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Adopting the social information processing theory and social comparison theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine how abusive supervision and abusive supervisory climate jointly influence salesperson creativity, sales team creativity, and team performance.

The study conducted hierarchical linear modeling and hierarchical regression to analyze the paired data from 102 sales teams comprising 319 salespeople and 102 managers.

At the individual level, abusive supervision had negative effect on salesperson creativity via psychological safety. Abusive supervisory climate played a cross-level moderating role in the relationship between abusive supervision and psychological safety. At the team level, abusive supervisory climate was negatively related to sales team creativity via averaged salesperson creativity and negatively associated with sales team performance through sales team creativity.

This study adds to knowledge of how abusive supervision and abusive supervisory climate jointly affect salesperson psychological safety and creativity. It also contributes to abusive supervision and creativity literature by linking abusive supervisory climate and sales team creativity by integrating social information processing theory and social comparison theory.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model of the role managers and peers play in shaping salespeople's ethical behaviour. The model specifies that sales manager personal moral philosophies, whether sales managers themselves are rewarded according to the outcomes or behaviours of their salespeople, sales team job security, intra‐team cooperation, and sales team tactical performance all influence sales team ethical standards. In turn, ethical standards influence the probability that sales team members will behave (un)ethically when faced with ethical dilemmas.

The model is tested on a sample of 154 Finnish sales managers. Data were collected via mail survey. Analysis was undertaken using structural equation modelling.

Ethical standards appear to be shaped by several factors; behaviour‐based management controls increase ethical standards, relativist managers tend to manage less ethically‐minded sales teams, job insecurity impedes the development of ethical standards, and sales teams' cooperation activity increases ethical standards. Sales teams are less likely to engage in unethical behaviour when the teams have strong ethical standards.

Cross‐sectional data limits generalisability; single country data may limit the ability to generalise to different sales environments; additional measure development is needed; identification of additional antecedent factors would be beneficial.

Sales managers should consciously develop high ethical standards in sales teams if they wish to reduce unethical behaviour. Ethical standards can be improved if sales managers change their own outward behaviour (exhibit a less relativistic ethical philosophy), foster cooperation amongst salespeople, and develop perceptions of job security. How sales managers are rewarded may shape how they approach the management of ethical behaviour in their sales teams.

This paper appears to be the first to simultaneously examine both sales manager‐specific and sales team‐specific antecedents to sales team ethical standards and behaviours. As such, it provides an important base for research in this critical area.

This study aims to explore the formation and consequences of a cross-selling initiative climate, as well as how a service climate, which provides an important boundary condition, affects both its formation and its ultimate impact on service-sales performance. This article identifies two important predictors of a cross-selling initiative climate: frontline employees’ perceptions of supervisors’ bottom-line mentality and their own sense of accountability.

The multilevel data set includes 180 frontline staff and supervisors (team leaders) from 31 teams employed by a spa/beauty salon chain. Hierarchical linear modelling and partial least squares methods serve to analyse the data.

Supervisors’ bottom-line mentality disrupts a cross-selling initiative climate. A sense of accountability exerts a positive impact at both individual and team levels. A service climate at the team level weakens the impact of a sense of accountability on a cross-selling initiative climate. A cross-selling initiative climate has a positive effect on team-level service-sales performance, but this effect is weakened by the service climate.

This study conceptualises an important frontline work unit attribute as a climate. It offers an initial argument that a cross-selling initiative climate is a central factor driving a work unit’s service-sales performance, which can increase firms’ productivity and competitive advantages. With this initial attempt to explore the antecedents and consequences of a cross-selling initiative climate, the study also offers novel insights into the interplay between a service and a cross-selling initiative climate.

The purpose of this paper is to present the managerial perspectives of building, nurturing and evaluating sales teams in Mexico. This study discusses the impact of sales team design in reference to the underlying rationale of management control and team coordination as indicators of performance and sales unit effectiveness.

The major focus of the study is to discuss the impact of sales team design and task coordination as predictors of effectiveness of sales unit performance. A sample of 258 respondents has been covered under the study, categorizing them in equal proportion into three broad areas,: type of sales team, type of product market, and type of sales operations. Four industrial streams in sales were covered while selecting the sample respondents: consumer goods, consumer durables, industrial products, and consumer services.

The study reveals the balance between team designing and team coordination in performing sales. Work environment is largely governed by team coordination effects for the salespeople. Sales team‐building process has a substantial effect on sales organization effectiveness both directly and indirectly through its relationship with salespeople's behavioral performance.

