Coping Strategies in Call Centres: Work Intensity and the Role of Co-workers and Supervisors

It has been observed that customer service workers often develop mutually supportive coping strategies to protect themselves from the emotional strain of overwork. These strategies can receive tacit support from supervisors, who may accept them as a means of getting the work done. The study explores the impact of a number of different forms of support on emotional exhaustion among a group of 480 call centre workers focusing, in particular, on the role of supportive behaviours relating to absence taking. The research shows that a supportive co-worker absence culture and team leader absence permissiveness can lessen the effects of job demands on emotional exhaustion and improve worker well-being. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

高绩效工作系统、工作倦怠对员工离职倾向的影响研究

本文基于员工感知的视角,以工作倦怠作为中介变量,探索员工感知的高绩效工作系统对离职倾向的影响机制。通过来自企业256 个有效样本的实证研究发现,员工感知的高绩效工作系统与离职倾向显著负相关;工作倦怠及其子维度情感耗竭、玩世不恭与离职倾向显著正相关,而子维度成就感低落与离职倾向相关性不显著;工作倦怠在员工感知的高绩效工作系统与离职倾向之间起部分中介作用;员工感知的高绩效工作系统可通过影响员工的情感耗竭、玩世不恭情绪,间接对离职倾向产生影响,而成就感低落的中介效应不显著。     

Emotions and salesperson propensity to leave: The effects of emotional intelligence and resilience

Emotions constitute a powerful psychological force that can significantly influence the behavior and performance of salespeople. However, emotions in the workplace still constitute an under-developed area of study, mainly in the field of sales. Sales turnover is also particularly important in relation to sales management due to the nature of sales positions, their historically high turnover levels, and the difficulty involved in filling them.In view of the need to broaden knowledge on how to more successfully retain valuable salespeople, and the fact that B2B selling jobs are not the same across the board, this paper, while controlling the type of selling situation, analyzes the influence of two emotional skills (i.e. emotional intelligence and resilience) on salesperson propensity to leave their organization, both directly and indirectly, through their impact on work–family conflict and emotional exhaustion. The moderating effect of servant leadership perceived by salespeople on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and intention to leave is also addressed. Information provided by 209 salespeople from 105 enterprises from various industries confirms the hypotheses put forward and highlights the importance of encouraging the development of emotional skills as a way of alleviating work stress and reducing salesperson turnover. In addition, the results confirm the contribution of servant leadership towards reducing the effect of emotional exhaustion on salesperson intention to leave.     

Marketing competencies and the sources of customer value in business markets

This introduction to the special issue discusses the notion of marketing competencies in buyer-supplier relationships, and the role these competencies play in creating value for the customer. Existing work on the role of competencies in industrial marketing has two main foci. The first, established approach deals with competencies as inputs to organizational processes, and seeks to establish in how far marketing competencies such as customer relationship management, channel design, etc. lead to superior financial returns. The second, emerging, approach focuses on the marketing of competencies as a source for customer value. This article uses supply and demand side perspectives to look at these two approaches and suggests a typolology involving four distinct value-creation strategies. Recent literature is discussed and implications for advancing the application of resource-based thinking to industrial marketing are provided.     

Uncertainty and stress in an R&D project environment

Abstract
R&D project managers work in an environment in which the uncertainty and complexity of engineering development problems are an important source of episodic job stress. A study of the US. Navy's top major project R&D managers (N = 118) was conducted to test the use of various coping skills and social support as preventive stress management techniques for this population. It was found that perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) had a direct, positive effect on psychological distress of these project managers while social support had a therapeutic effect on their experience of burnout. While problem focussed coping had a small, positive effect on burnout, neither coping skills nor social support were found to have a primary prevention effect upon perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU).
Engineering managers engaged in high technology R&D are confronted by a wide range of uncertainties, risks and changing demands that give rise to the stress response with its attendant physiological and psychological changes (Asterita, 1985). Adams (1980) has argued that an episodic versus chronic dichotomy of stressors is valuable because it distinguishes between intermittent stressors of finite duration (episodic) and ongoing stressors of indeterminant duration (chronic). This article reports the results of a study of uncertainty as an episodic work stressor for the U.S. Navy's high technology R&D project managers. The results suggest that R&D project managers should develop social support systems and structures to maintain well-being and avert distress and strain.     

