Power in business-to-business relationships has been a core theme in industrial marketing research. However, diverging approaches have been used to study power resulting in inconsistent empirical ...findings. In this paper we explore the complexities of establishing, nurturing and sustaining cooperative relations, investigating the interplay between power symmetry, trust and goal congruence. We draw on the narrative approach in research to understand interorganizational relationships as shared meanings and how these evolve over time. We study two cases where organizations seek to achieve seamless interorganizational relationships but find themselves engaged in rather antagonistic or unpredictable positions. We show how goal congruence mediates the relationship between power symmetry or asymmetry, and the respective development of trust within organizational structures, processes and formal roles. We make a contribution to business-to-business marketing literature by showing that goal congruence becomes a prerequisite for the development of trust, irrespective of whether symmetrical power dependence predominates. We discuss how this novel insight may inform the strategies for developing interorganizational relationship in practice.
•For symmetrical power relations to develop into trusted relationships, the emergence of goal congruence between the parties is needed.•Asymmetrical power relations can work if the powerful party simultaneously nurtures goal congruence and a common vision.•The less powerful party in asymmetrical relationships needs to develop acceptance of their position and work towards agreed end goals.•Goal congruence is enhanced through social interaction, collaborative problem solving, galvanizing third parties, and shared meaning.
Little is known about what kind of salesperson-consumer interaction is valued in different cultures. We explore the influence of national speech culture in sales-related communication in ...business-to-consumer (B2C) environments. We apply speech codes theory to identify the B2C context-specific speech codes attached to the sales-related communication described in consumers’ narratives. The results inform three discourses among sales-related communication: consumer orientation, professionalism and independency. The results suggest that independency, fact-oriented talk, and consumer-oriented communication are central speech codes related to the B2C sales context in Finland. Furthermore, the results describe a cultural norm for appropriate sales-related communication.
Increasing demands for international solution selling call for a better understanding of the interpersonal communication competence required of sales professionals. Accordingly, this study ...investigates discipline-specific needs regarding the interpersonal communication competence required by business-to-business (B2B) salespeople. Empirical data was collected via 39 in-depth interviews from international B2B salespeople, sales managers, CEOs and sales communication educators. As a result, we have formed a new conceptualization of sales communication competence in international B2B solution selling comprising four components: (1) a behavioral communication component, (2) an affective communication component, (3) a cognitive communication component and (4) sales acumen. Managerial implications are presented with recommendations for future research.
•The research provides a new theoretical conceptualization of sales communication competence in B2B solution selling.•Data consists of 39 in-depth interviews from international B2B solution salespeople and sales communication educators.•Sales communication competence consists of sales acumen and behavioral, affective and cognitive communication components.•Sales acumen forms the core of communication competence in international B2B solution selling.•Results help to determine the necessary content for sales training.
This study examines the manifestation of intrinsic motivation by exploring the sources of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among employees of a retail hypermarket. The research uses narrative and ...ethnographical analysis from 24 interviews. Two unique dimensions were created for motivational power—source and growth process—for a new typology of work motivation. The typology consists of four processes: intrinsic regulation, intrinsic valuation, extrinsic valuation, and extrinsic regulation. The results show how intrinsic motivation can be reinforced through these processes. Recommendations are presented for different personnel teams in the service sector.
This study explores accelerated internationalization among inexperienced digital entrepreneurs who lack resources such as prior experience, knowledge, and networks, which previous research regards as ...prerequisites for such growth. Following an in-depth qualitative research methodology, the findings reveal three theoretical mechanisms through which inexperienced entrepreneurs can make international commitment decisions with regard to the internationalization of their digital firms. The first is a novel mindset-based approach through which an entrepreneur can make an affective commitment to the international stakeholders within a digital community. Entrepreneurs do that by applying pull-based tools in digital communication to build interest among potential network contacts. The second mechanism is a means-based approach following effectuation logic resulting in an effectual form of commitment to international stakeholders in the digital community. The mechanism relies on applying push-based tools for digital communication to facilitate interactions with known network contacts. The third mechanism is continuance commitment to international business that entrepreneurs can foster over time in tandem with accumulated international experiential knowledge. This research provides an entrepreneurial decision-making model that extends effectuation theory and integrates it with extant research. The resulting holistic entrepreneurial decision-making model explains the accelerated internationalization of digital firms.
