J. Ricky Fergurson, Greg W. Marshall and Lou E. Pelton
One of the pivotal questions facing all firms is “Who owns the customer?” Despite the longstanding acknowledgment that customer ownership is critical to a firm’s success, to date…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the pivotal questions facing all firms is “Who owns the customer?” Despite the longstanding acknowledgment that customer ownership is critical to a firm’s success, to date, little research attention has been afforded to conceptualizing and measuring customer ownership. This study aims to address this research gap by exploring, measuring and validating a customer ownership scale through the lens of the business-to-business salesperson.
Design/methodology/approach
The classical multi-item scale development involving a multistep process was used in developing and validating this scale measuring customer ownership. Using a grounded theory approach, the customer ownership scale is developed and justified as distinctive from customer loyalty.
Findings
The two-factor customer ownership scale reflects the underlying factors of the salesperson–customer bond and provides a pathway to empirically assess mechanisms for addressing customer migration. The findings suggest an opportunity for greater precision in both meaning and measurement for both academics and practitioners.
Originality/value
The question “Who owns the customer?” has been a venerable enigma in sales organizations, and it remains an underdeveloped construct in sales and marketing research. This research empirically explores the construct of customer ownership in a systematic manner that is conspicuously absent from extant studies.
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Debbie Isobel Keeling and Greg W. Marshall
The research landscape is rapidly changing and people need to evolve the way in which they think about publishing their work. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the new…
Abstract
Purpose
The research landscape is rapidly changing and people need to evolve the way in which they think about publishing their work. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the new article type – the impact article – which is specifically designed to allow collaborators to showcase their impact work and also share learning about how impact is (or is not) achieved.
Design/methodology/approach
This introductory paper outlines the rationale for the impact article and explains its new structure, using examples from the very first set of five impact articles to be published in the journal.
Findings
There is a clear appetite for sharing and learning more about the reality of impact. Providing a facilitating structure to enable sharing, this study identifies five core building blocks to bringing about valuable impact: problem generation and identifying the impact to be achieved; working with stakeholders; the (co-)creation and learning process; impact outcomes; and the ethics of impact.
Research limitations/implications
The new impact article type encourages authors to explore the impact process from start to finish, and to share learning about the process, including dealing with the unexpected and often changing nature of impact. These important learnings will inform future impact work, especially learning about what can (and cannot) be achieved and in what timeframes.
Practical implications
Collaboration is key to achieving impact. The new impact article aims to give voice to all stakeholders, through co-authorship opportunities and exploring the differences in perspectives on impact between stakeholders, including differing understanding of the ethics of impact. And to encourage multi-stakeholder co-creative working by enabling the sharing of best practice models and methods of collaborative working.
Originality/value
This new type of article aims to celebrate and make explicit the impact of research and so complements existing types of articles that might be separately published on the research itself. The impact article is designed to facilitate knowledge exchange about impact, not underlying research conceptualization and methodologies, but the challenge of designing, developing, tracking and demonstrating impact.
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Kelly R. Hall, Dana E. Harrison, Haya Ajjan and Greg W. Marshall
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing frontier. One promising area for AI is its potential to assist sales managers in providing salesperson feedback. Despite this…
Abstract
Purpose
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing frontier. One promising area for AI is its potential to assist sales managers in providing salesperson feedback. Despite this promise, little work has been done within the business-to-business (B2B) sales domain to investigate the potential impact of AI feedback on critical sales outcomes. The purpose of this research is to explore these issues and respond to calls in the literature to determine how AI can enhance salesperson adaptability and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data from a sample of 246 B2B salespeople was used to test the conceptual model and research hypotheses. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).
Findings
The findings provide broad support for the model. An AI-feedback rich environment and salesperson feedback orientation predicted perceived accuracy of AI feedback which, in turn, strengthened intentions to use AI feedback. These favorable reactions to AI feedback positively related to adaptive selling behaviors, and adaptive selling behaviors mediated the relationships between intentions to use AI feedback and organizational commitment, as well as sales performance. Contrary to expectations, it did not mediate the relationship between intentions to use AI feedback and job satisfaction.
Practical implications
The managerial implications of this study lie in explaining practical considerations for the implementation and use of AI feedback in the sales context.
Originality/value
This study extends literature on technology adoption, performance feedback and the use of AI in the B2B sales domain. It offers practical insight for sales managers and those responsible for implementing AI solutions in sales.
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Andrew T. Thoeni, Greg W. Marshall and Stacy M. Campbell
The purpose of this paper is to define a typology of strategic segmentation accounting for antecedents (potentially conscious or subconscious) that influence marketing managers’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to define a typology of strategic segmentation accounting for antecedents (potentially conscious or subconscious) that influence marketing managers’ practice of strategic segmentation, thereby formulating a new theoretical basis to bridge the current theory–practice literature gap in strategic segmentation.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the resource-advantage theory, this paper defines a typology of strategic segmentation that depicts how a firm’s access to imperfectly mobile resources relates to the marketing manager’s assumed heterogeneity of the market and to the manager’s approach to the market.
