Elucidating salespeople's market orientation, proactive service behavior and organizational culture in the B2B banking sector: a Malaysian perspective

Abstract

PurposeConsidering that little is known on market orientation at the individual level, this study investigates the effects of individual market orientation on proactive service behavior, and subsequently, sales performance among business-to-business salespeople. Based on social cognitive theory and competing values framework, this paper also examines the interaction effects of organizational culture on the link between individual market orientation and proactive service behavior.Design/methodology/approachThe study sampled 539 business-to-business salespeople from 18 corporate banks in Kuala Lumpur by using a questionnaire survey.FindingsThe results of the study show that adhocracy culture strengthens the effects of information acquisition on proactive service behavior, while at the same time weakens the impact of coordination of strategic response on the same outcome. Meanwhile, rational culture displayed negative contingent effects of information dissemination on proactive service behavior.Practical implicationsGiven its link to sales performance and proactive service behavior, banks should motivate their employees to embrace market orientation as individual competencies. This research outcome will aid managers in developing strategies and inculcating the right culture to ensure the market-oriented behaviors are internalized and transpired into positive outcomes.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the enrichment of the existing market orientation frameworks by offering underlying mechanisms (cultural environment and proactive service behavior) through which market-oriented behaviors contribute to the sales performance of business-to-business salespeople within the financial service industry. It is also among the earliest studies that examine the influence of individual market orientation and organizational culture on proactive service behavior.

Service Orientation and Customer Performance: Triad Perspectives of Sales Managers, Sales Employees, and Customers

“…Even if it is difficult to have a role-based relationship within the organization, if the attitude and perception of the sales managers can affect salespeople through PWRs, it can become a major source of competitive advantage that can set a business apart from its competitors [ 18 ]. As service professionals are the customers’ primary points of contact, organizations’ service-oriented values and principles directly affect the sales employees’ customer-oriented mindset [ 19 ], which is crucial for service organizations. Nonetheless, current research shows that limited empirical studies have investigated the correlation among these concepts, especially in South Korea.…”

Formal salesforce control mechanisms and behavioral outcomes

“…The success of most businesses is highly dependent on salespeople's behaviors that are seen as a vital connection between customers and the company and play essential roles in creating and providing value to customers (Paesbrugghe et al, 2020;Bouzari and Karatepe, 2020;Wang et al, 2012;Palmatier et al, 2006). However, salespeople usually work alone in the field with a small amount of oversight in most organizations (Lai-Bennejean and Beitelspacher, 2021;Hamzah et al, 2020). Furthermore, short-term sales emphasis and competitive pressure can cause unethical selling behaviors (such as deception, lying and exaggeration) that can end up harming customers' confidence and trust (Wang et al, 2012).…”

Why do you look familiar? - Exploring the role of employee-customer identification in adapting the service offering

“…They selected respondents based on the purposive sampling technique. We used purposive sampling technique, since this is a cross-sectional, non-experimental survey based study which is aligned with the research design of Pousa and Mathieu (2014) and previous studies in the BFSI domain (Hamzah et al, 2020;Mehmood et al, 2020;Pousa et al, 2018). Finally, we received 215 useable employees' responses from the third-party agency out of 237 (Response rate-90.72%).…”