Ambidexterity and Sales Performances in B2B companies

Abstract

Being ambidextrous means being able to use both the left and right hand equally, however the principle can be applied in a similar way to the business environment, when an entity can follow opposite behaviours or results at the same time. Organizational ambidexterity is the ability to pursue both exploration and exploitation at the company level, nevertheless this ability can be an important trait also at the individual level, especially in sales environment. Salespeople when selling nowadays must be extremely flexible to handle with different buyers they can face during their job. Managers and Top Management Team are becoming more and more demanding in order to meet the requirements of shareholders and the sales jobs are shifting toward complex and knowledge intensive tasks, which must be completed effectively and efficiently. This research aims to understand if company characteristics act as moderators’ factors between salespeople approach and their selling techniques and the final performances of the company. To accomplish this, the salesforce of a B2B company, with technical-intensive portfolio of products, has been interviewed, to reveal their selling habits and their perceptions on economic results and data have been analysed through a PLS regression model.