Impact of telework on exhaustion and job engagement: a job demands and job resources model

Teleworking, the increasingly common practice, which involves working away from the office using technology, entails changes in the experience of work. Such changes may influence the demands and resources associated with a job. While research on burnout has addressed the role of exhaustion and job engagement using the Job Demands‐Resources model, existing literature has focused on traditional work modes. This paper explores the effects on job demands and resources to understand the processes through which telework impacts the exhaustion and engagement of the teleworker. We find that the positive effect of telework revolves around reduced work pressure and role conflict and increased autonomy. The negative effect of telework is expressed through increased role ambiguity and reduced support and feedback. Overall, we find that telework is negatively related to both exhaustion and job engagement and that job demands and resources mediate these relationships.     

Power, conflict, and cooperation: The impact of guanxi in Chinese marketing channels

This paper tests the impact of guanxi on behaviors among firms in a Chinese marketing channel. Guanxi is operationalized in this paper as emotional closeness and interactive state. We find that the emotional closeness between channel-boundary personnel of firms has a positive impact on their exercise of noncoercive power, a negative impact on their exercise of coercive power, and a negative impact on the perceived conflict between them. In addition, emotional closeness has an indirect but positive impact on perceived cooperation. Interactive state between the boundary personnel of two firms has a positive impact on a firm exercising noncoercive power and a negative impact on perceived conflict between them. At the same time, it is positively related to a firm exercising coercive power. This shows not only the significant influence of guanxi on a firm's channel behaviors but also the constructive effects of both emotional closeness and interactive state on marketing channel behaviors in China.     

Global marketing of industrial products: Are interpersonal relationships always critical?

The present paper examines the issue of whether interpersonal relationships are critical for global marketing of industrial products. The fields of relationship marketing, IMP group research, sales research, and network theory have stressed the importance of interpersonal relationships in the business-to-business or industrial marketing context. In contrast to this emphasis on interpersonal relationships, we argue that industrial firms can both conceive and enhance marketing strategies based on developing high quality and consistent processes, products, services or outcomes (consistent processes and outcomes). Such strategies are especially important given the fact that developing interpersonal relationships is expensive due to their reliance on frequent and/or face-to-face communications. In this paper, we examine industry and country contexts that lead to the choice of alternative industrial product marketing strategies and highlight some future research directions and managerial implications.     

Key trends in business-to-business services marketing strategies: Developing a practice-based research agenda

The marketing of B2B services has become an important field of academic enquiry. Industrial Marketing Management scholars have contributed to building a robust body of scholarship on the role of services as an indispensable aspect of company’s strategic performance process. However, with digitization, there is a clear need for theoretical concepts and frameworks that can guide companies in the development of contemporary and strategic roadmaps for their B2B service marketing strategies and performance practice. This position paper outlines an agenda and delineates issues in B2B service delivery that need to be addressed to close the gap between service marketing theory and practice and collaborate on the development of strategic service capabilities for the industrial marketing space. More specifically, we identify and discuss the impact of 5 important trends shaping B2B services: 1) gamification, 2) personalization, 3) Mixed Reality (MR), 4) data visualization, and 5) privacy. On the basis of these, we will offer a number of specific directions for future research by industrial marketing researchers.     

Boundary spanner multi-faceted role ambiguity and burnout: An exploratory study

Although researchers have gained considerable knowledge regarding the multi-faceted manifestation of burnout over recent years, inconsistent findings of role ambiguity as an antecedent to burnout are still prevalent. Given the complex boundary-spanning nature of sales, it is likely that global measures of role ambiguity fail to fully capture the domain and impact of role ambiguity. To help address this gap, this study provides initial evidence that facets of role ambiguity impact burnout manifestation in the sales role differently. Specifically, findings provide a foundation to help mitigate the negative impact of burnout by focusing on only certain facets of role ambiguity.     

