Attributions and behavioral intentions of inexperienced salespersons to failure: An empirical investigation

The goal of this research was to determine how inexperienced sales representatives (rookies) interpret and respond to their sales failure situations. The authors studied 296 rookie financial services sales representatives'performance attributions for a previous unsuccessful sales interaction and their intended behaviors for a future, similar selling situation. This provided the authors the opportunity to compare their results with Dixon, Spiro and Jamil's (2001) findings for experienced sales representatives (veterans). In the event of a sales failure, rookies'responses do not parallel those of veterans. The results suggest that rookies are likely to engage in several inappropriate behaviors in response to failed sales encounters. Implications for managers and directions for future research are discussed. Andrea L. Dixon (Andrea. Dixon@uc.edu) (Ph.D., Indiana University) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on selling behaviors, team selling, integrating technology and personal selling, and the role of developmental relationships in enhancing creativity and productivity in the sales division. The primary focus of her research is improving the performance of sales representatives and the sales organization or unit. She has published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. She currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. Dixon is the vice chair for conference programming of the Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. Rosann L. Spiro (spiro@ indiana.edu), Ph. D., is a professor of marketing and chairperson of the Marketing Department at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where she teaches Sales Management, Personal Selling, International Marketing, Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy, and Managerial Research in Marketing. Her research interests focus on sales strategy, sales management, and personal selling. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Business, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. She currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management andMarketing Management. She is also a coauthor of a leading sales management text,Management of a Sales Force (11 th ed.). She formerly served as the chairperson of the Board of the American Marketing Association. Curtently she serves on an Advisory Board for the Univted States Bureau of Census and is the chair of the Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. Lukas P. Forbes (Lukas.Forbes@wku.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Gordon Ford College of Business at Western Kentucky University. He received his B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, his M.B.A. from worcester Polytechnic Institute, and is completing his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include personal selling, services, and product development. He has previously published in the American Marketing Association Educators and Frontiers in Services conference proceedings.     

Customer mind-set of employees throughout the organization

Previous research has provided strong evidence for the benefits of embracing a market orientation, an organizational focus highlighting the needs of customers, and the creation of customer value. This study extends this focus on the customer to the individual worker level. A construct, customer mind-set (CMS), is developed that reflects the extent to which an individual employee believes that understanding and satisfying customers, whether internal or external to the organization, is central to the proper execution of his or her job. In this exploratory study, the authors develop a parsimonious scale for measuring CMS. Relationships between CMS and significant organizational variables are examined to establish CMS's validity and provide some tentative insights into its value to researchers and practitioners. The authors believe the CMS construct will allow for operational-level analysis of the extent to which a customer orientation is embraced throughout an organization, permitting managers to implement targeted improvement strategies. Karen Norman Kennedy is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. Her research interests include customer orientation and cultural change in organizations, as well as the evolving role of customers and employees in today's marketplace. Her work has been published in theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Services Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, and theJournal of Marketing Education. Felicia G. Lassk is an assistant professor in the Marketing Group of Northeastern University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. Her research interests include customer orientation, salesperson job involvement, and measurement issues. Her articles have appeared in the theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, and theJournal of Marketing Education, among others. Jerry R. Goolsby is the Hilton/Baldridge Eminent Chair of Music Industry Studies at Loyola University New Orleans. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His research interests include issues related to market orientation and its implementation, customer and employee relationships, and sales interactions. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and other marketing journals.     

