Paolo Guenzi

The impact of interpersonal relationships on customer satisfaction and loyalty to the service provider

The focus on ongoing customer relationships is the most distinctive aspect of relationship marketing. To date we still have a poor understanding of the role played by interpersonal‐related factors in gaining and developing customer loyalty. This paper explores the impact of interpersonal relationships (both with a firm employee and with another customer) on customer satisfaction and loyalty towards the firm. Based on a review of different streams of research, the paper develops and empirically tests an original multi‐level and multi‐subject model. The findings show that customer‐to‐employee and customer‐to‐customer relationships contribute differently to the development of customer loyalty. Finally, the paper discusses managerial implications and directions for future research.

A Comprehensive Model of Customer Trust in Two Retail Stores

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a comprehensive model of customer trust in a retail service setting. Three levels of the customer‐to‐store relationship are simultaneously taken into account: customer to sales associates, customer to store branded products, and customer to the store itself.Design/methodology/approach – Using partial least square (PLS) on a sample of 393 customers of an Italian supermarket retailer, a model linking customer trust (in the store, in store branded products and in sales associates) to overall perceived value and store loyalty intentions and behaviors is tested. Subsequently an expanded model to determine the influence of managerially controlled antecedent variables (salespeoples trustworthiness, store environment, store assortment, and communications) is estimated on the various trust levels.Findings – Trust in the salesperson and trust in store branded products have positive effects on overall store trust. Store trust, in turn, increases perceived v...

Organizational Drivers of Salespeople’s Customer Orientation and Selling Orientation

The practice of customer-oriented selling (COS) has been identified as a key variable in an era of relationship selling and consultative selling. However, compared with the “traditional” selling orientation (SO), COS requires greater expenditure of effort by the salesperson in customer interactions. As a consequence, salespeople have to be motivated to engage in this mode of selling, but, unfortunately, factors that motivate customer orientation are still not well known. Our study develops and tests a model of organizational drivers of COS and SO on a sample of 326 managers. Such organizational drivers refer to the company culture, structure, strategy, and systems. We also analyze the effect of COS and SO on the creation of superior customer value.

The sales function in the twenty‐first century: where are we and where do we go from here?

Purpose – This article aims to position current sales research in relation to what academics perceive as important future research areas for sales theory and practice. It makes the argument that after a 20‐year period of rapid growth and almost a decade of a transition phase, sales research is now a mature area of academic inquiry. The paper seeks to highlights gaps in current knowledge and promising avenues for future sales research endeavours.Design/methodology/approach – The article is based on a survey of European sales academics; answers are mapped in matrices demonstrating fields of importance against research volume per subject over the past 20 years.Findings – While sales research has made many theoretical and managerial inroads, there are still areas where research efforts would greatly enhance both practitioner and academic knowledge.Research limitations/implications – Researchers should focus their efforts on the highlighted areas, taking particular account of the interplay between sales and fi...

Internationalizing Sales Research: Current Status, Opportunities, and Challenges

With economic activity in emerging markets growing at 40 percent, and with 10 percent and more of the firms in the Global Fortune 500 now headquartered in emerging economies, intense interest lies in the globalization of business activities, including the sales function. This systematic review of the international sales literature in a selection of the most influential journals explains, consolidates, and analyzes current knowledge. This paper also explores the challenges inherent in conducting international sales research, including conceptualization, research management, and data collection issues. Finally, we suggest ways to move forward for researchers in this field, including pertinent topics and how methodological and practical constraints might be addressed.

An empirical investigation into the impact of relationship selling and LMX on salespeople's behaviours and sales effectiveness

Purpose – This study aims to develop and test a model of relationship selling management. It seeks to examine the impact of leadership quality and relationship selling, as antecedents of salespeoples relational behaviours, on sales effectiveness.Design/methodology/approach – Starting from a review of literature, the model incorporates two classes of salespeoples relational behaviours, namely customer‐oriented selling (COS) and adaptive selling (AS), two classes of managerial antecedents (i.e. relationship selling strategy and LMX) and one consequence (sales effectiveness). The authors collected data from 164 sales manager‐salesperson dyads in a sample of French firms. A structural equation modelling approach was employed to test the hypotheses.Findings – The findings show that relationship selling and LMX stimulate salespeoples relational behaviours, which in turn positively affect sales effectiveness. Moreover, the results reveal a positive impact of relationship selling on sales manager‐salesperson e...

