Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the joint training and apprenticeship system emerging in maintenance occupations in the US transit industry, its challenges and strategies to overcome them.

The paper reports on early results, including efforts to develop a consensus national framework for apprenticeship and training in transit maintenance. In the paper, training is an arena that both management and labour have common interests. Collaboration in training can foster partnership and improved labour‐management relationships. Implementing technological innovations and organisational changes in workplace practices are facilitated by training and together with training demonstrate strong positive financial payoffs.

The paper finds that the training and apprenticeship system discussed is not yet fully implemented.

The paper shows that several industries in America and other countries are facing similar shortages of skilled technicians due to technological and significant demographic changes.

The paper reviews approaches taken to develop a national effort to promote quality and sustainability in the emerging training system for transit maintenance workers.

As one of the most important emerging markets, China presents the greatest challenge to companies that are planning to enter its market. The purpose of this study is to examine a critical process required for any successful market entry – negotiation – and explore the impact of individual perception on negotiation process within Chinese culture.

Specifically, the paper explores how negotiators' perception of the negotiation structure and the alternatives to the negotiated agreement would affect negotiation behaviors and outcomes in a Chinese context.

The results showed that the perception of an integrative potential for the negotiation situation predicted more integrative behaviors and the perception of better alternatives predicted more competitive behaviors during a negotiation simulation.

Implications are discussed on how to negotiate into China.

This article reports the results of a theoretically‐based, empirical study which incorporates the paradigm of relationship marketing. Using a sample of organizational buyers, this study examines the influence of salesperson customer‐oriented behavior on the development of buyer‐seller relationships. Integral to this investigation, a measure of buyer‐seller relationship development is generated and evaluated for its reliability and validity. Findings from this study indicate a strong and significant influence between the customer‐oriented behavior of salespeople and the development of customer relationships. The results of this study and the discussion of the implications begin to provide valuable understanding into the antecedents of relationship development and relationship management. The results of this study and their implications for salespeople, managers, and researchers are discussed along with limitations and recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the historical factors that influenced the design and construction of modern National Hockey League and National Basketball Association arenas between 1990 and 2018. Additionally, this paper seeks to index the characteristics of those modern arenas while forwarding reasonable, informed propositions for future multipurpose arena design.

The historical methodology was applied to the design and construction of modern multipurpose arenas between 1990 and 2018. Modernization theory was utilized as an organizing construct to understand the intentional managerial actions to capitalize on consumer expectations by responding to economic and technological changes.

Sport managers responded to decreased median family incomes during the period of the study by building arenas with increasingly commodified spaces and amenities targeting wealthy and corporate customers. New technologies were adopted within facilities to meet the needs and expectations of in-venue and remote consumers.

In addition to demonstrating the practical utility of modernization theory and applied history for sport management scholars and practitioners, particularly in the Western context, the present study provides a series of propositions for future sport managers to consider to maintain or establish institutional advantage in the arena marketplace.

The paper contributes to the sport management literature by demonstrating the utility of modernization theory and applied history for sport management. In examining the design history of modern multipurpose arenas, the paper identifies the characteristics of modern multipurpose arenas while demonstrating the importance of understanding context and intentionality in managerial decision making.

The potential of the purchasing function to increase shareholder value is not well publicized and hence not widely recognized. This fact becomes self‐evident when the effect of purchasing strategies on performance is well understood. With an increasing number of organizations embracing long‐term oriented collaborative relationships, studies looking at performance implications of contemporary purchasing practices are particularly timely. Attempts to provide empirical evidence linking four purchasing strategies to two dimensions of procurement performance: effectiveness and efficiency. Results indicate that purchasing managers can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their purchasing efforts via cooperative negotiation with a small base of suppliers and by establishing collaborative long‐term oriented relationships with them, revealing the impressive ability of the purchasing function to enhance shareholder‐value.