Managing culturally diverse buyer-seller relationships: The role of intercultural disposition and adaptive selling in developing intercultural communication competence

Given the increase in cultural diversity within marketing organizations as well as within current and potential customer bases, possessing the appropriate communication skills becomes crucial to success in managing culturally diverse relationships. Although marketing researchers have recognized the importance of adaptive selling behavior for successful buyer-seller relationships, the exploration of the intercultural aspects of these relationships has only recently begun. This article examines how adaptive selling behaviors and intercultural dispositions of marketing executives contribute to their perceived intercultural communication competence. Results show that in addition to being adaptive, the intercultural disposition of a marketer is of key importance in developing intercultural communication competence. Theoretical and practical implications for incorporating intercultural communication into the development of successful buyer-seller relationships are discussed. Victoria D. Bush (Ph.D., University of Memphis) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. Her research has appeared in such journals as theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, and theJournal of Services Marketing. Her research interests are in diversity, advertising, and ethics. Gregory M. Rose (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. His research interests include consumer socialization and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published or has forthcoming articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Marketing, and other journals and proceedings. Faye Gilbert (Ph.D., University of North Texas) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. She has published in theJournal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theJournal of Research in Pharmaceutical Economics, theJournal of Applied Business Research, theJournal of Marketing Management, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and theJournal of Marketing Education, among others. Her work emphasizes the application of consumer behavior theory to health care and to channel relationships. Thomas N. Ingram (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is a professor of marketing at Colorado State University. He has been honored as the Marketing Educator of the Year by Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) and as a recipient of the Mu Kappa Tau National Marketing Honor Society Recognition Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contributions to the Sales Discipline. He has served as the editor of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and is the current editor of theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice. His primary research is in personal selling and sales management. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others. He is the coauthor of three textbooks:Professional Selling: A Trust-Based Approach, Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making, andMarketing: Principles and Perspectives.     

An empirical test of trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships

This study examines three trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships. This study, based on a sample of more than 400 business-to-business salespeoples from a variety of industries, shows two trust-building processes (predictive and identification) to be significantly related to salesperson trust in the sales manager. Interpersonal trust was found to be most strongly related to shared values and respect. Trust was directly related to job satisfaction and relationalism, and indirectly related to organizational commitment and turnover intention. Thomas G. Brashear (brashear@mktg.umass.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. James S. Boles (jboles@gsu.edu) (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is an associate professor of marketing in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research has appeared in a variety of journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. His areas of research interest include personal selling, sales management, key and strategic account management, and business relationships. Danny N. Bellenger (mktdnb@langate.gsu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is currently chairman of the Marketing Department in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research has appeared in a number of academic journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Advertising Research, theCalifornia Management Review, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, and theJournal of Business Research. He has authored four monographs and four textbooks on marketing research, sales, and retailing. Charles M. Brooks (brooks@quinnipiac.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Marketing and Advertising at Quinnipiac University. His research has appeared in theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Retailing, Marketing Theory, and theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice.     

Relational communication traits and their effect on adaptiveness and sales performance

Two relational communication traits, communication apprehension and interaction involvement, are investigated within an adaptive selling framework to assess their impact on salesperson adaptiveness and sales performance. Using a sample of 239 insurance salespeople, results demonstrate that salespeople exhibiting lower levels of communication apprehension are more highly involved in communication interactions, and higher involvement facilitates increased adaptiveness and sales performance. This research highlights the importance of effective communication within sales interactions and offers suggestions to improve salesperson communication skill. Michael L. Boorom is an associate professor of marketing and associate dean of the school of business and public administration at California State University, San Bernardino. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. His research interests are salesperson and sales manager communication skills. His work has been published in theJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and several conferences. Jerry R. Goolsby is an associate professor of marketing at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His research interests include sales interactions and salesperson burnout and coping strategies. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and other marketing journals. Rosemary P. Ramsey is a professor and chair of the management and marketing department at Eastern Kentucky University. She earned her Ph.D. from University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include sales interactions and measurement issues. Her work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. andJournal of Marketing Education.     

