Walking a Tightrope : The Joint Impact of Customer and Within-Firm Boundary Spanning Activities on Perceived Customer Satisfaction and Team Performance

To successfully satisfy large customers and meet financial objectives, dedicated sales teams need to manage two boundaries: a boundary within the selling firm and one with the customer organization. However, little is known about the process of managing these multiple boundaries. This study integrates job demands-resource theory with research on key account management and sales teams to examine (1) the main effect of customer boundary spanning on perceived customer satisfaction and team performance and (2) the moderating role of within-firm coordination activities at three levels: top management, cross-functional, and within-team. An empirical test of the model with data from 167 sales teams finds that the interaction between customer boundary spanning and within-firm coordination activities has opposite effects on perceived customer satisfaction and team performance outcomes. The results are robust to endogeneity and heteroskedasticity concerns