Michael Ahearne

Antecedents and Consequences of Customer – Company Identification: Expanding the Role of Relationship Marketing

This article presents an empirical test of organizational identification in the context of customer-company (C-C) relationships. It investigates whether customers identify with companies and what the antecedents and consequences of such identification are. The model posits that perceived company characteristics, construed external image, and the perception of the companys boundary-spanning agent lead to C-C identification. In turn, such identification is expected to impact both in-role behavior (i.e., product utilization) as well as extra-role behavior (i.e., citizenship). The model was tested in a consultative selling context of pharmaceutical sales reps calling on physicians. Results from the empirical test indicated that customers do indeed identify with organizations and that C-C identification positively impacts both product utilization behavior and extra-role behavior even when the effect of brand perception is accounted for. Second, the study found that the organizations characteristics as well as the salespersons characteristics contributed to the development of C-C identification.

The Role of Leaders in Internal Marketing

There is little empirical research on internal marketing despite its intuitive appeal and anecdotal accounts of its benefits. Adopting a social identity theory perspective, the authors propose that internal marketing is fundamentally a process in which leaders instill into followers a sense of oneness with the organization, formally known as “organizational identification” (OI). The authors test the OI-transfer research model in two multinational studies using multilevel and multisource data. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses show that the OI-transfer process takes place in the relationships between business unit managers and salespeople and between regional directors and business unit managers. Furthermore, both leader-follower dyadic tenure and charismatic leadership moderate this cascading effect. Leaders with a mismatch between their charisma and OI ultimately impair followers’ OI. In turn, customer-contact employees’ OI strongly predicts their sales performance. Finally, both employees’ and sales managers’ OI are positively related to their business units’ financial performance. The study provides empirical evidence for the role of leaders, especially middle managers, in building member identification that lays the foundation for internal marketing.

Resistance to Brand Switching When a Radically New Brand Is Introduced: A Social Identity Theory Perspective.

There has been little research on how market disruptions affect customer–brand relationships and how firms can sustain brand loyalty when disruptions occur. Drawing from social identity theory and the brand loyalty literature, the authors propose a conceptual framework to examine these issues in a specific market disruption, namely, the introduction of a radically new brand. The framework focuses on the time-varying effects of customers’ identification with and perceived value of the incumbent relative to the new brand on switching behavior. The authors divert from the conventional economic perspective of treating brand switching as functional utility maximization to propose that brand switching can also result from customers’ social mobility between brand identities. The results from longitudinal data of 679 customers during the launch of the iPhone in Spain show that both relative customer–brand identification and relative perceived value of the incumbent inhibit switching behavior, but their effects vary over time. Relative customer–brand identification with the incumbent apparently exerts a stronger longitudinal restraint on switching behavior than relative perceived value of the incumbent. The study has important strategic implications for devising customer relationship strategies and brand investment.

Searching for a Needle in a Haystack: Trying to Identify the Illusive Moderators of Leadership Behaviors

Because the notion that various individual, task, or organizational-level variables moderate the relationships between leader behaviors and subordinate criterion variables is a fundamental assumption of most situational approaches to leadership, it is not surprising that a number of studies have been conducted in order to test these effects. Unfortunately, no systematic assessment of this research has been conducted to determine: (a) the nature of the tests for moderation that have been used, or (b) the degree to which the findings actually support the hypothesis that the effects of leader behaviors are moderated by situational variables. For the purposes of this review, we identified studies designed to test the moderators specified by two related theories of leadership: House’s (1971) Path-Goal Approach, and Kerr and Jermier’s (1978) Substitutes for Leadership Model. We then examined the methods used by researchers who tested for the moderating effects predicted by these models, the percentage of moderating effects actually found, and the nature of the moderating effects identified, The results indicate that: (1) although the percentage of moderators identified is clearly better than chance; (2) many of the tests conducted to identify moderating effects in this leadership area are inappropriate; (3) most of the results reported in this domain have not been replicated; and (4) the information reported by many of the authors is incomplete. The implications of the results of the review for both researchers and practicing managers are then discussed.

