Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive model of the relationship between control and sales performance contingent upon the commitment and adaptive selling variables. Specifically, the study tests the mediator effects of adaptive selling and organizational commitment on the effect of managerial control systems on self-assessed performance of the salespeople working in the field of industrial marketing.Design/methodology/approach: In total, 472 firms active in the industrial marketing field for tangible industry products in Turkey were selected for the research. The proposed model that tested posits relationships among management control variables and adaptive selling, organizational commitment and sales performance measures. Management controls are related to sales performance through the mediating effect of adaptive selling and organizational commitment. Management control styles (output as formal and professional as informal) were the independent variables, while changes in organizational commitment and adaptive selling were tested both as mediators and sales performance as dependent variable, consistent with the reciprocal effects model under analysis.Findings: The findings demonstrated that “control” is positively associated with “sales performance” and “commitment” and “adaptive selling” mediate this relationship. Findings indicate that control impacts sales performance through a mediating mechanism that involves adaptive selling and commitment. Taken together, results showed that adaptive selling and commitment played a critical role in sales performance.Originality/value: This research is the first to empirically analyse the model regarding the relationship between sales performance, control, adaptive selling and commitment variables.
1 January 2012 in Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja
The paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the catalytic role of SMEs in generating innovation as a basis for a competitive economy. It focuses on six European countries, representing both established and transitional settings (United Kingdom, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Greece and Lithuania). The statistical methods used included ANCOVA, multiple regression analysis and chi-square tests. The factors explaining the innovation levels were provided. Innovation and corporate culture indices were created and found to be correlated. Four variables were shown to explain innovation management in the six countries: corporate culture, formal processes/innovation department, company size and review of products. The respective SME perceptions, key factors and levels of innovation management were thus differentiated for the six countries. This comprehensive differentiated approach is an innovative contribution to the field.
1 January 2013 in Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja
Consumer cosmopolitanism is defined as world citizenship, open interaction with foreigners and the polar opposite of xenophobic attitudes. Although it is the opposite of consumer ethnocentrism, to date, cosmopolitanism has been primarily perceived as the virtue of not seeing foreigners as a threat, not being hateful towards foreigners, and embracing cultural diversity. Based on this conceptualization, our main objective is to develop and test an alternative pilot scale for consumer cosmopolitanism. Fifteen scale items were developed as a result of a literature review and consultation with academic experts. A survey was administered to 484 people in Turkey. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale items were grouped in three factors. To measure the validity of this consumer cosmopolitanism scale, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated that second-orderfactor-model was a more rational measurement configuration to determine
27 December 2013 in Thunderbird International Business Review