Testing a negotiation model on Canadian Anglophone and Mexican exporters

In this study, the authors test a previously developed model of negotiations. The structural equations model focuses on the antecedents of problem-solving behaviors and negotiators’ satisfaction. The replication uses two new groups of businesspeople—Canadian Anglophone and Mexican industrial exporters. Similarities and differences in model fit were discovered across the two groups of exporters. Results validated the importance of reciprocity as a social construct in cross-cultural negotiations. The problemsolving behaviors of Canadian and Mexicans were found to be a function of their perceptions of the counterparts’ strategy. Mexicans’ problem-solving behaviors subsequently influenced their expressed satisfaction with outcomes. The impact of bargainer and organizational characteristics varied across the two groups. Alma Mintu-Wimsatt (alma_wimsatt@tamu-commerce.edu), Ph.D., is a professor of marketing in the College of Business and Technology at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Her research focuses on international negotiations, cross-cultural buyer-seller relationships, and technology-mediated learning. She has published inManagement Science, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, andThunderbird International Business Review. She received her degree from the University of Kentucky. John L. Graham (jgraham@uci.edu), Ph.D., is a professor of marketing and international business in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine. His primary area of research has been on international negotiations. He has published extensively in both academic and management journals including theHarvard Business Review, theColumbia Journal of World Business, theJournal of Marketing, Marketing Science, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of International Business Studies, and theJournal of Higher Education. His research has also been the subject of articles published inThe Smithsonian, Chronicle of Higher Education, and theLos Angeles Times. He received his degree from the University of California, Berkeley.     

A cross-national model of job-related outcomes of work role and family role variables: A retail sales context

This article proposes a model of job-related outcomes of four role variables in a retail sales context: work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), work role conflict (RC), and work role ambiguity (RA). We tested the applicability of the model with three cross-national samples, that is, the United States, Puerto Rico, and Romania, and the results revealed that the model's measures and effects are mostly similar across samples. It was also posited and mostly supported that the effects that WFC and FWC have on the job-related outcomes are greater than the effects of RC and RA. Implications concerning the effects of role variables for international retail managers are offered. Richard G. Netemeyer (rgn3p@forbes2.comm.virginia.edu) is a professor of marketing in the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of South Carolina in 1986. His research interests are primarily consumer behavior and organizationbehavior issues. His research has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and others. Thomas Brashear-Alejandro (brashear@mktg.umass.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an associate professor of marketing in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His research has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of academic journals, including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and theJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing. James S. Boles (JBoles@gsu.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at Georgia State University (GSU). He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. His research has appeared in a variety of journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. His areas of research interest include personal selling, sales management, key and strategic account management, and business relationships.     

Goal-setting paradoxes? Trade-offs between working hard and working smart: The United States versus China

This article proposes a model of the impact of goal difficulty and goal specificity on selling behaviors (selling effort, adaptive selling, and sales planning) and hence sales and behavior performance. The model suggests that goal-setting factors may have opposing effects on different sales behaviors. The empirical findings suggest that goal difficulty positively influences selling effort while negatively influencing adaptive selling behaviors. The results show that goal difficulty and goal specificity both have opposite effects on the two dimensions of working smart: adaptive selling and sales planning. The findings support the need for sales managers to account for the cultural context of the salesperson when determining optimal goal-setting strategies. With data collected from salespeople in the United States and China, the cross-cultural differences regarding the effects of goal-setting factors are also proposed and empirically supported. Eric Fang (efe92@mizzou.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at Seattle University. His current research interests are in the areas of relationship marketing in business-to-business context, markting strategy, and international marketing. He has articles published and accepted at theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of International Marketing, andAdvances in International Marketing. Robert W. Palmatier (rpalmatier@missouri.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Georgia State University. He has 15 years of professional work exprience, including various sales and marketing and senior executive positions in the United States and Europe. His current research interests are in relationship marketing and value-creation strategies focused in a business-to-business and channels context. Kenneth R. Evans (evansk@missouri.edu), Ph.D., is a professor of marketing and associate dean of graduate studies in the College of Business at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He holds the Pinkney C. Walker Professorship in Teaching Excellence. His research interests are in the areas of marketing management, sales/sales management, marketing theory, and services marketing. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Advertising, to name but a few. In addition, he has a number of articles that have been published in proceedings and presented at national conferences. He is either a member of the editorial review boards or serves in an ad hoc reviewer capacity for a variety of journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. He currently serves as the associate editor of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.     