The combined effect of customer perceptions about a salesperson’s adaptive selling and selling orientation on customer trust in the salesperson: a contingency perspective

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of customer perceptions about a salesperson’s combined use of adaptive selling (AS) and selling orientation (SO) on customer trust in the salesperson. Based on insights from attribution theory, the contingency model of salespeople’ effectiveness, relationship marketing and market orientation literatures, the authors analyze the interplay between customer perceptions of salespeople’s AS and SO, and how this affects customer trust. Furthermore, adopting a contingency perspective, the authors investigate how two important situational variables (i.e. length of buyer–seller relationships and importance of purchase for the buyer) affect this relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on regression analysis with two- and three-way interactions, using survey data from 134 business-to-business (B2B) buyers. Findings The results indicate that the interplay between AS and SO is negatively related to trust, and that the above situation is attenuated in sales contexts characterized by high purchase importance or enduring buyer–seller relationships. Research limitations/implications The empirical findings are based on firms from a single industry. Second, a cross-sectional research design is adopted. Third, the absence of measures of objective performance (e.g. sales) might be regarded as a limitation. Practical implications The study suggests that salespeople willing to win customer trust should modify their approach across the relationship life cycle. Similarly, when purchase importance for the customer is low, salespeople interested in building relationships based on trust should combine AS and customer orientation. In contrast, when purchase importance is high, salespeople can only generate more trust by increasing customer orientation/reducing SO. These findings might inspire sales trainers and sales managers in developing training experiences based on adaptation and customer orientation. Originality/value The research contributes in several ways to the literature. First, the simultaneous effect of AS and SO on performance (i.e. customer trust) was investigated. Second, the analysis of the interaction between AS and SO was complemented by testing two important boundary conditions residing in the selling situation: purchase importance and relationship length. Third, this study is the first to examine the interplay among AS, SO and selling context outside using customer data from actual B2B sales interactions. Also, it enhances knowledge of the effects of AS on sales outcomes by adding a long-term, relational outcome (i.e. trust) to previous work that tended to focus on short-term outcomes (i.e. sales revenues). Furthermore, by investigating perceived benefits from the point of view of customers rather than sellers, our findings add to previous studies of AS which relied too heavily, or exclusively, on the voice of the seller. Finally, this study shed further light on the role played by SO in affecting customer-based performance.

Loyalty building, relational trade‐offs and key service employees: the case of radio DJs

Purpose – Interpersonal relationships can be a key success factor in many service businesses. A capable disc jockey, for example, may help a radio station in improving customer satisfaction. But does he/she help in building customer loyalty too? What happens if this employee leaves the organisation? The purpose of this paper is to assess the overall net effect that customer satisfaction with a key service employee may have on customer loyalty to a service firm.Design/methodology/approach – The radio industry is selected as a specific case where a key service employee exists. A conceptual model is developed and tested on a sample of radio listeners using structural equation modelling.Findings – The results confirm that customer satisfaction with a disc jockey increases personal loyalty to this employee. That outcome, in turn, cancels out part of the positive effects on customer loyalty to the radio station.Research limitations/implications – The model is tested within a specific service industry and the fi...

How salespeople see organizational citizenship behaviors: an exploratory study using the laddering technique

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to more thoroughly investigate the role of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in sales force settings and the reason why salespeople should practice OCBs. In fact, in spite of the huge body of literature on OCBs and their impact on performance, some important knowledge gaps still remain to be filled. Inconsistent and unexpected findings are particularly apparent in the relatively few studies investigating OCBs in sales forces. The authors argue that some specific characteristics of the selling job and related tasks make the analysis of the practice of these behaviors in the sales context particularly interesting. Design/methodology/approach – The authors explore which OCBs salespeople engage in, and analyze the perceived consequences of such behaviors using means-end theory and the laddering technique. They apply means-end theory and the laddering technique to interview a sample of salespersons from three companies operating in different business-to-business...

Leading teams : tools and techniques for successful team leadership from the sports world

Foreword ix Introduction 1 1 Why Sport and Management? 5 2 Management Models of Team Leadership 39 3 A New Team Leadership Model 75 4 The Team Leader as Manager 99 5 The Team Leader as Coach 171 6 Team Leadership: A Word from the Coaches 243 Carlo Ancelotti 243 Don Casey 248 Sasha Djordjevic 255 John Kirwan 260 Marcello Lippi 265 Roberto Mancini 272 Dan Peterson 278 Simone Pianigiani 284 Cesare Prandelli 289 Arrigo Sacchi 293 Emilio Sanchez 300 Julio Velasco 307 Gianluca Vialli 310 Who s Who of Sports Coaches 317 Index 331