Findings
The authors postulate a typology of firms’ strategic segmentation and approach to the market that is heavily influenced, and potentially limited, by the firm’s available resources to effectively segment and address the market.
Research limitations/implications
The typology suggests that resource availability affects a manager’s view and approach to the market. Therefore, testing of this typology should be performed to provide an empirical basis for a taxonomical foundation of strategic segmentation. Empirical testing should examine whether: resource availability is directly related to managers’ views of market heterogeneity, resources are negatively correlated with market approach, market-based intelligence (customer needs) are linked to the market approach, and there is relationship between a firm’s position within the typology and its long-term performance.
Practical implications
This paper provides an understanding that a manager’s knowledge of resource availability may be strategically counter-productive when creating a strategic segmentation. This limitation may lead to short-run choices for segmentation and market approach. Managers should, therefore, consider their strategic goals both with and without limiting their view based on current resources.
Originality/value
This paper provides the first typology of strategic segmentation by considering theoretical foundations of business that could bridge the often-noted theory–practice gap of segmentation.
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Fernando Jaramillo and Greg W. Marshall
This article identifies the selling techniques that are critical success factors (CSFs) for salespeople who sell banking products and services in Ecuador. The study examines the…
Abstract
This article identifies the selling techniques that are critical success factors (CSFs) for salespeople who sell banking products and services in Ecuador. The study examines the selling techniques that differentiate top and bottom sales performers in the Ecuadorian banking industry. Both self‐reported and supervisor ratings are used to measure salesperson performance. The results suggest that differences in performance between top and bottom performing salespeople relate to the use of five selling techniques: examining records at the prospecting stage of the selling process; approaching prospects using statements about the salesperson, the bank, or the names of persons who referred the prospect; using customer friendly language during the sales presentation; being knowledgeable of the benefits of the banks’ products and being able to clarify the products’ benefits; and ensuring post‐purchase satisfaction of existing customers.
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Greg W. Marshall, Felicia G. Lassk and William C. Moncrief
Job involvement is the psychological identification with one's job. Recent trends in sales organizations have heightened the need for increased job involvement among salespeople…
Abstract
Job involvement is the psychological identification with one's job. Recent trends in sales organizations have heightened the need for increased job involvement among salespeople. Little research has been done to investigate the relationship of job involvement to demographic, job situational, and market variables in a sales setting. Results of a survey of 417 field salespeople revealed support for associations between job involvement and these variables. Implications are discussed for sales managers and sales researchers.
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Greg W. Marshall, Julie Baker and David W. Finn
An often overlooked aspect of service delivery in business‐to‐business settings is the issue of service quality among internal organizational units. Yet, in practice many…
Abstract
An often overlooked aspect of service delivery in business‐to‐business settings is the issue of service quality among internal organizational units. Yet, in practice many organizational departments are service providers primarily to customers within the organization. For example, management information systems, human resources, and purchasing departments all share an important function supporting other employees as they perform their jobs. Managers of those internal service functions are becoming more concerned with delivering high levels of service quality to their internal customers. This article explores the dimensionality of customer service quality as perceived by a set of internal customers of an organizational buying unit, and examines the potential for segmentation of internal customers. Managerial implications and recommendations are presented to aid organizations desiring to improve internal service quality.
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Fernando Jaramillo, Daniel M. Ladik, Greg W. Marshall and Jay Prakash Mulki
In the years since Saxe and Weitz developed a scale to measure the selling orientation and customer orientation (SOCO) of a salesperson, research findings on the effect of SOCO on…
Abstract
Purpose
In the years since Saxe and Weitz developed a scale to measure the selling orientation and customer orientation (SOCO) of a salesperson, research findings on the effect of SOCO on salesperson job performance have shown mixed results. This article aims to synthesize the findings from the empirical studies to identify the direction and the strength of this relationship. In addition, it aims to investigate the moderating effect of customer type (business or end user consumer) and type of job performance measure used (subjective or objective).
Design/methodology/approach
Research questions were addressed by a meta‐analysis of 16 studies containing 17 effect sizes from 3,477 respondents.
Findings
Meta‐analysis results reveal an attenuated weighted mean effect size (r) of this relationship of 0.14, with a 90 percent confidence interval of 0.04 to 0.23. The disattenuated mean effect size (rc) is 0.16. Findings also reveal that neither customer type nor type of job performance measures moderated the SOCO and job performance relationship.
Research limitations/implications
Although diligence was exercised to reduce selection bias, relevant studies may have been excluded from this meta‐analysis.
Practical implications
Study findings demonstrate that SOCO is an important predictor of salesperson job performance. High performance occurs when salespeople focus their energy on identifying the customer's individual needs and offer products to satisfy those needs.
Originality/value
This is the first published SOCO meta‐analysis.