The effects of extrinsic product cues on consumers’ perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and value

The authors report the results of two experiments designed to test the effects of extrinsic cues—price, brand name, store name, and country of origin—on consumers’ perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and value. The results of the experiments support hypothesized linkages between (a) each of the four experimentally manipulated extrinsic cues and perceived quality, (b) price and perceived sacrifice, (c) perceived quality and perceived value, and (d) perceived sacrifice and perceived value. The results also indicate that the linkages between the extrinsic cues and perceived value are mediated by perceived quality and sacrifice. R. Kenneth Teas is a distinguished professor of business in the Department of Marketing, College of Business, Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. His areas of research include consumer behavior and decision processes, marketing research methods, services marketing, and sales force management. His articles have been published in numerous journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theAmerican Journal of Agricultural Economics, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Occupational Psychology, andIndustrial Marketing Management. Sanjeev Agarwal is an associate professor in the Department of Marketing, College of Business, Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. His areas of research include multinational marketing strategies, modes of foreign market entry, and sales force management. His articles have been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of International Business Studies, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.     

Driving organizational citizenship behaviors and salesperson in-role behavior performance: The role of management control and perceived organizational support

Interest in management control approaches and organizational factors associated with higher levels of salesperson performance is reflected in research streams concerned with behavior-based control strategies and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). This study makes two distinct additions to the literature relating to control, organizational citizenship behaviors and salesperson performance. First, the study distinguishes between salesperson in-role behavior performance and outcome performance to model in-role behavior performance as a mediator between OCB and outcome performance. Second, the work supports sales manager control as an antecedent to OCB. A second model introduces perceived organizational support (POS) as an additional antecedent to salesperson OCB, and more important, as a consequence of sales manager control. This construct has not been included in prior salesperson OCB studies. Results show sales manage control has a stronger impact on OCB through POS, than directly, and POS has a strong impact on salesperson OCB. Nigel F. Piercy (Nigel.Piercy@wbs.ac.uk) is a professor of marketing in the Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wales and a higher doctorate (D.Litt) from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. His current research interests focus on strategic sales and account management. His work has been published in many journals including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of International Marketing, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is coauthor to David Cravens onStrategic Marketing (8th ed., Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2006). David W. Cravens (D.Cravens@tcu.edu) holds the Eunice and James L. West Chair of American Enterprise Studies and is a professor of marketing in the M. J. Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas. He has a doctorate in business administration from Indiana University. His areas of specialization include marketing strategy and planning, sales management, and new product planning. His research has been published in a wide range of journals including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theInternational Journal of Marketing. Nikala Lane (Nikala.Lane@wbs.ac.uk) is a senior lecturer in marketing in the Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wales and was previously a senior research associate at Cardiff University. Her research interests are focused on gender and ethics issues in sales and marketing management. Her work has been published widely in the international literature and includes articles in theJournal of Management Studies, theBritish Journal of Management, the Journal of Business Ethics, and theJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. Douglas W. Vorhies (dvorhies@bus.olemiss.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi. His primary research interests are in the areas of marketing strategy, marketing resources and capabilities, the links between innovation, strategic market management and performance, and professional selling and sales management. His other work has been published in many journals including theJournal of Marketing, Decision Sciences, theJournal of Product Innovation Management, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.     

The effects of downsizing on organizational buying behavior: An empirical investigation

To survive in today’s highly competitive markets, many firms are initiating fundamental changes in organizational form and practice. These restructuring efforts are having significant effects on the organization and management of work within customer firms. However, these important changes have been largely ignored in the extant marketing literature. The research presented in this article first describes a general theory of the effects of organizational downsizing. Then, it examines the potential effects of downsizing on buying center structure and purchase participant characteristics. Findings support several of the hypotheses related to the proposed effects of organizational downsizing on the outcome variables of interest. Jeffrey E. Lewin (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an assistant professor and Chair, Department of Marketing at Western Carolina University. His research interests include business-to-business marketing, relationship marketing, personal selling and sales management, and organizational buying behavior. His work has been published in theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing, and other publications. He serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Business Research and theJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing and is a reviewer for theJournal of Business-to-Business Marketing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, andIndustrial Marketing Management.     

