| It is crucial for both the economy as a whole and for firms to sell in business-to-business(B2B)markets.In addition to shifting the attention of sales organizations,the sales environment is also shifting.The investments made by employers in B2B salespeople are extensive and far above their cost,and these sales professionals represent their company’s most precious asset:their clients.Providing business-to-business(B2B)services globally has become more complicated and demanding.There seems to be an insufficient emphasis on recovering from service failures in business-to-business(B2B)literature.The dissertation aims to fill this gap by examining service recovery performance in B2B markets and its antecedents.This dissertation aimed to develop and validate four conceptual frameworks by analyzing factors related to B2B service recovery and failure.This dissertation incorporates a variety of theoretical frameworks to address several research gaps.In particular,the dissertation aims to address the following four research questions:(1)what are the ways in which business-to-business(B2B)firms recover from service failures,(2)what sales approaches can maximize service recovery effectiveness,(3)how do sales manager’s leadership styles affect salespeople’s service recovery behavior,and(4)how the manager’s salesforce control affects service-sales ambidexterity and service recovery performance.These four research questions aim to explore the importance of service recovery in a business-to-business(B2B)context.In chapters 3,4,5,and 6,the researcher aimed to address the identical problem from different perspectives.For example,in Chapter 3,the author discussed the potential ways to manage recovery from service failures.For this purpose,the dark versus bright sides of leadership behaviors were compared along with emotional labor strategy and their influence on service recovery effectiveness.This study considered aggressive sales management as the dark side of supervision and ethical sales leadership as the bright side.In Chapter 4,we explored a unique sales approach(e.g.,adaptive selling and value-based selling strategies)and how it affects the service recovery effectiveness.In Chapter 5,we employed sales manager’s charismatic leadership behavior in conjunction with service-sales ambidexterity to formulate a service recovery behavior in the B2B context.In Chapter 6,we applied a salesforce control system(behavior-based control and outcomebased control)and related sales strategies that can provide insight into service recovery success in sales organizations.The purpose of our research was to determine how businesses can recover their failed services in a business-to-business environment.In this way,a variety of leadership and managerial approaches were employed to improve the salespeople’s service recovery performance.Furthermore,in Chapters 3,4,5,and 6,we examined how different sales techniques and strategies could be useful to achieve successful recovery of service.The first study examined service recovery in B2B organizations through the lens of negative supervisory behavior(e.g.,sales managers’ aggressiveness).This study aims to fill the gap by examining how aggressive behavior by sales managers affects the emotional labor technique and service recovery performance of salespeople.Nevertheless,the moderation of ethical sales leadership remains a significant consideration in B2B environments.There has been a considerable amount of research on positive supervisory styles within the service recovery literature;however,developing a comprehensive negative supervisory model for this field would be a valuable contribution.As part of this study,the model was tested using crosssectional data of 314 business-to-business sales professionals,using the principal component method(PLS-SEM)to analyze the data.The study found that sales managers’ aggressiveness negatively impacts the service recovery performance of salespeople.Moreover,sales managers’ aggressiveness was positively associated with surface acting,contrary to its negative impact on deep acting.In addition,the results demonstrate that ethical sales leadership is a significant moderator between aggressive sales management and salespeople’s service recovery performance.In B2B sales organizations,management should pay more attention to identifying rudeness or aggression,offer quick support,and stand out to defend the rights and dignity of frontline salespeople in the event of unfair treatment.Although the study has some limitations,the research provides some potential directions for the future of the B2B service sector.The second study is designed to understand the role of ambidextrous leadership in promoting service innovation capability and service recovery performance(SRP)under a business-to-business(B2B)selling environment.The study evaluates 286 responses from pharmaceutical salespeople by using structural equation modeling.The results report a significant association between opening leader behavior and service recovery performance,whereas closing leader behavior is not significantly related to service recovery performance.In addition,opening and closing leader behaviors positively and significantly impact service innovation capability.Consequently,service innovation capability positively and substantially relates to value-based selling,adaptive selling,and service recovery performance.Finally,our results contribute to the previous research that has explored the significant mediation effect of service innovation capability between opening leader behavior and service recovery performance linkage.It is vital for an organization to encourage frontline sales managers to exercise ambidextrous leadership,and once this has been accomplished,managers should assist salespeople in clarifying their responsibilities.Despite some limitations,the study offers some direction for future research in the B2B services sector and provides some possible recommendations which can be implemented.The third study utilized the motivation,opportunity,and ability(MOA)framework;we investigate the influence of charismatic leadership on salespeople’s service and sales activities—termed service-sales ambidextrous(SSA)behavior,which subsequently turn into service recovery performance outcomes.This research aims to strengthen salespeople’s service quality in parallel to their selling activities while recovering from a service failure.We validate the model using a sample of 344 business-to-business salespeople using the partial least square structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM)technique.Study results show that charismatic leadership is positively and significantly related to service-sales ambidexterity.Likewise,service-sales ambidexterity has a positive and significant relationship with service recovery performance and adaptive selling behavior.Moreover,we found a substantial connection between adaptive selling behavior and service recovery performance.The results further specify that salesperson motivation,opportunity,and ability to engage in SSA significantly moderate the relationship between charismatic leadership and service-sales ambidexterity.The results suggest the need for training programs that provide the salesperson with opportunities to understand the simultaneous implementation of selling strategies while also providing customer services.The fourth study examines three main research questions:(1)whether behavior-based and outcome-based control directly predict service-sales ambidexterity;(2)how service-sales ambidexterity affects service recovery performance and service innovation capabilities;(3)how the relationship among antecedents and outcomes of service-sales ambidexterity shaped by the interaction effect of manager trust in salesperson and resistance to change.We tested our research framework using a sample of 344 sales employees.The findings advocate that behavior-based control has a negative impression on service-sales ambidexterity.In contrast,outcome-based control has a substantial positive impact on service-sales ambidexterity.The study findings also demonstrate the positive influence of service-sales ambidexterity on service innovation capability and service recovery performance.The present research also found that managers trust in salespeople and resistance to change significantly moderate the relationship between antecedents and outcomes.This study contributes to several literatures and recommends future direction for researchers and practitioners. |
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