Search results

This study aims to draw on the categorization theory to explore the mediating role of customer qualification skills in explaining how social media use in sales contributes to salespeople’s adaptive selling behaviors to achieve high sales performance in export selling. The study also integrates network effect theory and social linguistics theory to identify the specific social media platform (Facebook versus non-Facebook) and the characteristics of salespeople in terms of English language proficiency, which play a facilitating role in promoting the effectiveness of social media use in export sales.

The sampling frame of the research is a list of Chinese export salespersons obtained on the FOB Business Forum website. Survey data were obtained from 873 Chinese export salespeople. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data.

Social media use in sales is associated positively with customer qualification skills and adaptive selling behaviors. Moreover, the results revealed a partial mediating effect of customer qualification skills on the positive impact of social media use in sales on adaptive selling behaviors. The moderating effect analysis found that the positive association between social media use in sales and customer qualification skills was stronger in export salespeople who used Facebook and had mastered a high level of English language proficiency.

This study provides new findings, based on data collected from salespeople in Mainland China, that support the effectiveness of social media use in an export sales context. Moreover, the study advances prior research by showing that the effectiveness of social media use still depends on the type of social media used and the English language proficiency of the salespeople.

This paper aims to examine whether and how sales technology (ST) use helps salespeople perform better through the modification of their customer-qualification skills and customer-oriented selling behaviors. Also, the moderating role of salespeople’s technology self-efficacy is analyzed. Technological advancements have become an integral part of the personal selling process, yet the relationship between salesperson’s technology use and salesperson performance remains primarily unsubstantiated.

Data are collected from a diverse sample of 265 salespeople across different industries. Hypotheses are tested with structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that a salesperson’s customer-qualification skills and customer-oriented selling fully mediate the effect of technology use on outcome performance. In addition, salespeople high in technology self-efficacy seem to get the most out of their technology use. More specifically, the influence of technology use on customer-qualification skills and customer-oriented selling is stronger for salespeople with high rather than low self-efficacy. Interestingly, technology use only increases performance for salespeople with high self-efficacy.

Prior evidence on the consequences of ST on performance is not conclusive. The study adds value to both managers and scholars providing new insights of the link between technology use and performance and its underlying mediating and moderating processes. Without an understanding of the ST-performance relationship, sales managers may increase ST costs but decrease potential returns.

This study aims to explore the changing nature of the inside sales role and the individual capabilities required for success. Additionally, it examines the influence of organizational structure on inside sales force capabilities. Although business-to-business firms are investing heavily in inside sales forces, academic research lags behind this evolution.

Using a two-study qualitative approach, the authors examine contemporary inside sales forces’ responsibilities and operational configurations. Study 1 uses a cross-industry sample of sales leaders and professionals to examine roles and responsibilities. Study 2 used the second sample of sales leaders and professionals to explore the impact of various organizational configurations.

The study identifies important differences between inside and outside salespeople in terms of job demands and resources; inside salespeople’s greater reliance on sales technology and analytics than outside counterparts; and existing control systems’ failure to provide resources and incentives to match with inside salespeople’s increasing strategic benefits and job demands. The study also explores four distinct inside–outside configurations. The differences among these configurations help to explain the distinct benefits and costs of each configuration regarding the company, customer and intra sales force processes, which, in turn, determine inside salespeople’s strategic benefits and job demands.

The authors discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for research on the evolving roles and capabilities of the inside sales force; antecedents and consequences of firms’ choice of inside–outside sales force configurations; and the impact of technology and the inside sales force. They propose a research agenda that includes a series of specific future research questions.

This study informs managers of the unique role of the inside sales force and how it differs from their outside counterpart. The results inform managers of the issues inherent to various inside sales configurations, helping them determine, which configuration best addresses their customers’ needs.

This research provides a detailed, updated account of the differences between inside and outside sales forces and the benefits/costs of major inside–outside sales force configurations. Drawing from job demands-resources, organizational structure and strategy-context fit theories, the authors develop research propositions about the underlying structural differences of inside-outside sales force configurations; how these differences drive the inside sales force’s increasing strategic benefits and job demands; and organizational choice of inside sales force configurations. A research agenda is then presented.

This research aims to apply the contingency approach to explore the effectiveness of the improvisational behavior of salespeople on their sales performance by considering the moderating role of functional customer orientation.

Survey data were obtained from a sample of 227 salespeople in Bangkok, Thailand. The data analysis was implemented by partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The overall results indicate that the association between improvisational behavior and sales performance is significantly contingent on the level of functional customer orientation that salespeople exhibit. For salespeople with high functional customer orientation, improvisational behavior clearly shows a positive association with sales performance. In contrast, for salespeople with low functional customer orientation, improvisational behavior appears to have a negative association with sales performance.

This research broadens the knowledge in the literature by showing that improvisational behavior of salespeople needs to be combined with functional customer orientation to yield a benefit to their sales performance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of salespeople’s customer orientation on the relationship between sales manager personal characteristics, fellow salespeople’s characteristics, job satisfaction and adaptive selling and salespeople’s performance in the insurance industry in Jordan.