The impact of sales management changes on new product success

Although the role of the sales force and sales management mix can be significant in influencing successful new product launch, the impact of specific sales management programs and tactics has not been examined in detail. This study explores whether firms that introduce new products were more successful in achieving their objectives when the new product introduction was accompanied by associated changes in sales management mix variables. Firms that were more successful in achieving their new product objectives accompanied their new product launches with significantly more changes in sales force quotas than did firms whose achievement of new product objectives was less successful. However, no significant differences in the number of changes in sales force structure, training, or sales support were found between firms with more successful versus less successful new products. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She began her career as a chemist and has held research, sales, product management, and marketing management positions prior to entering academia. The major focus of her research is on the process of developing and marketing new products. Her articles have appeared in theJournal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, andIndustrial Marketing Management. He has written numerous books and articles in professional journals and is the former editor ofJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. He serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, andJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing and has been a consultant to many business and government organizations.     

Linking employee confidence to performance: A study of self-managing service teams

The increasing implementation of self-managing teams (SMTs) in service delivery suggests the importance of developing confidence beliefs about a team’s collective competence. This research examined causality in the linkage between employee confidence beliefs and performance for boundary-spanning SMTs delivering financial services. The authors distinguish between task-specific (i.e., team efficacy) and generalized (i.e., group potency) employee confidence, as well as between customer-based (i.e., customer-perceived service quality) and financial (i.e., service revenues) performance. They analyzed employee and customer survey data as well as financial performance data from 51 SMTs at two points in time using lagged analyses. The findings reveal divergent results for team efficacy and group potency, suggesting that team efficacy has reciprocal, causal relationships with service revenues and customer-perceived service quality. In contrast, group potency has no causal relationship with service revenues. Finally, customer-perceived service quality predicts group potency, whereas no evidence for the reverse effect is provided. Ad de Jong (a.d.jong@tm.tue.nl) is an assistant professor in the Department of Organization Science & Marketing, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. His main research interests are service marketing and management, the service-profit chain, multilevel theory and research, and multichannel research. He has published in journals such asManagement Science, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, Decision Sciences, theJournal of Management Studies, and theJournal of Service Research, as well as many conference proceedings. Ko de Ruyter (k.deruyter@mw.unimaas.nl) is a professor of marketing and head of the Department of Marketing at Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands. He has published six books and numerous scholarly articles in, among others, theJournal of Marketing, Management Science, theJournal of Retailing, theInternational Journal of Research in Marketing, Decision Sciences, Marketing Letters, theJournal of Management Studies, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Economic Psychology, theJournal of Service Research, theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management, Information and Management, theEuropean Journal of Marketing and Accounting, andOrganisation andSociety. He serves on the editorial boards of various international academic journals, including theJournal of Service Research and theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management. His research interests concern international service management, e-commerce, and customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Martin Wetzels (m.wetzels@mw.unimaas.nl) is a professor of marketing and supply chain research in the Department of Marketing at Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands. His main research interests are customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, customer value, services marketing, business-to-business marketing, (online) marketing research, supply chain management, cross-functional cooperation, e-commerce, new product development, technology infusion in services, and relationship marketing. His work has been published inManagement Science, Marketing Letters, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Interactive Marketing, theJournal of Economic Psychology, Industrial Marketing Management, theEuropean Journal of Marketing, theJournal of Management Studies, andTotal Quality Management. He has contributed more than 60 papers to conference proceedings.     

