The Thought Worlds of Marketing and Sales: Which Differences Make a Difference?

Abstract

The literature is divided on whether differences between the thought worlds of marketing and sales are deleterious or beneficial. This paper empirically investigates various facets of thought world differences and their effects on various outcomes. It confirms that differences generally hamper the cooperation between marketing and sales which leads to a lower market performance of the business unit. However, some facets of thought world differences enhance the market performance of the business through a direct effect that outweighs the negative effect mediated by the quality of marketing and sales cooperation: Market performance is enhanced if one side plays the customers' advocate while the other plays the products' advocate. Market performance is also enhanced if one side plays the advocate of short-term considerations while the other plays the advocate of long-term considerations. In contrast, differences between marketing and sales in regard to product knowledge and interpersonal skills are deleterious to market performance. Thus, the kind of difference makes a difference.

Linking Culture, Organizational Learning Orientation and Product Innovation Performnace: The Case of Ethiopian Manufacturing Firms

“…On the other hand, the formality of the structure, the top-down communication, and the adherence to rules and regulations were reflected in the culture of high uncertainty avoidance, and reduced the efforts of learning and creativity in the organisations [32,60]. Following the findings of the existing literature (see, for example, [39] and [42]) we were expecting significant and positive effects caused by collectivism and masculinity. However, the analysis showed that, while collectivism has a positive significant effect on the creation of shared interpretation, its effect on an organisation's commitment to learning and open-mindedness was found to be negative.…”

“…A study by Hofstede [6] indicates that, in a highly collectivist culture, individuals will have limited room for creativity and that their job satisfaction and performance will be lower. On the other hand, studies that consider eastern cultures have found that a collectivist culture creates better inter-functional integration in an organisation, along with and smooth information flow and learning [14,39,40]. Olson et al [41] agreed that collectivist cultures enable members of organisations to have more information about the market and to enhance their performance.…”

Organizational linkages for new product development: Implementation of innovation projects

“…Despite growing interest in understanding the importance of the marketingsales interface (Homburg & Jensen, 2007;Rouziès et al, 2005), previous work does not fully explain the role of both constructs of trust in this interface. Previous literature highlights key factors, such as senior management attitudes, integration mechanisms, and conflict, which can contribute to hamper the coordination of collaborative sales and marketing relationships (Dawes & Massey, 2007;Guenzi & Troilo, 2007;Homburg, et al, 2008;Le Meunier-FitzHugh & Piercy, 2007;Malshe & Sohi, 2009a).…”

“…This study operationalizes at the interpersonal level rather than the inter-departmental level, consistent with Ruekert and Walker (1987). In spite of being a psychosocial outcome that managers experience, perceived relationship effectiveness may be an antecedent of objective outcomes like successful innovation, superior value creation, and sales growth or market share (Dawes & Massey, 2005;Homburg & Jensen, 2007;Le Meunier-FitzHugh & Piercy, 2007).…”

“…This study investigates the antecedents of organizational linkages affecting marketing and sales functions during the formalized process of new product development (NPD). According to the literature, marketing and sales interface as an organizational linkage is a key crossfunctional interface to increase customer value and business performance (Guenzi & Troilo, 2007;Guzmán-Cuevas et al, 2009;Homburg & Jensen, 2007;Le MeunierFitzHugh & Piercy, 2007;Lee et al, 2007;Malshe & Sohi, 2009, Ribeiro-Soriano & Urbano, 2010. However, most of the empirical research in this direction remains limited and evidence reports poor collaboration between sales and marketing functions (Kotler et al, 2006;Rouziès et al, 2005;Ries & Ries, 2009) and even research to support inter-functional conflict (Dawes & Massey, 2005;Le MeunierFitzHugh & Piercy, 2007).…”