Large Sales Research Articles

Sales Force Automation Acceptance: An Exploratory Study Of The Role Of Job Experience

<p class="MsoBlockText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">User perceptions of new technologies may ultimately affect their acceptance of that technology. Recent research has identified a clear connection between user perceptions of Sales Force Automation and their acceptance of Sales Force Automation technologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Anecdotal evidence suggests that relative to less experienced salespeople, more experienced salespeople tend to have more negative perceptions of sales force automation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This paper examines the relationship between job experience and perceptions of a sales force automation system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The results are based on a survey of 1,657 salespeople about their perceptions of several aspects of a sales force automation system in a large sales organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This study finds significant differences by sales experience in areas such as perceived productivity/efficiency gain, perception of sales force automation as a micromanagement tool, and user satisfaction with system functionality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Based on these results several important managerial implications for the adoption of a sales force automation system are suggested. </span></span></span></p>

Do Short Sellers Front-Run Insider Sales?

We study the behavior of short sellers as informed market participants and examine potential sources of their information. Using a newly available dataset with high-frequency short sales data, we find evidence of significant increases in short sales immediately prior to large insider sales, but not prior to small insider sales. We examine a number of explanations that the increase in short sales is driven by public information, either about the firm or about the impending insider sale. The evidence is inconsistent with these explanations, but is consistent with front-running facilitated by leaked information.

Case—Keeping Logistics Under Wraps

1. Company Background Stationery Demand is a national distributor of customized paper goods and office supplies located in Blawnox, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1963 by John Karthan, a former Westinghouse engineer who left the nuclear business to satisfy his entrepreneurial fervor. From the company’s earliest days John emphasized personal interaction with his customers, often making evening sales calls himself at the homes of other small business owners. More companies saw the value of placing their logo on stationery and other office supplies, and Stationery Demand’s business grew exponentially in the 1970s and 1980s. John hired a large sales force to serve the new customers and expand the business to geographical areas outside of western Pennsylvania. He required that these salespeople complete an extensive training program to ensure that they exemplified his personal selling philosophy. By 2005 Stationery Demand had a national presence and annual revenues exceeding $30 million. Control of the firm passed to John’s son, David Karthan, in 1992. To raise capital, David transformed the proprietorship into an S Corporation in 1996 by offering shares of stock to selected investors. Before retiring, John converted his sales force into a network of independent distributors to provide extra sales incentives and reduce his company’s benefit obligations. Stationery Demand currently has approximately 400 of these independent distributors, each serving a small portion of the United States. John Karthan clearly defined his company’s customer base early in its operations. He focused his sales efforts on small business owners like himself that larger office suppliers might ignore. The personal sales approach established trust quickly, as his customers felt that their business was valued because they were dealing directly with the owner. This provided another impetus for the decision to transform the salespeople into independent distributors. Karthan hoped, and ultimately found, that his distributors could provide a competitive advantage in landing new accounts by reflecting this same interest in the customers.

Improving the attention-capturing ability of special displays with the combination effect and the design effect

Prior studies have provided examples of very large sales effects of special displays. In fact we often expect sales increases of several hundred percent for a brand on display. A previously discussed reason for the effectiveness of special display is the customers’ scarce attentive resources. Yet very little academic work has elaborated on aspects improving the displays’ attention-capturing abilities. In the present study more than 13,500 customers were observed approaching special displays. The results show that a retailer can improve a display’s effectiveness by combining the products with different POP-material as well as by improving the display’s design. For instance the design manipulation in the third experiment shows that a retailer can increase the sales with as much as 977 percent by changing from a commonly used display design to the one recommended in this paper. Both the combination effect and the design effect are tested in different settings.

