Existing research treats sales performance as a series of discrete, independent events rather than a series of sales attempts with intertemporal spillover across these attempts. This research ...examines whether there are systematic short-term trends (“momentum”) in sales performance. To do so, the authors use the clumpiness approach to examine the existence of sales momentum in a high-frequency call-level data set obtained from two call centers of a large European firm. They further investigate the effect of positive (negative) momentum, or the positive (negative) deviation from the long-term expected performance on subsequent sales performance. Exploiting the differences in the social environment of the call centers, the authors find that the social working environment mitigates the harmful effect of negative momentum and sustains positive momentum. Further, they demonstrate that calls made midday, early-week, and late-week boost performance by mitigating the adverse effects of negative momentum. The findings suggest that monitoring sales performance can help managers detect momentum and use timely interventions to enhance sales productivity. Managers can also leverage momentum by creating a more social working environment to optimize overall salesperson performance.
Real Earnings Management in Sales AHEARNE, MICHAEL J.; BOICHUK, JEFFREY P.; CHAPMAN, CRAIG J. ...
Journal of accounting research,
December 2016, Letnik:
54, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We surveyed 1,638 sales executives across 40 countries regarding their companies' likelihood of asking sales to perform real earnings management (REM) actions when earnings pressure exists. Using ...this information, which we refer to as companies' REM propensities, we study how company characteristics and environmental conditions relate to the responses received. The use of cash-flow incentives for sales personnel and the distribution of interfunctional power in favor of finance rather than sales are both associated with companies' REM propensities. In addition, we show that sales executives preemptively change their behaviors in anticipation of top management's REM requests. Sales executives working for public companies and companies in the United States reported higher levels of REM propensity. The data also support an association between REM propensity and finance–sales conflict. These findings and others are compared and contrasted with existing empirical and survey-based research on REM throughout the paper.
The purpose of this article is to explain why salespeople adopt information technology. The results from a cross-sectional study of 229 salespeople indicate that putting sales technology to use ...strongly depends on salespeople's perceptions about the technology enhancing their performance, their personal innovativeness and organizational efforts in terms of user training. Throughout the adoption process companies also need to target sales line managers–next to end users–because salespeople clearly comply with the expectations of their supervisors. Finally, the threat from competing sales professionals or peers who use similar sales technology seems to be of secondary importance for individual sales technology adoption.
Sales contests are short-term incentives that managers use to raise sales effort. The extant marketing theory predicts that the optimal prize structure should have two characteristics: (1) The number ...of prize-winners should be greater than one, and (2) prize values should be unique and rank ordered. However, this theory has not been empirically examined. This article presents two empirical studies that examine whether the prize structure of a sales contest affects sales performance. In each study, the authors investigate the incremental effects of introducing multiple prizewinners and unique rank-ordered prizes into a sales contest. The first study consists of two laboratory experiments in which participants make decisions that closely reflect the decision trade-offs in the theoretical model of sales contests. The second study consists of two field economic experiments in which trained salespeople sell fundraising sponsorships to companies. The results across the experiments are remarkably consistent: The number of prizewinners in a sales contest should indeed be greater than one. However, introducing rank-ordered prizes into contests with multiple prizewinners does not boost sales effort and revenues.
This research focuses on the impact of leadership empowerment behavior (LEB) on customer service satisfaction and sales performance, as mediated by salespeople's self-efficacy and adaptability. ...Moreover, the authors propose an interactive relationship whereby LEB will be differentially effective as a function of employees' empowerment readiness. The authors' hypotheses are tested using survey data from a sample of 231 salespeople in the pharmaceutical field, along with external ratings of satisfaction from 864 customers and archival sales performance information. Results indicated that contrary to popular belief, employees with low levels of product/industry knowledge and low experience benefit the most from leadership behaviors that are empowering, whereas high-knowledge and experienced employees reap no clear benefit. The authors conclude with directions for future research and application.
Recent analyses of the genetics of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) have shown that a large proportion of cases are derived from normal follicular helper (Tfh) T-cells. The sanroque mouse strain ...bears a mutation that increases Tfh cell number and heterozygous animals (Roquinsan/+) develop lymphomas similar to human Tfh lymphoma. Here we demonstrate the usefulness of Roquinsan/+ animals as a pre-clinical model of Tfh lymphoma. Long latency of development and incomplete penetrance in this strain suggests the lymphomas are genetically diverse. We carried out preliminary genetic characterisation by whole exome sequencing and detected tumor specific mutations in Hsp90ab1, Ccnb3 and RhoA. Interleukin-2-inducible kinase (ITK) is expressed in Tfh lymphoma and is a potential therapeutic agent. A preclinical study of ibrutinib, a small molecule inhibitor of mouse and human ITK, in established lymphoma was carried out and showed lymphoma regression in 8/12 (67%) mice. Using T2-weighted MRI to assess lymph node volume and diffusion weighted MRI scanning as a measure of function, we showed that treatment increased mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) suggesting cell death, and that change in ADC following treatment correlated with change in lymphoma volume. We suggest that heterozygous sanroque mice are a useful model of Tfh cell derived lymphomas in an immunocompetent animal.
Disaggregate market share response models DeSarbo, Wayne S.; Degeratu, Alexandru M.; Ahearne, Michael J. ...
International journal of research in marketing,
09/2002, Letnik:
19, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Traditional market share response (multiplicative competitive interaction or MCI) models have been gainfully employed in marketing research practice as an effective methodology for estimating ...competitive effects. Legions of books and articles on MCI models and their use have been published documenting the successful formulation and implementation of this class of models. In this spirit, this paper proposes a generalization of this class of models to a latent structure framework incorporating within-segment random brand effects. We apply and contrast this new formulation against the traditional aggregate MCI model formulations in an application involving physician prescription shares for three major brands of central nervous system (CNS) ethical pharmaceuticals (known as CNS drugs). We conclude the manuscript with managerial implications and suggestions for future research.
Given the importance of new products, firms may be prone to overmanage sales personnel by using behavior-based control systems that dictate the performance of particular activities related to the ...introduction. Such controls may be especially tempting given the findings that favorable salesperson product perceptions actually yield less effort on the new product, and behavior-based controls can offset this tendency. However, using longitudinal data from a sample of 226 salespeople, along with external ratings from customers and archival measures of effort and sales performance, the authors demonstrate that such a strategy is shortsighted. Behavior-based controls constrain a salesperson's ability to appropriately allocate effort across his or her customer base, negatively affecting customer product perceptions and, ultimately, new product sales. In contrast, outcome-based control systems enable salespeople to work smarter, and their corresponding effort on behalf of the new product has a more positive effect on customer product perceptions and new product sales.
Sales leaders often use threats of punishment to manage poor performers (i.e., laggards), but little research has examined the effect of these threats. The current research addresses this gap by ...investigating an intervention termed the "bench program" with a field-based quasi experiment and a randomized lab experiment. In the field, the company under study told salespeople in treatment districts that a trainee would replace them at the end of the year if they failed to hit their quota and placed last in their district. Difference-in-differences analyses of matched treatment and control groups show that the bench program had an immediate and sustained impact on performance. Moreover, laggards improved their performance more than higher performers, and salespeople with larger advice networks improved their performance more than salespeople with smaller advice networks. A lab experiment compares the bench program with a program that had the same threat of firing but did not have replacements in sight. Performance in the bench program exceeded that in the firing condition, indicating that the vividness of a threat can increase its deterrent value.
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