پراکندگی نفوذ بین بازاریابی و فروش : اثرات آن بر ارزش مشتری برتر و عملکرد بازار

In this study the authors investigate how dispersion of influence between Marketing and Sales (DIMS) affects the creation of superior customer value and the firm's market performance. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 326 strategic business units using structural equation modelling analysis. Three main results emerge which contribute to the understanding of the consequences of DIMS within companies. First, DIMS increases interaction and collaboration between Marketing and Sales, without blurring their respective goals, roles and responsibilities. Second, DIMS contributes to the diffusion of a customer oriented-culture across the organization. Third, the findings of this study clarify how and why DIMS affects organizational performance by showing simultaneously that superior customer value mediates the effects of DIMS on market performance, and that Marketing–Sales interface and customer-oriented culture mediate the effects of DIMS on superior customer value. The authors discuss the study's theoretical contributions and offer directions for future research. Overall, this study provides a new and broader perspective to managers responsible for the allocation of decision making influence between Marketing and Sales over a range of market-related issues.

During the last few years, there has been growing interest in the way firms design and implement their marketing organization. All recent management hits — like total quality management, business process re-engineering, customer relationship management, etc — put marketing organization in the spotlight by emphasizing how improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing processes are necessary in order to increase organizational performance (e.g. Day, 1994 and Krohmer et al., 2002). As noted by Workman, Homburg and Gruner (1998: 21): “The topic of marketing organization fundamentally addresses the allocation of activities to groups.” Recent literature on marketing organization highlights that traditional market-related activities (e.g. advertising, pricing, distribution) are increasingly allocated to different functional groups, and this cross-functional dispersion increases a firm's performance (Homburg et al., 2000, Krohmer et al., 2002 and Workman et al., 1998).

Our goal in this paper was to advance marketing knowledge about the complex relationship between DIMS and organizational performance. The structural contingency analysis of the impact of DIMS on superior customer value and market performance offers the following picture. In and of itself, DIMS has a positive effect on superior customer value, which, in turn, has a positive effect on market performance. Thus, our study confirms that an increased dispersion of influence across Marketing and Sales positively contributes to market performance (Krohmer et al., 2002), through the mediation of superior customer value. Further, our study shows that the effect of DIMS on superior customer value is mediated by Marketing–Sales interface elements and customer-oriented culture. An increased DIMS improves mutual understanding between the two units, encourages sharing a vision, goals and resources, and by so doing creates superior customer value. In addition, DIMS also contributes to the diffusion of customer-oriented culture within the organization. This is made possible by disseminating the voice of the customer outside the Marketing Unit, building shared knowledge about customers that focuses the decision making process, a higher commitment and empowerment of the two functional groups to meet customer expectations. A higher DIMS positively impacts the interaction between Marketing and Sales Units. In fact, increased sharing of influence across the two functions facilitates the exchange of information and enhances information flow and use. However, increased interaction between the two units negatively impacts superior customer value. This result confirms prior research on cross-functional interactions by showing that excessive interaction between two units can become counterproductive because it may lead to information overload, slow down the decision making process, and decrease the quality of the decisions taken (Maltz and Kohli, 1996 and Fisher et al., 1997).