Reducing salesperson job stress and unethical intent: The influence of leader-member exchange relationship,socialization and ethical ambiguity

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to better understand the role of LMX relationship in the business-to-business ethical decision making process. Drawing on leadership and ethical decision making theory, this paper develops and tests a model that examines the relationships among LMX, work-group socialization, ethical ambiguity, job stress and unethical intention in the salesforce.Design/methodology/approachThe sample includes 408 business-to-business salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to test the study's hypotheses.FindingsFindings suggest that LMX relationship quality directly affects ethical ambiguity, work-group socialization and unethical intent. Work-group socialization is related to ethical ambiguity, which affects job stress. Job stress is positively related to unethical intent.Research implicationsEmpirical tests support six of eight hypotheses and suggest managerial implications and directions for future research.Originality/valueThis paper develops and tests a model that examines the relationships among constructs not previously examined, as they relate to LMX and ethical decision making.     

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack: How to Search for Bottom‐Up Social Innovations that Solve Complex Humanitarian Problems

The worldwide increase in societal challenges is putting pressure on humanitarian organizations to develop sophisticated approaches to leverage social innovations in the humanitarian sector. Since humanitarian problems are complex problems, with the relevant knowledge being hidden, organizational search theory advocates the application of bottom‐up and theory‐guided search processes to identify the social innovations that solve these. Unfortunately, there has been no theoretical attention to understanding which approaches apply in this context. Further, established theory‐guided bottom‐up search processes, such as the lead user method, are unsuitable to the humanitarian sector, and we lack practice examples of adequate search processes. To start addressing this gap in theory and practice, procedural action research was done with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to develop a theory‐guided bottom‐up innovation search process for the real‐life humanitarian problem of recurring floods in Indonesia. It revealed that an innovation search process for this context must differ significantly concerning its objectives and the steps to be taken from the lead user method, which was used as a starting point. Further, a comparison of the technical quality and the social impacts of the identified social innovations with social innovations identified through a non‐theory‐guided bottom‐up search process (i.e., an innovation contest) suggests the superiority of this theory‐guided search process. With this conclusion and the insights derived throughout the development of the search process, this study makes important contributions to theory development in the social and open innovation literatures and delivers important recommendations for social innovation practice in the humanitarian sector.     

The effect of within‐industry diversification on firm performance: synergy creation,multi‐market contact and market structuration

This paper examines the effect of diversification upon intra‐industry performance. We propose that intra‐industry diversification promises three sets of benefits, which, separately and in combination, provide firms with a competitive advantage: synergies arising from economies of scope; premiums from mutual forbearance enabled by multi‐market competition; and efficiencies derived from market structuration. The additive and integrative effects of the first two have not been explored. The benefits of market structuration remain untheorized and thus untested. The test of our theoretical model in the Canadian general insurance industry indicates that mutual forbearance provides advantage under specified conditions, that market structuration also provides advantages, but that diversification per se does not. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Competition network structure and product market entry

This study proposes and tests a theory of the effects of competition network structure on product market entry. Competition networks are defined as the patterns of interdependence between rivals that emerge from direct competition. Studying networks based on competitive interdependence allows us to extend social network theory to new territory and to enhance our understanding of product market entry. We propose that the size, interconnectedness and diversity of competition networks influence subsequent product market entry in a systemic way. We test our hypotheses in a unique dataset drawn from the aircraft modification industry. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Customer relationship management processes: How faithful are business-to-business firms to customer profitability?

Marketing academicians and practitioners have over the past decade advocated the implementation of customer equity principles within firms. This article draws on adaptive structuration theory to frame the faithfulness of firms to acquiring and maintaining customers according to their profit potential. Using survey data from 158 business units engaged in business-to-business sales, this article examines the motivational effects of market growth rate and customization requirements, and the technology and information integration capabilities of the firm as determinants of firm adherence to treating customers according to their profitability. The study finds that firms are better at maintaining customers according to their profit potential than acquiring customers according to their profit potential. Further, maintenance faithfulness appears to have more ultimate impact on firm performance. The study suggests that pursuing customer profitability has limited effectiveness unless accompanied by a broader range of initiatives aimed at making the firm more customer-focused.     

