Moving beyond the direct effect of SFA adoption on salesperson performance: training and support as key moderating factors

To our knowledge, this research is the first to focus on the critical moderating role that user training and support play on the relationship between the use of sales force automation tools and salesperson performance (i.e., effectiveness: percent-to-quota and efficiency: average number of calls per day). Hypotheses are tested using survey data from a sample of 108 salespeople in a business-to-business context and archival sales performance information. Moderated regression analysis results indicate that the use of sales force automation tools only enhances salesperson efficiency and effectiveness under conditions of adequate user support and training. In fact, under low levels of user training and support, the use of sales force automation tools was found to reduce salesperson efficiency and effectiveness. These findings have important implications for IT and sales managers since the results show that only under certain conditions will companies realize a return on their investment in SFA tools. Limitations and future directions for research are then discussed.     

Auditors gone wild: The “other” problem in public accounting

Following the scandals involving Enron, WorldCom, and Qwest Communications, the accounting profession has spent the past several years trying to get back on track. While Sarbanes-Oxley may improve the decision-making of audit professionals, and help prevent future large-scale catastrophes that hurt stockholders and bring down firms, there is another problem in public accounting that few consider and nobody has proposed to solve: deviant workplace behavior. Previous research describes deviant workplace behavior as the voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and, in so doing, threatens the well being of the organization and/or its members. Building from recent work in various business literatures, this is the first research since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley to examine workplace deviance at Big 4 accounting firms. Taking a cross-disciplinary, collaborative approach, the authors endeavor to explain why workplace deviance has infiltrated accounting firms and how it is undermining their effectiveness and derailing their long-term prospects for success. After describing its genesis and effects, the authors prescribe several managerial strategies for preventing deviance and minimizing its effects on a firm.     

Capital asset pricing model in Portugal: Evidence from fractal regressions

We examine risk profiles of the Portuguese stock market index component stocks using a novel approach to the classical capital asset pricing model (CAPM). Specifically, we estimate the CAPM via fractal regressions that allow studying the marginal effects at selected scales. In this way, we can reveal whether the risk is perceived differently by market participants with different investment horizons. Apart from the analysis itself, we provide new statistical insights into the issue of separating and comparing the scale-specific effects with statistical validity. We find several stocks deviating from an expected risk perception homogeneity across investment horizons. This is true for both analysed periods, i.e. before and after the global financial crisis. There are also several stocks that changed their relationship to the market portfolio in between, which has strong implications for possible portfolio construction. The proposed methodology is not limited to financial topics but can be used in any discipline where the scale-specific marginal effects might be of interest.     

From clear to complicated: Buying and selling accounting services post Sarbanes-Oxley

While much has been said and written about the effect of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), one consequence of the new regulation that has been largely neglected is the law's dramatic impact on how audits are bought and sold in the United States. Prior to SOX, the process was clear and simple: accounting firm partners would meet with the publicly held client company's C-level executives to complete the exchange. When SOX was passed, Congress took the buying decision out of the hands of the client company's executives and placed it in the hands of the company's external audit committee. As this inter-disciplinary research will explain, this change—and other similar changes emanating from the “independence” provisions in SOX—has forever complicated the client-auditor exchange. Based on the literature in business-to-business selling, this research proposes two models—one centered around the concept of a “buying center” and another around “selling team” theory—in an effort to advance thinking in this area, and help both client companies and accounting firms operate in this new environment.     

Happy Birthday,Milton Friedman: A buyer-seller salute

Milton Friedman—famed economist, statistician, Nobel Memorial Prize winner, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and proud champion of the free market—would have turned 100 years old this past July. In spite of his myriad contributions, business researchers and practitioners can easily overlook how his work impacted their own disciplines and areas of focus. A business-to-business buyer-seller perspective is offered herein, detailing how Dr. Friedman's work—specifically, his seminal book, Free to Choose—helped usher in the era we today call ‘relationship selling.’     

