Sales complexity and value appropriation: a taxonomy of sales situations

Purpose The increasingly complex business-to-business (B2B) sales process necessitates that sales managers strike the right balance between appropriate resource allocation, while also maintaining the profitability of the organization. While previous research has mainly focused on how changes in the business environment pose distinct challenges to salespeople, very little research has focused on how sales managers should react to these complex situations. Drawing upon the extant sales research, this paper aims to point to a gap in the literature of how sales managers deal with the complexity associated with the sales process and deal with the same. Design/methodology/approach Methods from the grounded theory research approach were used to conduct 18 in-depth interviews with B2B sales managers. Purposive sampling was used to identify the participants. Findings A taxonomy of sales situations that reflects the changing complexity of the sales function and how sales managers need to orchestrate their resource allocation decisions to ensure appropriate value capture from B2B relationships emerged within the themes. This paper highlights four fundamental tenets of sales situations that account for both the complexity of the sales process and the value appropriation challenge that sales managers face. Practical implications The taxonomy will help sales managers have a better understanding of the changing complexity in the B2B sales process and help them with decisions making. Sales managers can orchestrate their resource allocation to achieve value appropriation. Originality/value This paper develops a new taxonomy of the sales situation. It unravels the changing complexity of the B2B sales process and discusses how value appropriation can be achieved by sales managers.

Small firm coopetition – the missing links: coopetitive tension, balance and value

Purpose This paper aims to explore small firm perceptions of coopetition, focusing on coopetitive tension, balance and value appropriation realised in dyadic relationships, not considered holistically in previous research. Design/methodology/approach The authors use seven cases of small firms as the empirical foundation of this study and analysed data thematically. Findings The findings show that precursors to coopetitive tension in dyads influence friction in these relationships, as firms seek to achieve balance. Balance is dynamic as firms continuously appraise their positions to determine the benefits realised from coopetition. The extent to which firms act cooperatively or competitively is influenced by their perception of fair value appropriation for sustained coopetitive relationships. Research limitations/implications Because of the research design findings are not generalisable but provide insight into small firm coopetitive relational dynamics. Future research should explore how industry differences influence firms’ perceived precursors to coopetitive tension and value appropriation based on boundary conditions. Practical implications Small firms can proactively address coopetitive tension by developing relationships with potential partner firms through trialling smaller projects and increasing awareness of how their competitive or cooperative behaviours might influence the actions of their counterpart. Originality/value This study advances a theoretical framework integrating coopetitive tension, balance and value appropriation, as opposed to earlier fragmented approaches. The framework reveals that precursors to coopetitive tension are continuously appraised as firms act in cooperative or competitive ways. These interactions imply that firms will take a position of balance that provides complementary benefits.

VALUE APPROPRIATION AND INNOVATION COLLABORATION DYNAMICS: A REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

Contemporary innovation management studies on collaboration dynamics and value appropriation lack coherent theoretical articulations and underlying conceptual foundations. It is challenging to manage collaborative value creation without a proper understanding of the dynamic connections between collaboration for and appropriation of innovation. This study conducts a systematic literature review to uncover the dynamic connections between innovation-related value appropriation and collaboration. Topic modelling, a machine-learning-based text analysis method, is applied to a corpus of 270 scholarly articles to uncover relevant elements. Additionally, 77 articles are selected for an in-depth content analysis to examine the elements in a more detailed manner. With these steps, the study contributes to the literature by illustrating and elaborating the role of dynamics of collaboration in value appropriation, and vice versa.

Avian Influenza Risk Environment: Live Bird Commodity Chains in Chattogram, Bangladesh

In this paper, we identify behaviours in live bird commodity chains in Chattogram, Bangladesh, which may influence the risk of pathogen emergence and transmission: the nature of poultry trade, value appropriation and selling sick or infected birds. Examining the reasons why actors engage in these behaviours, we emphasise the politics of constraints within a context of real-world decisions, governed by existential and pragmatic agency. Focusing on contact zones and entanglement, analysing patron-client relationships and precarious circumstances, we argue that agency and structure specific to the Bangladeshi context produce a risk environment. Structural constraints may reinforce risky occupational practises and limit individual agency. Structural constraints need to be addressed in order to tackle animal and zoonotic disease risk along live animal commodity chains.

