**4. Analysis and results**

After quality control of the data, 152 valid answers (a high 70% response rate) were received from all 6 countries, over a period of less than 30 days. Out of the 152 answers, 55% were from marketing; 45% from sales; 7% from directors; 33% from category or channel managers and 60% from brand or client managers. There are no significant differences between the means of respondents from sales and marketing and from different hierarchical levels. Conversely, the resulting significant differences between means among countries highlight different levels of structural complexity and evolution, in spite of being part of the same multinational company.

#### **4.1. Quantitative descriptive results**

As can be seen from **Table 1**, the results are consistent with the findings of Homburg and colleagues [11] for the brand-focused professional taxonomy.

The resulting mean score for the sales-marketing perceived relationship effectiveness (X = 5.26, SD = 1.25), communication amount (X = 5.30, SD = 1.45) and joint planning X = 5.26, SD =1.24)


**Table 1.** Means, standard deviations and internal consistency of constructs.

is significantly high. On the contrary, the quality of communication (X = 5.07, SD = 1.41) and formalization (X = 4.68, SD = 1.37) shows a lower level.

After using exploratory factor analysis, reliability of each multi-item scale was reassessed through calculation of the α coefficient. The reliability estimate of communication amount and formalization, although acceptable, is the weakest (See **Table 1**).

#### **4.2. Quantitative measure refinement**

Q13: How are sales and marketing objectives determined?

Q14: What is the degree of marketing and sales involvement?

Q15: How do you achieve marketing and sales commitment?

Q17: How are activities related to the market planned?

Q19: How are marketing and sales activities carried out?

In general:

162 Organizational Conflict

and sales?

company.

between both areas?

planning between both areas?

**4. Analysis and results**

**4.1. Quantitative descriptive results**

leagues [11] for the brand-focused professional taxonomy.

sales?

Q18: How are decisions made between marketing and sales?

Q16: What role is played by marketing and sales in tracking objectives?

Regarding the planning of the implementation of the launch of new products in the market:

Q20: How does the formalization of processes affect the communication between marketing

Q21: How does the formalization of processes influence the planning between marketing and

Q22: How does the communication between marketing and sales affect the relationship

Q23: How does the communication between marketing and sales influence the integrated

After quality control of the data, 152 valid answers (a high 70% response rate) were received from all 6 countries, over a period of less than 30 days. Out of the 152 answers, 55% were from marketing; 45% from sales; 7% from directors; 33% from category or channel managers and 60% from brand or client managers. There are no significant differences between the means of respondents from sales and marketing and from different hierarchical levels. Conversely, the resulting significant differences between means among countries highlight different levels of structural complexity and evolution, in spite of being part of the same multinational

As can be seen from **Table 1**, the results are consistent with the findings of Homburg and col-

The resulting mean score for the sales-marketing perceived relationship effectiveness (X = 5.26, SD = 1.25), communication amount (X = 5.30, SD = 1.45) and joint planning X = 5.26, SD =1.24) Convergent validity is established by calculating the average variance extracted (AVE) for each construct that is higher than 0.50. Discriminant validity is established confirming that the correlation for all pairs of constructs is less than the AVE root square for each individual construct [32].

#### **4.3. Model estimation and testing results**

The measures were tested and modeled by using two-stage least squares estimation of observed variables (2SLS) [33]. As shown in **Table 2**, the resulting indices indicate construct acceptable fit; however, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), higher than 0.05, poses some limitations.

Both communication dimensions—amount and quality—are positively related with the PRE of the marketing and sales relationship (β = 0.362, p < 0.001; β = 0.743, p < 0.001, respectively).


**Table 2.** Unidimensionality assessment.

Correspondingly, CA is positively related with FMZ (β = 0.488, p < 0.001) and PLAN (β = 0.573, p < 0.001); meanwhile, CQ is positively related with PLAN (β = 0.741, p < 0.001), with a weaker relationship with FMZ (β = 0.160, p < 0.1).

Executive committee or operational weekly meetings of marketing, sales with supply chain and finances are held where the details of the project and the final opening by a single key

Drivers of Innovation Deployment Affecting the Marketing and Sales Relationship

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71987

165

PLAN: The proper marketing and sales planning of projects in advance, jointly elaborating each one of the stages that is conducted toward implementation in the market in synergy

RE: Coordination in defining the information and actions involved to carry out the project.

This is a high priority for marketing and sales teams and therefore they share the relevance of the project. The focus of marketing and sales is different: for marketing a category is key, but

Alignment is natural if the project is large and where relevancy is high. In a small project, it

Despite growing interest in understanding the drivers of the innovation process [3, 4, 26] and more recently by Wiebmeier et al.(in Ref. [5]) introducing the relevance of sales, the deployment of innovation based on the cross-functional marketing-sales relationship has not been

Second, extant research consistently reported sales and marketing as a key cross-functional interface to enhance business performance and to create superior customer value (e.g., see [1, 2, 7, 8]). However, empirical research has been conducted in emergent geographies like South

Results show that both—amount and quality communication—influence the perceived effectiveness of marketing-sales relationships during innovation deployment. The amount of shared communication and its quality also enhance the positive effect of joint planning on this variable, but only the frequency of communication affects the formalization of the process. The findings also suggest that joint planning strongly influences the perceived effectiveness of sales-marketing interface, unlike the Stage-Gates formalization non-significant (negative)

These results are consistent with the findings of Lovejoy and Sinha [24], stating that efficiently innovative organizations do not look like standard formal organizations with strict and unchanging lines of communication. The strong and positive relationship of communication with salesmarketing effectiveness is consistent with past literature [19, 20]. Nevertheless, according to the interaction point of view [20] and contrary to previous research [3], the amount of communica-

tion has a positive effect on the relationship effectiveness between sales and marketing.

unit are shared.

between both areas.

is more difficult.

**5. Discussion**

previously studied.

effect on this dimension.

America.

**5.1. Research implications**

in sales, the organization has many categories.

PLAN is strongly and positively related with the sales-marketing PRE (β = 0.610, p < 0.001), in contrast with FMZ that has a negative non-significant relationship with the cross-functional interface PRE. See the resulting measures of fit for the hypothesized relationship among constructs in **Table 3**.
