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"Direct sales"
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SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF DIRECT SALES IN SICILIAN FARMS
Many farmers today adopt direct sales as an entrepreneurial strategy in order to achieve a competitive advantage. The aim of this study has been to analyze the role that direct sales play in sicilian farms and how the short food supply chain is able to valorize the endogenous resources of rural areas and increase the net income of farmer. Our results showed that direct sales, in conjunction with conventional sales, can represent a growing opportunity for farmers and lead to an improvement in the economic performances of agricultural businesses, an increase in farm investments and the creation of new job opportunities. --Keywords: direct sales, entrepreneurial strategies, short supply chain, small and medium enterprises (SME)
Journal Article
Adding Bricks to Clicks: Predicting the Patterns of Cross-Channel Elasticities Over Time
The authors propose a conceptual framework to explain whether and when the introduction of a new retail store channel helps or hurts sales in existing direct channels. A conceptual framework separates short-and long-term effects by analyzing the capabilities of a channel that help consumers accomplish their shopping goals. To test the theory, the authors analyze a unique data set from a high-end retailer using matching methods. The authors study the introduction of a retail store and find evidence of cross-channel cannibalization and synergy. The presence of a retail store decreases sales in the catalog but not the Internet channel in the short run but increases sales in both direct channels over time. Following the opening of the store, more first-time customers begin purchasing in the direct channels. These results suggest that adding a retail store to direct channels yields different results from adding an Internet channel to a retail store channel, as previous research has indicated.
Journal Article
The Value of Social Dynamics in Online Product Ratings Forums
Research has shown that consumer online product ratings reflect both the customers' experience with the product and the influence of others' ratings. In this article, the authors measure the impact of social dynamics in the ratings environment on both subsequent rating behavior and product sales. First, they model the arrival of product ratings and separate the effects of social influences from the underlying (or baseline) ratings behavior. Second, the authors model product sales as a function of posted product ratings while decomposing ratings into a baseline rating, the contribution of social influence, and idiosyncratic error. This enables them to quantify the sales impact of observed social dynamics. The authors consider both the direct effects on sales and the indirect effects that result from the influence of dynamics on future ratings (and thus future sales). The results show that although ratings behavior is significantly influenced by previously posted ratings and can directly improve sales, the effects are relatively short lived once indirect effects are considered.
Journal Article
Community reductions in youth smoking after raising the minimum tobacco sales age to 21
ObjectiveRaising the tobacco sales age to 21 has gained support as a promising strategy to reduce youth cigarette access, but there is little direct evidence of its impact on adolescent smoking. Using regional youth survey data, we compared youth smoking trends in Needham, Massachusetts—which raised the minimum purchase age in 2005—with those of 16 surrounding communities.MethodsThe MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey is a biennial census survey of high school youth in communities west of Boston; over 16 000 students participated at each of four time points from 2006 to 2012. Using these pooled cross-section data, we used generalised estimating equation models to compare trends in current cigarette smoking and cigarette purchases in Needham relative to 16 comparison communities without similar ordinances. To determine whether trends were specific to tobacco, we also examined trends in youth alcohol use over the same time period.ResultsFrom 2006 to 2010, the decrease in 30-day smoking in Needham (from 13% to 7%) was significantly greater than in the comparison communities (from 15% to 12%; p<.001). This larger decline was consistent for both genders, Caucasian and non-Caucasian youth, and grades 10, 11 and 12. Cigarette purchases among current smokers also declined significantly more in Needham than in the comparison communities during this time. In contrast, there were no comparable differences for current alcohol use.ConclusionsOur results suggest that raising the minimum sales age to 21 for tobacco contributes to a greater decline in youth smoking relative to communities that did not pass this ordinance. These findings support local community-level action to raise the tobacco sales age to 21.
Journal Article
Motivating Sales Reps for Innovation Selling in Different Cultures
Innovation commercialization, an important managerial challenge, depends heavily on the sales force for its success. However, little empirical research has examined how firms should direct sales reps in this task in a global, multicultural context. Drawing on self-determination theory, this study investigates how to motivate sales reps for innovation selling in different cultures with various financial and nonfinancial steering instruments. The authors collected data in two waves from sales reps in 38 countries on four continents, making this study one of the largest international investigations in sales research. Results reveal that steering instruments should correspond closely with reps' national culture in terms of power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. For example, findings show that whereas individualism strengthens the positive relationship between variable compensation for innovation-sales results and financial innovation performance through innovation-selling motivation, power distance and uncertainty avoidance weaken this relationship. Results also reveal that long-term orientation strengthens the positive relationship between supervisor appreciation for innovation-sales results and financial innovation performance through innovationselling motivation.
Journal Article
Firm Strategies in the \Mid Tail\ of Platform-Based Retailing
While millions of products are sold on its retail platform, Amazon.com itself stocks and sells only a very small fraction of them. Most of these products are sold by third-party sellers who pay Amazon a fee for each unit sold. Empirical evidence clearly suggests that Amazon tends to sell high-demand products and leave long-tail products for independent sellers to offer. We investigate how a platform owner such as Amazon, facing ex ante demand uncertainty, may strategically learn from these sellers' early sales which of the \"mid-tail\" products are worthwhile for its direct selling and which are best left for others to sell. The platform owner's \"cherry-picking\" of the successful products, however, gives an independent seller the incentive to mask any high demand by lowering his sales with a reduced service level (unobserved by the platform owner).
We analyze this strategic interaction between a platform owner and an independent seller using a game-theoretic model with two types of sellers-one with high demand and one with low demand. We show that it may not always be optimal for the platform owner to identify the seller's demand. Interestingly, the platform owner may be
worse off
by retaining its option to sell the independent seller's product, whereas both types of sellers may
benefit
from the platform owner's threat of entry. The platform owner's entry option may reduce consumer surplus in the early period, although it increases consumer surplus in the later period. We also investigate how consumer reviews influence the market outcome.
Journal Article
Self-Selection and Information Role of Online Product Reviews
Online product reviews may be subject to self-selection biases that impact consumer purchase behavior, online ratings' time series, and consumer surplus. This occurs if early buyers hold different preferences than do later consumers about the quality of a given product. Readers of early product reviews may not successfully correct for these preference differences when interpreting ratings and making purchases. In this study, we develop a model that examines how idiosyncratic preferences of early buyers can affect long-term consumer purchase behavior as well as the social welfare created by review systems. Our model provides an explanation for the structure of product ratings over time, which we empirically test using online book reviews posted on Amazon.com. Our analysis suggests that firms could benefit from altering their marketing strategies such as pricing, advertising, or product design to encourage consumers likely to yield positive reports to self-select into the market early and generate positive word-of-mouth for new products. On the other hand, self-selection bias, if not corrected, decreases consumer surplus.
Journal Article
Better together: Trait competitiveness and competitive psychological climate as antecedents of salesperson organizational commitment and sales performance
This study assesses the direct and interactive effects of trait competitiveness and competitive psychological climate on organizational commitment and sales performance using data collected from industrial salespeople and company records. Findings indicate that the positive impact of trait competitiveness on sales performance is contingent upon a highly competitive psychological climate, helping to explain inconsistent findings in the literature and underscoring the need for firms to manage the fit between salespeople and organizational culture. Additionally, the study reveals continuance commitment's negative moderation of the affective commitment—sales performance relationship. Taken together, the model reveals an interesting process such that managers should recruit salespeople with high trait competitiveness and foster a competitive climate internally to generate the best sales performance outcomes.
Journal Article