Search results

This study aims to explore the effects of three competency layers of personality on salesperson effort and performance: self-efficacy, competitiveness and entrepreneurial motivation.

A two-study approach with data from 285 business-to-business (B2B) salespeople in the USA and 342 B2B/business-to-consumer salespeople in Poland is used. This study has also used structural equation modelling with partial least squares, common method assessment and mediation testing.

The findings show that across both studies, entrepreneurial motivation relates directly and positively to effort: salespeople with a greater entrepreneurial motivation exert more effort to perform their sales-related tasks. In addition, competitiveness and self-efficacy are two antecedents of entrepreneurial motivation in a sales context.

This study introduces the concept of entrepreneurial motivation as a goal orientation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of relationship digitization benefits on reseller profit. The authors hypothesized two pathways by which the digitization benefits improve reseller profitability: direct and indirect. The direct pathway is via enhancing the reseller’s digital resources and capabilities and the indirect pathway is by improving the relationship with a focal manufacturer by reducing inequity and enhancing interorganizational trust.

The authors use the survey methodology to attempt to understand the interorganizational dynamics of digitization. The authors survey more than 200 resellers in the computer and computer components industry.

Overall, the pattern of results generally supports the framework for direct and indirect effects of digitization benefits on the bottom line of the reseller, as well as the idea of examining the benefits structure components of benefit magnitude and benefit asymmetry. Sales benefit magnitude improves reseller profit directly, as enhanced digital resources result in a more efficient and effective reseller salesforce. The indirect effects flow through to profitability via inequity and trust.

The authors are not aware of any prior research that uses the asymmetry and magnitude framework to approach the digitization phenomenon.

This study aims to examine the antecedents and performance consequences of three types of communication technology (phone, e-mail and internet) in cross-border business-to-business relationships.

Based on the proposed theoretical framework six hypotheses are advanced and tested. The authors use regression analysis on data from a survey of American exporters combined with secondary data on emerging European markets.

This research finds that relationship-level variables are better predictors of ICT use than country-level variables, and that ICT use impacts dyadic performance. More specifically, information exchange predicted all three communication modes, while the use of warnings predicted both inter-personal communication methods. From an institutional standpoint, the authors find that bureaucratic barriers predict both phone and e-mail communication. At the firm level, it is found that firm-level technological skills are a significant predictor for the use of internet-based data exchange. The paper also finds that increased frequency of phone and e-mail communication among dyadic partners improves performance.

Although micro-level variables are found to be more important, country variables still bring interesting insights and should not be ignored. Also, newer technologies should be explored in future research.

The authors explore antecedents of information/communication technology (ICT) use at three levels: country or macro level, dyadic (or inter-firm relationship) level, and firm capabilities (intra-firm). At the country level, the authors move beyond infrastructure to examine the impact of institutional factors, such as government red tape. At the relationship level, the authors include trust-type social norms, but extend the analysis to incorporate the use of unilateral influence attempts, such as warnings.

The present study aims to contribute to the growing cross‐national body of literature on work‐family conflict (WFC) and family‐work conflict (FWC) issues by examining the interrelationship of these constructs with other variables in the context of a transitional economy.

Data were collected using self‐report questionnaires distributed to retail salespeople in Hungary. Hypothesis tests were conducted using structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that WFC is strongly related to job stress, while FWC is not, and that job stress fully mediates the effect of WFC on turnover intentions. It was also found that self‐efficacy, as a moderator, heightened the positive effect of WFC on job stress, but attenuated the effect of FWC.

Future research could examine both the deleterious and beneficial effects of role identity spillover and include additional psychological work outcomes beyond turnover intentions. Assessing the impact of collective efficacy in addition to individual self‐efficacy is also warranted in future studies conducted in transitional economies, especially those with collectivistic cultures.

The authors' evidence that WFC is more strongly related to job stress than FWC underscores the need for retailers to implement progressive policies to create supportive work environments, which can reduce WFC and FWC. The finding of the contingent effect of self‐efficacy also has important implications for recruiting and training practices of retailers operating in transitional economies.

This study is among the first to compile the multiple theoretical rationales for the moderating effect of self‐efficacy and empirical evidence that it operates in opposite ways relative to WFC and FWC.

