2006 Awards for Excellence

Citation

(2006), "2006 Awards for Excellence", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 40 No. 11/12. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm.2006.00740kaa.001

2006 Awards for Excellence

Named in honour of Hans B. Thorelli, a recognized scholar who has made continuous and significanr contributions to international marketing management.

The following article was selected for this year’s Outstanding Paper Award for European Journal of Marketing

"Antecedents of conflict in marketing’s cross-functional relationship with sales"

Philip L. DawesUniversity of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

Graham R. MasseyUniversity of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model of the factors that explain the level of interpersonal conflict between marketing managers and sales managers. The paper aims to establish the overall level of interpersonal conflict in the full sample and in the two sampled countries (UK and Australia).

Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on two theoretical frameworks to develop the model, namely structural contingency theory and the interaction approach. More specifically, the conceptual framework uses three groups of variables to explain interpersonal conflict: structural, individual, and communication. Importantly, the study developed and tested nine hypotheses. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the measures while OLS regression was used in testing the hypotheses. The data were collected from 200 sales managers in the UK and Australia.

Findings – Overall, the study finds that there was a surprisingly low level of interpersonal conflict between marketing managers and sales managers and that there were no differences across the two countries. Of the three groups of variables, the two communication variables – frequency and bidirectionality – had the strongest effects on interpersonal conflict. The next strongest effects were from the individual-level variables – psychological distance and the sales manager’s formal education. The findings also reveal that the level of the sales manager’s marketing training and the marketing manager’s sales experience had no influence on interpersonal conflict. Two of the three structural variables – use of lateral linkages and being part of a corporation – had the hypothesized negative impact on interpersonal conflict.

Originality/value – This is the first study to use a large empirical survey to examine the marketing and sales dyad. Also, it is one of the few studies to test the effects of communication behaviours on peer manager conflict.

Keywords Australia, Conflict, Marketing, Sales managers, United Kingdom

www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03090560510623280

This article originally appeared in Volume 39 Number 11/12, 2005, pp. 1327-44, European Journal of Marketing

The following article was selected for this year’s Highly Commended Award

"Measuring transaction-specific satisfaction in services: are the measures transferable across cultures?"

Cleopatra Veloutsou

G. Ronald Gilbert

Luiz A. Moutinho

Mark M.H. Goode

This article originally appeared in Volume 39 Number 5/6, 2005, European Journal of Marketing