The Roles of Marketing and Industrial Design in Discontinuous New Product Development*

Radical or “discontinuous” products based on new technological breakthroughs are playing an ever‐increasing role in the success of firms. However, little research has been conducted that investigates the roles of marketing and industrial design (ID) in the development of these types of products. Further, past research has tended to overlook the role that industrial design, and the impact of the marketing‐industrial design interaction, can have on the development of discontinuous new products. Frequently, the term design is used broadly or is equated with engineering; thus, while the marketing–research and development (R&D) interaction is studied, the marketing–ID as well as the industrial design–R&D relationships are not considered. This article examines the roles of marketing and industrial design in the product development process for discontinuous innovations. Specifically, questions concerning how and the degree to which marketing and industrial design are integrated into the development process are investigated. The investigation employs multiple methods, or triangulation, in order to secure an in‐depth understanding of the roles of these disciplines. In the course of examining these questions, key factors influencing industrial design and marketing involvement are identified and preliminary models are examined. The research, which was conducted in two phases, employed a mixed‐method, multiple sample design. The methods used included a survey, field observation study, and depth‐interviewing. Data were collected from three different samples: R&D managers, project team members (including personnel from various disciplines—marketing, R&D, industrial design, engineering, etc.), and industrial design managers. The use of the different data sources and sampling of various groups of managers was employed in order to provide a rich context for investigating the research questions of interest. In addition, a preliminary analysis of factors (e.g., degree of product discontinuity, product innovation objectives, process discontinuity, process formality) identified in the first phase was conducted, and these relationships were explored further in the second phase of the research. Findings across the two phases of this research suggest that the development of discontinuous new products involves a process that is different from more conventional new product development—particularly as it concerns the roles of marketing and industrial design. The high degree of discontinuity inherent in such projects, along with the strong R&D orientation often surrounding them, results in delayed involvement of marketing and ID, as well as altering their roles in the new product development (NPD) process. Factors such as the degree of product discontinuity (DPD), process discontinuity (PCD), and process formality (PF) seemed to exert a differential influence on the involvement of marketing and ID. Although their roles and involvement are altered in discontinuous new product development, this research suggests that marketing and ID roles in this context involve increased challenges with respect to validation of key assumptions and product application directions. Additionally, managers operating in this development context need to explicitly consider the influence of factors such as discontinuity level in undertaking NPD projects with respect to how it affects the execution of industrial design and marketing activities.     

Past,present, and future business-to-business marketing research

This editorial summarizes both the development and impact of Peter LaPlaca, in terms of his work with and for the industrial and marketing purchasing research community, using several different perspectives. It also offers an overview of what (former) editors of other business-to-business marketing management journals think of Peter LaPlaca. Following that, this editorial briefly reviews dominant topics in Industrial Marketing Management.     

Market representations in industrial marketing: Could representations influence strategy?

A central question in industrial marketing is whether the form in which the market of a firm is represented influences the marketing strategy. This question has been studied generally through case study research, and quantitative evidence is limited. In response to this limitation, this paper reports on a quasi-experiment investigating whether market representations have a constructive aspect in business. Empirically, this study compares two types of market representations - ostensive and performative - in order to test for influence exacted in two well-established strategies in industrial marketing - service focus and product differentiation. Results indicate that service focus is selected when market representations rely on agency in firms (i.e., performative), and product strategies are selected when structures are emphasized (i.e., ostensive). This paper contributes to methodology development by expanding the link between a case study approach and quasi-experiments explaining how quasi-experiments can replicate findings in industrial marketing.     

