Search and price dispersion in online grocery markets

Consumers often purchase multiple products at a time from retailers, creating multi-product incentives for search. In this paper we consider how product variety affects consumer search intensity and the dispersion of prices in multi-product retail markets. We employ online grocery pricing data from four large retailers in the UK to estimate search costs and equilibrium price dispersion for food products under circumstances where: (i) consumers search for single products; and (ii) consumers search for multiple products at once. We compare estimates in each case between a model in which utility increases with product variety and a model in which utility is not a function of variety. Relative to our preferred specification with variety effects in utility, we find estimates of both search cost and search frequency to be biased upwards in single product settings when variety effects are ignored; however, we find estimates of search costs are biased upwards while search frequency is biased downwards in multi-product settings when variety effects in utility are ignored.     

Data portability effects on data-driven innovation of online platforms: Analyzing Spotify

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduces a new right to data portability, which allows users to move their personal data to other platforms, potentially affecting competition between rival platforms offering similar (homogeneous/substitute) products or services within the European Union. However, it is still unclear what effects this new regulation could have on competition and, consequently, on innovation in digital markets. Therefore, this paper analyzes the effect of data portability driven by competition on the data-driven innovation response of online platforms such as Spotify, Google, and Facebook.We conduct an empirical analysis of Spotify, which is an online platform facing competition within the EU, and perform a comparison between data portability to number portability of the telecommunication sector to predict the future impact of the new regulation. Finally, we compare the observations on Spotify with Facebook and Google, which are companies in winner-takes-all markets.We argue that online platforms like Spotify, which face competition within the EU, will invest in two forms of data-driven innovation due to the effect of data portability. These types are ‘exploitation-innovation,’ by improving the existing technology, and ‘exploration-innovation’ by developing new technology. In ‘exploitation-innovation,’ firms, like Spotify, will increase investments in data-driven innovation to enhance users' engagement and retention to avoid churn. In ‘exploration-innovation,’ these firms will invest in data-driven innovation to develop new algorithms to include data from customers acquired from their competitors. On the contrary, online platforms, like Facebook or Google, which do not face real competition, will not have a substantial need to invest in data-driven innovation solely due to data portability.     

Flexibility in the gig economy: managing time on three online piecework platforms

Gig economy platforms seem to provide extreme temporal flexibility to workers, giving them full control over how to spend each hour and minute of the day. What constraints do workers face when attempting to exercise this flexibility? We use 30 worker interviews and other data to compare three online piecework platforms with different histories and worker demographics: Mechanical Turk, MobileWorks, and CloudFactory. We find that structural constraints (availability of work and degree of worker dependence on the work) as well as cultural‐cognitive constraints (procrastination and presenteeism) limit worker control over scheduling in practice. The severity of these constraints varies significantly between platforms, the formally freest platform presenting the greatest structural and cultural‐cognitive constraints. We also find that workers have developed informal practices, tools, and communities to address these constraints. We conclude that focusing on outcomes rather than on worker control is a more fruitful way to assess flexible working arrangements.     

电子商务网站在线评论对手机销量影响的实证研究

采用数据抓取方法获取京东商城在线评论数据,使用SPSS软件对数据进行多元回归,通过评论数量、负面评论、评论长度和评论时效性4个维度,研究了在线评论对电子商务网站产品销量的影响,并按照品牌的热门程度将产品分类,进一步分析了品牌对负面评论和评论时效性是否具有调节作用。研究发现,评论长度、评论时效性对销量具有显著的正向影响,而评论数量、负面评论和产品价格对销量具有显著的负向影响。在品牌的调节作用下,评论时效性的影响力减弱,而负面评论对销量的影响则增强。根据研究结果,提出改善电子商务网站在线评论机制的针对性建议。     

我与中国有个约会--专访泰克亚太区销售及销售运营副总裁Bob Agnes

自从泰克1983年进入中国,到今天已经有20多年的时间.在此期间,泰克的市场占有率持续上升.泰克逻辑分析仪在2004年占全球销售的50%以上,成为该产品的市场领导者;     

On platforms,incomplete contracts,and open source software

We analyze investment incentives for a firm A owning a software platform and an application and a firm B deciding whether to develop a new application for the platform. While B's entry helps the success of the platform, B fears ex post expropriation by A and is hence reluctant to enter and invest. We show that different platform governance structures prevalent in the Information and Communication Technology industry (integrated, proprietary, standardized, open source platform) serve to balance investment incentives for the platform and for the applications.     

