Jeff Boichuk

• Kim, S.; Tong, X.; Zhou, J.; Boichuk, J. P., 2022, "Conditional median-based Bayesian growth mixture modeling for nonnormal data", Behavior Research Methods, June 54(3): 1291 - 1305.
  Abstract: Growth mixture modeling is a common tool for longitudinal data analysis. One of the key assumptions of traditional growth mixture modeling is that repeated measures within each class are normally distributed. When this normality assumption is violated, traditional growth mixture modeling may provide misleading model estimation results and suffer from nonconvergence. In this article, we propose a robust approach to growth mixture modeling based on conditional medians and use Bayesian methods for model estimation and inferences. A simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of this approach. It is found that the new approach has a higher convergence rate and less biased parameter estimation than the traditional growth mixture modeling approach when data are skewed or have outliers. An empirical data analysis is also provided to illustrate how the proposed method can be applied in practice.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01655-w

  http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01655-w

• Boichuk, J. P.; Bommaraju, R.; Ahearne, M.; Kraus, F.; Steenburgh, T. J., 2019, "Managing Laggards: The Importance of a Deep Sales Bench", Journal of Marketing Research, May 56(4): 652 - 665.
  Abstract: Sales leaders often use threats of punishment to manage poor performers (i.e., laggards), but little research has examined the effect of these threats. The current research addresses this gap by investigating an intervention termed the ?bench program? with a field-based quasi experiment and a randomized lab experiment. In the field, the company under study told salespeople in treatment districts that a trainee would replace them at the end of the year if they failed to hit their quota and placed last in their district. Difference-in-differences analyses of matched treatment and control groups show that the bench program had an immediate and sustained impact on performance. Moreover, laggards improved their performance more than higher performers, and salespeople with larger advice networks improved their performance more than salespeople with smaller advice networks. A lab experiment compares the bench program with a program that had the same threat of firing but did not have replacements in sight. Performance in the bench program exceeded that in the firing condition, indicating that the vividness of a threat can increase its deterrent value.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243718824561

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022243718824561

• Hall, Z. R.; Mullins, R. R.; Syam, N.; Boichuk, J. P., 2017, "Generating and sharing of market intelligence in sales teams: an economic social network perspective", Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, October 37(4): 298 - 312.
  Abstract: In this research, we take a multimethod approach to shed light on the potential costs to sales teams that generate and share market intelligence (MI). First, we introduce an analytical model to propose the respective levels of effort that sales managers, experts, and team members spend generating and sharing MI. To test our propositions, we utilize social network data from 40 independent, business-to-business (B2B) sales teams, representing 287 salespeople. Interestingly, our results support the premise that team members become dependent (reduce MI efforts) when their sales manager or team expert shares MI among the team. We term this a ?sharing tax? that sales managers and team experts pay when they share MI. Consequently, sales managers demonstrate greater MI-generation efforts the more they share MI. We also find that experts who share more (less) also show greater (lesser) MI-generation efforts, but only for teams where sales managers share low (high) levels of MI. In summary, our research innovatively conducts an empirical test of the Nash Equilibrium pattern of sales team effort to show that two critical team members, the sales manager and expert, are at a disadvantage when they share valuable MI.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2017.1393342

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2017.1393342

• AHEARNE, M. J.; Boichuk, J. P.; CHAPMAN, C. J.; STEENBURGH, T. J., 2016, "Real Earnings Management in Sales", Journal of Accounting Research, December 54(5): 1233 - 1266.
  Abstract: ABSTRACT We surveyed 1,638 sales executives across 40 countries regarding their companies? likelihood of asking sales to perform real earnings management (REM) actions when earnings pressure exists. Using this information, which we refer to as companies? REM propensities, we study how company characteristics and environmental conditions relate to the responses received. The use of cash-flow incentives for sales personnel and the distribution of interfunctional power in favor of finance rather than sales are both associated with companies? REM propensities. In addition, we show that sales executives preemptively change their behaviors in anticipation of top management's REM requests. Sales executives working for public companies and companies in the United States reported higher levels of REM propensity. The data also support an association between REM propensity and finance?sales conflict. These findings and others are compared and contrasted with existing empirical and survey-based research on REM throughout the paper.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12134

