Sales Positions Research Articles

Competitiveness of the agricultural sector: determinants of the global growth

The paper provides rationale for the key determinants of enhancing competitiveness of the agricultural sector in the light of the global growth, which is possible through structural adjustment of foreign economic opportunities and strategic focus on exporting competitive agricultural products. In order to advance the competitiveness of domestic agricultural products in the international markets, it is proposed to implement a series of measures through establishing a framework for ensuring a competitive market. By splitting the factors into those responsible for external and internal sectoral transformations, a framework for ensuring a competitive growth in the agricultural sector with regard to the global progress is developed. The effectiveness of introducing the framework is practically expressed in strengthening positions in export sales; expanding the existing markets and entering new ones; stabilizing domestic and external demand; producing environmentally-friendly and safe products that meet world quality standards. An innovative component of systemic changes in the sector is highlighted. Some trends and prospects related to foreign economic activities of the competitive agricultural sector are outlined.In order to address the challenges on the road towards more competitive agricultural sector the following proposals are developed and justified: to complete the adaption of Ukraine’s legislative and normative framework and the regulatory system to the requirements of the EU; to establish a national system of food safety in accordance with the requirements of the food safety and animal feed safety model introduced in the EU-countries; to introduce sanitary and phytosanitary measures that are consistent with the EU requirements in agribusiness enterprises; to accomplish the establishment and operation of the system of state market supervision over the observance of requirements to the safety of food products and creation of a network of accredited conformity assessment bodies and ensure the full recognition of the National Accreditation Agency of Ukraine by international institutions.

Job applicants’ attitudes towards cognitive ability and personality testing

Orientation: Growing research has shown that not only test validity considerations but also the test-taking attitudes of job applicants are important in the choice of selection instruments as these can contribute to test performance and the perceived fairness of the selection process.Research purpose: The main purpose of this study was to determine the test-taking attitudes of a diverse group of job applicants towards personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly online as part of employee selection in a financial services company in South Africa.Motivation for the study: If users understand how job applicants view specific test types, they will know which assessments are perceived more negatively and how this situation can potentially be rectified.Research design, approach and method: A non-experimental and cross-sectional survey design was used. An adapted version of the Test Attitude Survey was used to determine job applicants’ attitudes towards tests administered online as part of an employee selection process. The sample consisted of a group of job applicants (N = 160) who were diverse in terms of ethnicity and age and the educational level applicable for sales and supervisory positions.Main findings: On average, the job applicants responded equally positively to the cognitive ability and personality tests. The African job applicants had a statistically significantly more positive attitude towards the tests than the other groups, and candidates applying for the sales position viewed the cognitive ability tests significantly less positively than the personality test.Practical and managerial implications: The choice of selection tests used in combination as well as the testing conditions that are applicable should be considered carefully as they are the factors that can potentially influence the test-taking motivation and general test-taking attitudes of job applicants.Contribution: This study consolidated the research findings on the determinants of attitudinal responses to cognitive ability and personality testing and produced valuable empirical findings on job applicants’ attitudes towards both test types when administered conjointly

Praise sales personnel for talent or effort? Person versus process-focused feedback, goal orientation and performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is twofold: to analyze sales managers’ person-focused and process-focused supervisory feedback as a potential goal-orientation antecedent, and to examine the relationship between different types of sales personnel goal orientations and two aspects of job performance: behavior-based and outcome-based. Based on previous sales motivation research, the authors look at the antecedents and outcomes of sales representatives’ goal orientation.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional survey design was used with a sample consisting of 326 pairs of sales reps and their supervisors. Average sales position tenure was 5.30 years.FindingsSales representatives’ performance-prove goal orientation (PPGO) can be triggered by positive person-focused feedback from their managers, and performance-avoid goal orientation (PAGO) can be triggered by negative person-focused feedback. A learning goal orientation (LGO) can be triggered by positive process-focused feedback. The authors also found that when job performance is broken down into outcome-based and behavior-based components, the process by which goal orientation influences performance is more easily determined. PPGO sales reps in the sample clearly focused more on outcome-based performance, while PAGO sales reps focused on behavior-based performance. LGO was only associated with behavior-based performance among the respondents, meaning that it cannot be used as a predictor of outcome-based performance.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, a cross-sectional design may not be the best method for judging variable directions of causality. A longitudinal method is recommended for more detailed research. Second, the variance the authors noted in the three goal orientations may be due to impression management. Previous researchers have not addressed response bias regarding goal orientation; future researchers may want to add social desire response items to control for response bias from impression management.Practical implicationsThe findings can help sales managers understand how their feedback styles can result in different types of goal orientation and different effort allocation in their sales staff. Managers interested in developing PPGO sales reps should offer more whole-person praise. Since negative person-focused feedback can trigger more conservative behaviors, they should use other approaches to criticizing their employees. If their goal is to promote individual learning in sales personnel, they will want to give process-focused feedback, either positive or negative.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on the external influences of goal orientation, especially the effects of social (rather than institutional) factors in manager feedback on goal orientations among their sales staffs. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to study relationships between three types of goal orientations and various performance dimensions. The data clarify the links between two types of performance (outcome- and behavior-based) and three types of goal orientations (PPGO, PAGO and LGO).