The influence of formal and informal sales controls on customer-directed selling behaviors and sales unit effectiveness

Adaptive selling (AS) and customer-oriented selling (COS) constitute two key customer-directed selling behaviors for the success of the modern sales force. However, knowledge regarding the organizational factors that can induce salespeople to engage in those behaviors is strikingly limited. Against this background, we develop a comprehensive model that delineates the influences of formal and informal sales controls on AS and COS and, through them, on sales unit effectiveness. Based on a sample of sales managers in a major European Union country, we present new evidence that (a) formal and informal sales controls exert differential impact on salespeople's AS and COS behaviors; (b) AS directly and positively influences sales unit effectiveness; (c) COS affects sales unit effectiveness only indirectly, i.e. by fostering AS; and (d) outcome and cultural controls directly improve sales unit effectiveness. We conclude with a discussion of our findings for academics and practitioners.     

Fraud,investments and liability regimes in payment platforms

In this paper, we discuss how fraud losses impact the price structure chosen by a monopolistic payment platform, if merchants can invest in fraud detection technologies. We show that liability rules bias the structure of the prices charged by the platform to consumers and merchants with respect to a case in which such a responsibility regime is not implemented. If consumers are liable for fraud, the profit-maximizing price structure is neither biased in favor of consumers nor merchants. If consumers are not liable for fraud, the platform lowers the price for merchants to provide them with investment incentives. Under the zero liability rule for consumers, the profit-maximizing allocation of fraud losses maximizes social welfare.     

Control mechanisms,idea transfer,and performance in sales organizations

Drawing on the knowledge-based theory of the firm, the authors examine the differential effects of an individual orientation and a group orientation on idea transfer from the salesperson to the sales manager. The authors also consider the moderating effect of output and process control on the relationship between group and individual orientation and idea transfer. The results suggest that individual and group orientations have different effects on idea transfer, and these effects are moderated by output control. Salespeople who share ideas with the sales manager are rated as higher performers by the manager. At the group level, a climate of idea sharing among salespeople results in improved unit performance.     

The impact of sales tax on internet and catalog sales: Evidence from a natural experiment

This paper studies the effect of sales tax changes on internet and catalog sales. We collect sales data from a retailer that sells its products through its internet and catalog channels. We analyze the retailer's sales before and after a major tax cut in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. This natural experiment allows us to separate the effect of the tax cut from the effect of other confounding factors. The results from our panel data analyses indicate that remote sales have decreased by about 15% in response to a four percentage point decrease in sales tax. Our results are statistically significant and highly robust. Interestingly, we also find that the effect of the tax cut varies across different types of consumers, products, and channels. These findings have important managerial and public policy implications.     

The impact of innovation intensity,scope, and spillovers on sales growth in Chinese firms

We investigate the relationship between innovation and sales growth of firms in China. Innovation theories suggest firms create the technological knowledge needed to have market impact with their products and drive sales growth in different ways. These include: (1) through firms’ overall innovation intensity, (2) through decisions on innovation scope (depth vs. diversity), and (3) through knowledge spillovers from technological neighbors. Little research exists on how effective these approaches are for emerging market firms in pursuit of growth. To address this, we integrate and test the effects of these different knowledge creation mechanisms using data from Chinese firms over a five-year period. Findings show that innovation intensity and knowledge spillovers positively impact sales growth. We also develop and test a model capturing the non-linear impact of innovation scope. As predicted, we find a U-shaped relationship for depth of innovation and an inverted U-shaped relationship for diversity of innovation.     

Global perspectives of sales enablement: Constituents,services, and goals

Over the past decade there has been rapid growth in sales enablement in the marketplace due to numerous changes affecting the buyer-seller interface. Despite this growth, little is known regarding the magnitude of its presence, what assistance is being offered and to whom, and what metrics are found to be valuable. In an exploratory study, the results from 561 responses across 3 regions of the world (Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America) suggest that several significant differences exist as it pertains to sales enablement. Findings indicate that salespeople and account managers are the primary focus of sales enablement initiatives, but significantly different stakeholders also exist across the regions of the world. Moreover, the specific services offered by sales enablement (e.g., training, content, tools, processes, onboarding, coaching) are shown to vary widely across the globe. Even productivity goals are not uniform within sales enablement initiatives. This study contributes to the marketing capabilities theory by extending its application into a new paradigm of sales enablement. We summarize the findings and the managerial implications of this global inquiry.     

Impact of sales force automation on technology-related stress, effort, and technology usage among salespeople

This study unveils factors affecting sales force automation (SFA) technology usage by salespeople. It differs from previous research by: (1) proposing a model that examines the consequences of task complexity on role perceptions and technology usage, and (2) understanding the negative repercussions of SFA technology on the user. The proposed model was tested using data from 150 salespeople employed by a national organization. The results suggest that integration of SFA technology induces adverse role perceptions in salespeople. However, controlling for extraneous variables, effort is significantly related to salespeople's usage of technology. Key managerial implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

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.     