Psychological climate, empowerment, leadership style, and customer-oriented selling: An analysis of the sales manager-salesperson dyad

This study examined antecedents and performancerelated consequences of customer-oriented selling. The antecedents include sales managers’ leadership styles, psychological empowerment, and the psychological climates of organizations. Data were gathered on two separate performance outcome measures. Responses from 106 sales managers and 313 sales representatives were analyzed. The results indicate that transformational leadership, empowerment, and specific components of the psychological climate are important predictors of customer-oriented selling. Craig A. Martin (craig.martin@wku.edu), PhD, is an assistant professor of marketing in the Department of Marketing at Western Kentucky University. He received his PhD from the University of Memphis. He specializes in sales and sales management, the consumer socialization of adolescents, sports marketing, and advertising to adolescents. He has had research accepted for publication in theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Consumer Marketing, theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, theMarketing Management Journal, theInternational Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, theInternational Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, and multiple national and regional conferences. Alan J. Bush (alanbush@memphis.edu), PhD, is a professor of marketing in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at the University of Memphis. He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. His current research interests are primarily sales force research and sports marketing. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and others.     

Service failure and recovery: The impact of relationship factors on customer satisfaction

This research investigated how customers' relationships with a service organization affect their reactions to service failure and recovery. Our conceptual model proposed that customer-organizational relationships help to shape customers' attributions and expectations when service failures occur. The empirical results showed that customers with higher expectations of relationship continuity had lower service recovery expectations after a service failure and also attributed that failure to a less stable cause. Both the lower recovery expectations and the lower stability attributions were associated with greater satisfaction with the service performance after the recovery. These effects appeared to be key processes by which relationships buffer service organizations when service failures occur. Ronald L. Hess Jr. (ron. hess@business.wm.edu) (Ph.D., Virginia Tech) is currently an assistant professor of marketing at the College of William & Mary. His research interests include customer responses to service and product failures; organizational complaint handling; and customer assessments of satisfaction, loyalty, and service quality. He has published his research inMarketing Letters and several conference proceedings. Shankar Ganesan (sganesan @bpa.arizona.edu) (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an associate professor of marketing and Lisle and Rosslyn Payne Fellow in Marketing at the Eller College of Business and Public Administration, University of Arizona. His research interests focus on the areas of interorganizational relationships, buyer-seller negotiations, service failure and recovery, new product innovation, and E-marketing. He is the author of several articles that have appeared in leading academic journals, including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. He currently serves on the editorial review board of theJournal of Marketing Research and theJournal of Marketing. Noreen M. Klein (nklein@vt.edu) (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is currently an associate professor of marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research interests include consumer decision making and the behavioral aspects of pricing, and her research has been published in the theJournal of Consumer Research, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Making, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science.     

Retrospective and prospective views on the marketing/finance interface

This article introduces the special issue of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science on the marketing/finance interface. In addition to previewing the nine subsequent articles in the special issue, it surveys early research on, suggests the scholarly foundations of, and recommends future directions for this boundary-spanning research domain. Michael R. Hyman (mhyman@nmsu.edu) (B.S., University of Maryland; M.S.M. and Ph.D., Purdue University) is Wells Fargo Professor of Marketing at New Mexico State University (http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~mktgwww/hyman). He serves on seven editorial review boards, including theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Advertising. His scholarly work has appeared in journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Advertising, the Journal of Business Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theInternational Journal of Advertising, theJournal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Business Horizons, theJournal of Business Ethics, andMarketing Education Review. His research interests include the effect of advertising on consumers, marketing ethics, marketing theory, and knowledge acquisition in academia. Ike Mathur (imathur@cba.siu.edu) is a professor of finance at Southern Illinois University. He has served as interim dean for the College of Business, chair of the Department of Finance, and director of Doctoral Programs, all at Southern Illinois University. He is the author or coauthor of more than 100 articles and 14 books. He has published in theJournal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, theJournal of Banking and Finance, theJournal of International Money and Finance, theJournal of Futures Markets, Economic Letters, theJournal of International Business Studies, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Business, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, and theJournal of Macromarketing. Two of his recent books areEuropean Equity Markets and Corporate Financial Decisions andWealth Creation in Eastern Europe. He serves on the editorial board of a number of journals and is the editor of theJournal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money and theJournal of Multinational Financial Management.     

