Colin B. Gabler

Evaluating reverse logistics programs: a suggested process formalization

Purpose – Suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers alike are still considering reverse logistics (RL) to be the “necessary evil” in their day‐to‐day operations rather than an opportunity for future performance. At the same time, a well‐structured RL program can create a substantial value‐added and positively affect the bottom‐line. Based on in‐depth investigation of best‐in‐class RL programs implemented in practice, the purpose of this paper is to offer a grounded flow charting approach for assessing the state of program development and, potentially, identifying areas for improvement across different companies in various industries.Design/methodology/approach – The current study utilizes rich qualitative research methodology based on the combination between a thorough review of existing literature and multiple field studies. The findings from existing research, semi‐structured interviews and observation at companies’ sites, and RL‐related documentation at those companies, provide the backbone ...

Examining the Drivers and Performance Implications of Boundary Spanner Creativity

For organizations implementing a value-added model, creative boundary spanners can improve service behaviors and overall performance. Advancing Amabile’s componential framework, which underscores the importance of contextual factors and their interaction with individual factors in generating creative responses in a service environment, we develop a model of boundary spanners’ creativity. Outlining how boundary spanner skills and abilities influence performance and service outcomes via creativity, we paint a more complete picture of the creativity process and offer meaningful contributions to service research and practice. Testing the model using employee and manager data matched with archival performance metrics, we find that knowledge, emotional intelligence (EI), and managerial feedback predict boundary spanner creativity. We also uncover a significant interaction between knowledge and EI, and evidence that creativity significantly impacts performance and customer problem solving, a key component of overall service quality. Finally, we underscore the importance of managerial feedback in strengthening the link between creativity and performance.

Exploring consumers’ attitude towards relationship marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore consumers’ overall attitude toward relationship marketing and to determine the influence of consumers’ overall attitude on consumers’ intentions and behaviors. Many services companies practice relationship marketing and customer relationship management. Although the benefits and drawbacks of relationship marketing for consumers have been established, little is known about whether consumers have a relatively positive or negative attitude toward relationship marketing practices. Design/methodology/approach – This research investigates consumers’ attitudes toward relationship marketing using a national survey of 245 consumers and a survey of 417 consumers living in the southern region of the USA. Findings – Although approximately 70 per cent of our national consumer sample had a somewhat positive attitude toward relationship marketing, about 30 per cent had a somewhat negative or neutral attitude. Furthermore, approximately 39 per cent of consumers in the stu...

Salesperson ambidexterity and customer satisfaction: examining the role of customer demandingness, adaptive selling, and role conflict

This research investigates the effects of sales-service ambidexterity on salesperson role perceptions, behaviors, and customer satisfaction. Using a business-to-business, salesperson-customer sample, we build and test a model which highlights both the positive and negative consequences of this simultaneous goal pursuit. Specifically, while sales-service ambidexterity positively impacts adaptive selling behaviors, it also increases perceptions of role conflict among salespeople. Customer demandingness moderates these relationships. Taken together, the results provide insights for firms on how to manage their sales force to optimize both sales and service outcomes based on characteristics of their salespeople and customers.

Buy Now or Buy Later: The Effects of Scarcity and Discounts on Purchase Decisions

This research investigates a burgeoning pricing strategy and its effects on purchase behavior. Drawing from the expected-utility and prospect theories, we test the counteracting variables of scarcity and future discount across two studies. We first implement a flea market scenario to demonstrate that scarcity creates emotional value that increases purchase likelihood. Next, we determine the levels of scarcity and discount that maximize purchase in a department store context. The findings suggest that the level of discount predicts the purchase of highly visible products; for less visible products, scarcity drives the decision. These relationships are moderated by involvement with the product class.

Is There a Dark Side of Ambidexterity? Implications of Dueling Sales and Service Orientations

This study examines how employee customer and selling orientations, and their interaction, impact frontline employees’ (FLEs) pursuit of service and sales-related performance outcomes. Applying a job demands-resources lens, we advance a model that explores service-sales ambidexterity at the individual level. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis are used to assess how varying levels of customer and selling orientation relate to FLE outcomes. Our findings indicate that commitment to service quality and sales performance are highest when employees are singularly focused on one or the other. However, when required to be ambidextrous—that is, when employees must maintain a dual focus—these outcomes begin to suffer as employees are unclear of their role in the organization. While ambidextrous employees experience role conflict, they are also more likely to use creativity in their selling activities. These positive and negative consequences of ambidexterity underscore both the potential risks and rewards of a dual orientation on the front line.

Examining the impact of salesperson interpersonal mentalizing skills on performance: the role of attachment anxiety and subjective happiness

Due to the dynamic and interpersonal nature of selling, understanding affective and cognitive relationships and their influence on performance has gained the attention of sales scholars. Moreover, recent literature has created opportunities to study the impact of cognitions, such as salesperson theory-of-mind, on sales performance. This research develops a model involving salesperson interpersonal mentalizing skills (i.e. rapport building, detecting nonverbal cues, taking a bird’s-eye view, shaping the interactions), subjective happiness, attachment anxiety, and sales performance. Although salesforce optimization is critical in any economy, emerging economies are the growth frontier for many global companies. Using three samples from Brazil, we investigate the telecom, banking, and retail industries, providing generalizable results from one such emerging economy. We find that, in general, it is the influence of attachment anxiety and subjective happiness on interpersonal mentalizing skills which ultimately impacts sales performance. Based on these findings, we discuss several theoretical and managerial implications.

Collaborative Communication between Sales and Logistics and Its Impact on Business Process Effectiveness: A Theoretical Approach

Logistics functions have played a critical role in cementing organizational efficiency and price control. At the same time, sales has become more than closing the deal, as value can be created throughout the sales process, including post-purchase activities. Therefore, sales and logistics must come together to create value for the firm as well as customers. Building on the marketing-channel communication strategy viewpoint, we conceptualize the integration between sales and logistics. We propose a framework centering on sales-logistics integration and develop propositions that uncover how a collaborative communication between these two functions may impact specific business processes. Finally, we discuss implications of these predictions and provide a future research agenda for theory and practice.

Can Service Climate Detract from Employee Performance? The Role of Experience in Optimizing Satisfaction and Performance Outcomes

In this research, we test the curvilinear relationships between service climate perceptions and two employee performance outcomes. Specifically, we propose that while service climate can be beneficial, high levels can actually be detrimental to customer satisfaction and sales performance. Additionally, we propose that a global assessment of employee experience that captures knowledge, skills, and abilities, or KSAs, moderates these curvilinear relationships by providing a means to balance outcome goals. We test our theory using data obtained from 312 employees in a service setting, which we pair with their managers’ assessments of their sales performance as well as satisfaction ratings from their customers. Our results reveal two things: (1) an inverted U-shaped relationship between service climate and sales performance and (2) the level of experience moderates the relationship. These findings suggest that more experienced employees are better able to adjust behaviors to achieve high levels of performance than less experienced employees. Based on these results, we offer theoretical implications and applications for managerial practice.

Green Logistics Competency: A Resource Hierarchy View of Supply Chain Sustainability

Environmental supply chain sustainability has become a critical focus for firms, yet both scholars and practitioners seem to struggle with alignment between logistics service requirements and environmental concerns. This conceptual research examines the problem as an issue in properly leveraging the cultural antecedents of both supply chain and sustainability capabilities. A synthesis of the known literature proposes that a market orientation-driven resource hierarchy view model of relationships between supply chain and environmental orientations may provide a means by which firms can increase both environmental sustainability and performance outcomes.