Moral Judgment and its Impact on Business-to-Business Sales Performance and Customer Relationships

For many years, researchers and practitioners have sought out meaningful indicators of sales performance. Yet, as the concept of performance has broadened, the understanding of what makes up a successful seller, has become far more complicated. The complexity of buyer–seller relationships has changed therefore as the definition of sales performance has expanded, cultivating a growing interest in ethical/unethical actions since they could potentially have impacts on sales performance. Given this environment, the purpose of this study is to explore the impact of moral judgment on sales performance and sellers engaging in a customer-oriented selling approach. Specifically, by utilizing a sample of 345 business-to-business salespeople, this study examines the relationships between moral judgment, customer-oriented selling, and outcome and behavior based performance. Results, managerial implications, and opportunities for future research are provided.     

Leader Ethical Decision-Making in Organizations: Strategies for Sensemaking

Organizational leaders face environmental challenges and pressures that put them under ethical risk. Navigating this ethical risk is demanding given the dynamics of contemporary organizations. Traditional models of ethical decision-making (EDM) are an inadequate framework for understanding how leaders respond to ethical dilemmas under conditions of uncertainty and equivocality. Sensemaking models more accurately illustrate leader EDM and account for individual, social, and environmental constraints. Using the sensemaking approach as a foundation, previous EDM models are revised and extended to comprise a conceptual model of leader EDM. Moreover, the underlying factors in the model are highlighted—constraints and strategies. Four trainable, compensatory strategies (emotion regulation, self-reflection, forecasting, and information integration) are proposed and described that aid leaders in navigating ethical dilemmas in organizations. Empirical examinations demonstrate that tactical application of the strategies may aid leaders in making sense of complex and ambiguous ethical dilemmas and promote ethical behavior. Compensatory tactics such as these should be central to organizational ethics initiatives at the leader level.     

The Impacts of Affective and Cognitive Social Conflict in Business-to-Business Buyer-Seller Relationships: A Comparison of New versus Ongoing Buyer-Seller Relationships

ABSTRACT

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to report empirical research that examined the impact of conflict in two different buyer-seller situations, an ongoing relationship and a choice situation where the buyer had to choose between two or more alternative suppliers. Conflict was defined as social conflict and has two distinct types, affective and cognitive.

Methodology/Approach. The methodology used was two mail surveys to a random sample of purchasing association members who had buying responsibilities in their firms. In one survey respondents were asked to self-select a current buyer-seller relationship they had for a period of at least one year and to indicate the degree of perceived conflict they had with the key supplier representative as well as the amount of relationship loyalty they perceived they had with that supplier. The second survey randomly assigned respondents to evaluate either a supplier whom they gave business to in a choice situation or one they did not, thus establishing as the dependent variable the actual choice of whom they gave business to.

Findings. The findings are clear for affective types of conflict. When affective conflict is perceived as higher the chance of getting an order in a choice situation as well as the magnitude of the relationship loyalty perception is negatively related. Cognitive conflict is not as clear. In choice situations conflict was negatively related to choice, whereas in on going relationships there was no impact. There was no indication of cognitive conflict having a positive relationship.

Originality/Value/Contribution of the paper. This study is the first to examine perceptions of conflict with a significant other in a buyer-seller relationship to try to determine how those perceptions might relate to either buyer choice or loyalty. While the findings support the expected relationship between affective conflict and outcomes, the findings with regards to cognitive conflict suggest that this may be more complex then originally thought and further points out the difficulty in managing conflict across organizational boundaries.     

An Investigation on Incentive Strategies in Community Building in Business-to-Business Electronic Markets

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Community building is recognized as an important governance mechanism in business-to-business (B-to-B) electronic markets by enhancing firms’ participation in these platform markets. However, little research has been done regarding the role of incentive strategies in community building. The main purpose of this paper is to understand how to motivate merchants to participate in a merchant community with incentive strategies.

Methodology: Data were collected in a community of a large B-to-B electronic platform market in China. We randomly chose a sample of 605 participants from among all merchant firms registered in this community, and track their behaviors for 2 weeks. Their behaviors are recorded based on our research design.

Findings: With the empirical analysis from a community of a large B-to-B electronic platform market in China, our results show that (1) both platform and peer incentive strategies can significantly enhance community participation, while platform incentives is more effective in general; (2) platform incentive strategy is a more effective strategy as seller firm uncertainty increases; (3) peer incentive strategy is a more effective strategy as buyer firm uncertainty increases.