Spatial Analysis of Municipal Water Supply in Abeokuta Metropolis, South Western Nigeria

The study examined the spatial dimension of public water supply in Abeokuta metropolis with the aim of providing effective planning, development and operation of water supply and distribution networks which is one of the most essential components of urban infrastructure. A number of factors ranging from population expansion to inadequate existing facilities are thought to be responsible for the frequent shortage in water supply to the metropolis. The study delineated the areas within the metropolis that are un-served or underserved by the water cooperation. A framework for taking management decisions such as an extension of the supply network and location of new facilities was given. Large sale facility maps that will serve as source of information for vital application for the Ogun State water cooperation in carrying out its daily functions were produced. Such maps in digital forms are extremely vital and are useful to integrate collateral data that is available within the corporation. Key words: Water supply networks, questionnaires.

Written Testimony for the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations' Hearing on 'TARP Oversight: An Update on Warrant Repurchases and Benefits to Taxpayers'

The increased frequency of auctions versus negotiations has ensured that taxpayers are justly rewarded for their risky investments in the banking sector. Contrary to the banking lobby’s early propaganda, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) warrants have proven to be very valuable raising $6.1 billion so far. I expect the U.S. Treasury to raise a further $4.1 billion from 236 banks with warrants outstanding based on the prices at the end of the first quarter. The administration plans to give away $3.0 billion subsidy to about 580 existing TARP recipients. The U.S. Treasury wants them to participate in a so-called Small Business Lending Fund, which would cancel the taxpayers’ warrants and convert the 5 percent preferred stock into 1 percent preferred stock. The Small Business Lending Fund is TARP 2.0, but TARP 2.0 has none of the upside for taxpayers that TARP 1.0 had. We should be contracting state ownership of the banking sector not expanding it. Finally, the sale of the 27 percent stake of Citigroup common stock has moved too slowly, and the administration should consider a large underwritten sale of that stock to lock in profits and reduce taxpayers’ firm specific risk in the large bank.

The impact of awareness and accessibility on expertise retrieval: A multilevel network perspective

AbstractBuilding on the major premises of transactive memory (TM) theory as well as the recent multilevel extension to the original theory, this study examined the influence of perceived social accessibility of expertise providers, technological accessibility, and awareness of expertise distribution on expertise retrieval. Using social network data collected from a large global sales team, the study found that all three variables had significant impact on expertise retrieval at both the dyadic and individual levels. Our study confirmed the conceptual and theoretical value of approaching TM from a multilevel network perspective.

Sono-Tek completes largest sale of MediCoat stent coating systems

Sono-Tek completes largest sale of MediCoat stent coating systems

Dimebon: large sales if clinical trials succeed

Dimebon: large sales if clinical trials succeed

Effects of cola intake on fertility: a review

The consumption of soft drinks has increased considerably during the last decades. Among them, the cola-based preparations are possibly the refreshments with the largest sales worldwide. During the previous years, important concerns have been raised about the effects of colas on human health. In this review, we introduce the cola effects on reproduction including pregnancy miscarriages, ovulatory and menstrual disorders, and reduced semen quality. Although caffeine intoxication may be thought to play the most important role, a component of cola other than caffeine, or in combination with caffeine, may be associated with increased risk of reproductive hazards in heavy cola (> 1 L per day)-consumers. Cola discontinuation usually leads to an uneventful recovery in the most cases suggesting justification of limitations in the maximum recommended daily dose of these soft drinks. Cola is not an essential beverage, and abstaining from drinking more than 1 L per day is a minor intrusion in one’s personal life. Despite these uncertainties, this growing know- ledge may alarm the fertility risk of chronic cola intake in peoples of childbearing age.

