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1 – 10 of over 2000Although social networks play an important role in individual ambidexterity, few studies have examined the impact of salespeople's social networks on sales-service ambidexterity…
Abstract
Purpose
Although social networks play an important role in individual ambidexterity, few studies have examined the impact of salespeople's social networks on sales-service ambidexterity. The purpose of this paper is to explore how salespeople's internal and external social networks affect sales-service ambidexterity.
Design/methodology/approach
The unique data of 331 salespeople from 39 units in retail banking industry and insurance industry were collected, and the hierarchical linear model was adopted to test the hypotheses. Finally, the alternative measure of the dependent variable and the alternative estimation method were adopted for robustness test.
Findings
The results show that the strength of salespeople's internal social networks and the extensiveness of salespeople's external social networks could facilitate sales-service ambidexterity of salespeople separately and synergistically. Salespeople's role breadth self-efficacy partially mediates the influences of internal and external social networks on sales-service ambidexterity, while empowerment climate and transformational leadership positively moderate the aforementioned mediational process by strengthening the relationship between salespeople's role breadth self-efficacy and sales-service ambidexterity.
Practical implications
Practical guidelines are provided for managers to shape ambidextrous salespeople by facilitating salespeople's internal and external social networks, promoting transformational leadership and creating empowerment climate within the unit.
Originality/value
To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first to systematically examine the impact of salespeople's social network on sales-service ambidexterity. Drawing from social cognitive theory and the ambidexterity literature, this research reveals the mechanism of how salespeople's internal and external social networks contribute to sales-service ambidexterity.
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Fortune Edem Amenuvor, Kobby Mensah, Atsu Nkukpornu, Henry Boateng, Frank Akasreku and Kwasi Owusu-Antwi
The study examines the effects of behavior-based and outcome-based control systems on service-sales ambidexterity, role conflict, emotional exhaustion and job performance in…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the effects of behavior-based and outcome-based control systems on service-sales ambidexterity, role conflict, emotional exhaustion and job performance in salespeople.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are collected from 704 salespeople in Ghana. The proposed hypotheses are tested through the structural equations modeling technique.
Findings
The study finds that both behavior-based and outcome-based controls have positive and significant effects on service-sales ambidexterity in salespeople. Similarly, the study discovers that service-sales ambidexterity has a positive and significant impact on both role conflict and emotional exhaustion in salespeople. The study also finds that role conflict and emotional exhaustion both have a negative impact on job performance. Finally, the study finds that salespeople's grit moderates the negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance.
Practical implications
The results imply that while salespeople's service-sales ambidexterity may be beneficial to their individual and firm performance, it may also lead to role conflict and emotional exhaustion.
Originality/value
The current study demonstrates how control mechanisms can lead to service-sales ambidexterity in salespeople and how this can lead to role conflict and emotional exhaustion.
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Keo Mony Sok, Devin Bin and Phyra Sok
Business-to-business (B2B) firms increasingly have a need for frontline sales employees who can both sell and service customer account, a task known as sales-service ambidexterity…
Abstract
Purpose
Business-to-business (B2B) firms increasingly have a need for frontline sales employees who can both sell and service customer account, a task known as sales-service ambidexterity which may pose significant challenges to frontline sales employees. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to show that one has to be cognizant of the potential negative consequences brought about requiring frontline sales employees to engage in sales-service ambidexterity and find a way to mitigate such negative consequences.
Design/methodology/approach
The multisource data for this study was collected from frontline sales employees and their respective supervisors working across multiple B2B pharmaceutical companies in a Southeast Asian country. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and PROCESS Macro.
Findings
The results reveal a negative indirect effect of sales-service ambidexterity sales performance through role overload. This negative indirect effect is fully neutralized when information exchange is high but not when it is low.
Originality/value
This study underscores the importance of not only the negative consequence of sales-service ambidexterity but also offers insights into how this negative consequence is neutralized so that sales performance is maximized.
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Hua Fan, Bing Han, Wei Gao and Wenqian Li
This study serves two purposes: (1) to evaluate the effects of organizational ambidexterity by examining how the balanced and the combined sales–service configurations of chatbots…
Abstract
Purpose
This study serves two purposes: (1) to evaluate the effects of organizational ambidexterity by examining how the balanced and the combined sales–service configurations of chatbots differ in their abilities to enhance customer experience and patronage and (2) to apply information boundary theory to assess the contingent role that chatbot sales–service ambidexterity can play in adapting to customers' personalization–privacy paradox.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey of artificial intelligence chatbots users was conducted, and a mixed-methods research design involving response surface analysis and polynomial regression was adopted to address the research aim.
