Business Commons^™

Effects Of Top-Performer Rewards On Fellow Salespeople: A Double-Edged Sword, C. Fred Miao, Kenneth R. Evans, Pochien Li

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rewarding top performers is of strategic importance to the sales organization. Top-performing salespeople not only contribute significantly to the success of their firm but may also motivate the skill development of peer salespeople. However, both academic research and anecdotal evidence suggest that top performer rewards can boomerang by damaging peer salespeople's morale and productivity, although the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions remain unclear. Using a sample of salespeople and their managers from financial investment firms in Taiwan, the authors uncover both positive and negative effects of top-performer rewards. Specifically, it is found that when behavior control is employed, top-performer rewards …

A Simulation For Managing Complexity In Sales And Operations Planning Decisions, Scott Duhadway, David Dreyfus

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Within the classroom it is often difficult to convey the complexities and intricacies that go into making sales and operations planning decisions. This article describes an in‐class simulation that allows students to gain hands‐on experience with the complexities in making forecasting, inventory, and supplier selection decisions as part of the sales and operations planning process. The activity may be run during one class period and is flexible enough to accommodate almost any class size. During the simulation, students may apply forecasting techniques, inventory management concepts, and supplier selection processes, while experiencing the effects of supply chain disruptions. This simulation is …

Effects Of Work-Family Interface Conflicts On Salesperson Behaviors: A Double-Edged Sword, C. Fred Miao, Guangping Wang

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Work–family interface conflicts have typically been cast in a negative light due to their detrimental consequences. This study offers new insights by uncovering conditions under which such conflicts may produce both positive and negative effects on salesperson job-related behaviors in the context of B2B sales. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory as an overarching theoretical framework, the authors suggest that informal controls (i.e., professional control and self-control) have differential moderating effects in salespeople’s primary and secondary appraisal processes when faced with work–family conflict and family–work conflict. Dyadic data from a matched salesperson–customer sample reveals that professional control amplifies, whereas self-control mitigates, …

Toward A Three-Dimensional Framework For Omni-Channel, Soroosh Saghiri, Richard Wilding, Carlos Mena, Michael Bourlakis

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

The omni-channel, as an emerging trend in retail, aims to coordinate processes and technologies across supply and sales channels. The evolution of this concept is still nascent. This paper develops a conceptual framework for omni-channel systems, configured by three dimensions of channel stage, channel type and channel agent. Integration and visibility are also explored and discussed as the main enablers, which support the implementation of omni-channel framework.

This research is built upon the empirical and secondary data. Multiple case studies and expert interview methods are employed for data collection to validate the recommended framework and to explore its …

The Dynamics Of Open Strategy: From Adoption To Reversion, Melissa M. Appleyard, Henry W. Chesbrough

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Innovation has become more open in recent years. Yet the decision to become more open and the challenge of sustaining that openness are not well understood. This is the concern of the “content” branch of Open Strategy, defined as the branch that addresses an organization's open innovation strategy. We examine the initial motivations to adopt an open strategy, and then consider when organizations choose to maintain that open strategy or revert to a more proprietary approach. Similarly, we examine motivations to open up a previously proprietary strategy. We find that these dynamics depend on the organization's desire to either foster …

Understanding Risk Management For Intentional Supply Chain Disruptions: Risk Detection, Risk Mitigation, And Risk Recovery, Scott Duhadway, Steven Carnovale, Benjamin Hazen

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Strategies to mitigate supply chain risk tend to treat disruptive events as homogenous, despite having different causes and requiring different risk management strategies. We develop a framework to understand effective risk management strategies by considering whether a disruption was caused by an intentional or inadvertent act and whether the source of the disruption was endogenous or exogenous to the supply chain. Based on exploring evidence from risk management strategies for specific disruptions, we find that risk detection is important for both intentional and inadvertent disruptions, while effective risk management practices differ in terms of risk mitigation (relational versus process based …

