Global Events Demand Global Data: COVID-19 Crisis Responses and the Future of Selling and Sales Management Around the Globe

Maria Rouziou, Willy Bolander, Karen Peesker, Pia Hautamäki, Deva Rangarajan, Manoshi Samaraweera, Jorge Bullemore, Michel Klein, Raj Agnihotri, Karina Burgdorff Jensen, Danny Pimentel Claro, Christophe Fournier, Gabriel R. Gonzalez, Paolo Guenzi, Selma Kadic-Maglajlic, Christine Lai-Bennejean, Walter Palomino-Tamayo, Carla Ramos, Lynette Ryals, Jim SalasHuanhuan Shi, Philip Squire, Jörg Westphal

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

In the context of the global crisis presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigate the perspectives of sales managers regarding their organizations’ responses to the crisis and future expectations in a post-COVID-19 world. While there has been much discussion about these topics in the sales literature, very little research has examined them globally by collecting data from many nations and across many continents. Yet, how can global events be understood without analyzing global data? In response, we conducted the first, to our knowledge, global data coalition by hosting video-recorded group interviews with 76 sales executives representing twenty-seven nations. Our inductive investigation, informed by institutional logics, reveals how organizations accepted new norms, retained old ones, or blended the old with the new in response to the crisis. Our results simultaneously validate certain emerging concepts on a global scale (e.g., Customer Success Management, bricolage, etc.) and give rise to several insights not currently detailed by extant scholarship (e.g., localization, cultural cringe, etc.). This work also catalyzes new, relevant avenues for international research and sheds light on issues facing sales practice globally.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of International Marketing
Number of pages22
ISSN1069-031X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

Epub ahead of print. Published online: 1. September 2024

Keywords

  • Global
  • International
  • Sales
  • Sales management
  • Personal selling
  • Inductive
  • Global data
  • Institutional logics

Cite this