Findings
The results of polynomial regressions on survey data from 507 online customers indicated that as the benefits of personalization decreased and the risk to privacy increased, the inherently negative (positive) effects of imbalanced (combined) chatbots' sales–service ambidexterity had an increasing (decreasing) influence on customer experience. Furthermore, customer experience fully mediated the association of chatbots' sales–service ambidexterity with customer patronage.
Originality/value
First, this study enriches the literature on frontline ambidexterity and extends it to the setting of human–machine interaction. Second, the study contributes to the literature on the personalization–privacy paradox by demonstrating the importance of frontline ambidexterity for adapting to customer concerns. Third, the study examines the conduit between artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots' ambidexterity and sales performance, thereby helping to reconcile the previously inconsistent evidence regarding this relationship.
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Ting Yu, Paul Patterson and Ko de Ruyter
This paper aims to examine how the motivation and ability of individual employees to sell influences their units’ capability to align their service delivery with sales in a way…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how the motivation and ability of individual employees to sell influences their units’ capability to align their service delivery with sales in a way that satisfies customers. It also addresses the potential influence of employees’ confidence in their supervisor’s ability to sell, such that they predict a joint influence of personal and proxy agency.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to address the research issues.
Findings
Employees’ learning orientation has a positive influence on service-sales ambidexterity, but the impact of a performance-avoidance goal orientation is negative, and a performance-prove orientation has no influence. Proxy efficacy enhances the positive impact of learning orientations due to the manager’s ability to lead by example, facilitate knowledge sharing and provide advice. However, it attenuates the impact of self-efficacy on service-sales ambidexterity, because skilled supervisors tend to take over and eliminate opportunities for employees to build their own skills. It also confirms the positive influence of service-sales ambidexterity on branch performance.
Originality/value
To examine the emerging service-sales ambidexterity issues raised in frontline service units, this study adopts a motivation and capability paradigm. It is among the first studies to address service-sales ambidexterity issues by considering both individual and branch contextual factors.
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Yaqin Zheng, Dong Liu, Yi Zheng and Zhimei Zang
This study aims to investigate moderators affecting the impact of salesperson acquisition-retention (AR) ambidexterity on sales performance based on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate moderators affecting the impact of salesperson acquisition-retention (AR) ambidexterity on sales performance based on the motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) framework.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected triadic data through 391 questionnaires from salespeople, 50 questionnaires from sales managers and archival data about each salesperson’s performance. Hierarchical linear modeling was applied to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results indicate that salesperson AR ambidexterity positively affects sales performance. The positive effect is strengthened by capability control but weakened by outcome control and activity control. The authors also find that sales experience and market attractiveness hurt the effectiveness of salesperson AR ambidexterity.
Research limitations/implications
First, this study does not examine the mediating mechanism underlying the effect of salesperson AR ambidexterity. Second, sales-service ambidexterity is another ambidextrous variable for salespeople. Future research can consider AR and sales-service ambidexterity together.
Practical implications
First, managers should be cautious when encouraging experienced salespeople to conduct AR ambidexterity. Second, managers need to use capability control to motivate salespeople with AR ambidextrous behaviors. Third, AR ambidexterity could be not required in a market with many opportunities.
Originality/value
Although some studies have examined the effectiveness of salesperson AR ambidexterity, they reveal inconsistent findings, which suggest contingent conditions on the effectiveness of salesperson AR ambidexterity. However, the attention on the contingent conditions is limited. Therefore, this paper systematically investigates the contingent conditions from the MOA framework. The findings provide some insights into when salesperson AR ambidexterity is effective.
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Moritz Classen and Thomas Friedli
The purpose of this study is to explore organizational enablers of frontline employees’ (FLEs) service-sales ambidexterity (SSA) in industrial firms expanding their digital service…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore organizational enablers of frontline employees’ (FLEs) service-sales ambidexterity (SSA) in industrial firms expanding their digital service portfolios.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a qualitative study of five industrial firms pursuing digital service growth and, for this purpose, collected and analyzed interview data obtained from 50 service and sales managers and FLEs across three continents.
Findings
The authors identify and explain eight organizational enablers of digital service-sales ambidexterity (DSSA), operating at the macro, micro and meso levels.