An investigation into the role of IT integration,relationship predictability and routinization in interfirm relationships: From the structuration perspective

Recognizing the influence of information technology (IT) in interfirm buyer–seller relationships, the authors draw on structuration theory and its extension as a theoretical basis for understanding the benefits of IT in customer relationships. The authors propose that IT integration gives rise to certain factors in interfirm relationships, i.e., predictability and routinization, which facilitate high quality relationships, i.e., those characterized by reciprocity and stability, which in turn enhance firm performance. Hypotheses are tested on data collected from 152 firms. The results show that relationship predictability is critical in linking IT integration to positive relationship outcomes, and that routinization reinforces the impact on those outcomes.     

Open innovation ecosystem organizing from a process view: a longitudinal study in the making of an innovation hub

This paper uses process theory as a theoretical lens to analyze AstraZeneca's enactment of an open innovation initiative with the purpose of strengthening the firm's surrounding innovation ecosystem. Based on empirical data collected over 7 years, we develop a process model of open innovation enactment and explain how the initiative gradually transformed while maintaining its guiding principles, which were set from the start. In applying a process perspective, we highlight open innovation initiatives as dynamic and evolutionary – but not deterministic – developments. As such, we provide a comprehensive and more nuanced understanding of not only what open innovation is but also how it becomes. This study also contributes to the innovation ecosystem literature by theorizing how firms orchestrate innovation ecosystems through open innovation initiatives over time.     

Studying the antecedents and outcome of social media use by salespeople using a MOA framework

The innovative impact of digital technologies on sales forces is largely unexplored. Particularly, the understanding of drivers of social media use by salespeople remains fragmented and scant. Drawing on motivation-opportunity-ability theory, this study develops an integrative framework. The individual's opportunities to use social media, including perceptions about market readiness, peer influence, and organizational support are considered as important antecedents of individuals' motivation (perceived usefulness) and ability (perceived ability to integrate social media in the sales tasks) to use social media in their job. Next to a positive effect of social media use on sales performance also a potential negative impact through distraction is accounted for. The framework and hypotheses are tested using a sample of 345 salespeople. The results largely support the model and hypotheses. Market readiness, peer influence, and organizational support positively affect salesperson motivation, and except for organizational support, the individual's ability to integrate social media in his/her sales job too. Findings further show that motivation and ability together drive social media use in sales, but that a lack of ability shuts down the positive influence of motivation on social media use. Finally, a positive effect of social media use on sales performance is detected, suggesting that social media can be an important tool to enhance sales growth. Support for a dark side effect of social media is not found.     

Why do venture capital firms exist: An institution-based rent-seeking perspective and Chinese evidence

This paper is a theory development to Amit, Brander, and Zott (1998, Journal of Business Venturing, 13: 441-466) on the nature of venture capital firms. In their paper, the authors argue that venture capital firms exist because they fill a market niche by developing the ability to overcome extreme information asymmetry embedded in high-risk entrepreneurial firms. However, this theory encounters difficulties in explaining a variety of organizational and behavioral divides among venture capitalists in different contexts and over time. In this paper, we apply the institution-based view to reveal the nature of venture capital. We argue that it is the venture capitalists’ capability to capture economic rents from the institutional environment that distinguish them from other financial intermediaries. We show the connection of our perspective with the conventional view as well as the usefulness of this theory in explaining the development of the venture capital industry in China.     

B2B social media semantics: Analysing multimodal online meanings in marketing conversations

There are theoretical and methodological gaps in the B2B social media marketing communications literature. As a consequence, there is a need for new approaches that provide a comprehensive understanding of how B2B online marketing posts create virtual conversations and the types of meanings these linked communication events construct and convey, particularly as these message are often distributed across multiple social media platforms. This paper presents a Social Semiotic Multimodal (SSMM) framework that attempts to address shortfalls in theory and method conceptualisation of social media communications. This framework employs multimodal extensions to systemic functional linguistics enabling it to be applying to analysing non-language as well as language constituents of social media messages. Furthermore the framework also utilises expansion theory to identify, categorise and analyse various marketing communication resources associated with marketing messages and also to reveal how conversations are chained together to form extended online marketing conversations. This semantic approach is exemplified using a Fairtrade Australia B2B case study demonstrating how marketing conversations can be mapped and analysed. The framework emphasises the importance of acknowledging the impact of all stakeholders, particularly messages that may distract or confuse the original purpose of the conversation.     

