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1 – 10 of over 2000Ashish Kalra, Omar S. Itani and Amin Rostami
Although research analyzing the consequences of salesperson social media use in driving sales behaviors and performance outcomes has proliferated in the recent past, there are…
Abstract
Purpose
Although research analyzing the consequences of salesperson social media use in driving sales behaviors and performance outcomes has proliferated in the recent past, there are significant research gaps in the domain. Grounded in task-technology fit theory, this paper aims to propose a conceptual framework that integrates between previously disjointed areas of research and analyzes the relationships between salesperson social media use, brand awareness, creativity, manager empowerment and company performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey responses were collected from a multi-industry sample of 158 business-to-business salespeople. Structural relationships were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling.
Findings
The analysis shows that salesperson social media use positively affects brand awareness. The relationship between social media and brand awareness is magnified with the increase in salesperson creativity. Findings also show that manager empowerment increases salesperson creativity. Finally, brand awareness positively affects company performance.
Practical implications
Sales organizations should focus on developing digital strategies, especially focusing on salesperson social media use to enhance company’s brand awareness, which in turn increases company performance. Moreover, sales managers should also follow empowering leader behaviors to enhance creativity.
Originality/value
The authors amalgamate salesperson social media use literature and branding literature by proposing salesperson social media use’s positive effects on brand awareness. This study also expands the knowledge by exploring the moderating effect of individual-level variables such as salesperson creativity on driving the effects of salesperson social media use.
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Wan Jiang and Qinxuan Gu
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducted hierarchical linear modeling and hierarchical regression to analyze the paired data from 102 sales teams comprising 319 salespeople and 102 managers.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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This paper aims to examine the effect of employees’ emotional labor on work engagement and boundary-spanner creativity based on the job demands-resources model from the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effect of employees’ emotional labor on work engagement and boundary-spanner creativity based on the job demands-resources model from the perspective of salespeople.
Design/methodology/approach
To analyze the data, a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling procedure using LISREL 8.5 were used. Next, the conditional process modeling was fitted to test the moderated mediation hypotheses.
Findings
The analysis results showed that deep acting has a positive effect on work engagement, whereas surface acting has a negative effect, indicating that work engagement of sales representatives is differently related to each factor of emotional labor. Second, work engagement of salespeople has a positive effect on boundary spanner creativity. Next, entrepreneurship has a moderate effect in the relationship between emotional labor and work engagement with customer stewardship and has a positive moderating effect in the relationship between work engagement and boundary spanner creativity.
Practical implications
Considering the positive effect of boundary spanner creativity on work engagement, it is important to maintain interaction with customers, including adaptive behaviors and customer orientation, as customers’ demand increases. The individual competence and capability of salespeople such as entrepreneurship are directly related to interaction with customers, so when the right strategy is defined for each type of entrepreneurship of salespeople, it will create a positive corporate culture and lead to performance improvement.
Originality/value
Compared with most studies, more direct factors of emotional labor were assessed to detect positive effects in this study. More specifically, when salespeople were forced to fake their feelings, they were more likely to recognize stress or burnout due to emotional dissonance between what they really felt and what they had to express to comply with organizational regulations.
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Luis Arditto, Jesus Cambra-Fierro, Ana Olavarría and Rosario Vazquez-Carrasco
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the salespeople profile (i.e., effort, commitment and creativity) – and its degree of market orientation (MO) – on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of the salespeople profile (i.e., effort, commitment and creativity) – and its degree of market orientation (MO) – on the success of new product launch and sales outcomes. An emerging economy context is taken as a reference.
Design/methodology/approach
A structural equations model is proposed. The data are based on a sample of retail sector sales managers in Peru.
Findings
The results indicate that salespeople effort, creativity and degree of MO influence overall sales performance. Salespeople commitment, however, does not have a significant impact. These antecedents are helpful when attempting to understand both the potential success of a new product and sales outcomes.
Originality/value
There is no evidence to date of studies that simultaneously assess the impact of seller profiles and degree of MO on new product launch success and sales outcomes. This paper breaks new ground in analyzing this phenomenon in the context of an emerging economy. The findings are of general interest both for sales force management and for companies interested in familiarizing themselves with the peculiarities of emerging economies and the potential need to adapt policies to these specific realities.
