INTERNATIONAL SELLING AND SALES MANAGEMENT: SALES FORCE RESEARCH BEYOND GEOGRAPHIC BOUNDARIES

摘要

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, internationalization has significantly accelerated, affecting almost every firm around the world in some manner. Globalization and innovative technologies dramatically influence not only societies and organizations in general but also the working and living conditions of individual people. Worldwide efforts to eliminate protectionist policies and breakthrough innovations in communication technologies are enhancing scale efficiency, offering firms the opportunity to grow in size and scope. Hence, moving into the second decade of the new millennium, it is surely impossible to believe that the typical company is disinterested in international business. In fact, as statistics reported in one of the papers in this Special Issue (see Panagopoulos et al. this issue, pp. 219-242), today's business world is fundamentally different from that of even a decade ago. For example, growth in what are called "emerging" economies, such as those of Central or Eastern Europe or Brazil, Russia, India, and China (the so-called BRICs), far outpaces those in more traditional Western countries, such as the United States. Moreover, the 2008 financial crisis has precipitated a government debt crisis in 2011, with European countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain (PIGS) forced to alter their spending behavior and to restructure institutional arrangements.