Social media,customer engagement,and sales organizations: A research agenda

Organizations continue to make investments in social media with the hope that it will help their sales force in improving engagement with customers. The academic literature on social media use in business markets has supported the growth and utilization of such technology; however, much more work is needed. This article, building upon the recent scholarly advances and considering a managerial perspective, offers suggestions to guide future academic research examining the links between social media use and customer engagement within the B2B sales domain. Several research questions are presented under the four broad topics, namely utility of social media technologies, context matters, social media pitfalls, and futuristic social media applications.     

Search, Bargaining and Optimal Asking Prices

This paper analyzes a search-and-bargaining model in which the asking price influences the rate at which potential customers arrive to inspect the seller's house, and the buyer's valuation of the asset is not learned until after the seller makes his initial offer (the asking price). The optimal asking and reservation prices are characterized, and the existence of a subgame-perfect equilibrium asking-price—reservation-price strategy is established. Comparative-statics analysis illustrates how seller and buyer discount rates and the buyer's outside opportunity affect the optimal reservation and asking prices.     

Strategic momentum: The effects of repetitive,positional, and contextual momentum on merger activity

This paper defines and examines three types of strategic momentum. Repetitive momentum occurs when organizations repeat previous strategic actions. Postitional momentum occurs when organizations take actions that sustain or extend existing strategic positions. Contextual momentum occurs when general traits, such as organizational structure, shape strategic action in a consistent fashion. Event-history analysis of 262 large firms over a 29-year period indicates that: (1) the occurrence of mergers tends to increase the rate of mergers of the same type (repetitive momentum), and (2) organizational decentralization increases the rate of diversifying mergers (contextual momentum). Product market diversification was found to increase the probability of product extension mergers but not conglomerate mergers, only partly confirming positional momentum. The results indicate that internal momentum can affect merger activity, and suggest the importance of continuing research on the role of inertia in organizational adaptation.     

Effects of alliances,time, and network cohesion on the initiation of foreign sales by new ventures

In this study, we seek to advance the network perspective on new venture internationalization by examining the role of networks in accelerating new venture sales into foreign markets. We propose that knowledge derived from ventures' technology and marketing alliances increases the likelihood that new ventures begin exploiting opportunities in international markets. We also argue that the extent to which the networks open the venture to new knowledge or constrain it to knowledge already shared among the partners will influence the initiation of foreign sales by a venture. Using a longitudinal dataset of 118 ventures in the U.S. biotechnology industry, we confirm that different types of alliances (and, therefore, different types of knowledge—technology and marketing knowledge) differentially impact the likelihood of new venture internationalization. Moreover, network cohesion among venture alliances increases the likelihood that marketing alliances will promote initial foreign market sales, but decreases the likelihood that technology alliances will do so. Our research is a timely response to a call for the study of interactive effects among network structure, complex tasks, and time, and it provides a possible explanation for certain unexpected findings in studies that did not consider the effects of time. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Commitment to technological change,sales force intelligence norms,and salesperson key outcomes

Despite increasing interest in sales technology investments, companies continue to struggle with getting their salespeople to use these expensive technologies. In this context, two under-researched issues warrant attention. First, although sales technology represents a continuous source of change, little is known about why salespeople commit to technology-induced changes. Second, knowledge on whether sales force intelligence norms play a role into translating use of sales technology to performance gains is remarkably sparse. To address these gaps, this study develops a conceptual framework that explores the linear and non-linear effects of commitment to technological change (i.e., affective, normative, and continuance) on sales technology infusion, and, in turn, on two key outcomes (i.e., customer-oriented selling and sales performance). Our framework also advances knowledge on how sales force intelligence norms (i.e., analytical sales processes and knowledge sharing with customers) moderate the relationships between sales technology infusion and key outcomes. Analysis is done using multilevel structural equation modeling on a sample of 303 salespeople nested within 22 firms. Findings support the view that the three components of commitment are distinct, with some counter-intuitive results. Specifically, affective commitment does not exert a significant positive influence as expected; yet, normative commitment does. In contrast, while lower levels of continuance commitment reduce infusion, higher levels have positive effects, thus depicting a U-shaped effect. Finally, sales technology infusion influences both key outcomes — and findings support the importance of fostering sales force intelligence norms. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Global sales training: In search of antecedent, mediating, and consequence variables

This study proposes a framework that identifies and explains the relationships of input, mediating, and output variables for global sales training programs. Input or antecedent variables include high-quality: determination of sales training needs, objective setting, designing/implementing the training program, and evaluating training outcomes. The mediating variable culture is measured by a latent indicator: managers' perceived importance/perceived adequacy. The output or consequence variable is the quantitative improvement a firm measures in sales force performance that results from global sales training in the form of increases in sales revenue, profitability, decreased customer complaints, and/or reduced selling expenses. This framework is an initial attempt to synthesize existing knowledge about how to conduct effective sales training programs in cross-cultural settings. The article also offers research propositions that can be tested to advance our understanding of global sales training, discusses managerial implications, identifies limitations encountered by global sales training practitioners, and suggests future study opportunities for researchers.