Managers of marketing relationships are advised to get “close” to the customer. Some theoretical models of industrial buyer‐seller relationships incorporate notions such as “closeness” and “intimacy”. What does it mean to have a close relationship? Is closeness essential to success in partnering? What is the payoff? This study attempts to address these questions. A concept of “closeness” is defined and tested empirically. A closeness construct is developed and tested for discriminant and convergent validity. The construct is then incorporated into a structural model of successful industrial buyer‐seller relationships and tested for pragmatic validity. The overall model and hypotheses are tested for statistical significance using LISREL VII. The results of the study indicate that the concept of closeness is indeed an important element in the partnering process. The managerial and research implications of these findings are discussed.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Personnel Review is split into 8 sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Career/Manpower Planning and Recruitment; Health and Safety; Industrial Relations and Participation; Pay, Incentives and Pensions; Performance, Productivity and Motivation; Redundancy and Dismissal; Work Patterns; and Training and Development.

To reminisce about my entrepreneurial career with appropriate self-importance, I might note that I have helped create companies and jobs. This contributes in a small way to economic growth. Economic growth is, however, an often illusive concept to characterize. Job growth is an essential component of a dynamic, innovative process. In the late 1970s jobs growth research suggested that the vast majority of new jobs are created by small business formation. Such empirical research is difficult to support with theoretical constructs. Classic macroeconomics analysis discounts size-offirm as irrelevant. Entrepreneurial contribution is therefore difficult to assess.

The purpose of this paper is to review the studies of personality and negotiation and argues that the relationship between personality and negotiation is worth re‐examination and more research attention should be devoted to this area.

A cognitive model of personality and negotiation is constructed by integrating cognitive and social factors into the exploration of negotiation processes. The mediating roles of negotiator cognitions are discussed within this framework and relationships between personality and three negotiator cognitions: win–lose orientation, face‐saving and trusting are proposed.

This study provides an integrative model for studying the relationship between personality, negotiator cognition, negotiation behaviors and outcomes, and thus has impotent implications for future studies on negotiation.

The knowledge of the relationship between personality and negotiation will help organizations use personality assessment for better decisions about selection, promotion and training for improvement in negotiation skills.

This study attempts a complete exploration on the framework that integrates personality factors and negotiation behavior and outcomes, and provides potential directions for future studies on personality and negotiation.

This paper aims to investigate whether this savored relationship goal within business‐to‐business selling will survive through this century's formidable stumbling blocks. The fundamental question may very well be, if not the present sales model(s) then is it time to formulate a new sales models?

The research examines the relevant sales challenge elements and sales beneficial factors as components of a new sales return on investment (ROI) model. This has generated a series of subordinate research objectives, which attempt to rationalize the contribution and weighted value of each of the modeled elements. The use of secondary research reveals a consistent thread of relationship‐selling challenges for sales teams.

Client management and sales are key functions in most organizations, and companies are increasingly realizing the importance of preserving and developing relationships with their existing clients, in addition to developing new clients. The challenge is to manage customers strategically, by constantly expanding the scope of the offering and the strength of the impact on the customer's business performance. Achieving differentiation with strategic customers requires new buyer‐seller relationship strategies that assist customers in implementing their own strategies. The capability to manage strategic customer relationships as the most critical assets in the business remains elusive.

Effective salesperson follow‐up would logically include specific components designed to interact, connect, know, and relate with their customers: interact – the sales person acts to maximize the number of critical encounters; connect – the salesperson maintains contact with the multiple individuals in the buying; know – the salesperson coordinates and interprets the information gathered; relate – the salesperson applies relevant understanding and insight to create value‐added interactions.

The contribution of this paper have been directored towards offering sales and marketing organizations the foundational elements of a grass‐roots ROI modeling technique to apply towards their respective sales endeavors. This author believes that successful implementation of these key factors should enable sales teams and their sale management to achieve their respective institutional sales, client, and growth targets.

This paper adds to the subject knowledge of sales and sales techniques by creating new sales models, which address the twenty‐first century marketing environment challenges.