Developing the organization's sensemaking capability: Precursor to an adaptive strategic marketing response

Effective strategic planning demands that organizations develop an understanding of the forces shaping the situation by engaging the collective efforts and interpretive capabilities of various representatives of the organization. This study investigates the mechanisms by which such an understanding develops and, subsequently, shapes marketing strategy. Specifically, organizations are examined as sensemaking units stimulated by perceived environmental turbulence, cultural open-mindedness, and team functional diversity. These factors are modeled as determinants of an organization's sensemaking capability, which is comprised of communicative, interpretive, and analytical dimensions. This study argues that a developed sensemaking capability increases the potential range of strategic responses and, ultimately, enhances customer-based performance. The results from a sample of wholesale distributors suggest that organizations that maintain greater internal variety are better able to sense and respond to the environment.     

The impacts of marketing and operations capabilities on financial performance in the UK retail sector: A resource-based perspective

Drawing upon the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this study investigates the relationships among marketing capability, operations capability, and financial performance. Using archival data of 186 retail firms in the UK, we find that that marketing capability has a significant impact on operations capability, and that operations capability is significantly and positively related to retail efficiency. The results also suggest that operations capability fully mediates the relationship between marketing capability and financial performance. The findings of this study provide practical insights for practicing managers to consider when developing functional capabilities in order to achieve superior financial performance.     

Integrating information technology and marketing: An examination of the drivers and outcomes of e-Marketing capability

This research examines the performance implications of integrating information technology with marketing capabilities and other firm-level resources. Specifically, this study introduces and empirically tests a model that conceptualizes e-Marketing as the integration of complementary technology, business and human resources that, when combined, positively influence firm performance. The results from a survey of 522 Belgian firms highlight the importance of how market and technology orientation leads to e-Marketing capability and that this capability is shown to positively influence firm performance by improving customer retention and satisfaction. The results suggest that researchers and practitioners should pay special attention to the complementary resources that are needed to successfully implement IT-enabled marketing initiatives and that an emphasis on the technology alone may not be sufficient.     

Effects of collaborative communication on the development of market-relating capabilities and relational performance metrics in industrial markets

Research in marketing suggests that collaborative communication is important for firms to sustain competitive advantage, especially in industrial markets. This study integrates relational and resource-based views to articulate how collaborative communication influences different relational performance metrics. Based on a survey of 167 marketing executives in Taiwan's electronics industry, empirical findings indicate that market-relating capabilities (i.e., market-linking and marketing capabilities) completely mediate the collaborative communication–financial performance relationship, while market-relating capabilities partially mediate the collaborative communication–customer-focused performance relationship. In addition, collaborative communication directly influences customer cooperation performance instead of indirectly affecting it through the development of market-relating capabilities. The results of this study provide new insights into the role of collaborative communication as well as important theoretical and managerial implications.     

The effects of sales supervisor relationships on work meaning: The case of Canadian and Chinese salespersons

Although the meaning of work—an individual's understanding of the purpose and significance of his or her work—is often discussed, the issue of how to enrich the meaning of work for salespeople remains poorly understood. This study examines the role of sales manager-salesperson relationships in the development of work meaning in a cross-cultural context. To better understand how work meaning might differ in Eastern (collectivist) and Western (individualist) cultures, data were gathered from salespersons in the Chinese and Canadian telecommunications industries. Findings suggest that the development of work meaning among Canadian salespeople is ascribed to the perceptions of customer orientation and self-determination. Conversely, in China, a quality relationship with one's sales supervisor is a direct factor in the development of work meaning. Managers of global sales forces should carefully consider the cultural differences of their salespersons and how a close personal relationship can impact the understanding of the purpose and significance of work for their sales team. After discussing the findings, managerial implications and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Sales force obsolescence: Perceptions from sales and marketing executives of individual, organizational, and environmental factors

The trade and academic literature is replete with observations that many sales organizations are in the midst of a redefinition of the strategic role of their sales forces. With today's market forces, change is overdue in many sales organizations. Consequently, the issue of whether the sales force is becoming obsolete has come to the forefront in recent years. As business environments change rapidly, the relevance of the modern sales force comes into question. Data were gathered from 245 midlevel sales and marketing executives on perceived sales force obsolescence. Our findings suggest that obsolescence is a phenomenon for sales organizations to address. The main findings of our study are (1) obsolescence is a phenomenon that affects sales professionals' feelings toward the job (job satisfaction) and outcomes (performance); (2) a firm's market orientation is very important in lowering perceived obsolescence; (3) a learning orientation is important in detecting symptoms of obsolescence; (4) age and education are related to perceptions of obsolescence depending on the type of industry in which the sales force competes: high- or low-tech; and (5) organizational changes can also have a bearing on the sales force's perceptions of obsolescence.     

