Does marketing and sales integration always pay off? Evidence from a social capital perspective

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · 2014 · Volume 42 · Issue 5

Abstract

Building on social capital theory, we view the marketing and sales interface as a set of inter-group ties and investigate how cross-functional relationships may facilitate the development of social capital associated with value creation. Our findings suggest that social capital embedded in marketing and sales relationships can inhibit a firm’s performance depending on the characteristics of its customers. Our results also demonstrate that managing the marketing and sales interface at different levels of customer concentration is critical to the success of a firm’s performance.

Keywords

Marketing organization, Sales organization, Marketing and sales interface, Social capital

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