The ABC's of ACB: Unveiling a clear and present danger in the sales force

While anti-citizenship behavior (ACB) is under-researched across all academic domains, sales and marketing researchers have not done any work in the area. This oversight is significant given recent survey data that suggests sales representatives are misbehaving at an alarming rate; 60% of sales managers have caught their reps cheating on expense reports (an example of ACB) and 36% believe such behavior has gotten worse over the past several years. Directed towards the goal of understanding salesperson ACB, this research provides the first conceptual model of ACB in the sales force. The model contends that characteristics of the organization (justice and intra-firm competition) and contextual factors (fit and job stress) directly affect the performance of ACB while individual level factors (locus of control, self-monitoring and introversion) moderate the performance of these behaviors. In addition, this research explains the intra- and inter-organizational consequences of salesperson ACB and suggests several ways by which managers can address this issue.     

Visualization of time-dependent dynamics of postglacial rebound

Postglacial rebound is a major geological process which plays an important role in many areas in the earth sciences. Up to now, most of the images derived from studies of the glacial isostatic adjustment phenomenon have been concerned with surface signatures, such as the uplift and gravity anomalies and not much attention has been paid on the dynamical responses in the mantle. We will make use of the 3D visualization package Amira to depict both the external and internal deformation histories of the transient viscoelastic flow inside the mantle induced by postglacial uplift. Of particularly great interest are the transient displacement fields and shear heating inside the mantle. This same visualization technology can be brought to bear in the future for visualizing tsunami waves in ocean basins excited by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and InSAR images. We have also integrated the visualization results into the Google Earth virtual globe by combining this scheme with the Amira package to provide a better geographical and dynamical context.     

Loyalty or lethargy? Keeping sellers committed,not entrenched

While business sellers frequently enjoy long-term relationships with their buyers, not every extended association is based on a genuine sense of customer loyalty. Many organizations remain in relationships with providers for too long; while the seller has stopped providing value, the buyer sticks to the routine. Building from empirical research and theory on buyer-seller relationships, this research extends our understanding of customer complacency and seller entrenchment and introduces the concept of customer lethargy. Synthesizing theory from multiple domains with exploratory interviews conducted with business customers, this article offers insight into the functioning of organizational buying centers, the evolution of business exchanges over time, and how some exchanges can be undermined by various forms of relational dysfunction. I define customer lethargy, explore its root causes and offer business buyers a strategy which aims to help them self-audit their loyalty, avoid complacency and lethargy, and keep sellers committed, not entrenched.     

Price Stickiness in the US and Europe Revisited: Evidence from Internet Prices*

This paper compares price stickiness on the Internet and in traditional brick‐and‐mortar stores and examines differences across five countries: France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US. Contrary to conventional retail prices, we find that Internet prices change less often in the US than in EU countries. However, this does not hold for all product categories. Second, prices on the Internet are not necessarily more flexible than prices in brick‐and‐mortar stores. Third, our dataset reveals substantial heterogeneity in the frequency of price changes across Internet shops. Finally, panel logit estimates suggest that the likelihood of observing a price change is a function of both state‐dependent and time‐dependent factors.     

Impacts of Decoupled Agricultural Support on Farm Structure,Biodiversity and Landscape Mosaic: Some EU Results

The decoupling of direct payments from production represents a substantial reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Farmers are no longer required to produce commodities to be entitled to support but only to keep land in Good Environmental and Agricultural Condition. If output declines as a result, there is concern that landscape services produced jointly with commodities will also decline. The aim of this paper is to assess the long‐term effects of the 2003 reform on farm structure, landscape mosaic and biodiversity for a sample of EU regions. Impacts are quantified using a spatial agent‐based modelling approach by simulating agricultural development with links to indicators of landscape value. Our results demonstrate that eliminating the link between support payments and production has possible negative consequences for the landscape, but only under particular circumstances. It is shown that these effects could be offset by strengthening (Pillar II) agri‐environmental schemes. Further the single payment scheme results in higher land rental prices which reduces its ability to achieve its goal of providing income security for farmers. Implications of these results for the direction of continued CAP reform are discussed.