A structured and self-administered survey was employed targeting 500 insurance salespeople working at insurance companies operating in Jordan. The final sample size was 320 salespeople representing a response rate of 64 percent. A Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the research constructs dimensions, unidimensionality, validity and composite reliability. Structural path analysis was also used to test the hypothesized relationships of the research model.

The empirical findings indicate that salespeople’s customer orientation fully mediates the effect of fellow salespeople’s characteristics and adaptive selling on salespeople’s performance. Sales managers’ personal characteristics have a direct effect on salespeople’s performance, contrary to job satisfaction that had no effect on salespeople’s performance.

This paper has examined only five factors that affected directly and indirectly salespeople’s performance; meanwhile other factors may affect their performance, such as salespeople experience, internal marketing and corporate image. Additionally, the fact that paper’s sample consisted only of insurance salespeople working at insurance companies limits its generalization potential to other industries.

The findings emphasize the importance of fostering good relationships among fellow salespeople’s characteristics and adaptive selling strategies. Further, sales managers’ personal characteristics directly affecting salespeople’s performance signifies the importance to hire managers with the right personal approach.

This paper represents one of the early attempts that investigate factors affecting salespeople’s performance through the mediating role of customer orientation. Accordingly, the findings shed more light into the strategic role of this construct in enhancing salespeople’s performance. Also, the paper is the first of its kind to build and examine an integrated model of salespeople’s performance in the insurance market of Jordan, which provides valuable empirical evidence concerning the drivers of salespeople’s performance in the insurance industry in Jordan.

This paper examines the antecedents of adaptive selling behavior empirically from the salespeople's, customers', and firms' perspectives.

Survey design was used for this study. Data from 219 salespeople and their visiting customers in selected cosmetics companies in Korea are used to test the conceptual model using structural equation modeling.

Findings show that intrinsic motivation, empathy, and product knowledge are germane to adaptive selling behavior among salesperson-level factors. Similarly, among the customer-level factors, the length of the relationship between salespeople and customers positively affects adaptive selling behavior. Also, while supervisory empowerment among the organizational-level factors significantly predicts adaptive selling behavior, supervisory control has a negative effect on adaptive selling behavior. The study finds that emotional intelligence and customer value demandingness do not significantly affect adaptive selling behavior.

Even though there is extant research on adaptive selling behavior, our research differs from previous research because our research focuses on door-to-door personal selling channels. Furthermore, this study departs from previous research because it uses customer-reporting of the salespeople and salespeople's self-reporting responses.

Stakeholders are entitled to be properly informed about their interests in an enterprise, not only in terms of the cost of assets such as land and labour, but also in terms of the value of these assets. The value of land could be influenced by environmental pollution, damages and rehabilitation activities, which should be accounted for in financial and non‐financial terms. In contrast to the tendency to calculate and include only the cost of labour, the value of labour should also be determined to include aspects such as knowledge, skills, organising proficiency and customer relations.

This paper aims to assess the effect of adaptive selling behavior on customer outcomes, mutual outcomes and salesperson outcomes.

The respondents were salespeople and customers in selected door-to-door cosmetics companies in South Korea. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data in this study.

Findings show that adaptive selling behavior positively affects customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, sales performance, job satisfaction and relationship quality. These findings suggest that adaptive selling is crucial for the firm's survival depending on the industry and the product. Additionally, unlike previous studies, the authors use salespeople's self-reporting responses and customer-reporting of salespeople, which further enhances the richness and uniqueness of the results.

Studies investigating mutual outcomes of adaptive selling behavior are scarce. The study also emphasizes that adaptive selling behavior enhances salesperson outcomes and customer outcomes and primarily uses dyadic data between door-to-door salespeople and their customers, which is not very common.

Social media (SM) networks offer a golden opportunity for firms that particularly engage in international activities to set up sustainable customer relationships and improve competitiveness. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of SM adoption on the export intensity (EI) of firms listed on Borsa Istanbul (BIST) for the years 2010–2020. The authors use social media index (SMI) to measure SM adoption and firm size (FSize) as a moderator on exploring the interaction of SM and EI.

Using a sample of 150 firms listed on the BIST Industrials Index, this study explores how the adoption of SM affects EI by using panel data analysis over the period of 2010–2020.

The results indicate that the SMI has a positive and significant effect on the EI. FSize positively moderates the interaction of SMI and EI, indicating that large firms benefit more from the SM in increasing export performance. The findings reflect high potential of EI improvement through adopting right SM policies in emerging markets.

The sample covers only public companies listed on the BIST Industrials Index. Future studies may extend the coverage and include multiple emerging markets to draw generalized results for the export-oriented firms. This research also analyzes solely four SM networks, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. However, there are many other SM networks that firms use in online marketing in foreign markets. Finally, this research did not discuss the potential factors that could influence the use of SM in emerging market firms.

This study denotes the significant role of SM adoption on the EI of firms in an emerging market setting from the perspective of resource-based view. It presents an insightful approach in understanding the mission played by SM networks in enhancing the EI of Turkish firms. Policymakers may use the findings to develop public support programs to promote the adoption and implementation of the SM among exporting firms in emerging markets.

The study provides evidence on the effects of SM adoption on the EI from the perspective of emerging countries. It also helps to gain a deeper understanding of how different SM platforms contribute to the internationalization of firms.