Organization theory proposes that managers exert control over the behavior of salespeople and the outcomes salespeople are expected to deliver. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to examine the relationships between activity control, capability control, and outcome control and salesperson performance, as well as the moderating effects of product complexity, task complexity, and number of accounts on the control-performance relationships for business-to-business sales personnel. The framework for the study was based in the concept of organizational control. Data analysis included hierarchical regression of a convenience sample of 374 survey responses from salespeople to analyze the direct and moderating relationships between perceived sales management control and salesperson performance. Data were collected using Fluid Surveys. Although significant positive effects were identified between outcome control, activity control, and capability control on salesperson performance, as well as a significant negative effect of task complexity on salesperson performance, no moderating effects were found. Because sales management behavior impacts salesperson satisfaction, retention, and performance, identifying the positive impact of activity, capability, and outcome control, and the negative impact of task complexity on salesperson performance provides sales managers with important guidance when considering the elements of an effective approach to sales management. Finally, providing managers with specific guidance regarding management approach has implications for positive social change within organizations by improving salesperson satisfaction with their jobs, their manager, and the organization for whom they work.

Den här studien demonstrerar vilka effekter en säljares kompetens, serviceprestation och etiska beteende har på relationskvaliteten till kunder inom fastighetsmäklarbranschen, samt vilka effekter ett företagets rykte och prestation har på relationskvaliteten till kunder i fastighetsmäklarbranschen. Undersökningen genomförs för att få en förståelse för hur relationerna fördelar sig på företagen och försäljarna. Med en kvalitativ metod har undersökningen gjorts i form av intervjuer, med tio stycken kunder som har sålt deras bostäder inom de senaste två åren. Resultatet visade att kunderna har starkare relation till fastighetsmäklarna än till företagen. De flesta kunderna har inte upplevt någon relation alls till företagen, när kunderna står inför att sälja sin bostad, väljer de oftast fastighetsmäklaren oberoende av vilket företag dessa arbetar för. Den starkaste komponenten för att stärka relationskvaliteten till kunderna har visat sig vara säljarens serviceprestation. / This study demonstrates the effects of salesperson expertise, service performance and ethical behavior on relationship quality to customers in the real estate brokerage industry, and the impact corporate reputation and corporate performance have on relationship quality to customers in the real estate brokerage industry. The survey was conducted to gain an understanding of how relationships are divided into companies and salespersons. With a qualitative approach, the examination has been made by interviewing ten customers who have sold their properties within the last two years. The results showed that customers have stronger relationship with the real estate agents than with the companies. Most customers have not experienced any relation at all to the company, when the customers face to sell their properties, they usually choose the real estate agent regardless of which company they work for. The strongest component to enhance the relationship quality to customers has proven to be the seller's service performance.

The purpose of this research is to examine how the ethical decision making of a salesperson is influenced by job characteristics, and how ethical decision making then influences job outcomes. This research is important because the field of ethics draws from diverse disciplines that have minimal agreement with each other. While calls have been made for a uniform standard of ethics, a better decision may be for each discipline to look internally to determine both what ethics is and how it functions in relation to other variables on in each disciplines unique field. This study examines first how the exogenous job characteristic variables of perceived organizational support, sales force control system and ethical values of the salesperson affect ethical decision making. Perceived organizational support and the behavioral-based sales force control system are hypothesized to positively influence ethical decision making. The link between perceived organizational support and ethical decision making has been observed in the field of accounting, and sales research has found that perceived organizational support leads to organizational citizenship behavior, which contains ethical decision making under its umbrella. Behavior-based sales force control systems are predicted to lead to ethical decision making because this type of control system has been shown to both lead to increased affective organizational commitment and reduce the benefits of acting unethically. The ethical values of the salesperson are predicted to moderate the relationships between the independent variables and ethical decision making. Ethical values and the independent variables in the study are influenced by similar antecedent constructs. The study also examines how ethical decision making influences the endogenous job outcomes variables of affective organizational commitment and salesperson performance. Ethical decision making is hypothesized to positively influence both performance and commitment. Ethical climates have been found to increase commitment, and performance is considered a key outcome of ethical decision making. Azjen’s (1985) theory of planned behavior ties the hypotheses together.