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Tará Lopez and Amy McMillan‐Capehart
The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for the importance of organizational culture and organizational socialization as controls for business‐to‐business salespeople.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for the importance of organizational culture and organizational socialization as controls for business‐to‐business salespeople.
Design/methodology/approach
Organization theory suggests that social forms of control can be an effective influence on salesperson activities and behaviors. Based on organization theory, the paper presents a typology of social control combinations and offers propositions to guide future research.
Findings
It is suggested that different combinations of organizational culture and socialization moderate the relationship between person‐organization fit and relevant outcomes such that, under various social control environments, creativity is greater, salesperson performance is higher, and salespeople are less likely to leave the firm and will experience greater job satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The primary limitation is that it is conceptual in nature. Despite this, arguments presented herein support that socialization activities set the stage for salespeople's attitudes, behaviors, and performance, while organizational culture can reinforce or undermine the firm's socialization efforts. This provides the necessary foundation for future empirical research applying organizational theory to salesperson control.
Practical implications
Salespeople remain the driving force for revenue generation for many business‐to‐business firms. Sales managers are challenged with the task of directing salespeople to meet organizational objectives. However, based on organizational theory, traditional control methods may be less effective because of the unique characteristics of the business‐to‐business sales position. The research suggests that the organizational culture and the socialization tactics used by the sales manager can be tools that sales managers can use to control and direct the activities of salespeople.
Originality/value
Previous research has focused predominantly on outcome‐ and behavior‐based controls for business‐to‐business salespeople and has largely overlooked the potential influence of social controls such as organizational culture and organizational socialization. This research fills that gap.
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Nawar N. Chaker, Edward L. Nowlin, Doug Walker and Nwamaka A. Anaza
Salespeople frequently face the predicament of wanting to protect their market knowledge from coworkers while not appearing recalcitrant. Considering the choice of disclosing…
Abstract
Purpose
Salespeople frequently face the predicament of wanting to protect their market knowledge from coworkers while not appearing recalcitrant. Considering the choice of disclosing information or refusing to disclose, they may choose a third option: appearing to share knowledge while concealing substantive information, which this study calls evasive knowledge hiding. This study surmises that the consequences of these choices impact perceptions of customer outcomes. Using social exchange theory, the purpose of this article is to examine the internal relational antecedents and perceptions of external customer outcomes of evasive knowledge hiding, as well as the moderating effects of pushover manager and environmental dynamism.
Design/methodology/approach
A moderated mediation model was used to analyze survey data from 234 business-to-business salespeople.
Findings
Internal competition and coworkers’ past opportunistic behavior increase evasive knowledge hiding. These effects are attenuated if the manager is not a pushover. Evasive knowledge hiding decreases perceptions of external customer outcomes, particularly at low levels of environmental dynamism.
Research limitations/implications
Data was collected from salespeople, which presents a look from perpetrators themselves. While directly observing salespeople was the goal, sourcing and matching customer and manager data would only strengthen the results.
Practical implications
Salespeople evasively hide their knowledge if it is in their best interest, which may unwittingly hurt perceptions of customer outcomes.
Originality/value
This study formally introduces salesperson evasive knowledge hiding into the marketing and sales literature. The research highlights the dark side of social exchange theory by demonstrating how internal coworker relationships affect perceptions of external customer relationships via evasive knowledge hiding. This study also introduces pushover manager as an enabling moderating variable.
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Jeou‐Shyan Horng and Yi‐Chun Lee
This study aims to explore and analyze the extrinsic environmental factors that influence the development of culinary creativity.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore and analyze the extrinsic environmental factors that influence the development of culinary creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses in‐depth interviews and content analysis. A total of 13 internationally famous and/or award‐winning culinary artists and contest judges from the USA, Singapore, and Taiwan were interviewed to provide the data for the project.
Findings
There is a close relationship between the creativity of culinary artists and the quality of their environment. Therefore it is important to develop and maintain a physical, social, cultural and educational environment that is conducive to culinary creativity.