This paper aims to analyze antecedents of entrepreneurship propensity in two separate studies, at individual and organizational levels. The first study proposes that the effect of individual cultural values on entrepreneurial propensity is mediated by the locus of control. The second study focuses on the interaction effect between the individual's need for autonomy and a bureaucratic culture characterized by high centralization and high formalization.

The approach takes the form of surveys of business students and retail salespeople in Romania and regression analysis.

Internal locus of control predicts entrepreneurship propensity. Mediation effects were not supported. Centralization and formalization stimulate entrepreneurial propensity, especially in salespeople with a high need for autonomy. In general, the individual cultural values approach generated weak results, while the organizational culture approach showed strong support for the hypotheses.

A combination of push and pull effects determines an individual's entrepreneurial propensity. Personality traits, such as internal locus of control and need for autonomy predict entrepreneurial propensity. But individuals are pushed into entrepreneurship by negative factors, such as dissatisfaction with existing employment.

In transitional economies, entrepreneurial ventures are relied on to sustain a high growth rate, to serve the unmet needs of the population, and to create jobs. Multinationals operating in transition countries could improve recruiting decisions by hiring managers with a high internal locus of control and could then allow them decision‐making power to satisfy their need for autonomy.

The paper analyzes antecedents of entrepreneurship propensity in two separate studies, at micro (individual) and meso (organizational) levels, but set within the same transitional economy. This macro context is posited to shape both organizational culture and individual cultural values and personality traits.

Despite renewed interest in the cross‐national implementation of market orientation, there is hardly any consideration of this practice in sub‐Saharan Africa. The present study examines the validity of two widely used market orientation scales from Kholi and Jaworski and Narver and Slater, in Ivory Coast, and the ability of both scales developed from explained market orientation practices among Ivorian firms. The results of this study confirm the transferability of both scales, although Narver and Slater’s were found to perform better. In addition, several related organizational antecedents recommended in the extant literature were found to predict market orientation in this sub‐Saharan African country. Several managerial recommendations and implications for further research are also discussed.

This paper seeks to apply the relational exchange framework, updated by insights on interimistic relationships, to analyze governance implications for the three types of e‐marketplaces currently in operation: independent exchanges, consortia, and private exchanges. These three archetypes are analyzed from a functional perspective and, more importantly, from a relationship governance perspective.

The paper is conceptual in approach.

The three e‐marketplace archetypes currently in existence correspond to different levels of operational integration and, in turn, to three different types of inter‐firm relationships. Moreover, the three types of relational structures proposed offer different solutions for governance processes such as partner qualification, monitoring, and enforcement.

The network of relationships between firms is changing all the time as a result of dynamic industry conditions. The relational continuum proposed can explain the focal firm's shifting reliance on one or another of the e‐marketplace types as a result of industry volatility.

The analysis advocates a portfolio approach to e‐marketplace adoption, based on the varying strengths of their connections with different industry partners. This approach also implies a new type of segmentation, based on the place that the trading partner occupies on the relational continuum.

When analyzing e‐marketplaces, a focus on technology and functional parameters alone misses an essential aspect: when choosing among various e‐marketplace formats currently in operation, firms cannot overlook the inter‐firm relationships that characterize these marketplaces and give them their identity.

The aim of this study is to reveal the contribution that Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing has to scientific research and its most influential thematic work in B-to-B since its beginning in 1986 until 2015, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary.

The paper begins with a qualitative introduction: the emergence of the magazine, its origins, editorial and positioning. Subsequently, it is based on bibliometric methodologies to develop quantitative analysis. The distribution of annual publications is analyzed, the most cited papers, the keywords that are mostly used, the influence on the publishing industry and authors, universities and the countries that have the most publications.

The predominant role of the USA at all levels is highlighted. It also highlights the presence (given its size and population) of the countries of Northern Europe. There is great interest in appreciating the evolution of the number of publications that are always increasing which demonstrates the growing and sustained interest in these types of articles, with certain times of retreat (often coincide with economic crisis).

The Scopus database gives one unit to each author, university or country involved in the paper, without distinguishing whether it was one or more authors in the study. Therefore, this may bring some deviations in the analysis. However, the study considers some figures with fractional counting to partially solve these limitations.

After observing the different perspectives of the journal’s production, it allows to give an objective view of the evolution that the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing has had in the past 30 years.

It is part of the trend that several journals (Journal of Marketing, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research) made special sections to show progress and contribution of these journals to scientific research.