A. Tansu Barker

An Empirical Investigation of the Differences Between Initiating and Continuing Exporters

Examines the characteristics of small and medium‐sized initiating and continuing exporting firms from Saskatchewan, Canada. As the US is the major trading partner of Canada and most of the initial export activities of Canadian firms are destined for the US markets, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Canada and the US has far‐reaching implications on the behaviour and performance of small and medium‐sized exporters from both sides of the border. Offers policy guidelines to those small and medium‐sized Asia‐Pacific firms which are considering establishing trading links with North American firms.

Internationally-Oriented Marketing Curriculum Development: A Comparative Study of Canada, the U.S.A., and New Zealand

The study compared business school programs and curricula in Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S.A. Findings indicate that business schools of all sizes and in different countries need to prepare their students for the competitive global markets. In particular, knowledge and expertise in international marketing are important prerequisites for general business education and they need to be acquired by all business students around the world.

Determinants of salesforce effectiveness: perceptions of field managers versus senior sales executives

A mail survey administered to sales managers investigates the factors that influence the effectiveness of their sales organizations. The most important factors found are building long‐term relations, inter‐departmental co‐ordination, training for both salespeople and field managers and information capabilities. Differences among the respondents are based on seniority as well as firm‐level performance. High performance firms and field managers consider team selling to be the most important determinant of salesforce effectiveness.

Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Marketing and Consumerism in New Zealand

The attitudes and perceptions of New Zealanders towards current consumerism issues are outlined in this descriptive study. Many of the opinions expressed are critical of the existing practices of business and appear to be genuine and lasting impressions. The findings of the study could be combined with previous research to advance understanding of consumerism in the international and macro marketing fields.

Critical Examination of Salesforce Commitment and Job Involvement as Contributors to Organizational Performance

In this era of customer-orientation and cost savings, the organizational (psychological) climate faced by salespeople in a firm is an area of investigation that can enhance sales performance. This study contributes to the literature by reconsidering the strategic importance of the effect of salesforce commitment and job involvement on organizational performance. Firstly, our model posits the direct and interactive (or perhaps complementary) role of commitment and involvement on organizational performance. More specifically, we are interested in the contingency role of commitment on the performance impact of involvement. Secondly, we question whether all levels of salesforce commitment benefit the organization. Commitment theorists argue that high levels of commitment may result in costs to the organization that exceed its benefits (Gallagher and McLean Parks 2001). This “dark side” of commitment, to the best of our knowledge, has not been tested. We propose direct and moderating relationships between both affective commitment and job involvement versus organizational performance. The direct relationships of affective commitment and job involvement will enhance organizational performance through their positive effects on the value of knowledge-based resources. The moderating relationship of affective commitment and job involvement interacts in a way that, under varying degrees of affective commitment, the relationship between job involvement and organizational performance is likely to vary. Further, we question whether the nature of the relationship between affective commitment and organizational performance is always linear. Using an organizational-level approach, the authors test the proposed model and its hypotheses using a sample of 102 Canadian sales organizations.

Are There any Differences Between the French Versus English-Speaking Sales Managers?

French-speaking managers control the daily activities of salespeople more than English-speaking managers who delegate more authority and provide much less guidance. French-speaking managers provide more training, spend more time with their people and provide more feedback.

New Opportunities and Strategies for Businesses

Entrepreneurs and firms continuously seek opportunities for new businesses which may be exploited when a market and a product are matched with their capabilities to produce desired results (Tregoe and Zimmerman 1979). Although finding and recognizing an opportunity is largely a creative act, some strategies in pursuing opportunities are better than others. This article examines strategies for finding and evaluating opportunities by looking at newness of products, markets and technology.

Behavior-Based and Outcome-Based Salesforce Control Systems: Evidence from Canadian Firms

Control of the sales force has received increasing attention after the seminal contribution of Anderson and Oliver (AO) (1987). They have defined a “control system” as a set of procedures for monitoring, directing, evaluating and compensating employees. Many managers evaluate salesforces using quantitative output measures such as sales revenue, sales growth, new accounts and contribution margins. Others use input measures such as the number of calls made, reports filed, displays set up, travel time and entertainment expenses. AO call these two different approaches behavior-based and outcome-based control systems, respectively. They contend that outcomebased systems involve relatively little monitoring and managerial direction. Behavior-based control systems provide high levels of management direction and monitoring as well as more subjective evaluation criteria. Behavioral control systems are concerned with keeping track of what happens at each stage of the selling process. The purpose of this study is to test the hypotheses advanced by AO to investigate whether salesforces that are evaluated primarily based on behavioral control systems are different from outcome-based systems along these dimensions.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): A Canadian Perspective

Advantages of NAFT A should not be evaluated based on protectionist pressures created by uncompetitive industries but by looking at the potential for future trade. Many of the negative consequences of NAFT A are likely to occur with or without NAFTA. However, a bilateral agreement between the US and Mexico would have put Canada at a disadvantage in trading with the US.

An Investigation of Salesforce Effectiveness among Canadian Firms

A battery of twenty-one statements were used to study their importance in improving the overall effectiveness of the sales organization and to see if there are differences between managers at different levels and between high versus low performance firms. The scale has very good internal reliability (Cronbach alpha = .79) and has been used in the US and Australia previously.