Structural vs. relational embeddedness: social capital and managerial performance

This paper examines the impact of managers' social capital on managerial performance. Two dimensions of social capital are compared—the structural embeddedness (i.e., configuration) of a manager's network of work relations and the relational embeddedness (i.e., quality) of those relations. Based on a sample of 120 product and sales managers in a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical firm, this paper presents evidence indicating that both elements of social capital influence managerial performance, although in distinct ways: structural embeddedness plays a stronger role in explaining more routine, execution‐oriented tasks (managerial sales performance), whereas relational embeddedness plays a stronger role in explaining new, innovation‐oriented tasks (managerial performance in product and process innovation). This research considers resource exchanges within firms as key to value creating behaviors and contributes a deeper understanding of how social capital influences productive resource exchanges. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The fog of feedback: Ambiguity and firm responses to multiple aspiration levels

This study examines firms' responses to performance assessments relative to multiple aspiration levels. We argue that comparisons of performance to multiple aspiration levels over time affects the interpretative clarity of feedback and, consequently, shapes a firm's responsiveness. We further conceptualize the relationship between performance relative to social and historical aspirations as ambiguous, inconsistent, and consistent performance feedback. Empirically, we examine the effects—on firms' responsiveness—of weak, negative, and positive correlations between performance relative to social and historical aspirations, where responsiveness is measured in terms of new product introductions. We find that both inconsistent and consistent feedback increase a firm's responsiveness, whereas ambiguous feedback dampens responsiveness. Our focus on this type of feedback ambiguity is novel, and it establishes the functional form of the relationship between feedback clarity/ambiguity and responsiveness. This paper augments the behavioral theory of the firm and research on performance feedback; it also extends previous work on ambiguity in strategic decision making. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A NICE agenda for IMP research

The IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) Group has engaged in a number of interesting developments in the past few years. Particularly adventurous have been the agendas of ‘pictures’ and sense-making and of time. In this paper we argue that borrowing and combining contemporary foci within social science on narratives, identity, culture and epoché temporality (for which we use the acronym N.I.C.E) allows the construction of an approach that can integrate these IMP agendas into a new research direction for the group that will keep it at the leading edge of marketing research. The purpose of our paper is to introduce and integrate discursive and temporal elements into the understanding and research of business networks to develop a more dynamic and hermeneutic approach. Our purpose is to provide a contribution to the field in exploring how identities are formed within business networks through narrative episodes in interconnecting relationships over time. We bring together all of the elements of a NICE agenda in an attempt to provide an integrative, ‘multi-lens’ theory of business networks focussed within the IMP research tradition. In doing so, we construct meaning as itself networked; sense-making involves relating presently narrated episodes to symbolic and material aspects of other narrative network episodes and events through emplotment and storying.     

“Let’s Bid!” - A modular activity to promote interest in engineering economy

Abstract

This article presents a modular activity designed to promote interest and understanding of engineering economics concepts in a complex environment. Through a competition game, called “Let’s Bid!”, the students are able to understand the relationship between technological characteristics and supply and demand equilibrium in electricity markets, and discuss how uncertainty impacts investments in generation capacity and firm pricing strategies. This innovative teaching method was implemented in middle school, high school, and undergraduate college settings. Each implementation took less 60?minutes, and resulted in a strong student interest and understanding of engineering economics concepts (i.e., supply-demand equilibrium, risk, and markets).     

Same but different? Similarities and fundamental differences of informal social networks in China (<Emphasis Type="Italic">guanxi</Emphasis>) and Korea (<Emphasis Type="Italic">yongo</Emphasis>)

This research reports on the similarities and distinctive differences between informal social networks in China (guanxi) and Korea (yongo). Within an analytical framework derived from social capital and institutional theory, the structural forms and characteristics of both network forms are compared. Although we observe some similarities, surprisingly, the two networks show several fundamental differences. Both are society-spanning constructs, developed and maintained by reciprocal action that creates trust and trustworthiness, and serve as a major factor in network cohesion. Both networks are relatively closed or inaccessible to outsiders, with insiders able to connect other insiders to each other (i.e., internal bridging of structural holes). However, guanxi can be characterized as being utilitarian (purpose-based), whereas yongo in principle describes cause-based ties. Furthermore, guanxi networks are somewhat accessible to outsiders and draw on a diverse base of ties; yongo networks are predefined, partly by birth, and are hence homogeneous and highly exclusive. Guanxi networks can benefit from spillover effects through bridging different networks; yongo networks often cannot, as there is antipathy, competition, and potential hostility between certain types of networks. The results add knowledge to social network theory in general and in particular on informal social networks in East Asia.     