The results of this study reveal that team performance largely depends on the effectiveness of team coordination, leadership and performance control through behavioral attributes. Sales managers may implement such controls effectively by establishing coordination, training, and feedback process rather than imposing command and control policy.

The thesis of the paper is developed around issues of the cross‐cultural variables and team management affecting workplace environment. The paper explores and maps the symbiosis between cognitive drivers of team members and team culture in performing the tasks.

Extant sales management literature shows that holding negative headquarters stereotypes (NHS) by salespeople is harmful to their sales performance. However, there is a lack of research on how managers can leverage organizational structures to minimize NHS in sales forces. This study aims to know how social network patterns influence the flow of NHS among salespeople and sales managers in a large B2B sales organization.

The authors hypothesize and test whether patterns of social networks among salespeople and sales managers determine the stereotypical attitudes of salespeople toward corporate directors and, eventually, impact their sales performance. The authors analyzed a multi-level data set from the B2B sales forces of a large US-based media company.

The authors found that organizational social network properties including the sales manager’s team centrality, sales team’s network density and sales team’s external connectivity moderate the flow of NHS from sales managers and peer salespeople to a focal salesperson.

First, the data was cross-sectional and did not allow the authors to examine the dynamics of social network patterns and their impact on NHS. Second, The authors only focused on advice-seeking social networks and did not examine other types of social networks such as friendship and trust networks. Third, the context was limited to one company in the media industry.

The authors provide recommendations to sales managers on how to leverage and influence social networks to minimize the development and flow of NHS in sales forces.

The findings advance existing knowledge on how NHS gets shared and transferred in sales organizations. Moreover, this study provides crucial managerial insights with regard to controlling and managing NHS in sales forces.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for team selling to sports firms that can be used to more effectively select members for sales and CRM teams and improve the performance of teams in attracting and retaining premium seating customers.

The paper provides a two‐stage framework based on the personal selling process and the activities that support CRM programs. Recommendations are guided by the sport marketing and team selling literature streams and by best practices in sport marketing.

The paper recommends the formation of two teams (personal selling and CRM) during the customer relationship cycle and provides guidelines for team member selection based on the critical activities that occur during the personal selling and CRM processes. Key success factors are provided, including the establishment of a customer‐focused organization and effective communication practices among team members and between selling teams.

Although the use of selling teams is gaining popularity in several industries, the broader sales literature lacks research that can support the development and effective management of selling teams. Within the sport marketing literature, there is no research on selling teams. The main academic contribution of the paper is the cross‐disciplinary merging of existing team selling research in the sales literature with current research and industry information on marketing and sales by sport organizations (luxury suite sales). For the practitioner, the framework provides guidance on effective team member selection and best practices for the effective management of selling teams.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify those corporate sales activities that lead to teams' higher rates of retention of corporate customers. Twenty-two of 29 National Basketball Association (NBA) teams participated. Teams were categorized based on their success at retaining corporate customers for the three-season period 1998-99 to 2000-01. Key conclusions that led to higher rates of customer retention were: 1) teams having total control over the sale of corporate inventory; 2) corporate sales staff training; and 3) teams understanding that customers needed assistance in the activation of sponsorship programs.

Building on prior research in interactions between sales and marketing departments, the purpose of this paper is to investigate departmental alignment among professional hockey teams. By using a single industry sample, the authors are able to identify high and low performers, along with structural antecedents that lead to higher alignment (Rouse and Daellenbach, 1999). Expiring inventory, customer knowledge, and volatile demand enhance the need for alignment and suggest opportunities for innovative mechanisms to share information among departments (Mullin et al., 2007).

Through the usage of Kotler et al.’s (2006) survey instrument, the authors survey NHL Vice Presidents of sales and marketing to assess levels of structural alignment. The authors further explores strategies for alignment through qualitative interviews of select team executives.

The authors find examples of high alignment, achieved through structural elements of proximity, cross-functional tasks, financial incentives, and new technologies. The qualitative interviews provide insight into how organizations attempt to create high levels of alignment.

These results help advance the literature by identifying high performers and going inside organizations for the source of a competitive advantage, thus following Rouse and Dallenbach’s (1999) approach for theory development. The authors also contributes by identifying strategies for practitioners to apply as they attempt to design optimal work structures.

A self‐help guide to achieving success in business. Directed more towards the self‐employed, it is relevant to other managers in organizations. Divided into clear sections on creativity and dealing with change; importance of clear goal setting; developing winning business and marketing strategies; negotiating skills; leadership; financial skills; and time management.