Social values and salesperson performance: An empirical examination

Although social values have been used increasingly in consumer research, their utility in sales management research has received little attention. Using a national sample of industrial salespeople, the authors evaluate several hypotheses, developed from social adaptation theory and a theoretical framework of values domain, regarding the incremental ability of the List of Values (LOV) to predict salesperson performance beyond adaptive selling (ADAPTS) and customer orientation (SOCO). The LOV shows promise as a tool by which salesperson performance can be predicted. Managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Oregon. His experience includes five years in sales and sales management with Xerox and Digital Equipment Corporation. His research interests include sales force management and marketing strategy. He has published in theReview of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Forecasting, Journal of Marketing Education, and other journals. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Oregon. His current research interests include issues in cross-cultural marketing strategy, global and domestic sales force management, and research methodology. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Marketing Education, and other journals.     

Family structure,materialism, and compulsive buying: A reinquiry and extension

The present study represents a reinquiry and extension of Rindfleisch, Burroughs, and Denton's (1997) foundational study concerning the impact of family structure on materialism and compulsive buying in young adults. In addition to reexamining the relationships specified in the Rindfleisch et al. study, the authors of this study also examine additional and/or different relationships. The findings of their reinquiry include the following: (1) family structure is positively related to the happiness dimension of materialism; (2) the predicted direct effect of family structure on compulsive buying was not supported, suggesting that divorce may not affect compulsive buying until early adulthood; and (3) the mediating roles of family stressors and family resources, and the moderating role of socioeconomic status may require additional investigation. Directions for future research in this nascent area of inquiry are offered. James A. Roberts (jim_Roberts@baylor.edu) (Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln) is the W. A. Mays Professor of Entrepreneurship and associate professor of marketing at Baylor University. He has had articles published in numerous journals including theJournal of Consumer Affairs, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, Business Horizons, Psychological Reports, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, theJournal of International Consumer Marketing, theJournal of Social Behavior and Personality, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Managerial Issues, theEducation Review, theJournal of Marketing Management, and various conference proceedings. Areas of research include selling and sales force management, compulsive buying, socially and ecologically conscious consumer behavior, and advertising-related issues. Current research efforts focus on the marketing/entrepreneurship interface. Chris Manolis (manolis@xavier.edu) is an associate professor of marketing at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, and his research interests include the study of psychological and behavioral processes of exchange participants and various methodological/empirical research issues. His research has appeared in a number of journals, including theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Consumer Marketing, theJournal of Services Marketing, Basic and Applied Social Psychology, andStructural Equation Modeling. Joh F.(Jeff) Tanner Jr. (jeff_tanner@baylor.edu) (Ph.D.,University of Georgia) serves as associate dean at Baylor University. His research interests are the use of marketing technology to promote responsible behavior and customer relationship management. He has published research in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, and others.     

The impact of suppliers' perceptions of reseller market orientation on key relationship constructs

A number of researchers have reported the positive benefits of creating and maintaining a market orientation. This study is one of the first to explicitly investigate the effects of market orientation within a channel context. It is proposed that a supplier's perceptions of a reseller's market orientation will positively affect the supplier's perceptions of certain key relationship marketing constructs. Data collected from 380 suppliers were used to test the hypotheses. All hypotheses were supported. Thomas L. Baker is an associate professor of marketing in the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He was awarded his doctorate in 1990 from Florida State University. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Research, and other journals as well as international, national, and regional proceedings. Penny M. Simpson is an associate professor of marketing and the David D. Morgan Professor of Marketing at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. She was awarded her doctorate in 1991 from Louisiana Tech University. Her research interests include channel relationships, market orientation, and advertising effectiveness. Her articles have been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Psychological Reports, and other journals and proceedings. Judy A. Siguaw is an associate professor of marketing at Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration. She was awarded her doctorate in 1991 from Louisiana Tech University. She has published in numerous journals, including theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, andIndustrial Marketing Management. She has also published many conference proceedings, including those for the Academy of Marketing Science, the American Marketing Association, and the European Marketing Academy.