Practical implications
Service and sales managers should use the identified organizational enablers to exploit the established service business and to explore new digital growth paths.
Originality/value
The study expands the prior understanding of SSA by advancing the concept of DSSA, unpacking its multilevel dynamics and operationalizing eight organizational enablers.
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Valter Afonso Vieira, Valter da Silva Faia, James Boles, Bruno Rafael Marioti and Rita Cassia Pereira
The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical model that posits locomotion-assessment ambidextrous orientation as predictor of salesperson acquisition–retention…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical model that posits locomotion-assessment ambidextrous orientation as predictor of salesperson acquisition–retention ambidexterity, which as a consequence increases sales. The authors drawing on regulatory focus theory and self-regulatory for this propose.
Design/methodology/approach
Salespeople involved in the study represent different firms selling a wide variety of food and household products to a wholesaler, which resells them to supermarket chains. The authors collected data from 231 industrial salespeople.
Findings
First, salesperson assessment focus amplified locomotion’s effect on acquisition–retention ambidexterity. Second, salespeople increased their performance by implementing an acquisition–retention ambidextrous orientation that balances prospecting for new customers and growing existing customers. Third, findings revealed a mediating effect of ambidextrous orientation on the relationship between regulatory mode and sales performance. Finally, outcomes supported the conditional moderated-mediated effect of regulatory mode in explaining performance through ambidextrous orientation.
Practical implications
Results suggest that salespeople need to equalize their dual orientations in a complementary way to elaborate their selling strategies according to each customer. For example, in an unbalanced orientation, putting high levels of assessment into a sales encounter can reduce the effective and efficient use of time in interacting with customers.
Originality/value
The authors further illustrate the importance of using both locomotion and assessment in attaining sales goals (Pierro et al. 2013). This synergistic effect is known as the complementary hypothesis (Pierro et al., 2006a, 2006b). Each dimension complements the other and has a moderated-mediated effect on performance through acquisition–retention ambidexterity.
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Mona Bouzari and Osman M. Karatepe
This paper aims to propose and test a research model that examines psychological capital as a mediator of the effect of servant leadership on lateness attitude, intention to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose and test a research model that examines psychological capital as a mediator of the effect of servant leadership on lateness attitude, intention to remain with the organization, service–sales ambidexterity and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from hotel salespeople using a three-wave design with a two-week time lag between each wave in Iran. In total, 26 supervisors assessed salespeople’s service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors. Structural equation modeling was used in the assessment of the direct and mediating effects.
Findings
The findings reveal that psychological capital functions as a full mediator of the influence of servant leadership on the aforementioned outcomes. Specifically, servant leadership fosters salespeople’s psychological capital. Such employees in turn display reduced lateness attitude and express an increased intent to remain with the organization. They also have favorable perceptions of service–sales ambidexterity and exhibit service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors at elevated levels.
Practical implications
Top management of hotels should be committed to the philosophy of servant leadership because salespeople under the umbrella of this leadership style are high on psychological capital. Under these circumstances, such employees can exhibit service–sales ambidexterity by contributing to delivery of exceptional service and enhancing customer satisfaction. They can also contribute to the organization’s competitive advantage via service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors.
Originality/value
This study makes a significant contribution to the extant hospitality research by testing psychological capital as a mediator between servant leadership and the previously mentioned consequences.
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Muhammad Irfan and Bilal Ahmad
Service–sales ambidexterity (SSA) offers sales managers crucial information about dealing with customer service failures through an effective management control system. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
Service–sales ambidexterity (SSA) offers sales managers crucial information about dealing with customer service failures through an effective management control system. This study aims to scrutinize the relationships among SSA, salesforce control system, salesperson’s role stressors and service recovery performance (SRP) in the business-to-business (B2B) context.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis is conducted based on survey data collected from 586 B2B sales employees participating in an extensive survey. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Empirical findings suggest that behavior-based control harms SSA. On the other hand, outcome-based control has a positive impact on SSA. The research outcomes further disclose that SSA positively impacts salesperson role conflict and emotional fatigue, whereas emotional fatigue negatively impacts SRP. Salesperson resilience notably moderates the association between SSA and emotional fatigue.
Originality/value
The study addresses there is a dearth of research on SSA applying the sales management control system. When studying about ambidexterity in sales context, many supervisory styles have been explored; however, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic attempt to understand how sales management control systems play a role in SSA.
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