The Impact of Personality Variables,Prior Experience,and Training on Sales Agents' Internet Utilization and Performance

ABSTRACT

Emerging literature on the impact of the Internet on business-to-business (B2B) marketing has primarily focused on examining this issue from the perspective of manufacturers and buyers. This study focuses on the sales agent, a third prominent actor in B2B markets, and tests a conceptual model that relates a sales agent's personality, demographic, and user-situational constructs to that sales agent's Internet utilization for selling activities. Further, the model tested in this study relates a sales agent's Internet utilization to perceived sales performance. Findings in this study indicate that internal locus of control, learning orientation, and sales related Internet training relate positively to a sales agent's Internet utilization, and that a sales agent's age relates negatively to Internet utilization. Further, the results support a positive relationship between a sales agent's Internet utilization and sales performance. This study emphasizes that the Internet can be a productive tool for sales agents. The implications of the results of this study for sales agents with respect to training and recruitment are discussed and avenues for future research are suggested.     

伦敦新城规划建设的经验教训和对北京的启示

以有关资料文献为基础,对伦敦新城规划建设进行研究,总结其成功经验包括人本主义思想与实践、较为科学合理的规划设计理念与方法、高效的立法与较为灵活的经营机制;着重指出伦敦新城建设的教训和不足,包括新城思想、规划手段、管理体系、区域协调和社会规划都存在问题。可为当今北京的新城建设提出有益启示。     

Assessing holiday satisfaction of Australian travellers in Vietnam: An application of the HOLSAT model

The hotel business model has been diversified in response to the various needs of consumers. Many previous studies focused on the alteration factors of the hotel business model from the consumer's point of view. Although it is one of the factors that affect alteration of the hotel business model, the manager's perspective is also an important alteration factor. This article emphasizes that it is necessary to consider not only the consumer side, but also the management side based on two approaches of the strategy theory: the positioning approach and the resource-based approach.

Surveys were conducted by mail in order to gather information regarding what managers in Japan consider to be important components of a hotel. As a result, “location” was found to be the most important component, followed by “annex facilities” and “deployment system”. Once the components were ordered according to their relative importance, a strong relationship was found between the managers' preferences and the characteristics of “syukuhakusyutai-type” hotels, which are ‘direct management’ (DM) hotels located usually in the city. In Japan, the number of “syukuhakusyutai-type” hotels has recently increased, therefore capturing the spotlight in the hotel industry. However, the results of this research are not compared with those of much previous research conducted on hotel choice attributes, because the measured variables differed significantly.     

Ecotourists' Perception of Ecotourism Experience in Lower Kinabatangan,Sabah, Malaysia

This paper presents the empirical findings of an exploratory qualitative study which looks at ecotourists' perceptions of ecotourism experiences in Sabah, Malaysia in order to identify the expressive dimensions that describe the quality of their experience. In-depth interviews were conducted with European ecotourists who stayed at two ecolodges in Sukau. Positive and negative experiences were identified from an analysis of the expressive dimensions of their service experience. The findings show that the ecotourists' experience is multidimensional. Respondents place particular emphasis on the ecotourism activities in which they physically engage at the sites and the natural environment in which they are located; their interaction with the site service staff; socialisation with other ecotourists, and the information acquired during the visit. The six expressive dimensions describing the positive experience are consistent with previous research. The study explores understanding of ecotourists' experience in the ecotourism environment – an under-researched area. The paper points out that the evaluation of quality of experience appears to involve both attributes – functional elements that are provided by the service suppliers and affective/emotional elements that are brought about by the ecotourists themselves.     

国家主导视野下的西藏现代工业的演进逻辑、轨迹与经验教训

西藏现代工业的演进动力有着内外因的双重作用,其中外因大于内因.从本质上来讲,西藏现代工业的演进是在国家主导下进行的,大体上可以分为四个阶段,即初步发展时期、加速发展时期、改革转轨时期以及深化发展时期.西藏现代工业半个多世纪的发展,留下了诸多经验教训,需要认真总结.     

探析现代产品设计中的通感现象

以通感在审美欣赏、艺术创作中的重要性为启示,分析了通感的类型、特点、感官相通的模式等,并结合日常生活、诗词赏析中的各种通感现象,论述了通感对艺术创作的启发与启迪,以及应用通感带给作品的飞跃与提升。在此基础上,提出了通感在产品设计中的重要性,并结合具体案例论证通感的巧妙应用给产品带来的感性诉求、人文情怀以及体验的乐趣。     

杭州世界休闲博览园的体验营销策略研究

体验营销是以顾客为中心,并提供有价值体验过程的营销活动。杭州世界休闲博览园将休闲与体验两者紧密结合,通过丰富的感官营销、情感营销、思考营销、行动营销、关联营销策略的完善,发展成为一个国际性的游乐世界、休闲王国、购物天堂。     

Property rights and international investment in information technology services

Many modern information technology services are increasingly being produced in a host country to serve clients in an offshore location. As a result, the internationalization of service functions is beginning to resemble that of their more traditional manufacturing counterparts. This paper examines the role of formal and de facto property rights protection in the offshore location choice of information technology services. I also explore the role of a firm's global subsidiary network and its experience with similar property rights regimes. Using investment data based on 152 firms and their international information service investments between 2002–2006, the empirical results highlight the role of de facto property rights protection and related experience in location choice.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.