If one steps out of the Phalanx : Analyzing leaders; influence on sales force automation adoption with a quadratic dataset

The implementation of sales force automation applications (SFA) often fails owing to the lack of adoption by salespeople. Previous studies investigating drivers of salespeople’s SFA adoption have mainly scrutinized predictors on the level of salespeople (within-level analysis). Hence, these studies have mostly neglected the social influence of coworkers’ and superiors’ SFA adoption on salespeople’s SFA adoption. We introduce a new perspective using a multilevel framework of SFA adoption at several hierarchical levels. The findings demonstrate that coworkers’ and superiors’ SFA adoption has a positive effect on subordinates’ SFA adoption which goes beyond the commonly tested determinants. Also, results reveal differences among predictors of the Technology Acceptance Model (within-level effects) examined at three different hierarchical levels

Customer Satisfaction, Analyst Stock Recommendations, and Firm Value

Although managers are interested in the financial value of customers and researchers point out the importance of stock analysts who advise investors, no studies seem to have explored the implications of customer satisfaction for analyst stock recommendations. On the basis of a large-scale longitudinal dataset, the authors find that positive changes in customer satisfaction not only improve analyst recommendations but also lower dispersion in those recommendations for the firm. These effects are stronger when product market competition is high and financial market uncertainty is large. Also, analyst recommendations at least partially mediate the effects of changes in satisfaction on firm abnormal return, systematic risk, and idiosyncratic risk. Analyst recommendations represent a mechanism through which customer satisfaction affects firm value. Thus, if analysts pay attention to Main Street customer satisfaction, then Wall Street investors should have good reason to listen and follow. Overall, our research reveals satisfaction’s impact on analyst-based outcomes and firm value metrics and calls attention to the construct of customer satisfaction as a key intangible asset for the investor community

Willing to pay more, eager to pay less : the role of customer loyalty in price negotiations

This article is the first to empirically examine the effect of customer loyalty in retail price negotiations. Across three field studies and one negotiation experiment, the authors establish what they call the “loyalty–discount cycle”: in price negotiations with salespeople, loyal customers receive deeper discounts that, in turn, increase customer loyalty, resulting in a downward spiral of a company's price enforcement. The reason for the positive effect of customer loyalty on discount is twofold: (1) loyal customers demand a reward for their loyalty and invoke their elevated perceived negotiation power, and (2) to retain loyal customers, salespeople grant discounts more willingly. Furthermore, the mechanisms are moderated by the basis of a customer's loyalty (price vs. quality) and the length of the relationship between the salesperson and the customer. To escape the loyalty–discount cycle, salespeople can use functional and relational customer-oriented behaviors. The study helps managers and salespeople optimize their price enforcement and servicing of loyal customers

Social Identity and the Service-Profit Chain

The conventional service profit chain (SPC) proposes that a firm’s financial performance can be improved via a path that connects employee satisfaction, customer orientation, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In this paper, a complementary SPC is introduced which is built on both a conventional path as well as a social identity-based path. The latter SPC part centrally builds on customer and employee company identification as a core construct. On the basis of a large scale triadic data set that included data from employees, customers and firms, we find strong support for the extended SPC, which accounts for important customer (loyalty and willingness to pay) and firm outcomes (financial performance). Also, the effects of company identification exist incrementally beyond the effects of the conventional SPC path

Saving on discounts through accurate sensing - Salespeople's estimations of customer price importance and their effects on negotiation success

© 2015 New York University. Discount negotiations are prevalent in retailing and serve as key instruments for adjusting retail prices to the individual customer. Accurate perception of the importance the customer attaches to price, which the authors label as customer price importance (CPI) sensing, should be critical to retail salespeople's negotiation performance. However, prior research has neither conceptually nor empirically investigated the role of CPI sensing in customer-salesperson interactions. Addressing this research void, this study analyzes both antecedents and consequences of salespeople's accurate CPI sensing in discount negotiations with customers. The authors use a four-sources multilevel data set from the B2C automobile retailing context that comprises data on 537 salesperson-customer interactions. Results provide evidence that through accurate CPI sensing, salespeople are able to substantially reduce the discounts they grant to customers (on average by $616 per transaction). Moreover, with respect to CPI sensing accuracy, results show that retail salespeople misperceive CPI owing to reliance on heuristic customer cues

Gambled price discounts: A remedy to the negative side effects of regular price discounts

© 2015, American Marketing Association. In the context of price discounts, a special type of price promotion, in which savings depend on the outcome of a gamble and are thus uncertain, has recently achieved some popularity. The question arises as to whether such gambled price discounts (GPDs) incur the negative reference price effect-that is, a downward shift in customers' internal reference price (IRP)-which is often associated with regular price discounts (RPDs). From several studies, including two longitudinal field experiments, the authors find that GPDs indeed alleviate the negative reference price effect: IRPs and actual repurchasing tend to be lower for RPDs than for GPDs and a no-discount control condition. Moreover, the authors explore the psychological underpinnings of these effects and show that the different consequences of GPDs versus RPDs on IRPs are more pronounced if information regarding product quality is limited. The authors demonstrate that findings are robust to variations of GPD discount levels and th

Customers often believe that suppliers who engage in CSR charge unfair prices

Johannes Habel, Laura Marie Schons, Sascha Alavi and Jan Wieseke recommend ways to counter these belief

When salespeople develop negative headquarters stereotypes: performance effects and managerial remedies

This study examines the performance implications that organizations may suffer when their salespeople develop negative stereotypes of their corporate headquarters. How such stereotypes can be remedied through managerial action is also examined. The study draws on matched data from four different sources: sales managers, salespeople, customers, and company reports. Findings indicate that negative headquarters stereotypes among salespeople are associated with poor marketing-related performance across a range of outcomes, including salespeople's adherence to corporate strategy, their customer orientation, and their sales performance. Findings also show that negative headquarters stereotypes can be remedied through managerial action, but more so at the corporate management level than at the sales unit level

When Salespeople Harbor Negative Stereotypes of their Corporate Headquarters : How Harmful is it and How can it be Avoided

This study examines the performance implications that organizations may suffer when their salespeople develop negative stereotypes of their corporate headquarters. How such stereotypes can be remedied through managerial action is also examined. The study draws on matched data from four different sources: sales managers, salespeople, customers, and company reports. Findings indicate that negative headquarters stereotypes among salespeople are associated with poor marketing-related performance across a range of outcomes, including salespeople’s adherence to corporate strategy, their customer orientation, and their sales performance. Findings also show that negative headquarters stereotypes can be remedied through managerial action, but more so at the corporate management level than at the sales unit level

The risky side of inspirational appeals in personal selling : when do customers infer ulterior salesperson motives?

In personal selling, the inspirational appeal (IA) is a widely promoted tactic that aims at stimulating customers' values and ideals, thereby evoking emotions and arousing their enthusiasm for a product. However, whether IAs in fact improve or undermine salespeople's success in sales talks remains controversial. Therefore, this study examines consequences and key contingencies of IAs in customer–salesperson interactions in a retailing context, using multisource data from several retailing industries for three quantitative studies, comprising a total sample of 590 customer and 174 salesperson responses. Drawing on the Multiple Inferences Model (MIM), the authors show that an IA is likely to drive the customer's inference that the salesperson holds ulterior motives. IAs seem to be particularly detrimental for salespeople with a lack of customer orientation. Beyond expanding research on influence tactics and the ambivalent role of IAs in retailing interactions, these findings can guide practitioners about when to refrain from using an IA