Criminal Background and Job Performance

Job applicants with criminal records are much less likely than others to obtain legitimate employment, a problem that recent legislation, including Ban the Box, has attempted to address. The success of any remedial strategy depends on why hiring firms impose a hiring penalty and whether their concerns are founded on an accurate view of how ex-offenders behave on the job if hired. Little empirical evidence now exists to answer these questions. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining firm-level hiring practices and worker-level performance outcomes. Our data indicate that the typical employee with a criminal record has a psychological profile different from other employees, with fewer characteristics that are associated with good job performance outcomes. Despite these differences, individuals with criminal records have an involuntary separation rate that is no higher than that of other employees and a voluntary separation rate that is much lower. Employees with a criminal record do have a slightly higher overall rate of discharge for misconduct than do employees without a record, although we find increased misconduct only for sales positions. We also find that firms that do not use information about criminal backgrounds seem to compensate by placing more weight on qualifications that are correlated with a criminal record, such as low educational attainment.

Optimal switching strategy of a mean-reverting asset over multiple regimes

We solve optimal iterative three-regime switching problems with transaction costs, with investment in a mean-reverting asset that follows an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process and find the explicit solutions. The investor can take either a long, short or square position and can switch positions during the period. Modeling the short sales position is necessary to study optimal trading strategies such as the pair trading. Few studies provide explicit solutions to problems with multiple (more than two) regimes (states). The value function is proved to be a unique viscosity solution of a Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman variational inequality (HJB-VI). Multiple-regime switching problems are more difficult to solve than conventional two-regime switching problems, because they need to identify not only when to switch, but also where to switch. Therefore, multiple-regime switching problems need to identify the structure of the continuation/switching regions in the free boundary problem for each regime. If the number of the states N is two, only two regions have to be identified, but if N=3, NP2=6 regions have to be detected. We identify the structure of the switching regions for each regime using the theories related to the viscosity solution approach.

En

With the emergence of outbound sales philosophies taking hold in sport organizations, sales managers are seeking talent to fill sales positions with candidates launching their careers in the sport industry. However, observers have noted that the infusion of sport ticket sales personnel has not been accompanied by an appropriate professional development and evaluation protocol, which has contributed to high turnover rates. As sport management education programs modernize their curriculum to meet industry needs and sales managers attempt to reduce turnover, a better understanding of the competencies required of entry-level sport ticket sales professionals is required. The purpose of this research was to identify the competencies required for success in an entry-level sport ticket sales position and the extent to which sales managers find it difficult to train salespeople on those competencies. Nineteen sport sales managers served as expert panelists on a study that employed the Delphi method. The result of the study is a 40-item competency model comprised of the following eight global competency areas: knowledge and skill development, relationship building, communication skills, opening the sale, consultative or adaptive sales, closing, maximizing each call, and service and education. Implications for sales managers, human resource managers, sport sales educators, and academic scholarship in sport sales are discussed.

Critical assessment and outlook for the 50 biomedical engineering undergraduate programs in Mexico.

