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Purpose: This study aims to examine the role of salespeople's skills in relative and absolute SP in business-to-business (B2B) settings of services firms. This conceptual logic reported in meta-analytical works, that salespeople's skills relate directly to their sales performance (SP), is questioned. Design/methodology/approach: his research relies on existing theory and previous studies on SP drivers and SP measures. The literature identifies a set of common denominators on the role of salespeople's skills regarding their SP, all of which are tested in this study. Based on a deductive approach and questionnaire survey, 732 service firms in Norway were targeted. A total of 389 questionnaires were returned, generating a response rate of 53.1%. Findings: A total of 10 out of 12 hypothesized relationships in the research model dealing with the relationship between SP drivers and SP turn out to be non-significant. The hypothesized relationship in the research model between relative and absolute SP is also supported. Research limitations/implications: The results reported in this study, based on a large sample of service firms, empirically confirm that the direct effect is generally overestimated. Empirical evidence is provided that sheds additional light on the role of salespeople's skills in relative and absolute SP in B2B settings of services firms. Practical implications: This study offers meaningful and relevant insights into the monitoring of SP drivers to practitioners in B2B sales settings of services firms. Salespeople need to learn about gathering knowledge in training programs about each customer and their specific situation. Firms should strive to recruit salespeople who possess the appropriate skills, taking into consideration their customers and specific situations related to them, such as experiences from competitors. Salespeople may be organized around similar customers and similar customer situations, rather than geographical assignments. Originality/value: Overall, this research contributes insights into the role played by salespeople's skills in relative and absolute SP in B2B settings of services firms. In particular, the research contributes additional insights into the non-existent role of interpersonal presentation and communication skills, adaptiveness of sales approach and sales behavior skills and product/technology-related knowledge skills in salespeople's relative and absolute SP in B2B settings of services firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidently, there are lessons to be learned on sustainable health policies from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The past is a source of knowledge and experiences for the implementation and application of sustainable health policies in the future. This study has revealed doubts about the use of 7- and 14-days incidences, which have been applied as assessment approaches to the sustainable health policies used to control and monitor the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic across societies. Seven- and fourteen-day incidences have been used to determine measures and counter-measures against SARS-CoV-2 rather than infection rates. The research objective of this study was to assess the predictive abilities of infection rates versus 7- and 14-day incidences on SARS-CoV-2-related mortality and morbidity. The objective was also to assess the structural properties of a set of SARS-CoV-2-related variables. This study addressed the question of whether there is a lesson learned in terms of sustainable health policies on the use of 7- and 14-day incidences versus infection rates to predict SARS-CoV-2-related mortality and morbidity in a given context. We contend that there is at least one lesson to be learned on sustainable health policies from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The infection rate was categorized as the independent manifest variable, as it is the one which is hypothesized to cause an effect on the outcome of the others in society regarding mortality and morbidity. Consequently, hospitalized patients, ICU patients and the deceased were categorized as dependent manifest variables. We tested the research model using Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling (CB-SEM) based on the first year of pandemic data before vaccines were used. This study indicates that the infection rates provided an enhanced predictability for SARS-CoV-2-related mortality and morbidity compared to 7- and 14-day incidences. The findings reported based on CB-SEM suggested that this has been a suitable way to assess the direct, indirect and mediating effects between a selection of SARS-CoV-2-related variables. We propose that our assessment approach to SARS-CoV-2 can be used as a complementary tool in decision-making on pandemic countermeasures to assess the health, social and economic costs of mortality and morbidity in a given context. We consider the finding that infection rates, rather than 7- and 14-day incidences, better predict SARS-CoV-2-related mortality and morbidity is a crucial lesson learned on sustainable health policies from the past, to be a crucial lesson for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies have strengthened their long-term inter-organizational partnerships throughout the supply chain to neutralize competitive pressures and risks in uncertain environments. On this basis, this research aims to propose and test a model of partners' behavior aimed at the maintenance of long-term collaboration. By using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and rival model testing, the theoretical model proposed attempts to identify, from a seller's perspective, the critical variables of partners' behavior. It also seeks to understand the effect of satisfaction between trust and commitment (as antecedents associated with relationship quality) and sales formalization, sales opportunism, and sales-specific