Salesperson navigation: The intraorganizational dimension of the sales role

Salespeople require the ability to navigate within their own organization to get what they need to be successful given today's demanding customers. The literature on personal selling provides little guidance on this dimension of the sales role and how it might impact selling performance. We develop the notion of Salesperson Navigation (SpN), embed SpN within a conceptual framework, and show how SpN works to impact individual sales performance. We develop both managerial and research perspectives around this phenomenon.     

Development and return on execution of product innovation capabilities: The role of organizational structure

This paper conceptualizes and tests an integrated model that combines the dual-core and ambidextrous models of product innovation. The integrated model distinguishes the development and return on execution of radical and incremental product innovation capabilities. The authors argue that organizational structure plays an important dual role as an (a) antecedent to the development of radical and incremental product innovation capabilities and (b) as a moderator in determining the new product performance returns from executing such capabilities. Using a sample of high-tech firms, the study finds that organizational structure is more consistent in predicting the execution of product innovation capabilities into new product performance than in predicting the development of such capabilities. For example, the effect of radical product innovation capability on new product performance is negative but nonsignificant under a formal structure, while the same effect is positive under an informal structure. Conversely, the effect of incremental product innovation capability on new product performance is positive under a formal structure, while the same effect is negative under an informal structure. The implications for managing different types of product innovation capabilities under formal versus informal structures and their effects on new product performance are discussed.     

Changes in sales call frequency: A longitudinal examination of the consequences in the supplier-customer relationship

Sales calls are one of the most valuable and expensive resources available to industrial sales managers. The main purpose of this research was to look at the relationship between an increase in sales call frequency and some important outcomes in the buyer-seller relationship. To do so, we adopted a longitudinal research design where data from 357 customers of one industrial supplier were obtained over a two-year period of time. Results indicated that an increase in call frequency has a positive effect on sales volume, perceived service quality, perceived value for money and overall customer satisfaction. Furthermore, these effects tend to diminish as relationships become longer, and are stronger at higher levels of hierarchy in the buying company.     

Non-linear relationship between industrial service offering and sales growth: The moderating role of network capabilities

In an effort to approach the mixed findings regarding the relationship between a firm's industrial service offering and its performance, this study analyzes the impact of the industrial service offering on sales growth and the moderating role of network capabilities. The proposed research model is tested based on data from 91 Finnish manufacturing firms. Our results demonstrate a non-linear effect of the service offering on sales growth. We also find that network capabilities enhance the effect of the service offering on sales growth. For managers of manufacturing firms, the results imply that the active development of a comprehensive service offering should be implemented in conjunction with the development of organizational capabilities, such as network capabilities, to create value and promote improved performance.     

Selling and sales management: An introduction to the special section and recommendations on advancing the sales research agenda

Effectively managing the sales function is a prerequisite for success in business markets. Thus, practitioners are increasingly interested in improving the performance of their sales function. However, there is evidence pinpointing that academic research in the area may be experiencing a decline in its status among other subject areas in the marketing discipline. Fortunately, advances in the field of selling and sales management as reflected in the organization of specialized conferences/meetings and the development of special journal issues hold the promise of enhancing the status of sales within marketing academia. Following this stream of activities, this IMM special section on “Selling & Sales Management” aims at stimulating the level of discourse regarding how research in our field can be advanced. The present article introduces the special section; next, it summarizes the articles comprising the special section; and, finally, it concludes with some thoughts on fruitful research opportunities in the sales area.     

Board structure and firm capability: An environment-embedded relationship between board diversity and marketing capability

The role of the firm’s top governance team, the board, is largely missing in the capability literature. This paper takes the first step to link board diversity, one of the most critical traits of the board, to marketing capability. Further, this relationship is embedded into a contingency-based model involving a set of environmental factors, munificence, turbulence, and competition intensity. This model illustrates how the internal top governance traits and external factors may jointly and dynamically affect firm competency. The empirical results show that board diversity significantly increases marketing capability. This effect is stronger when a firm faces unfriendly market situations characterized by low munificence, high turbulence, and intensified competition. This study generates meaningful theoretical implications for marketing capability-building of business firms, especially in the business-to-business (B2B) settings in which reciprocal organizational engagements are more emphasized. It also advances firm governance theories and business environment studies, and provides useful guidelines for managerial practices.     