Biomedical Engineering (BME) has been taught in Mexico at the undergraduate level for over forty years. The rationale for the introduction of this profession was to help manage and maintain the growing technological infrastructure in the health care system during the seventies. Owing to this, it is not surprising that early versions of the BME curricula were oriented towards clinical engineering and medical instrumentation. In the last decade the number of programs has grown from three in the seventies and eighties to fifty at present. This work is the result of the analysis of the BME programs in all the institutions that offer this degree in Mexico. Three main issues were studied: the curricula, the sub-disciplines that were emphasized in the programs and the job market. Results have shown a striking resemblance in most of the programs, which are mostly dedicated to teaching aspects of medical instrumentation and clinical engineering. These results reflect an agreement with the requirements of the job market, but since most job offerings are for low-paying positions in sales, service and hospital maintenance, we question the wisdom of stressing these sub-specialties at research universities, where faculties and research labs offer a wide variety of options. An analysis of work at these centers shows that most of the results are publications, so the need to emphasize translational research and partnerships with industry are suggested.

The importance of conscientiousness in the telemarketing industry

Researchers have long pondered the personality type-performance relationship. However, in the sales industry and especially in telemarketing, findings have been contradictory with regards to which personality trait best contributes to performance. The telemarketing industry is a rapidly growing industry, but is typically marred with high staff turnover and low levels of performance. An improved understanding of the factors that contribute towards performance in this industry is a key mandate of management. Personality-type has been shown to be a key driver of performance in the sales industry. However, it is unclear whether the personality types touted in typical sales positions (for example extroversion) are suited for the telemarketing environment. South Africa is one of the top emerging call centre locations in the world and as such the purpose of this study was to determine which personality type best contributes towards performance in the South African telemarketing industry. A census was conducted on telesales personnel in a large telemarketing organisation and the five-factor model was used to test employees' personality types. Contrary to current research, which suggests that extraversion is the five-factor trait best suited to salespeople, this study found that conscientiousness was the only personality trait that influenced sales performance in the call centre context.

Evaluating Educational Practices for Positively Affecting Student Perceptions of a Sales Career

Despite demand for new graduates seeking a sales position, student reticence toward pursuing a sales career remains. While all students will not choose a sales career, diminishing the existence of sales-related misconceptions among the student population should establish sales as a viable career path for a larger number of students. We test six educational interventions in large Principle of Marketing classes from three different universities ( n = 1,355) to help identify educational practices for reducing student reticence toward a career in sales. Our results show that while all six educational approaches raise students’ perceptions and interest in a selling career, the utilization of experienced salespeople to present classroom materials and to discuss their sales career was the most effective. Classroom lecture and role-plays by university sales students had the second highest intent to pursue intervention scores. We offer recommendations for how to best present sales material to these large, lecture-based courses.

Emotions and salesperson propensity to leave: The effects of emotional intelligence and resilience

Emotions constitute a powerful psychological force that can significantly influence the behavior and performance of salespeople. However, emotions in the workplace still constitute an under-developed area of study, mainly in the field of sales. Sales turnover is also particularly important in relation to sales management due to the nature of sales positions, their historically high turnover levels, and the difficulty involved in filling them.In view of the need to broaden knowledge on how to more successfully retain valuable salespeople, and the fact that B2B selling jobs are not the same across the board, this paper, while controlling the type of selling situation, analyzes the influence of two emotional skills (i.e. emotional intelligence and resilience) on salesperson propensity to leave their organization, both directly and indirectly, through their impact on work–family conflict and emotional exhaustion. The moderating effect of servant leadership perceived by salespeople on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and intention to leave is also addressed. Information provided by 209 salespeople from 105 enterprises from various industries confirms the hypotheses put forward and highlights the importance of encouraging the development of emotional skills as a way of alleviating work stress and reducing salesperson turnover. In addition, the results confirm the contribution of servant leadership towards reducing the effect of emotional exhaustion on salesperson intention to leave.

Speak for Yourself

Speak for Yourself

Intergenerational recruiting: the impact of sales job candidate perception of interviewer age