William Robertson, Early Orientalism and the Historical Disquisition on India of 1791

In 1791, the celebrated Scottish historian, William Robertson, published his final work, An Historical Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India, in which he explored the commercial and cultural connections of India and the West from ancient times to the end of the fifteenth century. This article considers Robertson's Historical Disquisition within the contexts of the Scottish Enlightenment, the early British ‘orientalist’ movement, and the expansion of British dominion in India. It argues that while the work reflected the assumptions and approaches of the British orientalist school, Robertson – sensitive to criticisms that his previous History of America had been too dismissive of Amerindian cultures – went further than many orientalists in his positive portrayal of Indian culture and his opposition to an interventionist imperial policy. Indeed, the work was largely directed to preserving the ancient and sophisticated Indian civilisation from Western cultural imperialism. The article further suggests that Robertson's favourable view of what he perceived as monotheist beliefs underlying ‘classical’ Hinduism reveals much about his own religious attitudes as a clergyman and leader of the ‘moderate’ party in the Church of Scotland. His history of India would be under-valued in Britain (despite its large sales), in large part because his apology for Hinduism and his critique of Christian missions ran counter to the rising tide of the evangelical revival. However, it had a considerable role in promoting interest in India on the European continent, and it represented one of the more significant achievements of the late Scottish Enlightenment

Information and trade sizes: The case of short sales

Abstract In this study, we examine short selling of NASDAQ stocks and observe that more information about future returns is contained in small short sales than in medium-sized and large short sales, thus supporting the idea that NASDAQ short sellers stealth trade. These results are robust to different subsamples of stocks with and without tradable options and stocks that are more likely to face binding borrowing constraints. Further, these findings are contrary to the results in Boehmer, Jones, and Zhang (2008) who find that large NYSE short sales contain the most information. Combined, our study supports the idea that NASDAQ's bid test is less restricting than the NYSE's uptick rule and therefore attenuates the likelihood of stealth trading (Diether, Lee, & Werner, 2009a).

Intraday characteristics of stock price crashes

This article presents the first detailed analysis of the intraday characteristics of idiosyncratic stock price crashes. The analysis focuses on the impact of large crashes in single stocks on their intraday returns and liquidity in the US market. Furthermore, optimal intradaily behaviour during crashes is studied. Crashes are found to happen rather quickly, usually during a time interval of a few hours. In general, a strong increase in trading activity is observed during a crash, indicating that investors are able to sell their stocks even in distressed markets. The level of liquidity change is linked to the size of the crash. However, there is little evidence that the large sales volume during a crash drives down stock prices. After a stock price crash a significant momentum effect is found for several hours. Stock price crashes appear to reduce information asymmetries.

Portfolio Optimization Using a Block Structure for the Covariance Matrix

Implementing in practice the classical mean-variance theory for portfolio selection often results in obtaining portfolios with large short sale positions. Also, recent papers show that, due to estimation errors, existing and rather advanced mean-variance theory-based portfolio strategies do not consistently out perform the naive 1/N portfolio that invests equally across N risky assets. In this paper, I introduce a portfolio strategy that generates a portfolio, with no short sale positions, that can outperform the 1/N portfolio. The strategy is investing in a global minimum variance portfolio (GMVP) that is constructed using an easy to calculate block structure for the covariance matrix of asset returns. Using this new block structure, the weights of the stocks in the GMVP can be found analytically, and as long as simple and directly computable conditions are met, these weights are positive.

Corporate Equality and Equity Prices: Doing Well While Doing Good?

Two competing hypotheses, value enhancing and value discounting, state that implementing socially responsible corporate policies can have positive or negative effects on firm value. This paper tests how a specific type of social responsibility - corporate equality - affects firm value. Corporate equality is measured by the corporate equality index (CEI). This index quantifies how companies treat their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees, consumers, and investors. Using a sample of CEI-rated, publicly traded firms in the U.S., we find that, between 2002 and 2006, firms with a higher degree of corporate equality have higher stock returns and higher market valuation (Q). We provide suggestive, causal evidence that corporate equality enhances firm value through better performance in product markets and labor markets: Firms with a higher degree of corporate equality also tend to have larger sales, higher profit margins, higher employee productivity, and attract more employees. These results are robust to the inclusion of unobserved firm-heterogeneities. Overall, our results support the value-enhancing effects of corporate social responsibility.