The effects of perceived industry competitive intensity and marketing-related capabilities: Drivers of superior brand performance

Since the early 1990s the theoretical and practical issues associated with organizational capabilities have been a major research focus in marketing. However, there has been little focus simultaneously on industry environment and internal competitive capability development. A manager's perception of his/her industry environment has the potential to impact the firm's marketing-related capability development through their strategic responses to their perception of the environment. This paper advocates that managers (i.e., firms) perceiving their industry environment as turbulent will develop superior market learning and marketing capabilities. Market learning will assist in the process of building superior marketing capabilities. Both capabilities lead to higher brand performance. To explore these issues a study was designed to measure perceived industry competitive intensity, market learning and marketing capabilities. Data were gathered from senior managers of commercial firms and the results largely support the hypothesized theoretical relationship that industry competitive intensity influences market learning activity and marketing capability development. Interestingly, the study findings suggest that market learning impacts brand performance through marketing capability. The findings significantly contribute to the debate on the influence of the competitive environment on a firm's internal capability development which suggests the need for further research to examine the industry competitive intensity-internal capabilities-firm performance relationship.     

Technology improves sales performance—doesn't it?: An introduction to the special issue on selling and sales technology

Firms around the globe are rushing to invest in sales force technology or sales force automation (SFA). SFA appears to mean different things to different people. For example, management and sales personnel view the need for, application of, and advantages of SFA quite distinctly. As a result of technology, this special issue examines many areas of sales force automation to provide both practicing managers and sales force academicians with a clearer perspective of new technology in the B2B marketplace. This article introduces the special issue topic, individual contributors, and acknowledges support proffered by myriad individuals.     

Balancing exploration and exploitation capabilities in high technology firms: A multi-source multi-context examination

Based on the dynamic capability view, this study examined the balance between exploration and exploitation capability. With this, we proposed a framework that synthesizes the impact of new product creativity and marketing program creativity on new product quality (internal product quality and external product quality), and further understanding the path to performance of new products in a select number of industrial and consumer products. The main findings revealed that the effect of new product creativity in consumer product firms through internal and external product quality was less dominant than those in industrial product firms. In contrast, the effect of marketing program creativity in industrial product firms through only external product quality was less dominant than those in consumer product firms. Additionally, this paper also discusses the research limitations, future research directions, and theoretical and practical implications.     

The impact of marketing capability, operations capability and diversification strategy on performance: A resource-based view

Using resource-based view (RBV) of the firm as a theoretical backdrop; we aim to find out the relative impact of a firm's functional capabilities (namely, marketing and operations) and diversification strategies (product/service and international diversification) on financial performance. We hypothesize that this linkage depends on the firm's relative efficiency to integrate its resource-capabilities-performance triad. Using archival data of 102 UK based logistics companies, we find marketing capability is the key determinant for superior financial performance. This study highlights that a market-driven firm is likely to have better business performance than a firm focusing solely on operational capabilities. Also, firms are better off when they focus on a narrow portfolio of products/services for the clients and concentrate on a diverse geographical market. Our findings provide a new perspective to model a firm's functional capabilities and diversification strategy on its financial performance and offer a benchmarking tool to improve resource allocation decisions.     

The ABC's of ACB: Unveiling a clear and present danger in the sales force

While anti-citizenship behavior (ACB) is under-researched across all academic domains, sales and marketing researchers have not done any work in the area. This oversight is significant given recent survey data that suggests sales representatives are misbehaving at an alarming rate; 60% of sales managers have caught their reps cheating on expense reports (an example of ACB) and 36% believe such behavior has gotten worse over the past several years. Directed towards the goal of understanding salesperson ACB, this research provides the first conceptual model of ACB in the sales force. The model contends that characteristics of the organization (justice and intra-firm competition) and contextual factors (fit and job stress) directly affect the performance of ACB while individual level factors (locus of control, self-monitoring and introversion) moderate the performance of these behaviors. In addition, this research explains the intra- and inter-organizational consequences of salesperson ACB and suggests several ways by which managers can address this issue.     

An interdisciplinary approach to assessing the characteristics and sales potential of modern salespeople

Technology is becoming increasingly pervasive in industrial markets. So too are the necessary attributes of salespeople in this context changing, to require not only the typical selling skills of persuasion and tact, and the interpersonal skills usually considered relevant in consumer markets, but also the technical skills associated with technology transfer. The research reported here investigates these three aspects, and measures their influence on actual sales performance in a business-to-business context.     

Marketing strategy and the efficacy of procedural justice: The mid-level marketing manager in industrial service firms

A principal challenge confronting the senior marketing team in B2B firms is how to ensure that the marketing strategies they develop are implemented effectively. The literature indicates that mid-level marketing managers' perceptions of the procedural justice within the firm may be critical in this respect. However, there has been little empirical research on this issue. The authors develop and test a conceptual model of the key drivers and consequences of marketing managers' procedural justice perceptions. The findings show that if mid-level marketing managers trust their senior marketing colleagues and simultaneously operate within moderately organic structures, then procedural justice will thrive. A consequence of this is more effective implementation of marketing strategy which, in turn, leads to increased market performance.