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects from perceptions of age disadvantageness when job candidates are interviewing with recruiters from different age groups. More specifically, the authors examine the issues of intergenerational recruiting through the lens of social identity theory (SIT) and relational demography. Using these theoretical underpinnings, problems that result from dissatisfaction with between group inequities in the recruiting process are explored.Design/methodology/approach– Using these theoretical underpinnings, problems that result from dissatisfaction with between group inequities in the recruiting process are explored. Results from a survey of 176 undergraduate students actively pursuing sales positions provide evidence that candidate perceptions are influenced by age of the interviewer.Findings– The results support that sales job candidates do indeed feel disadvantaged when interviewed by older recruiters. Compared to interviewers from a more similar age in-group interviewer, the respondents felt a greater difficulty in establishing commonality and credibility and they felt the need to establish dependability, demonstrate professionalism, energy, and enthusiasm with an older out-group interviewer. Interestingly, sales job candidates did not feel lower levels of job confidence relative to the age-group of the interviewer.Research limitations/implications– The study reflects the perceptions of sales job applicants sampled from only two universities in the same region of the USA. Generalizations outside of this job applicant population (i.e. major and geography) cannot be made based on this limited group of respondents. Additionally, outcomes were not explored in this paper, so there is no way to know with certainty that these feelings of disadvantageness translate to concrete differences in results, such as lower job acceptance.Practical implications– From a recruiting/hiring managers’ perspective, they should be mindful that younger sales job candidates may feel uncomfortable or disadvantaged relative to age/generational differences. This could potentially even impact a recruit's desire to consider a company and accept a job offer, based on perceived organizational cultural differences. Educators need to prepare college students for the interview process. They should make students aware that they may feel the need to compensate for feelings that stem from intergeneration differences.Originality/value– From a theory perspective, the study applies the SIT to a human resource and recruiting context to better understand possible recruiting barriers that may be particularly relevant in today's changing recruitment environment. This represents one of only a few empirical research efforts that has attempted to explain intergenerational recruiting issues relative to SIT. In addition to the use of SIT and relational demography, this paper introduces a unique context.

Research on Chinese Automobile Independent Brand Strategy

In recent years, China's auto market has continued to take over the first position in automobile production and sales in the word, the automotive industry has become an important pillar of our national economy. But foreign brands has been dominating the market in the brand, Chinese-brand cars are still going ahead with difficulties. Xu Heyi, the chairman of Beijing Automotive Group, said smoothly that there is a very important criterion to measure the world’s automotive power, that is, whether or not it owns world-class brands. In the promotion of automobile brand, we should focus on the security configuration of the car, interior space, price, comfort, environmental protection, energy-saving, after-sale service and other core elements of the brand’s planning and innovation, which is the fundamental cornerstone of the automobile brand strategy to survive and develop. We should strive to do the following: first, keep the market-driven strategy, choice the target market. Second, improve the overall quality of China's automobile by product innovation and the concept of innovation. Third, optimize brand structure, enhance the brand value, highlight the brand culture. Fourth, establish and perfect after-sales service system, foster credit system of enterprises.

Developing a Stakeholder Approach for Recruiting Top-Level Sales Students

With growing industry demand for sales professionals, recruitment at colleges and universities that have a sales education focus has increased remarkably over the past few years. However, results indicate that hiring organizations face an uphill task in filling sales positions. Recruiters and students struggle to build critical person–job fit during a relatively brief period of interaction. To address these issues, the present article presents a two-staged ideal recruitment process based on a stakeholder perspective. A set of 16 propositions is provided for improving key outcomes of the sales student recruitment process.

Connell & Partners 2013 Executive Compensation in Recent IPO Study

The transition from pre-IPO to a publicly traded company is significant in many areas, including executive compensation levels and practices. Our study is comprised of 46 companies in the high technology, biotechnology and alternative energy arena that went public in the year 2011 and have since released proxy data for that year. We looked at the compensation levels and practices in the year prior to their IPO, and in the year of their IPO to examine the changes. We examined the CEO, CFO and Head of Sales Positions as these were the three most prevalent positions listed. Other roles did not have enough points to be statistically significant. We only used incumbents who were in their roles for the two-year timeframe.

The moderating effects of gender and inside versus outside sales role in multifaceted job satisfaction

Two key trends in B2B sales organizations are increased representation by females in sales roles and a shift toward more inside sales positions than has been true in the past. Prior work on multifaceted job satisfaction among salespeople has not fully taken these elements into account. This study furthers the literature by examining the moderating role of gender and inside versus outside sales role on multifaceted job satisfaction. Results provide opportunity for provocative discussion among sales organizational leadership of more customized approaches to improve the satisfaction of the sales force.