Understanding the service infusion process as a business model reconfiguration

This study conceptualizes service infusion as a business model reconfiguration by using a process perspective. Service infusion is therefore understood as a process affecting the business model dimensions of transaction content, structure, and governance. The service-related reconfiguration of the business model is explained by underlying knowledge conversion mechanisms, which provide insights into the development of reconfiguration capacities as important enablers for business model change. Furthermore, this study introduces the concept of service defusion as an important counterpart to service infusion. Both concepts together are found to fully capture firms' strategic options with respect to their service offering components (transaction content), their engagement with, and disengagement from, important business partners (transaction structure), and also their interactions with these important business partners (transaction governance). The conceptually derived understanding of the service infusion process and mechanisms are exemplified via a multi-actor longitudinal illustrative case study. A conceptual grounding for understanding service infusion processes for further theory and concept development is provided, and managers gain an understanding of how to effectively manage the processes underlying service-related business model reconfigurations.     

The ‘visible hand’ behind cooperation in franchising: A model of franchisor practices that influence cooperation within social networks

Although scholars recognise that social networks within marketing channels can enhance cooperation (the implementation of joint goals), research provides a deficient understanding of how suppliers can efficiently manage them. Our study investigates the ‘visible hand’ behind franchising cooperation by asking: How do franchisors build cooperation within franchise systems? Using multiple case study research on retail franchises recognised for high-quality cooperation, our study builds a model of how franchisor practices maintain and increase cohesive ties that foster cooperation within the franchising community; a type of social network nested within the franchise system. This model is underpinned by social capital theory, self-categorisation theory, and the constructs relational norms and behaviour from research on marketing channels. Our study provides insight into the key organisational, social network, and individual agency drivers of cooperation within branding marketing channels. This provides an understanding of: 1) how centralised organisational practices interact with individual agency to maintain efficient cooperation, and 2) heterarchical processes to improve cooperation efficiency.     

Game-theoretic modeling of pre-disaster relocation

Abstract

Sea-level rise due to climate change is clearly an important problem. This paper uses game theory in conjunction with discounting to explore strategies by which governments might encourage pre-disaster relocation by residents living in areas at high risk of flooding due to sea-level rise. We find that offering a subsidy (e.g., a partial buyout) can be effective if government has a significantly lower discount rate than residents. We also present extensions to our model, exploring the use of a fixed annual benefit after relocation (instead of a one-time subsidy), and hyperbolic instead of standard exponential discounting. Numerical sensitivity analysis elucidates many important factors affecting the timing of anticipatory relocation, since for example relocating too soon may be costly to both residents and government if flooding risk is increasing only gradually. This conceptual model also provides a foundation for future studies that quantify the model with more realistic parameter values (e.g., realistic estimates of flooding probabilities), and alternative behavioral models of resident decision making.     

Temporality in business networks: The role of narratives and management technologies

This paper addresses the nature of temporality in business networks. Approaches to temporality generally employ a dualistic approach: time can be understood as social and natural, tensed and untensed, subjective and objective, kairos or chronos, agency and structure. We examine these two approaches and suggest that the problem for situated actors is how to cope with and negotiate with these dualities. This is particularly salient in cases of innovation, when actors attempt to bring about their particular versions of the future facing acute problems of uncertainty. The innovation literature highlights the role of narrative in helping actors to negotiate uncertainty and construct spaces for action in a world of continuous flow. The emphasis on narrative tends to obscure the role of management technologies in anchoring narratives into existing routines and procedures as well as relate these technologies to the untensed world of chronos. Management technologies help stabilise entities and relationship amongst entities in what otherwise is a chaotic world of events and flux.     

From developmental to network state: Government restructuring and ICT-led innovation in Korea

This study examines the government leadership and strategic restructuring that guided The Republic of Korea's remarkable ICT-led development from 1980 to the present. That time span coincided with tumultuous political, social and economic transformation inside Korea including the growth of such powerful chaebol industry groups as Samsung, LG and SK. Globally, the period covered by this study featured the growth of new and more powerful digital networks epitomized by the internet. It also marked South Korea's transition from a development to a network state, allowing assessment of what the experience implies for developmental state theory.