During initial business-to-business encounters, salespeople try to enhance buyers’ future interaction intentions. A common belief is that increasing buyers’ similarity perceptions increases the chances of future interaction. This study assesses the impact of the similarity-attraction effect on future interaction. By synthesising social psychology and marketing literature, a conceptual framework is proposed, in which perceived similarity influences salesperson trust. This relationship is mediated by task-related and social assessments of buyers. Task-related assessments comprise willingness (benevolence and integrity) and competence (power and expertise). Social attraction is conceptualised as likeability. Salesperson trust drives anticipated future interaction, together with organisational trust and anticipated added value. The conceptual framework was empirically tested through a cross-sectional survey. Dutch professional buyers assessed recent initial sales encounters. A sample of 162 dyads was analysed, using PLS-SEM, including FIMIX segmentation. This study demonstrates support for a third willingness construct: willingness behaviour. This construct implies that buyers are more influenced by expectations regarding behaviour, than assessments of salespeople’s attitudes. A homogeneous analysis supports the influence of perceived similarity on salesperson trust, both directly and through willingness behaviour. However, model-based segmentation uncovers a segment of cost-oriented dyads and a segment of more profit-oriented dyads. In cost-oriented dyads, there is no significant direct effect between perceived similarity and salesperson trust, and willingness behaviour nearly fully mediates this relationship. In more profit-oriented dyads, the similarity-attraction effect is not present. Theoretical and methodological contributions and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of organizational culture among salespeople at a specific workplace. The purpose was also to investigate what motivates these salespeople in their work and the impact culture has on their motivation. We have used a qualitative research method to collect the empirical material. With the help of seven interviews, including six salespeople from one of Sweden’s biggest electronic retailer and also one information interview with a sales consultant, we attempted to find the answer to how they perceive the organizational culture and how it affects their work motivation.  The following questions are used to fulfill this purpose:   How do the salespeople experience the organizational culture?   What motivates the salespeople in their daily work?   What effects does the organizational culture have on the salespersons motivation?  As analytical tools we have used are the concept of organizational culture, Schein's description of the three components of culture and Herzberg Motivation-Hygiene theory.  The results of the study indicate that the salespeople experience a positive organizational culture and that this culture promotes fellowship and unity between colleagues, which in turn contributes to an enhanced motivation. Our study also shows that there are other factors contributing to the salespeople’s motivation such as conscious efforts of the organization and the factors that are built in into their daily work. A strong contest culture is also shown in the organization, the colleagues compete amongst each other to become the best salesperson. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur försäljarna inom en specifik butikskedja upplever organisationskulturen på sin arbetsplats. Syftet var även att undersöka vad som motiverar försäljarna i deras dagliga arbete samt vilken betydelse organisationskulturen har på försäljarnas motivation.  Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod för att samla in det empiriska materialet. Vi har tagit hjälp av sju intervjupersoner varav sex försäljare i en av Sveriges största elektronikkedjor och en informant som informationskälla till försäljaryrket. Med hjälp av dessa intervjupersoner har vi försökt få svar på hur de upplever organisationskulturen och vad i denna organisationskultur som påverkar deras motivation. Följande frågeställningar används för att uppfylla detta syfte:   Hur upplever försäljarna organisationskulturen?   Vad motiverar försäljarna i deras dagliga arbete?   Vilken betydelse har organisationskulturen på försäljarnas motivation?  Som analysverktyg har vi använt oss av begreppet organisationskultur, Scheins förklaring av organisationskulturens tre olika beståndsdelar samt Herzbergs Motivation-Hygien theory.  Resultatet av undersökningen påvisar att försäljarna upplever organisationskulturen positivt och att denna organisationskultur främjar gemenskapen och samhörigheten mellan kollegorna, vilket i sin tur bidrar till en ökad motivation bland försäljarna. Vår studie visar även att det finns ytterligare faktorer som bidrar till försäljarnas motivation, såsom medvetna insatser från ledningen och faktorer som är invävda i det dagliga arbetet. Även en stark tävlingskultur påvisas i organisationen, där försäljarna tävlar sinsemellan för att bli den bästa säljaren.

