This paper utilizes Time Series Cross-Sectional (TSCS) Regression techniques to investigate long-term performance effects of the timing of online sales adoption by incumbent bricks-and-mortar ...retailers. Its findings support the resource-based theory of competitive advantage by showing that firm-specific resource endowments (bricks-and-mortar experience, catalog experience and firm size) determine the success of the order of online entry strategy. The study contributes to the development of strategic theory in the areas of multi-channel retailing and electronic commerce and assists managers in formulating more informed strategic objectives for achieving multi-channel competitive advantage.
Findings from prior research show that there is a general tendency to discipline top sales performers more leniently than poor sales performers for engaging in identical forms of unethical selling ...behavior. In this study, the authors attempt to uncover moderating factors that could override this general tendency and bring about more equal discipline for top sales performers and poor sales performers. Surprisingly, none were found. A company policy stating that the behavior in question was unacceptable nor a repeated pattern of unethical behavior offset the general tendency to treat top sales performers more leniently than poor sales performers. In an attempt to dig deeper to find a significant moderating effect, two follow-up experiments were conducted. In the first follow-up experiment, a specific training program designed to communicate top management's desire to treat ethical matters equally based on the severity of the act had no effect on equalizing the discipline between top sales performers and poor sales performers. In the second follow-up experiment, a stronger company policy that specified a prescribed level of punishment also failed to equalize the discipline. A superior sales performance record appears to induce more lenient forms of discipline, despite the presence of other factors and managerial actions that are specifically instituted to produce more equal forms of discipline. The answer to the question posed in the article title is, "apparently very strong!"
Using practicing sales managers as subjects, the results indicate that personal characteristics of gender may be used in making disciplinary judgments following episodes of a particular type of ...unacceptable work behavior, an unethical selling act. As hypothesized, saleswomen were disciplined less severely while salesmen were disciplined more severely. However, female sales managers did not administer discriminatory discipline. The discipline administered by female sales managers to salesmen and to saleswomen was quite uniform. Furthermore, the discipline administered by female sales managers to salesmen and saleswomen was quite close to the discipline administered by male sales managers to salesmen. The only outlying level of discipline administered in the study was more leniency shown by male sales managers toward saleswomen.
Using practicing sales managers as subjects, the results indicate that personal characteristics of gender and weight may be used in making disciplinary judgments following episodes of a particular ...type of unacceptable work behavior, an unethical selling act. As hypothesized, saleswomen were disciplined less severely while overweight salespeople were disciplined more severely. However, being overweight produced harsher discipline for saleswomen but had no effect on salesmen. A stated organizational policy about the particular type of unacceptable behavior used did bring about more equal treatment for those described as overweight but did not even out the discipline administered to men and women.
This article assesses the role of multichannel coordination strategy in impacting online performance, and the need for E-commerce functions outsourcing at the initial stages of multichannel ...integration. Our findings indicate that a higher degree of interchannel coordination increases retailers' online sales. The article also concludes that integrated retailers that outsource more E-commerce functions, such as Web site hosting, site design, content development, order processing, E-mail marketing, Web performance monitoring, and E-logistics, do not show higher online sales performance than those who develop them in-house. Managerial implications of these findings are proposed, and directions for future research are outlined. Based on prior conceptual research, the article develops and empirically tests the construct of multichannel coordination.
The results of this study which used sales managers in the United States as subjects indicate that obese salespeople are considered less fit for challenging sales territories and may be discriminated ...against in assignment decisions. Interestingly, a job which included little face-to-face contact with customers (inside telephone sales) did offset the effects of obesity. Obese salespeople are also disciplined more harshly for breaches of ethical conduct.
An experiment was carried out to evaluate whether or not relevant and successful work experience would mitigate employment discrimination in cases involving women and overweight industrial ...salespeople. The study was conducted in a salesforce setting and used practicing sales managers as subjects. The results indicate that for obese salespeople, positive work experience improved their fit for a job assignment only when the job was less challenging. In the case of a more challenging assignment, successful experience did not seem to help; non-obese salespeople, with and without successful experience, were both considered more fit than obese salespeople with successful experience. Men and women were found to be equally fit for both more and less challenging assignments.
The study's hypothesis posited that a supervisor would use more severe discipline when sales subordinates engage in unethical sales practices when salespeople are hired directly by the supervising ...manager rather than by the personnel department. Based on attributional self-justification theory, it was reasoned that under the condition of initially making the decision to hire, a supervisor would attribute undesirable behavior entirely to the salesperson, resulting in more severe disciplinary action. In cases where the initial hiring decision was made by the personnel department, less severe discipline was expected due to the sales manager's willingness to allocate some responsibility for the undesirable behavior to the hiring department. Furthermore, if a hiring sales manager senses any responsibility for the undesirable behavior he or she can be expected to take strong action to decisively turn the event around in order to demonstrate the correctness of the hiring decision. The results support the expectation.
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The cash-to-cash (C2C) metric is a measurement tool which may be used to bridge the management of firms and functions in a supply chain. C2C can ...be used by management to improve firm liquidity position and overall firm value. Measuring C2C also offers a consistent measure across time, helps to identify the greatest leverage points and opportunities for improvement, serves as a means to set goals for improvement within the supply chain, and can help to optimize the entire supply chain, instead of sub-optimizing individual portions. In t <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 'MS Mincho';">his study, the authors illustrate the calculation of cash-to-cash, investigate changes in C2C between product and service industries to identify key differences, review and discuss key leverage points of C2C, and provide insights for today's service industry managers to understand the C2C metric from both accounting <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and supply chain management perspectives. Data in this study can also be used for benchmarking purposes.
This study compares the ethical perceptions of White and Hispanic consumers (n=259) in two different urban areas in two different states in the Southwestern United States with regard to 14 ...questionable retail practices. In addition to examining the culture of the subjects and cultural proximity to the merchant, demographics of income and gender were included. ANOV A routines indicate that Hispanics, women, and those with lower incomes are less tolerant of the questionable practices Studiesd (p=.05 or lower). Cultural proximity to the merchant had no effect.
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