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Given India's rapid industrial growth and burgeoning numbers of sales and marketing employees, there is an urgent need to develop India‐centric B2B sales management knowledge. However, there is little hard information about similarities or differences between sales management strategies in India and the developed economies. To shed more light on this issue, in this commentary the aim is to report the results of a novel exploratory study of recent India B2B sales job ads motivated by the idea that sales recruiting is a critical sales management function that provides insights into hiring organizations' overall business strategy.

The authors content analyze a sample of India sales job ad postings to identify the job goals, skills and additional roles sought by Indian B2B sales recruiters. Subsequently, they use latent class clustering to segment companies along these requirements.

It is found that B2B sales organizations in India appear to be recruiting according to the same core strategies, principles and criteria as those in the developed world, especially with regard to customer management.

This research develops confidence that some extant B2B sales management theories, models, and knowledge accumulated in developed markets are applicable to the Indian context, with suitable modifications to accommodate idiosyncratic cultural and economic differences.

This is the first, albeit exploratory, effort to utilize the content of India‐specific B2B sales job advertisements as a source of data and insights into sales management strategies in India.

Although trade shows are a significant part of the B2B communications mix, academic research in the area is sparse. To successfully manage this medium, a careful understanding of attendee behavior on the trade show floor is necessary. Drawing from the rich literature on shopper typologies in retailing (which parallels the trade show atmosphere), this paper sets out to develop a set of attendee metrics that show organizers can track regularly.

Through latent class clustering on unique attendee‐level data from a popular computer trade show, five segments of attendee activity are uncovered that differ along dimensions such as the attendee's involvement and focus and the exhibitor's booth size, booth accessibility, and product display.

Significant heterogeneity is found in attendee activities on the show floor. There are interesting similarities and differences between the retail and B2B shopper. Implications for trade show organizers and exhibitors are discussed and directions for future research suggested.

Since the data employed are becoming more readily available, the hope is that managers and academic researchers might find the suggested metrics and segmentation approach useful in advancing a deeper understanding of the trade show attendee.

This case is used in Darden's core Marketing course and in the Pricing elective. It would work well in course modules covering the topics of branding or product line management. A teaching note is available for instructors. Soon after Pernod Ricard acquires Absolut vodka and other brands, the economic downturn results in changes in purchasing behavior away from premium to standard products. Brand managers consider whether to introduce a “basic” Absolut, promote a lower-priced alternative, or rebrand other vodkas under the Absolut brand to trade on its considerable brand equity.

This research seeks to investigate how in-store mobile use affects store loyalty directly or indirectly via the mediation of store value and whether social influence moderates such relationships.

Based on a sample of 862 actual customers from a market research company panel, we used structural equation modelling to test a series of research hypotheses.

The results show a positive but weak effect of in-store smartphone use on loyalty. This effect is significantly mediated by the store’s hedonic and symbolic value dimensions, but not by its utilitarian value. This research also uncovers significant moderation effects of social influence on the relationships investigated. The effect of in-store smartphone use on store loyalty is stronger when social influence is lower. However, the effects of hedonic and symbolic store value are stronger when social influence is higher.

This research is carried out in one country (France). It focuses on social influence through in-store mobile phone use; it would also be useful to consider physical social influence.

Retailers should position their stores on specific value dimensions and use social influence appropriately to improve loyalty. For instance, utilitarian value should be offered to customers with low social influence. To prevent negative social influence, retailers could develop “controlled” social influence through their own private mobile app to favour interaction.

This research underlines the critical role of store value and social influence on the relationships between smartphone use and store loyalty. It shows that the effects of value dimensions (utilitarian, hedonic and symbolic) on loyalty differ depending on social influence level.