Les déterminants de la performance du vendeur ont fait l’objet d’un vaste courant de recherche dont il ressort que les variables personnelles sont les plus explicatives de la variation de la performance. Parallèlement, la recherche sur le plateau de carrière du vendeur qui est encore peu développée, propose des actions visant à éviter le plateau.Cette recherche propose un modèle structurel de déterminants de la performance du vendeur fondés sur certains traits de personnalité : l’esprit de compétition, la rigueur, l’estime de soi et l’efficacité personnelle et analyse les relations entre ces traits entre eux et entre l’effort et la performance. Cette recherche précise également la modération du plateau de carrière sur certaines variables du modèle.Il ressort de cette recherche la validation d’un modèle conceptuel de déterminants de la performance du vendeur fondé sur les traits de personnalité et, de la modération positive et faible du plateau de carrière sur les liens entre l’esprit de compétition, la rigueur et l’effort et,la performance, qui forment ces traits de personnalité.Cette étude met en lumière le rôle d’une triade composée de l’efficacité personnelle, de l’effort et de la rigueur comme variables explicatives de la performance des vendeurs performants. Une autre caractéristique des vendeurs performants concerne l’orientation deleurs efforts dirigés en efforts habiles, avec un haut niveau d’effort qui tend à devenir unenorme de travail pour les vendeurs performants expérimentés. Au contraire, les vendeursstandards ont une direction de leurs efforts moins habile.Une autre caractéristique des vendeurs performants concerne l’efficacité personnelle et leurcapacité à analyser leurs expériences d’abord passées puis présentes pour déterminer leurs expériences actives de maîtrise. Les vendeurs performants sont rigoureux et, tout en restant centré sur l’objectif à atteindre, savent analyser la situation et adapter les actions et les moyens à mettre en oeuvre pour l’atteindre. Enfin, l’esprit de compétition agit en catalyseur de cette triade efficacité personnelle-effort-rigueur. Pour les vendeurs performants de 45 ans et moins, l’effort et l’efficacité personnelle sont deux variables essentielles et le relais est pris ensuite, au-delà de 45 ans par la rigueur et l’esprit de compétition.Le plateau de carrière des vendeurs performants est un plateau accepté notamment parce qu’ils vivent un enrichissement du poste. Cet enrichissement du poste est la conséquence du stress dans le rôle et des expériences positives. / The research on the performance determinants of the salesperson has been widely studied and it appears that the variation on performance is mostly due to personal variables.The research on the salesperson plateau is less studied and aims mainly at actions to avoid plateauing.This research proposes a structural model on the performance determinants of salesperson based on personality traits: competitiveness, conscientiousness, self-esteem and self-efficacy,and analyses the relationships between these traits among them, and between effort and performance. This research points out as well the weak moderating effect of the plateau on the variables of the model.A conceptual model on the performance determinants of the salesperson is validated and, theweak positive moderating effect of the plateau on the structural path between competitiveness,conscientiousness, effort and performance is confirmed.This study points out the role of a triad made of self-efficacy, effort and conscientiousness a sexplaining variables of the performance of performing salespeople. Another characteristic of aperforming salesperson regards their effort which is smart, and their high level of effort becomes normative for senior performing salespersons. To the contrary, average performing salespersons have a less smart effort and a more hard effort.Another characteristic of performing salespersons regards self-efficacy and their ability inanalyzing their experiences firstly past experiences, and then present experiences in order todetermine their enactive mastery. Performing salespersons are conscientious and whileremaining focused on the objective, they analyze the situation and adapt their actions and means to reach the objective. Competitiveness is a catalyzer of the triad self-efficacy-effort conscientiousness.For performing salespersons of age ≤ 45, effort and self-efficacy are the main drivers and then, after the age 45, conscientiousness and competitiveness become the main drivers.The career plateau of performing salespersons is accepted in particular because they experience job enrichment, and this job enrichment is a consequence of the role stress and positive experiences.