The Role of Value Appropriation Capability of Chinese Multinationals in Operating Cross-Border Business Models

In an ever increasingly competitive and unstable global market, multinational corporations (MNCs) are greatly pressurised to use inherent capacities and develop effective cross-border business models (CBMs) that can transform value into the desired outcome. Amid high uncertainties, MNCs are required to develop some critical capabilities to operate CBMs to the best of their ability. More specifically, it is vital for MNCs to have a unique capability that enables them to more effectively synergise with these commonly recognised capabilities (e.g., technological innovation capabilities (TIC) and marketing capability (MC) alongside the global value chain (GVC)) to sustain balance among and gain profits with stakeholders. From the literature review, we first identified value appropriation capability (VAC) as one of the most important capabilities and thereby developed three hypotheses. Based on the hypotheses, we investigated how VAC efficiently moderates MNCs’ capabilities to appositely operate CBMs. Then, empirical panel data between 2011 and 2019 in the Chinese manufacturing industry were used to examine the hypotheses. The results reveal that VAC, TIC and MC positively impact MNC performance. Moreover, VAC–TIC interaction significantly improves MNC performance, and VAC–MC interaction positively improves MNC performance. Our findings provide novel insights into the CBM literature by examining the importance of VAC for operating CBMs alongside its multifaceted effects on MNC performance, especially in times of uncertainty.

The influence of appropriate business models on the realizable value of climate services

<p>The provision of climate services (and for that matter many similar services informing about the current and expected state of the ambient environment of a user) is sensitive to obstacles to value appropriation both the supplier and the user side. The problem at the upstream side is often related to the appropriate levels of compensation for basic data input. The problem at the downstream side is that the uncertainty of the benefit generation potential for the end-user may prohibit price levels that would be necessary to recover service costs.</p><p>As for example illustrated in Larosa and Mysiak (2019) certain combinations of service characteristics and market conditions tend to associate with preferences for certain business models. Yet, the choice for these models is by no means always the outcome of a careful selection process, and even if it is, outcomes may be disappointing. Furthermore, in the background affect policy choices regarding, inter alia, market delineation and innovation policies (Stegmaier and Perrels 2019).</p><p>The contribution is a theoretical exercise with stylized information market model demonstrating for a set of varying boundary conditions regarding pricing, data access, market access, public support, and quality control what is the likelihood of viability of a certain service design, and what is the influence of different types of competition (e.g. from abroad).</p><p>References:</p><p>Larosa, F., Mysiak, J. (2019). Business models for climate services: an analysis. <em>Climate Services</em>, Vol. 17, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2019.100111.</p><p>Stegmaier, P., Perrels, A., (2019). <em>Policy implications and recommendations on promising business, resourcing, and innovation for climate services</em>, EU-MACS Deliverable 5.2, http://eu-macs.eu/outputs/</p>

To downsize or not to downsize: when and how does corporate downsizing create long-term value?

Purpose How does corporate downsizing contribute to a firm’s long-term value? While the extant empirical findings on this relationship are inconclusive, contradictory and equivocal, the answers to this question remain particularly important in today’s business environment. Considering that downsizing is often directed toward long-term growth and survival, this paper aims to posit that scholars should account for the temporal nature of this strategic decision to understand its economic impact on the firm’s operations. Therefore, this paper provides a more rigorous empirical examination of how a firm’s decision to downsize its workforce affects that firm’s long-term value. Design/methodology/approach This paper used Wibbens and Siggelkow’s (2020) measure of long-term investor value appropriation (LIVA) to directly observe the effects of corporate downsizing on firm long-term value and growth. Using a sample of 3,149 US publicly traded manufacturing firms that operated between 2002 to 2018, this paper tested the main effect of downsizing on LIVA and 3 boundary condition hypotheses. Findings This paper found a positive relationship between corporate downsizing and a firm’s long-term value. Interestingly, this positive relationship is stronger among firms that had high human resource slack and R&D intensity. Contrary to the expectations, this paper did not find support for the moderation effect of the proximity to bankruptcy on the relationship between corporate downsizing and a firm’s long-term value. Originality/value With these findings, the paper sheds light on the long-term implications of a firm’s decision to downsize its workforce.