and detrimental sales outcome losses.

This study develops a novel framework to explore the relationships between grit and unethical behaviors as moderated by neutralization techniques (excuses); examines an additional component of grit not previously considered in some studies of salespeople; and investigates whether these relationships increase a previously unexplored outcome – job stress.

Sales quotas typically “drive” sales organizations. As such, the ability of the sales organization, both individually (the salesperson) and the group (the total collection of the sales professionals), to accomplish its quota has a significant impact on the performance of the sales and marketing organization, as well as the entire firm. Within the context of this use, quotas represent a critical sales goal, although very little is actually known about their strategic or operational use within marketing organizations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate quotas from a strategic and operational perspective to provide additional insight into understanding sales quotas. Specifically, this manuscript investigates the consequences of failing to achieve quota and the relationship between these consequences and salesperson performance, salesperson income, and the firm’s annual sales revenue. In addition, the relationship between these variables and quota difficulty, and quota performance are explored.

This paper empirically examines the relationship between salespeople’s ethical conflict and their job performance. Results suggest that ethical conflict, resulting from an incongruence in ethical values between salespeople and their organizations’ top management, has a negative affect on one element of job performance, meeting sales objectives. Implications and directions for future research are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if transformational leadership has an effect on business‐to‐business salespeople's trust in the organization, whether trust in the organization affects moral judgment and if moral judgment in turn affects salesperson performance, specifically “world‐class” sales performance.

Through the utilization of a national survey of 345 business‐to‐business salespeople, this study explored linkages between transformational leadership, trust in the organization, moral judgment and world class sales performance using structural equation modeling.

Results suggest that transformational leadership can be used to influence sales performance through trust in the organization and salesperson moral judgment.

The paper furthers the understanding of transformational leadership and its impact on salespeople. The interaction of three variables (transformational leadership, trust in the organization, and the moral judgment of the salesperson) and their ability to relate to world class sales performance provide an interesting strategic guide for sales organizations, as well as a meaningful set of managerial tools that can assist in constructing a performance driven sales organization. These constructs have not been simultaneously investigated prior to this research.

Because salespeople operating under an outcome‐based control system are likely to be motivated by self‐interest, sales quotas are believed to drive salespeople to perform unethical behavior, particularly if this behavior is deemed necessary to achieve quota. Accordingly, this article examines the relationship between perceived quota difficulty and moral judgment. Two factors potentially moderating this relationship, ethical climate and consequences for not making quota, are also considered, as well as the influence of market attractiveness and self‐efficacy on quota difficulty. The analysis indicates a significant relationship between quota difficulty and moral judgment when salespeople foresee negative consequences for failing to achieve quota. Further, self‐efficacy and market attractiveness affected perceived quota difficulty. Implications of the study are offered.

The purpose of this research is to further understand salesperson distributive justice judgments by examining two controllable factors that may influence these perceptions: sales leadership (i.e. servant leadership) and salesforce control (i.e. quota).

The sample included 279 business-to-business salespeople from across the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Servant leadership and salesperson participation in quota setting both positively impact distributive justice perceptions (i.e. fairness in reward allocation), which subsequently affect salespeople’s commitment to providing superior customer value.

First study to empirically examine connections between servant leadership, distributive justice and commitment to customer value in the salesforce.

A great deal has been written recently in the practitioner press about the strategic importance and usage of social media. However, as practitioners only release limited information about the internal advantages such a tool provides, research in this emerging field remains extremely limited about its usage in the sales area. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically assess a model of social media usage among business‐to‐business (B2B) salespeople.

A survey of 273 B2B salespeople was conducted and then analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results support the hypothesized model suggesting that age negatively affects social media usage, while social media norms positively affect it. Social media usage positively affects sales performance. Customer‐oriented selling was not found to be positively related to social media usage, but does have a positive effect on sales performance.

This study was conducted by e‐mail, and as a result, there might be an existing bias towards respondents who already embrace some usage of an online communication method, indicating overall usage, acceptance, and application of social media may be lower than reported. A potential research agenda offers opportunities for both theoretical development and empirical assessment in social media research.

The findings provide an important foundation to advance academic sales research and demonstrate a needed understanding of how to operationally utilize social media to improve outcome performance.

This is one of the few studies empirically examining social media usage among B2B salespeople.