While personnel evaluation has been extensively covered in literature, little is known about evaluation procedures screening a large number of applicants. The basis of this research was to investigate if candidates for sales positions can be evaluated in a scalable way (where the number of applications does not impact the cost of evaluation much) for an on demand sales platform. The study consists of interviews with the recruiters and growth leads of the studied firm, a case study of a firm that has omitted resumes in their salesperson recruitment processes, and sample tests performed on candidates for sales positions. Further, some data on salespeople was collected and analysed. In summary, the study links the findings to the restrictions of a process that requires scalability. Previous research outlines how various indicators (personality facets, biodata, and optimism) predict sales performance in salespeople. Mental ability of candidates is relevant especially for the work training phase. Some of these findings were supported by the case study. While traditional resumes contain information predicting sales ability, some sales managers argue that they are obsolete. Previous research shows that recruiters risk drawing broad generalizations based on resume content. Video resumes have some potential, but currently have technical and ethical limitations. Personality and mental ability tests show predictive ability for sales performance, and are scalable. Previous research discusses limitations in many personality tests being commercial, resulting in limitations in how they may be modified; in their transparency of scoring; and validity studies being hard to conduct. Other limitations with personality tests in evaluation settings are that they are prone to faking. The study also suggests future topics of research in how culture defines what an ideal salesperson is, and extending these findings to other areas than sales. / Medan bedömning av sökande för tjänster har täckts i tidigare forskning, är lite känt om utvärderingsprocesser som utvärderar stort antal sökande. Denna studie söker att svara på om kandidater för säljtjänster kan utvärderas på ett skalbart sätt (där antalet sökande har liten påverkan på kostnaden för utvärdering) för en säljplattform. Studien består av intervjuer med rekryterare och growth leads av det studerade företaget, en fallstudie av ett företag som har slopat CV:n i sin ansökningsprocess, och test på kandidater för säljtjänster. Vidare analyserades befintlig data på säljare. Sammanfattningsvis länkar studien resultaten till de begränsningar som krävs av en skalbar process. Tidigare forskning visar hur olika indikatorer (personlighet, biografisk data, och optimism) kan förutse säljförmåga. Kandidatens mentala förmåga är särskilt relevant för träningsfasen. Vissa av dessa resultat stöds av fallstudien. Medan CV:n innehåller information för att förutse säljförmåga, hävdar vissa säljchefer att de är utdaterade. Tidigare forskning visar att rekryterare ibland generaliserar brett baserat på innehållet av ett CV. Videobaserade CV:n har viss potential, men har etiska och tekniska brister i dagsläget. Personlighetstest och test som mäter mental förmåga visar prediktiv potential för säljförmåga och är också skalbara. Tidigare forskning diskuterar även de begränsningar som uppstår av att många personlighetstest är kommersiella, vilket leder till begränsningar i hur de kan modifieras; i transparensen av rättningen; och att validitetsstudier är svåra att utföra på dem. Andra begränsningar med personlighetstest är att kandidater kan manipulera resultaten. Studien föreslår även framtida forskning inom till exempel hur kultur definierar en ideal säljperson, och om dessa resultat kan utökas till andra områden än försäljning.

<p>High-performance computing (HPC) and machine learning (ML) have been widely adopted by both academia and industries to address enormous data problems at extreme scales. While research has reported on the interactions of HPC and ML, achieving high performance and scalability for parallel and distributed ML algorithms is still a challenging task. This dissertation first summarizes the major challenges for applying HPC to ML applications: 1) poor performance and scalability, 2) loss of the convergence rate, 3) lower quality of the trained model, and 4) a lack of performance optimization techniques designed for specific applications. Researchers can address the four challenges in new ML applications. This dissertation shows how to solve them for two specific applications: 1) a clustering algorithm and 2) graph optimization algorithms that use reinforcement learning (RL).</p> <p>As to the clustering algorithm, we first propose an algorithm called the simulated-annealing clustering algorithm. By combining a blocked data layout and asynchronous local optimization within each thread, the simulated-annealing enhanced clustering algorithm has a convergence rate that is comparable to the K-means algorithm but with much higher performance. Experiments with synthetic and real-world datasets show that the simulated-annealing enhanced clustering algorithm is significantly faster than the MPI K-means library using up to 1024 cores. However, the optimization costs (Sum of Square Error (SSE)) of the simulated-annealing enhanced clustering algorithm became higher than the original costs. To tackle this problem, we devise a new algorithm called the full-step feel-the-way clustering algorithm. In the full-step feel-the-way algorithm, there are L local steps within each block of data points. We use the first local step’s results to compute accurate global optimization costs. Our results show that the full-step algorithm can significantly reduce the global number of iterations needed to converge while obtaining low SSE costs. However, the time spent on the local steps is greater than the benefits of the saved iterations. To improve this performance, we next optimize the local step time by incorporating a sampling-based method called reassignment-history-aware sampling. Extensive experiments with various synthetic and real world datasets (e.g., MNIST, CIFAR-10, ENRON, and PLACES-2) show that our parallel algorithms can outperform the fastest open-source MPI K-means implementation by up to 110% on 4,096 CPU cores with comparable SSE costs.