Understanding the role of marketing-purchasing collaboration in industrial markets: The case of Russia

This study aims to investigate the role of interfunctional collaboration between marketing and purchasing functions in industrial companies. Interfunctional collaboration is considered as a measure of the internal alignment and partnership between departments in the firm, which in turn contributes to the creation of sustainable advantages via improved external partnerships and facilitating demand chain integration. We test the impact of customer orientation as well as the interactions between departments (specifically marketing and purchasing) as collaboration antecedents, and analyze the direct impact of marketing-purchasing collaboration on business performance. The model is tested on a sample of 148 industrial companies in Russia with two key respondents in each firm, incorporating the purchasing as well as the marketing perspective. The results show that marketing-purchasing collaboration mediates the effects of interfunctional interaction as well as customer orientation on business performance. Alternative model testing shows that the direct effects of these antecedent constructs on performance are non-significant in the context of Russian industrial companies.     

Introduction to the special issue on the nature of industrial marketing work

Peter Drucker once remarked that everything degenerates into work, and if it does not degenerate into work, nothing gets done. This special issue presents our vision for generating more analytical attention to the nature of industrial marketing work and to explore ways in which future research can contribute to this nascent research area. In this introductory article we seek to scope out an agenda for taking some of the themes of industrial marketing work further. In particular, the review points to the opportunities within industrial marketing, drawing on the intersections of Margaret Archer's morphogenetic agency approach with the neoinstitutional and Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) fields of study. It then highlights the useful contributions of the papers in this special issue. Our contribution lies in advancing new avenues for researching and, in so doing, ensuring something gets done to research this nascent area.     

Marketing research by a small industrial firm: A case study

There is a growing need today for industrial marketers to conduct marketing research and use the results in making profitable business decisions. This paper describes a marketing research study conducted by a small industrial firm and discusses the nature and extent of its impact on the firm's operations. Several implications and practical guidelines are derived for industrial marketers in general, based on the firm's marketing research experience.     

Reducing new product risk through understanding buyer behavior

The marketing of new industrial products can have a heavy impact on the effectiveness of customer service. The new product buying decision is always accompanied by perceived risk on the part of the buyer. Therefore, it is important for the industrial marketer of a new product to be able to empathize with this perceived risk, in order to help the buyer minimize it before the fact. This article explores industrial buying and new product adoption decision processes, and the role of perceived risk in these processes.     

Dynamic Time-Staged Model for R&D Portfolio Planning—A Real World Case

Abstract— A dynamic, time-staged mixed integer model is currently being used for the selection of industrial long-range R&D portfolio. Input data from research and marketing are processed through logical programs to provide the discounted payoffs, probabilities (Bayesian, parallel strategies), subjective nonmonetary multiple criteria weights, and the matrix for the mathematical programming model. The multiperiod portfolio is revised sequentially for resources exhaustion throughout the planning horizon by the staged introduction of additional projects. Marginal payoff function (additional investments vs. expected payoff) is a by-product for the support of additional resources justification. Mathematical and heuristic techniques used to overcome common difficulties confronted by previously discussed models are presented. Experience with model introduction to management is also discussed.     

Increasing the role of direct mail marketing in industrial marketing strategy

Direct marketing has long been a dominant factor in the distribution strategy of industrial goods and services. Yet frameworks for strategy formulation in this area are nearly nonexistent in the literature. Much that has been written focuses on successful techniques, such as how to use a specific type of sales letter to improve results. This article outlines a set of key perspectives that industrial marketers may use to evaluate the potential effectiveness of direct marketing strategies.     

Brands in,from and to emerging markets: The role of industrial relationships

Adopting an explicit stance of a brand from a corporate viewpoint and taking an industrial marketing management perspective, this article identifies the causes and effects of internationalisation for brands from advanced and emerging markets. It aims to offer significant insights in advancing industrial marketing scholarship and practice. From an extensive review of extant literature, this article put forth two conceptual models (i) for brands from advanced into emerging markets, and (ii) for brands from emerging into advanced markets. These models underpin an industrial setting and are informed by Wernerfelt (1995) resource-based view of the firm as they impact on the future of corporate brand management in an international industrial marketing context.