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how and why salespeople enhance or hinder long-term business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships at the interpersonal level by considering self-disclosure and ...relational cost and reward evaluations.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from interviews (N = 47) with B2B sales professionals were analyzed, focusing on the shift of the phases in long-term B2B customer relationships.
Findings
Long-term B2B customer relationships evolve at the interpersonal level through a process of continuous relational cost and reward evaluation, self-disclosure and business disclosure in three phases: becoming business partners, collaborative partners and collaborative and personal partners. The reward evaluations progress from being business related to including even more relational benefits. Disclosure progresses through general business disclosure and general self-disclosure; strategic business disclosure and personal life self-disclosure; and synergistic business disclosure and private self-disclosure.
Research limitations/implications
The long-term B2B customer relationships could be studied at the interpersonal level from the customer’s perspective. Self-disclosure could be studied in cross-cultural settings as well as gender differences should be considered in future studies. Business and social penetration theory could be applied to investigate different types of relationships and other professional relationships, such as those between employers and employees. It would be important to test whether the business-related and self-disclosure subtypes apply to the development of other types of professional relationships or whether other disclosure subtypes exist. The authors recommend exploring salespeople’s and customers’ privacy management strategies in multiple communication channels.
Practical implications
Managers may apply the results of this study in their customer relationship management and sales training.
Originality/value
The findings outline a contextual extension of social penetration theory.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a significant part of digital transformation that signifies new requirements for middle managers in AI-integrated work contexts. This is particularly evident in ...financial service industries. Given the significance and rapidity of this technological transition, this case study investigated how middle managers perceived the impacts of AI system integration on their work characteristics. Interview data were gathered from 25 middle managers of a company providing financial services. The data were analyzed using the Gioia method. The findings showed that the AI systems applied in the case company were perceived as technical tools (mechanical AI) or coworkers (thinking AI and feeling AI), which had different impacts on middle managers’ work characteristics and the relationship between humans and AI systems. The middle managers’ work characteristics included contextual, task, competence, social, and relationship characteristics. Regarding the relationship characteristics, this study shows theoretically distinct human–AI relationship types. The findings are organized into a conceptual framework. AI system integration in service teams is a complex phenomenon that makes middle managers’ work more demanding and requires balancing and managing multiple challenges and dialectical tensions. The findings inform the selection and training of managers according to changing work characteristics in the digital age.
Globally, people have been subjected to enormous changes as a result of several unexpected crises. Recent research has shown that external threats have an impact on the customer experience as they ...influence consumers' emotions, which in turn affect their attitudes and shopping practices. For better understanding of the perceived future, this study explores customer experiences by focusing on Finnish consumers' adaptability to disruptions caused by threats and uncertainty within the retail context. Using an electronic questionnaire, qualitative data were collected from Finnish consumers (N = 995) on their retail shopping experiences during the latest global crisis, COVID-19. The study applies a conceptual framework of consumers' adaptive responses to ontological insecurity as affective, behavioral, or cognitive in the retail shopping context due to threat and uncertainty. As a contribution to existing research, our findings enable us to identify four distinct types of consumer 'adaptive' responses: the adjustable consumer type, the interaction-seeking consumer type, the suspicious consumer type, and the prohibiting consumer type. In terms of managerial implications, the findings will help retailers understand customer experiences of threats and create better customer experiences by considering the diversity of those experiences in the four consumer types identified.
Focusing on tangible, intangible, and organizational resources in collaborative relationships, this article investigates how the development of interorganizational collaboration between a trade ...sector corporation and its retailers is understood and how, over time, this creates organizational sensemaking to the partners' relationship through the meanings of their common narratives. The results draw a picture of inertia, ongoing changes, and a shared vision of future success among the present and new possible partners. The theoretical contribution is that bilateral collaboration can be strengthened by a shared cooperating vision, which generates resources, creates sensemaking, and introduces a sustainable competitive advantage into the partners' businesses. Practical implications from a marketing perspective are proposed to retailers and principal managers.
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