This article discusses how the core concepts of service-dominant logic — service-for-service exchange, value co-creation, value propositions, resource integration, and highly collaborative relationships — point to a generic actor conceptualization in which all actors engaged in exchange...

The authors propose a symbolic–instrumental interactive framework of consumer–brand identification (CBI) and explore its predictiveness across 15 countries. Using multinational data, they show that the negative impact of the misalignment between self–brand congruity and perceived quality...

Ask sales managers and recruiters what they look for in a salesperson, and they will report that they seek competitive, hard-working professionals who match the culture of their company, and research would support the contention that such things generally help the sales organization. But could...

In this paper, the authors discuss the importance of customer relationship management (CRM) systems in complex and simple selling settings and examine how CRM is implemented in both contexts. Specifically, they suggest that CRM strategies can be implemented from the top-down, originating from...

Section 1 reports findings regarding the expense and revenue management requests that sales leaders are asked to implement. Through a 2012 Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) survey, we find that customers and strategic accounts are often shielded from these myopic forms of...

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...

While few scholars debate the importance of doing things to improve the quality of the buyer-seller relationship, little is known about what salespeople can do after the point of the initial sale to enhance customer satisfaction and trust. On the basis of extensive exploratory interviews across...

Increasing globalization has made companies focus more on their outsourcing decisions. Moving beyond the tactical companies have begun to incorporate outsourcing as a strategic weapon in their armory. This article expands on this theme by highlighting the need for understanding this key issue...

Sales force performance is predominant in the B2B marketing literature. This chapter reviews how sales force performance has been defined, operationalized and measured. By providing a typology of sales force performance along two dimensions - namely positive versus negative performance and...