Managing Sales Force Product Perceptions and Control Systems in the Success of New Product Introductions

Given the importance of new products, firms may be prone to overmanage sales personnel by using behavior-based control systems that dictate the performance of particular activities related to the introduction. Such controls may be especially tempting given the findings that favorable salesperson product perceptions actually yield less effort on the new product, and behavior-based controls can offset this tendency. However, using longitudinal data from a sample of 226 salespeople, along with external ratings from customers and archival measures of effort and sales performance, the authors demonstrate that such a strategy is shortsighted. Behavior-based controls constrain a salespersons ability to appropriately allocate effort across his or her customer base, negatively affecting customer product perceptions and, ultimately, new product sales. In contrast, outcome-based control systems enable salespeople to work smarter, and their corresponding effort on behalf of the new product has a more positive effect on customer product perceptions and new product sales.

Effect of Technology on Sales Performance: Progressing from Technology Acceptance to Technology Usage and Consequence

Technology plays an ever-increasing role in personal selling and customer relationship management (CRM). Over the past decade, many models examining the acceptance of technology have been proposed and refined, contributing significantly to our knowledge of technology adoption. An implicit assumption made in such models is that increasing the usage of technology is better—that is, more usage is better than less usage. This is a critical assumption that has not been tested in the literature. What if technology has diminishing returns? We propose that it is time to progress to a Technology Performance Usage Model (TPUM) and to look for usage levels that lead to optimum effect on performance. Our model is tested using a sample of 131 salespeople in an operational CRM context. Results show a curvilinear relationship between a salesperson’s prime task performance (measured as sales percent to quota) and their usage of the “enabling” CRM technology. Initially, the CRM technology is enabling on sales performance, but diminishing return sets in, and beyond a point, a disabling effect on sales performance can be observed. This finding offers a valuable insight to practitioners and provides a strategic direction—achieving and maintaining a particular level of technology usage to optimize prime task performance.

CRM in Sales-Intensive Organizations: A Review and Future Directions

With the advent of technology enabling greater customer tracking, more robust knowledge management, and direct customer communication, the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) strategies has grown in importance with many implications for sales-intensive organizations. Implications of CRM strategy, analytical CRM, and operational CRM are discussed, particularly in terms of research opportunities. Although there are, no doubt, many other interesting and worthwhile research opportunities available, the nexus of technology, CRM, and sales-intensive go-tomarket strategies provide myriad opportunities for exciting research.

A Longitudal Examination of Individual, Organizational, and Contextual Factors on Sales Technology Adoption and Job Performance

This longitudinal research examines the impact of individual differences, organizational factors, and contextual influences on intention to adopt and adoption of sales force automation (SFA) technology, and the corresponding effect of adoption on sales performance. Data were collected prior to the introduction of SFA and six months later from 156 salespeople at a major manufacturing firm. In addition to demonstrating that training, customer pressure, and peer use play important roles in SFA adoption, this research is the first to indicate that ones goal orientation also affects adoption behaviors. Beyond examining factors that drive technology adoption, the longitudinal methodology employed in this study provides unique evidence that the adoption of sales technology tools enhances job performance.

Moderating Effects of Goal Acceptance on the Relationship between Group Cohesiveness and Productivity

Despite the fact that several researchers have suggested that goal acceptance moderates the relationship between group cohesiveness and group productivity, only 1 study (C. N. Greene, 1989) has directly tested this proposition, and virtually no study has examined whether leaders who foster group goal acceptance actually do enhance the relationship between group cohesiveness and group productivity. Two studies were conducted to address these issues. In Study 1, goal acceptance was found to moderate the relationship between group cohesiveness and the quantity of performance of 40 machine crews in a paper mill located in the northeastern United States. In Study 2, the extent to which leaders fostered the acceptance of group goals was found to moderate the relationships between group cohesiveness and quantitative measures of group productivity in 71 insurance agency units located throughout the United States.

Designing Sales Contests: Does the Prize Structure Matter?

Sales contests are short-term incentives that managers use to raise sales effort. The extant marketing theory predicts that the optimal prize structure should have two characteristics: (1) The number of prizewinners should be greater than one, and (2) prize values should be unique and rank ordered. However, this theory has not been empirically examined. This article presents two empirical studies that examine whether the prize structure of a sales contest affects sales performance. In each study, the authors investigate the incremental effects of introducing multiple prizewinners and unique rank-ordered prizes into a sales contest. The first study consists of two laboratory experiments in which participants make decisions that closely reflect the decision trade-offs in the theoretical model of sales contests. The second study consists of two field economic experiments in which trained salespeople sell fundraising sponsorships to companies. The results across the experiments are remarkably consistent: The number of prizewinners in a sales contest should indeed be greater than one. However, introducing rank-ordered prizes into contests with multiple prizewinners does not boost sales effort and revenues.