PurposeThe current study aims to empirically examine the impact of formal salesforce control systems on salespeople and customer behavior.Design/methodology/approachData are collected from 704 salespeople and their respective visiting customers (704) in Ghana. The suggested hypotheses are tested through the structural equation (SEM) modeling technique.FindingsThe study results show that all three formal control mechanisms have positive and significant effects on customer-directed problem-solving and adaptive selling behaviors. Similarly, the study finds that salespeople's customer-directed problem-solving behavior increases, respectively, customer-directed opportunism and relationship continuity. Adaptive selling behavior also has significant positive effects on both customer-directed opportunism and relationship continuity, respectively.Practical implicationsThe study offers practical and theoretical insights into understanding salesforce control dynamics, customer-directed opportunism, adaptive selling behavior, customer-directed problem-solving behavior and continuity of relationships. The results also have significant consequences for sales organizations as they can help sales managers decide on the best form of salesforce control systems to deploy.Originality/valueThe current research demonstrates how control mechanisms can influence both adaptive selling and customer-directed problem-solving behaviors and how these could generate both customer-directed opportunism and relationship continuity.

PurposeThis study sets out to empirically investigate the effect of salesforce output control on perceived job autonomy, customer-oriented selling behaviours and sales performance.Design/methodology/approachData are gathered from 704 salespeople and their visiting customers in Ghana. The hypotheses are tested using the structural equations modelling technique (SEM).FindingsAccording to the findings of the study, output control has a significant and positive impact on perceived job autonomy. It also discovers that perceived job autonomy improves both customer-directed problem solving and adaptive selling behaviours. Furthermore, the study finds that customer-directed problem solving and adaptive selling behaviours both improve sales performance. Moreover, the study uncovers that perceived job autonomy mediates the relationship between output control and customer-oriented selling behaviours, whereas both customer-oriented selling behaviours mediate the relationship between perceived job autonomy and sales performance.Practical implicationsThe current study provides both practical and theoretical insights into salesforce control dynamics, job autonomy, adaptive selling behaviour, customer-directed problem-solving behaviour and sales performance. The findings have important implications for sales organisations because they can assist sales managers in determining the best type of salesforce control systems to deploy and highlight the strategic role job autonomy plays in enhancing sales performance.Originality/valueThe current study shows how output control can influence salespeople's perceived job autonomy, adaptive selling and customer-directed problem-solving behaviours, and how these can improve sales performance.

Article history:In this paper, the image processing for flexible disk grinding and the effect of the grinding conditions on the flat zone length of a workpiece are investigated, with the purpose of automating the grinding process. To accomplish this, three issues should be carefully studied. The first is finding the relationship between the flat zone length and the grinding conditions such as the cutting speed and feeding speed. The second is developing a neural network algorithm to predict the flat zone. The third is developing an image processing algorithm to measure the flat zone length of a workpiece. Slope analysis is used to determine straight and curved sections during the image processing. For verification, the estimated length and the length from the image processing are compared with the length measured by a projector. There is a minimum difference of 1.7% between the predicted and measured values. The results of this paper will be useful in compiling a database for process automation.