Advancing value-based selling research in B2B markets: A theoretical toolbox and research agenda

Keränen, Joona; Totzek, Dirk; Salonen, Anna; Kienzler, Mario

doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2023.02.014

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 130 publications

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“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/ 0885-8624.htm The research trend in recent years is moving toward a focus on how salespeople, with the products or services they provide, can help customers solve their problems as well as create value for them (Bertini and Koenigsberg, 2020;Keränen et al, 2020;Liu and Leach, 2001). Many researchers are highly interested in the necessity of providing customers with both measurable (in terms of profits) and nonmeasurable (in terms of trust and overall business value) outcomes (Keränen et al, 2021;Keränen et al, 2023). Therefore, according to the trend of academic research and business environments, this leads to the fact that many organizations have reallocated significant resources to sales departments (Kotler, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The differential effects of sales control systems on salespeople’s role stressors and performance in the pharmaceutical industry

Cho,

Nam

2024

JBIM

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Purpose This paper aims to identify and report the differential effects of activity control and capability control on role stressors, which subsequently affect salespeople’s job satisfaction and sales performance. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, the authors defined active control and customer demandingness as the job demands and capability control as the job resource, and designed their relationship with role stressors, which are indicated as role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload. The authors enrolled a sample of 223 industrial salespeople from pharmaceutical companies. After collecting the data, the authors used structural equation modeling using AMOS to test and estimate causal relationships along with a two-step approach to examine the interaction effect. The authors have also tested the simple slope of two-way interactions. All of the measured variables were identical to those used in previous studies. Findings The study findings indicate that behavior-based control can be counterproductive. Reducing activity control can decrease role stress, increase job satisfaction and improve job performance; increasing capability control, however, can reduce role stress and increase job satisfaction and performance. It is also important to acknowledge the external environment of the sales context in which behavior-based control is most effective: whereas high customer demandingness and capability control are related to reduced role stress, high customer demandingness and activity control are related to increased role stress. Practical implications Sales managers should recognize that different control management regimes reinforce or mitigate salespeople’s job stressors and outcomes under specific conditions (i.e. work environments marked by higher or lower customer demandingness). Originality/value Drawing on JD-R theory, the research shows that a behavior control (i.e. activity control and capability control) has differential, and even opposite, psychological consequences.

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