Factors Influencing Recruitment Of Non-Accounting Business Professionals Into Internal Auditing, Geoffrey D. Bartlett, Joleen Kremin, K. Kelli Saunders, David A. Wood

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines factors affecting non-accounting business professionals' willingness to work in internal auditing. In a 2 × 6 experiment with 502 participants from across the country, we find that, in contrast to prior research examining accountants, business professionals have relatively favorable views of internal audit. Although they hold favorable views, participants were still less likely to apply for a position labeled as internal audit than an identical position with an alternate label. Varying the structure of internal audit, including job responsibilities, career path, and sourcing arrangement, did not affect participants' willingness to apply for an internal audit position. We …

Cattle, Land, People, And Accountability Systems: The Makings Of A Values-Based Organisation, Jesse Dillard, Madeleine Pullman

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

An in-depth case study of a natural beef cooperative describes a management information and accountability system (MIAS) that emerged from, and facilitates the nurturing of, a values-based organisation’s core values. Sustaining the family ranching culture and community represents the core value upon which the values-based agricultural coop is founded. Responsible people, land and animal management are central elements in sustainable ranching operations. The MIAS is designed to support the social and environmental objectives as well as to maintain the economic viability of the ranchers that make up this social enterprise. The MIAS is the key to linking organisational core values, …

Institutional Sustainable Purchasing Priorities: Stakeholder Perceptions Vs Environmental Reality, Madeleine Pullman, Robin Wikoff

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose This purpose of this paper is to understand the environmental impacts of stakeholder-driven sustainable purchasing policies in institutional settings. Design/methodology/approach The research is framed using stakeholder and life cycle assessment (LCA) theories. The study uses a multi-method approach. Starting with interviews to understand the breadth of sustainability issues and significant food purchases facing institutional purchasing managers, the authors subsequently perform LCA of these various policies using the most popular food item in different categories. Findings From the interview results, the authors found that food purchasers focus predominately on cost, thus, are committed to food and packaging reduction. They are …

Sequential: Sustainability And Growth In The Biofuels Business, Dave Garten, Jacen Greene, Carolyn Niehaus, Devdeep Aikath

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

SeQuential, a vertically-integrated biodiesel company based in Portland, Oregon, pursued a more sustainable supply and production strategy than many competitors by securing inputs from used cooking oil (UCO) rather than new crops. A fragmented U.S. biodiesel industry produced more than 1.25 billion gallons of the fuel in 2016 from a mix of virgin materials and UCO, but the environmental impact of crop-based biodiesel was increasingly controversial. Meanwhile, UCO collection had grown rapidly in recent years, and with strong forecasted growth, offered a potential additional revenue stream for vertically-integrated biodiesel firms.

The price of the UCO used to produce SeQuential’s biodiesel …

Cash Flow Training And Improved Microfinance Outcomes, Marc J. Epstein, Kristi Yuthas

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite its promise as a powerful tool for alleviating poverty, research suggests that microfinance has had only a modest impact on development. Misallocation of funds by clients has been implicated as a major impediment to microfinance success. In this study, clients received training on how to track (but not manage) their cash flows during the first two meetings of the microfinance loan cycle. Examination of weekly cash flow shows that clients immediately invested the majority of their funds into the businesses and carefully managed revenues and expenditures to maintain sufficient food and other household expenditures throughout the loan cycle. It …

Why Do Smes Go Green? An Analysis Of Wine Firms In South Africa, Ralph Hamann, James Smith, Peter Tashman, R. Scott Marshall

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies on why small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engage in pro-environmental behavior suggest that managers’ environmental responsibility plays a relatively greater role than competitiveness and legitimacy-seeking. These categories of drivers are mostly considered independent of each other. Using survey data and comparative case studies of wine firms in South Africa, this study finds that managers’ environmental responsibility is indeed the key driver in a context where state regulation hardly plays any role in regulating dispersed, rural firms. However, especially proactive firms are also characterized by expectations of competitiveness gains. The authors thus emphasize the role of institutional context and potential …