Selling & Sales Management in Action: The Importance of Various Motivational Factors to College Students Interested in Sales Positions

Selling & Sales Management in Action: The Importance of Various Motivational Factors to College Students Interested in Sales Positions

The Impact of Applicant Faking on Selection Measures, Hiring Decisions, and Employee Performance

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of applicant faking and its impact on the psychometric properties of the selection measure, the quality of hiring decisions, and employee performance. This study utilized a within-subjects design where responses on a self-report measure were obtained for 162 individuals both when they applied for a pharmaceutical sales position, and after they were hired. Training performance data was collected at the completion of sales training and sales data was collected 5 months later. Applicant faking was a common occurrence, with approximately half of the individuals being classified as a faker on at least one of the dimensions contained in the self-report measure. In addition, faking was found to negatively impact the psychometric properties of the selection measure, as well as the quality of potential hiring decisions made by the organization. Further, fakers exhibited lower levels of performance than non-fakers. These findings indicate that past conclusions that applicant faking is either uncommon or does not negatively impact the selection system and/or organizational performance may be unwarranted. Remarkably few studies have examined applicant faking using a within-subjects design using actual job applicants, which has limited our understanding of applicant faking. Even fewer studies have attempted to link faking to criterion data to evaluate the impact of faking on employee performance. By utilizing this design and setting, the present study provides a unique glimpse into both the prevalence of faking and the significant impact faking can have on organizations.

The Retention of IT Sales Professionals

The IT solutions industry has faced many challenges related to the retention of the sales force. This research evaluated many factors that influence the decisions of IT Solutions sales professionals to continue their employment with their current employer. It identifies the perceptive views of IT sales professionals on the effects of salary and non-salary factors on the voluntary turnover of these sales professionals. As Vice President of software sales at Freightcenter, Inc. and former director of global sales at Microdasys, Inc., the co-author Dr. David Hemmans finds the retention of IT sales profes- sionals to be a growing concern among today's IT solution sales organizations. As Associate Professor in Business Ad- ministration and with several years of experience in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Business Analytics, in various in- dustries such as pharmaceutical, telecommunications, consumer products, biotech as well as insurance the co-author Dr. Santosh Sambare sees direct application of the results of this study in addressing the concerns of turnover in the sales pro- fessionals not only in the IT industry but also other environments as well. This research concludes that several salary as well as several non-salary factors affect the decisions of IT sales professionals to maintain employment with their current em- ployer. This research indicates that companies need to provide support to their sales professionals by providing good leads, qualifying these leads, emphasizing sales training, having clearly articulated pricing policies, and promoting excellent in- stallation and customer service. This research concludes that job satisfaction is more important than base pay or commissions in influencing the IT sales professional to remain with their employer. The key recommendation to IT solutions companies from this research are that focusing on job satisfaction, recognition, and support services are more important than base pay and bonuses to maximize IT sales professional retention. The implication of the results of this study for IT sales management is to also focus beyond the traditional salary based factors such as base pay, commissions and bonus plans and concentrate on job satisfaction of their IT solutions sales managers. Also, it suggests sales management to show concern and care for their sales professionals and ensure that they have good scope for advancement in their organizations. In addition, sales man- agement should ensure that the sales position is challenging and provide training programs to help sales professionals meet their goals as well as to provide the support needed by the sales professionals to be successful in their positions. Such support includes access to accurate customer data, timely access to internal engineering and pre-sales resources, and assistance from upper management in closing major deals.

Content analysis of sport ticket sales job announcements

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the current state of job announcements relating to sport ticket sales and service positions in the USA.Design/methodology/approachContent analysis methodology was utilized to examine 733 sport sales job announcements from two subscription‐based sport job websites posted over a six month time period.FindingsSport sales jobs were geographically clustered with over half of the positions within only eight states, led by California (12.7 percent), New York (9.3 percent), Texas (7.2 percent), and Florida (7.2 percent). The majority of organizations posting jobs were specific teams or integrated sport/entertainment companies owning specific teams (76 percent), followed by media firms (11 percent), outsourced sales firms (6 percent), and sporting goods companies (6 percent). Of the 12 major job types, inside sales positions were the most common (32.3 percent) followed by sponsorship sales (13 percent) and media advertising (12 percent). Logistic regression revealed that directors and non‐entry level hires were more likely to supervise other salespeople and utilize consultative sales techniques, while a strong work ethic and cold calling was sought from entry‐level personnel.Practical implicationsSport sales hiring managers and sport management academicians can utilize survey results in preparing education and training programs for entry‐level sport salespeople, including the use of experiential learning and sport sales combined.Originality/valueAs the first study to empirically examine the nature of sport sales positions, it provides academicians and future sport management and sales employees with the elements of sport‐related sales most prized within the sport industry.