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12134

• Mullins, R. R.; Ahearne, M.; Lam, S. K.; Hall, Z. R.; Boichuk, J. P., 2014, "Know Your Customer: How Salesperson Perceptions of Customer Relationship Quality Form and Influence Account Profitability", Journal of Marketing, November 78(6): 38 - 58.
  Abstract: Firms often utilize salesperson intelligence in marketing strategies to improve sales performance. However, this approach is problematic if the information is based on inaccurate perceptions. In light of this, the authors introduce a theoretical model to study the antecedents and profit impact of salesperson perceptions of customer relationship quality. Dyadic analyses using matched survey responses from salesperson?customer dyads and secondary performance data reveal several insightful findings. Results show that self-efficacious salespeople are upwardly biased, whereas customer-oriented salespeople are downwardly biased in their perceptions of customer relationship quality. However, managers can correct these inaccuracies using a behavior-based control system. Response surface analyses illustrate that the effects of salesperson accuracy and inaccuracy are distinct and curvilinear. During later relationship phases, salespeople profit more from salesperson accuracy in high- and low-quality relationships (i.e., a U-shaped effect). Yet the increasingly harmful impact of salesperson inaccuracy on profit is more severe during earlier relationship phases. Together, these findings highlight the benefits of measuring salesperson perceptions and how to manage them.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.13.0300

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jm.13.0300

• Boichuk, J.; Bolander, W.; Hall, Z. R.; Ahearne, M.; Zahn, W. J.; Nieves, M., 2014, "Learned Helplessness among Newly Hired Salespeople and the Influence of Leadership", Journal of Marketing, January 78(1): 95 - 111.
  Abstract: This article investigates the sales force socialization process, wherein newly hired salespeople often face failure-prone environments. Drawing from the learned helplessness paradigm, the authors hypothesize that cumulative periods of sales performance failure are associated with sales-oriented behavior intentions. In addition, the authors examine the influence of leadership, expecting core transformational leadership to have a diminishing effect as unmet sales goals accumulate. Study 1 finds support for these hypotheses using panel survey data from 221 new hires during six months of a furniture retailer's sales force socialization process. Then, aiming to uncover the underlying mechanism driving salesperson helplessness and a managerial approach that has a sustained impact, the authors conduct Study 2, a scenario-based experiment focused on the business-to-business insurance industry. The authors find that perceived task difficulty mediates the focal relationship and that error management enables core transformational leadership to have a lasting effect such that new hires have the lowest sales-oriented behavior intentions when transformational sales managers encourage them to make errors during their interactions with customers and to actively learn from their failures.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jm.12.0468

• Boichuk, J.; Menguc, B., 2013, "Engaging Dissatisfied Retail Employees to Voice Promotive Ideas: The Role of Continuance Commitment", Journal of Retailing, June 89(2): 207 - 218.
  Abstract: Retailers rely on employees’ promotive work-related ideas to spur service delivery innovations. Yet a well-established finding in the literature is that employees refrain from sharing such ideas when they are dissatisfied, and a mountain of evidence suggests that job dissatisfaction is an epidemic in the retail industry. The intuitive solution would be for supervisors to support these employees; by willfully listening to employees’ problems and providing help, supervisors could expect employees to voice their ideas. However, our results, from a field study and a controlled experiment, suggest that support should only be provided if a dissatisfied retail employee is also committed to his or her organization out of necessity. Otherwise, support ends up inducing levels of employee voice that are not significantly different than would be the case had the support been withheld, yielding the support a misallocation of effort.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2013.01.001

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