Sales force automation systems: An analysis of factors underpinning the sophistication of deployed systems in the UK financial services industry

Abstract

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThis study investigates organizational and strategic context variables that are linked to the sophistication of sales force automation systems in UK financial services firms. We find that increasing sophistication in SFA deployment, evaluated as a count of the number of types of results of sales campaigns that are measured, is driven directly by the information orientation of the host firm.We also find that the "sophistication" of deployed systems is, in fact, limitedthe information held on the systems cannot underpin the strategic goals of the sales/marketing managers. We theorise that adoption of SFA systems is driven by managerial imperatives and that these has resulted in sales-force resistance -shown by the paucity of information held on adopted SFA systems.

Effectual and causal reasoning in the adoption of marketing automation

“…In reality, however, adoption is also commonly initiated as a mimetic movement rather than a result of rational and strategic thinking (Wright, Fletcher, Donaldson, & Lee, 2008). Erffmeyer and Johnson (2001) reveal that a typical purpose of having an automation technology is to automate as many things as possible.…”

“…This line of reasoning implies that adoption is driven by a managerial perception that there is intrinsic value in automating things. A lack of strategic planning may lead to an adoption process that focuses on technological capabilities rather than the required organizational changes (Campbell, 2003;Wright et al, 2008). Accordingly, Hillebrand, Kok, and Biemans (2001) show that mimetic moves in adoption decisions jeopardize the benefits of the technology investment.…”

Marketing accountability and marketing automation: evidence from Portugal

“…Essentially, what this means for marketers is unprecedented access to measurable results at any point in a campaign, providing timely insights on the behavior of potential customers along their journey, which in turn allows for adjustments and fine-tuning in real-time (Järvinen and Taiminen, 2016), with eventual realignments in strategic decisions. These results have been reported in different contexts, including the drug industry (Alsaad et al , 2018), wine tourism (Festa et al , 2020) and financial services (Wright et al , 2008), but there is still a scarcity of empirical research.…”

Impact of Sales Force Automation System on Performance of Salesman: Pakistani Companies’ Perspective

“…A study, explored the organizational variables (information orientation and organization slack and control), strategic variables (strategic importance and integration) and linked with sophistication of SFA UK financial services firms. Authors found a positive correlation between Information Technology (IT) and marketing [6].…”