We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Chicken or egg? Sequential complementarity among salesforce control mechanisms.
- Authors
Kim, Stephen; Tiwana, Amrit
- Abstract
Firms struggle with salesforce control, particularly as typical piecemeal approaches overlook the nuance that the effect of a control is amplified or muted by a context created by other simultaneously deployed controls. Recent studies showing interactions between formal controls caution that control mechanisms must be examined as a portfolio. This study takes the next step in addressing how widely-studied formal controls interact with understudied input control and informal control in a salesforce control portfolio. We introduce the idea of sequential complementarity-when deploying a control mechanism enhances marginal returns from increasing a temporally preceding one-within a control portfolio to explain those interactions. We use data from 120 apparel manufacturers and 94 retailers to show that the performance benefits of formal control mechanisms depend on precedence by input control. These effects flip in the presence of informal control. Our unique contribution is theoretically introducing temporality into 'holochronic' control theory to explain interactions of formal with informal control mechanisms.
- Subjects
SALES force management; PRECEDENCE; PROCESS control systems; RATE of return; PORTFOLIO management (Investments)
- Publication
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2016, Vol 44, Issue 3, p316
- ISSN
0092-0703
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11747-014-0409-2