Originality: This paper is among the first to investigate two types of incentive strategies in community building, platform level and peer level. We also investigate the moderating role of market uncertainties due to market participants from seller and buyer when examining the effectiveness of these two incentive strategies.     

Ethical and Moral Dilemmas Associated with Strategic Relationships between Business-to-Business Buyers and Sellers

While ethical and moral issues have been widely considered in the general areas of marketing and sales, similar attention has not been given to the impact of strategic account management (SAM) approaches to handling the relationships between suppliers and very␣large customers. SAM approaches have been widely␣adopted by suppliers as a mechanism for managing␣relationships and partnerships with dominant customers␣– characterized by high levels of buyer–seller inter-dependence and forms of collaborative partnership. Observation suggests that the perceived moral intensity of␣these relationships is commonly low, notwithstanding the underlying principles of benefiting the few (large, strategic customers) at the expense of the many (smaller customers and other stakeholders), and the magnitude of the consequences of concessions made to large customers, even though some such consequences may be unintended. Dilemmas exist also for executives implementing strategic account relationships regarding such issues as information sharing, trust, and hidden incentives for unethical behaviour. We propose the need for greater transparency and senior management questioning of the ethical and moral issues implicit in strategic account management. Nigel F. Piercy (Nigel.Piercy@wbs.ac.uk) is Professor in Marketing and Strategic Management, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, UK. He holds a PhD from the University of Wales and a higher doctorate (DLitt) 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 Organizational Dynamics, the Journal of World Business, the British Journal of Management, the Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Nikala Lane (Nikala.Lane@wbs.ac.uk) is Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Strategic Management, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, UK. She holds a PhD from the University of Wales and was previously 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 the Journal of Management Studies, the British Journal of Management, the Journal of Business Ethics, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.     

A Commentary on Business Marketing: A Twenty Year Review and an Invitation for Continued Dialogue

ABSTRACT

This article is a commentary on the literature review conducted by Reid and Plank. The objective of the paper is to both critique and complement the review and to provide a forum for debate as to the future direction of research in business-to-business (B2B) marketing research. The paper begins with a challenge to the reader to think beyond the traditional role of B2B marketing and think about how future B2B research could be more relevant and more strategic in focus. The concept of the new competition is offered as a framework for presenting future research issues. The new competition converges on the role of the extended enterprise as the reference point for thinking about competitive forces in a global marketplace. The implications for B2B marketers are discussed.     

企业持续创新理论研究评述

通过对近年来中外关于企业持续创新理论的研究现状进行评述,重点对企业持续创新的重要性、概念、与企业发展的关联以及持续创新动力、能力、实现等方面进行了深入的评述,提出绿色持续创新与可持续创新是企业持续创新理论未来的重点研究方向,并对企业绿色持续创新与企业可持续创新的研究现状及其关联进行了分析。     

Doctoral Programs in Business-to-Business Marketing: Status and Prospects

ABSTRACT

PhD programs in Business-to-Business Marketing are under increasing pressure to bring both more rigor and relevance to their training processes. We report on an empirical investigation on the practices and needed developments in Marketing PhD programs, focusing specifically on Business Marketing. Based on a sample of 41 programs worldwide, we find widespread agreement that the rigor/relevance challenge is even greater for Business Marketing scholars than for their colleagues who concentrate on the consumer market. Business Marketing PhDs deal with products with hard to understand uses and benefits, often exchanged in non-public markets with relatively few customers. These challenges lead us to recommend, among other things, that we must recruit PhDs from non-traditional sources and encourage them to partner with scholars from methodological and scientific disciplines to increase both rigor and relevance in their work.     

Information Gathering and Customer Value Creation in Business-to-Business Services:

Regardless of whether a product or a service is offered, or whether the customer is an organization or a final consumer, the company that adopts a market orientation (seeks to gather information on the customer and to offer the highest value to the customer) has the greatest potential for success in the marketplace. This study examines whether the adoption of business-to-business services by customer firms is influenced by the perceived level of market orientation of the service provider. Empirical results from the telecommunication industry showed that if the vendor firm were perceived to gather relevant customer information and to provide a more valuable service offer to the customer firm, the customer would weight the value of the service offer more highly in the adoption decision. Managerial implications and directions for future research are presented in the concluding section.     

