The literature is divided on whether differences between the thought worlds of marketing
and sales are deleterious or beneficial. This paper empirically investigates various
facets of thought world differences and their effects on various outcomes. It confirms
that differences generally hamper the cooperation between marketing and sales
which leads to a lower market performance of the business unit. However, some facets
of thought world differences enhance the market performance of the business
through a direct effect that outweighs the negative effect mediated by the quality of
marketing and sales cooperation: Market performance is enhanced if one side plays
the customers’ advocate while the other plays the products’ advocate. Market performance
is also enhanced if one side plays the advocate of short-term considerations
while the other plays the advocate of long-term considerations. In contrast, differences
between marketing and sales in regard to product knowledge and interpersonal
skills are deleterious to market performance. Thus, the kind of difference
makes a difference.
Dieser Eintrag ist Teil der Universitätsbibliographie.
Das Dokument wird vom Publikationsserver der Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim bereitgestellt.
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