Another Duel in the Sun: Weighing the Balances Between Sun Protection, Tanning Beds, and Malignant Melanoma

The purpose of this report is to put the dueling factors of risk and prevention for melanoma in perspective for the thoughtful pediatric specialist to facilitate preteen preventive health counseling. We examined the rate of malignant melanoma among Kentucky residents and compared this rate with indicators of tanning bed prevalence in a large metropolitan area and sunscreen sales from a major distributor. We obtained malignant melanoma annual incidence data from the Kentucky Cancer Registry, which recorded Kentucky population incidence rates over the years 1995 to 2004. The rates reflected 2 malignant melanoma classifications: pre-invasive cancer only, or both invasive and noninvasive cancers combined. The age-adjusted incidence rate per hundred thousand for combined invasive and pre-invasive malignant melanoma swelled from 21.9 in 1995 to 31.3 in 2004. The respective invasive-only malignant melanoma incidence rates increased less dramatically, from 17.3 to 20.7, during this same 10-year time period. Since 1983, the number of separate tanning bed businesses increased from 1 in 1983 to 119 by the mid-1990s, and then declined to about 74 separate businesses by 2003. Sunscreen sales data is uneven between states and is currently inconclusive. Although current data cannot draw a precise link between melanoma and the use of tanning beds, the associated risk is implicit, as the ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation in tanning bed usage is a well-established melanoma risk factor. In advising patients, the pediatric specialist should consider that melanoma rates are poised as a balance of some known risk factors and a few potential preventive factors.

Duration of trade of former communist countries in the EU market

This article analyses the duration of exports of individual products of former communist countries to the enlarged European Union (EU25) employing survival analysis. The results show that the duration of trade differs across EU10 and EU15 markets: for the majority of countries the length of trade is greater in EU10 markets than in EU15 markets. The estimations suggest that differentiated products are traded for more extended periods than homogeneous products. In addition, trade relationships starting with large initial sales are more likely to survive the observed five-year period than those starting with small values. Finally, the estimations are robust to both markets segments.

Intra-Day Characteristics of Stock Price Crashes

This article presents the first detailed analysis of the intra-day characteristics of idiosyncratic stock price crashes. The analysis focuses on the impact of large crashes in single stocks on their intra-day returns and liquidity in the US market. Furthermore, optimal intra-daily behavior during crashes is studied. Crashes are found to happen rather quickly, usually during a time interval of a few hours. In general, a strong increase in trading activity is observed during a crash, indicating that investors are able to sell their stocks even in distressed markets. The level of liquidity change is linked to the size of the crash. However, there is little evidence that the large sales volume during a crash drives down stock prices. After a stock price crash a significant momentum effect is found for several hours. Stock price crashes appear to reduce information asymmetries.

Trade-Size and Price Clustering: The Case of Short Sales

Short sellers are informed (Diamond and Verrecchia, 1987, Aitken et al., 1998, and Diether, Lee, and Werner, 2007) and the information contained in short sales is driven by larger short-sale sizes (Boehmer, Jones, and Zhang, 2008). We examine whether short sales cluster on round prices and round trade sizes. Our findings show that short sellers prefer round sizes and round prices less than non-short traders, which provides evidence that short sellers are less concerned with negotiation costs, cognitive processing costs, and the costs of revealing information to the market. Further, we find evidence suggesting that size and price rounding decisions are not correlated on the NYSE and are negatively correlated for our Nasdaq sample. Unrounded short-sales are more informed than rounded short sales and large unrounded short sales are the most informed as they are able to predict the greatest negative intraday returns.

Legal Corporate Insider Trading and the Price Impact of Private Information: Evidence for Germany

This study examines the information value of corporate insider trading disclosures for a sample of 490 German companies. Our results indicate that insiders selling stocks in their own company reveal negative information about the in- trinsic firm value. This is especially the case for large volume sale transactions. In addition, stock prices of smaller com- panies react stronger to insider transactions. Furthermore, insiders tend to time their transactions, selling shares after stock price increases and buying shares after stock price decreases.