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A significant amount of research has shown that drivers of employee attitudes, and behaviors leading to outcome variables such as turnover intentions, are strongly influenced by national culture. This study focuses on the difference in relationships among some critical variables between two emerging economies with similar cultural indices.

Survey questionnaire was used to collect responses from salespeople in two countries. Correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were used to provide support for the stated hypotheses.

Results indicate that Mexican and Indian salespeople differ in how their level of trust in supervisor, regulation of emotion, interpersonal conflict and felt stress related to drive turnover intention. Findings also confirm a strong positive relationship between felt stress and turnover intention.

This study is based on survey responses and should be interpreted with the associated limitations of method bias. The hypothesized model of relationships among constructs was based on theory and prior research, but researchers understand that there could be other statistically equivalent models with equal fit. Moreover, stress can result from numerous other combinations of variables in addition to those used in this model. The relationships among constructs as presented could also be due to the absence of other key variables. This study looked at turnover intentions from an employee perspective using responses made when economic conditions worldwide were robust. This is not the case today because of the global pandemic. Economic conditions wield substantial influence on employee responses as well as on turnover intentions. In addition, economic downturn lowers turnover potential and heightens stress level.

Findings confirm a strong positive relationship between felt stress and turnover intention. Efforts to keep stress within a productive range should be encouraged, because while the direct costs of turnover can be substantial, indirect costs may be even greater. For example, when salespeople leave an organization, the customer relationships they formed and developed may be at risk, exposing their companies to potential reduction in revenue. Sales organizations that pay inadequate attention to high turnover rate among their salespeople become susceptible to a phenomenon Dudley and Goodson (1988) identified as “low sales recruiting ceiling syndrome.”

Most of the current studies results from developing countries have been compared to those from developed countries where the theories and seminal research originated. The outcome of the authors' research lends yet another argument in favor of more comparative studies on East versus East or developing economies versus developing economies. Such effort could further delineate the applicability of “foreign” theories and inform the development of “local” theories for richer insight on local management practice. The current drive to inject diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace should be reflected in the development of theory and the conduct of research. No one country or individual or group of individuals can claim ownership of theory development and standards for assessing theories originating elsewhere. Diversity, equity and inclusion have a place in academic research and should be encouraged. Second, the results obtained in this paper offer a cautionary note against over-generalization. Just as small details matter in life, likewise, small differences in variables that explain a phenomenon can make a big difference. Third, the findings confirm a strong positive relationship between felt stress and turnover intention. This is true for the two countries examined in this research.

This study seeks to understand why potential drivers of turnover intention might manifest differently in countries that have a similar cultural outlook. The current research leverages the contingency theory and zeroed in on turnover intention. In addition, two additional cultural dimensions (long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance) were incorporated, and the model was tested using salespeople (rather than plant workers).

This chapter compares and contrasts the application of cognitive ambidexterity by women entrepreneurs in Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and the United States of America. It focuses on how women entrepreneurs exhibit entrepreneurial leadership during first customer acquisitions. Analysis of interview data showed that the reasons for venture creation, the choice of venture, and the environmental context faced by women entrepreneurs influence the relative emphasis placed on prediction logic and creation logic. While women entrepreneurs in Kenya, Mexico, and Nigeria thrive with creation logic, those in the USA place more emphasis on prediction logic but cycle between both logics to enhance selling to early customers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate why salespeople resist change and the impact of resistance to change on customer responsiveness and performance outcomes.

Survey responses derived from 233 salespeople from three large financial institutions in Mexico are used to test relationships involving salespersons’ resistance to change.

Salespeople are more likely to resist change if they believe that change increases their workload. They are less likely to resist change when they have higher levels of job autonomy and self‐efficacy. Resistance to change has a negative impact on customer responsiveness and salesperson's performance.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature by identifying factors that explain salesperson's resistance to change. Study findings rely on salesperson survey responses collected in one country and industry. Future research is needed to assess the generalizability of findings and causality of the proposed relationships.

Resistance to change affects the salespersons’ capacity to respond to customer demands and ultimately undermines performance. Managers can help reduce resistance to change by providing salespeople with greater job autonomy and by explaining how change affects their workload.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper linking salesperson resistance to change to job performance.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a state of the art description of open air markets (OAM), a little-known phenomenon that is indispensable in Africa’s consumer packaged goods industry.

A qualitative methodology comprising in-depth semi-structured interviews and direct observation was employed.

Analysis of data from Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country, reveals that channel members have roles that are different from that of their Western counterparts. For example, distributors often do not distribute and principals are expected to actively sell on behalf of their distributors to empty the latter’s warehouse. Also, while many end-users in developing countries expect credit sales and opportunity to bargain, extant literature does not include these demands in the formal list of service output demands. Another major finding is the surprising order underlying OAM. It is the bedrock of commercial activities: for most consumer packaged goods manufacturers, sales through OAM account for over 90 percent of revenue.

The focus on one industry and country limits the generalizability of the above findings.

Africa is the next growth frontier. Tapping into this growth requires a deep understanding and appreciation of the important role played by its unique marketing channels.

Given the dearth of documented knowledge about marketing channels in emerging markets, this study addresses an important gap. Its findings could inform theory development and encourage more research on marketing channels in developing countries.

This paper's aim is to provide an empirical test of the assumption that coaching impacts salespeople's attitudes and behaviors under various contingencies.

The paper uses the survey responses of 2,532 salespeople and regression analyses.

Salesperson‐organization value fit reduces the likelihood that coaching will engender more affective commitment to the organization, improve satisfaction with job and supervisor and lower perceived role ambiguity. The number of years of formal education reduces the impact of coaching on affective commitment, satisfaction with job and supervisor. Salespeople's confidence in their company's product superiority over competitors' brands also reduces the effectiveness of coaching. Salesperson's organizational tenure has no impact on the effectiveness of coaching. Finally, the age of a salesperson dampens the positive relationship between coaching and affective commitment and job satisfaction but accentuates the negative relationship between coaching and perceived role ambiguity.

Analyses relied on cross‐sectional data. Thus the findings are only suggestive and causal relationships cannot be claimed. Also, the empirical setting limits the generalizability of findings to other professions.

Increasing the amount of coaching can engender positive attitudes and behaviors in salespeople. More coaching time should be devoted to younger salespeople, salespeople with lower confidence in the superiority of company's products over competitors' brands, salespeople with fewer years of formal education, and salespeople whose values fit the least with that of the organization.

The paper provides an empirical test of how, under different situations, coaching influences salespeople's attitudes and behaviors.