Practical implications
The findings of this study can serve as a basis and frame of reference for the future planning of culinary education, the purpose of which is to cultivate a more creative mode of culinary thinking in students.
Originality/value
This is the first research project to focus primarily on identifying specific factors in the environment which have a positive impact on individual, creative, culinary artists. Having identified those factors and described the ideal “culinary environment”, some specific suggestions for the culinary industry are made, indicating how to create such a potentially stimulating environment and thereby cultivate more, and more creative, culinary artists.
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Won-Moo Hur, Tae-Won Moon and Jun-Ho Lee
This study aimed to examine the effect of self-efficacy on job performance through creativity. We predicted that exposure to customer incivility and rigid service scripts will…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to examine the effect of self-efficacy on job performance through creativity. We predicted that exposure to customer incivility and rigid service scripts will moderate the mediating effect of creativity on the relationship between self-efficacy and job performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 397 salespersons who were working in a department store in South Korea. The PROCESS macro was used to test the study hypotheses.
Findings
The results revealed that the positive relationship between self-efficacy and job performance was partially mediated by creativity. Furthermore, exposure to customer incivility and rigid service scripts weakened the positive effects of self-efficacy on creativity. Finally, customer incivility and rigid service scripts also dampened the positive effects of self-efficacy on job performance through creativity.
Research limitations/implications
Sales organizations should understand that the extent to which self-efficacy improves job performance by enhancing creativity is contingent on the extent to which salespersons are exposed to customer incivility and are required to adhere to rigid service scripts in the workplace.
Originality/value
Our findings paint a more complete portrait of the beneficial effects of self-efficacy. Specifically, they suggest that the development of creativity is an important mechanism that underlies the process by which internal resources enhance job performance and that customer incivility and service scripts weaken this relationship.
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F. Leff Bonney and Brian C. Williams
This paper seeks to define a new construct, salesperson opportunity recognition, which contributes to solutions selling effectiveness and efficiency.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to define a new construct, salesperson opportunity recognition, which contributes to solutions selling effectiveness and efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
A framework for the composition of salesperson opportunity recognition as well as antecedents and outcomes is constructed from an analysis and synthesis of the extant literature on entrepreneurial cognition and creativity.
Findings
The paper identifies salesperson opportunity recognition as a distinct, multi‐dimensional construct that mediates the relationship between key organizational variables and solutions selling outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is conceptual and requires empirical development.
Originality/value
This paper describes key cognitive processes necessary for salespeople to succeed in today's solutions‐oriented, customer‐centric environment. The discussion should help sales scholars embark on new research into salesperson cognition.
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Thi Hong Nguyen and Angelina Nhat-Hanh Le
The paper aims to explore the role of climate for creativity and innovation as the situational variable to lead to both expected and unexpected consequences (e.g. performance and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the role of climate for creativity and innovation as the situational variable to lead to both expected and unexpected consequences (e.g. performance and unethical behavior), by discovering the relationships among task characteristics (e.g. difficulty, clarity and performance pressure), individual psychological aspects (e.g. mindfulness and self-justification) and work environmental conditions (e.g. peer behavior and climate for creativity and innovation). In this study, task characteristics are proposed to positively associate with unethical behavior via mindfulness. Moreover, climate for creativity and innovation is proposed to moderate the relationship between self-justification and unethical behavior. Finally, unethical behavior is predicted to positively influence on performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from the sample of salespeople, who are working for variety of companies in Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and SmartPLS 3 are implemented to test the path model.
Findings
Emphasizing both bright and dark sides of promoting creativity and innovation, the study highlights the role of climate for creativity and innovation in strengthening the positive relationship between self-justification and unethical behavior. In turn, unethical behavior positively influences performance. Further, the findings indicate that mindfulness contributes in explaining unconscious unethical behavior.
Originality/value
Exploring the relationships among climate for creativity and innovation, unethical behavior and performance, this paper contributes for deeper understanding of variety aspects of innovation. Demands for an intelligent management in modern workplaces are suggested.
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