assets (as postcendents linked to relationship efficiency). Our findings verify the nomological framework and demonstrate that the partnership quality variables affect relationship efficiency, through sales satisfaction. However, the results of our research cannot confirm the relationship between satisfaction and specific assets. This research is relevant as it deals with inter-organizational partnerships from a seller-oriented approach, and it is based on a combination of Relationship Marketing Theory and Transaction Cost Theory to demonstrate that the inter-organizational partnership quality variables exert a direct effect on the partnership efficiency variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses an ongoing business-to-business (B2B) relationship perspective to establish the interrelationships between trust, commitment, and relationship satisfaction (as relational constructs) and specific assets, formalization, and opportunism (as transaction cost variables) from a buyer's perspective, framed within micro-enterprises in the business banking industry in South Africa. Data were collected via self-administered online questionnaires from 381 micro-enterprise customers of one of South Africa's major banks. We first used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the measurement model before structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the hypothesized relationships between the study constructs. The measurement and structural models fitted the data well. The research was approached using the dual theoretical lenses of relationship marketing and transaction cost theory to investigate relationship satisfaction from a buyer's perspective. The results support the notion that, in a B2B context, relationship satisfaction is an outcome of trust and commitment, with commitment being the stronger predictor. Relationship satisfaction, in turn, was positively related to both specific assets and formalization (the relationship with formalization being the strongest), and a negative relationship between relationship satisfaction and opportunism. Since our results found commitment to be a stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction than trust (contrary to much previous research that found the opposite to be true), the paper concludes with several commitment-related suggestions for banks. Although much research exists on trust, commitment, and satisfaction, to our knowledge this study is the first using dual theoretical lenses (relationship marketing and transaction cost theory) to investigate relationship satisfaction from a buyer's perspective among micro-enterprise customers in a banking context. The insights gained from our study therefore not only address this under-researched area (micro-enterprises), but also contribute toward expanding our understanding of forming (and maintaining) banking relationships with the customers of the smallest-sized businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeDesignFindingsResearch implicationsPractical implicationsOriginality\nSUMMARY STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTIONTo explore the role played by DCT, SM, and CRM through customer knowledge, and market knowledge in the sales performance of a salesforce, and their economic and non-economic satisfaction in B2B sales.A total of 66 B2B Norwegian companies out of 69 participated in this study. A questionnaire with an introduction letter was sent to 356 sellers, and 216 valid questionnaires were used for this study, generating a net response rate of 60.6%. The approach followed was deductive.The results have both purified and simplified the structural relationships in the nomological framework initially posited. The triadic exploration of digital communication tools (DCT), social media (SM), and CRM-solutions (CRM) in relation to customer and market knowledge, the sales performance of a salesforce and their economic and non-economic satisfaction in B2B sales, yield complementary insights to existing theory and previous research.The combined focus on the effect of acquiring customer knowledge and obtaining market knowledge through DCT, SM, and CRM on the sales performance of a salesforce in B2B sales has important implications. The results have simultaneous implications regarding the role of customer and market knowledge through DCT, SM, and CRM in B2B sales.DCT, SM, and CRM enable a salesforce to stay updated and maintain contacts with existing customers, and also facilitate updates, and to getting in contact with potential customers. DCT, SM, and CRM may enable a salesforce to acquire additional information about existing and potential customers. DCT, SM, and CRM may enable a salesforce to obtain more information about the market. Customer and market knowledge may also become more accessible through peers, superiors, or other informants.Contributes to enhancing our understanding of the role of digital communication tools (DCT), social media (SM), and CRM solutions (CRM) through customer knowledge and market knowledge on sales performance in B2B sales. It also contributes to enhancing the understanding of a salesforce’s economic and non-economic satisfaction in B2B sales through DCT, SM, and CRM. The results clarify the structural characteristics between a salesforce’s customer and market knowledge, their sales performance, and economic as well as non-economic satisfaction in B2B sales.This study contributes to knowledge on the role of digital communication tools (DCT), social media (SM), and CRM-solutions (CRM) through customer knowledge and market knowledge on sales performance in B2B sales. It also contributes to the knowledge of salesforces’ economic and non-economic satisfaction through DCT, SM, and CRM. It provides empirical evidence on the structural properties between salesforces’ customer and market knowledge, their sales performance, and economic as well as non-economic satisfaction in B2B sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]