The embedded sales force: Connecting buying and selling organizations

Business-to-business firms are increasingly focusing on building long-term partnering relationships with key customers. Salespeople are often responsible for managing these relationships. To be effective as relationship managers, salespeople need to be embedded in both their firm’s and customers’ organizations. They need to have extensive knowledge of their customers’ business and also know and be able to leverage their firm’s resources to develop offerings tailored to their customers’ needs. Their companies and sales managers need to use different approaches to manage and support salespeople in this new role. In this paper, we examine some issues affecting the interfaces between elements of the embedded sales force and suggest some directions for future research and methods for examining these issues.     

Scrutinizing local public service provision

Set in the context of an expansion of scrutiny by local authorities of local service provision, this article explores the key challenges ahead for managers and politicians in this area of local governance. Drawing on an evaluation of the development of health scrutiny, it outlines the different types of activities health scrutiny committees are engaging in to fulfil their legislative commitments and suggests lessons for the expansion of external scrutiny.     

A Web of Watchdogs: Stakeholder Media Networks and Agenda-Setting in Response to Corporate Initiatives

This article seeks to model the agenda-setting strategies of stakeholders equipped with online and other media in three cases involving protests against multinational corporations (MNCs). Our theoretical objective is to widen agenda-setting theory to a dynamic and nonlinear networked stakeholder context, in which stakeholder-controlled media assume part of the role previously ascribed to mainstream media (MSM). We suggest system dynamics (SD) methodology as a tool to analyse complex stakeholder interactions and the effects of their agendas on other stakeholders. We find that largely similar dynamics of interactions occur among stakeholders in these cases, and that the costs for managements of maintaining their agendas steadily rises. We conclude that the “web of watchdogs” comprises a powerful reason for managers to engage in responsibility negotiations with their stakeholders.     

(Un)Ethical Leadership and Identity: What Did We Learn and Where Do We Go from Here?

The purpose of this article is to highlight and comment on the key findings emerging from the collective efforts of the special issue on leadership, ethics, and identity. Highlights include definitional advancements, processes comprising ethical leadership, as well as outcomes and moderating factors. In addition, I attempt to synthesize work across authors by identifying common themes as well as conflicting elements in the article. I conclude with a discussion on emerging areas in need of future research investigation in the leadership and ethics arena.     

Covid’s economic reset: making the quixotic quotidian

Business Economics - It is easy to become dispirited. Despite my concern about the near-term outlook, advising business leaders requires that I look past the pandemic. Akcigit and Ates argue that...     

Transfer Pricing for the Rest of Us

Transfer pricing is a frequently discussed but often misunderstood aspect of international business. This article describes what it is, its legitimate functions in accounting for international intra-firm transactions, and its use by corporations for tax optimization. However, there may be mitigating factors that make efforts to optimize taxes more apparent than real. The issues of transfer pricing require sophisticated economic analysis for understanding and resolution, particularly as they relate to the internal and external pricing environment faced by a firm and the principles of profit allocation among different parts of a firm.     

The New World of Advertising. Compiled by the editors of Advertising Age. Chicago: Crain Books, 1975

Abstract

This study empirically tested the assumption that the more creative alternatives generated, the better the chance of developing the most effective campaign creative strategy. A panel of four professional creative people from a branch of a “top-twenty” advertising agency judged positioning statements generated by four groups of advertising students. Various analyses of the data tended to confirm the assumption.     

Neural Networks for Forecasting: An Introduction

Neural networks are nonlinear mapping structures based on the study of the human brain. They have been shown to be universal and highly flexible junction approximators to any data-generating process. Therefore, they are powerful models for forecasting purposes, especially when the underlying data-generating processes are unknown. However, the appropriate design of the network's architecture and learning rules are crucial for obtaining satisfactory results. This study discusses the scope and limitations of neural networks for forecasting problems and provides an example by designing a neural network for forecasting. It is argued that statistical theory can offer some suggestions for designing an optimal network architecture. An example comparing a neural network and ARIM model for forecasting weekly corn prices 1974 through 1993 is provided. Results show the neural network model to be more accurate than the ARIMA.     

Continuous process technology, annualised hours and national bargaining

From the 1980s, the paper and board industry in Britain, in response to the pressures of strong foreign competition, sought the fuller utilisation of new and existing technology through changing work practices. This particularly involved the extensive introduction of annualised hours arrangements with national bargaining arrangements playing a major role in their introduction.