扩大内需战略:厘清三大核心关系

妥善处理内需与外需、投资与消费、第二产业与第三产业、初次分配与二次分配等重大关系,充分发挥内需特别是消费需求对经济增长的拉动作用,是中国经济长期平稳较快发展和人民生活持续改善的关键。     

Educating Business Students About Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review of Current Trends and Research Needs

There has been substantial growth of interest in sustainability in business, management and organisational studies in recent years. This article applies Oswick’s (J Manag Spirit Relig 6(1):15–25, 2009) method of bibliometric research to ascertain how this growth has been reflected in scholarly publishing, particularly as it relates to business and management education over the 20 years 1994–2013. The research has found that sustainability as a general topic in business and management studies, as evidenced by scholarly publishing, has accelerated rapidly both in terms of items published and cited. In the mid-2000s, the emphasis of books published in this area began to change from one which advocated ‘sustainable development’ to one which viewed sustainability as a management practice which could help businesses and society simultaneously. The literature on sustainability within the field of management and business education has been smaller, but has enjoyed a similar growth rate which accelerated sharply in the most recent 5 years of the dataset. Most of the scholarly, peer-reviewed articles analysed tend to advocate the inclusion of sustainability on business school curricula, or to demonstrate the various ways in which faculty have integrated sustainability-related principles in their teaching. A smaller amount of research has been undertaken on the learning experiences of the ‘recipients’ of these approaches. There is evidence of an extensive variety of approaches used by educators, but the most significant research need which presented is for more empirically driven studies on how and why business and management students engage with the principles of sustainability.     

Winning Hearts and Minds: Business-to-Business Branding and the Role of the Salesperson

Many business-to-business firms recognise that strong brands can be a valuable resource in today's competitive business environment. To realise the potential of B2B brands, effective communication of brand values is essential. In most B2B markets, the primary form of brand communication is through the sales force and their ability to adapt sales strategies and messages to accommodate customer interactions. There are gaps in the literature regarding the brand value communication process in the customer-salesperson dyad. We argue that successful B2B brand communication requires sales strategies that incorporate brand values appealing to the emotional and the rational concerns of organisational buyers. This paper examines the brand communication process in the salesperson-customer dyad and the extent to which adaptive selling based on a brand platform of rational and emotional brand values could better respond to buying centre members.     

Mental Models and Ethical Decision Making: The Mediating Role of Sensemaking

This study examines whether sanctions imposed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) against individual auditors result in greater auditor conservatism. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we find that clients of sanctioned individual auditors have lower discretionary accruals in the post-sanction period than in the pre-sanction period when compared to a matched control group of clients audited by individual auditors who were not sanctioned. Our findings suggest that sanctions imposed by the CSRC on individual auditors can lead to improvements in audit quality by increasing the conservatism of the sanctioned auditors. That is, individual auditors are more likely to resist their clients’ income-increasing accounting manipulations after being sanctioned by the CSRC.     

What We Know and Don't Know About Online Word-of-Mouth: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature

Electronic word-of mouth (eWOM) has attracted considerable interest from researchers in the past decade. Although the extant research has helped us to develop a good understanding of a number of the issues pertaining to eWOM, several research and managerial questions remain. Furthermore, no attempt has been made to consolidate and synthesize this stream of research. With consumers' increasing reliance on online retailing and information seeking, as well as the continued growth of social media, the importance of eWOM cannot be overstated. Based on a systematic review of 190 studies, we conduct a multi-dimensional analysis of eWOM communication. We present the key issues in current and emerging literature and propose important questions for future research.     

Information Asymmetry in Business-to-Business Negotiations: A Game Theoretical Approach to Support Purchasing Decisions with Suppliers

Group Decision and Negotiation - The digital transformation confronts purchasing and supply management (PSM) with numerous new challenges, such as digital procurement objects and the information...     

乳制品营销策略相关文献综述

通过对国内外乳制品营销策略相关的文献进行了梳理和归纳,从产品、价格、渠道、促销、网络营销以及其他方面进行归纳总结。可以看到,国内外文献大多选择了案例研究、实证分析,多数结合当前世界发展趋势、营销趋势进行讨论,充分考虑到了全球化、网络化、关系、跨位、绿色营销等因素。从国内外文献研究的成果来看,乳制品营销策略强调以消费者为中心、更加关注消费者的心理、行为、习惯等因素,通过对文献的整理归纳,为未来的研究提供了理论依据、参考借鉴、方向指引。     

新媒体下的区域品牌传播策略研究综述及相关品牌传播评论

论文综述目前新媒体下区域品牌传播的策略研究成果。这些成果不能代表全国相关研究水平,但是对有兴趣者可以提供一定的理论视野,从而进一步促进这方面的研究。论文同时以鹤山男鞋为例,分析其目前区域品牌传播的现状和新的传播媒介带来的传播机遇,在此基础上提出新媒体环境下的区域品牌传播策略。