</p> <p>Our evaluations of the sampling-based feel-the-way algorithm establish the effectiveness of the local optimization strategy, the blocked data layout, and the sampling methods for addressing the challenges of applying HPC to ML applications. To explore more parallel strategies and optimization techniques, we focus on a more complex application: graph optimization problems using reinforcement learning (RL). RL has proved successful for automatically learning good heuristics to solve graph optimization problems. However, the existing RL systems either do not support graph RL environments or do not support multiple or many GPUs in a distributed setting. This has compromised RL’s ability to solve large scale graph optimization problems due to the lack of parallelization and high scalability. To address the challenges of parallelization and scalability, we develop OpenGraphGym-MG, a high performance distributed-GPU RL framework for solving graph optimization problems. OpenGraphGym-MG focuses on a class of computationally demanding RL problems in which both the RL environment and the policy model are highly computation intensive. In this work, we distribute large-scale graphs across distributed GPUs and use spatial parallelism and data parallelism to achieve scalable performance. We compare and analyze the performance of spatial and data parallelism and highlight their differences. To support graph neural network (GNN) layers that take data samples partitioned across distributed GPUs as input, we design new parallel mathematical kernels to perform operations on distributed 3D sparse and 3D dense tensors. To handle costly RL environments, we design new parallel graph environments to scale up all RL-environment-related operations. By combining the scalable GNN layers with the scalable RL environment, we are able to develop high performance OpenGraphGym-MG training and inference algorithms in parallel.</p> <p>To summarize, after proposing the major challenges for applying HPC to ML applications, this thesis explores several parallel strategies and performance optimization techniques using two ML applications. Specifically, we propose a local optimization strategy, a blocked data layout, and sampling methods for accelerating the clustering algorithm, and we create a spatial parallelism strategy, a parallel graph environment, agent, and policy model, and an optimized replay buffer, and multi-node selection strategy for solving large optimization problems over graphs. Our evaluations prove the effectiveness of these strategies and demonstrate that our accelerations can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art ML libraries and frameworks without loss of quality in trained models.</p>

The purpose of this paper is to increase the routing efficiency of two previously separate commodity transports. By combining them in a common, multi-commodity network flow (MCNF). A Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is used to minimize the mileage that is needed to fulfill demand in the different destinations of the transport network. Input needed for the model was mileage between destinations, which was obtained from open data. And the demand of respective commodity was received from documents and an estimation. To solve the stated problem approximations and simplifications was needed because it showed a NP-complete problem. The aim is to produce a result that shows a lower mileage than a reference measure from the present situation with separate transports. The result showed an optimized solution of 1939 km. Which was a difference of 1941 km from the reference measures, that summarized to 3880 km. Despite this the result from the model shows an effective optimization. Which makes the use of MILP for minimizing mileage inside a MCNF problem, a useful approach for solving the stated problem. / Syftet med arbetet var att effektivisera körsträckor för två tidigare separata transporter av olika produkter. Genom att kombinera dem till en gemensam transport i ett multi-commodity network flow (MCNF). Med en Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) modell minimeras de körsträckor som krävs för att fylla efterfrågan i transportnätverkets adresser. In-data som krävdes för att en modell skulle kunna utföras var körsträckor mellan olika adresser, vilket hämtades från öppen data. Samt efterfrågan på produkter som erhölls från dokument och estimering.  Då problemet som skulle lösas visade på hög beräkningskomplexitet behövde ett antal approximationer och förenklingar verkställas. Målet var att visa på ett resultat där körsträckor hade förminskats relativt till ett referensmått från nuläget. Där resultatet visade på en optimerad lösning på 1939 km. Vilket var en differens på 1941 km från de referensmåttet som summerades till 3880 km. Modellens resultat visar trots det en effektiv optimering. Vilket gör att användningen av MILP för att minimera körsträckor inom MCNF problem, är ett effektivt tillvägagångssätt att lösa det motiverade problemet.

Les distributeurs sont des intermédiaires économiques car ils offrent sur le marché des produits ou services conçus, fabriqués ou exécutés par d’autres (les fournisseurs). Cette recherche démontre que le degré de protection accordé par le droit positif aux différents distributeurs n’est pas corrélé à leur degré de dépendance aux fournisseurs. Les qualifications de la dépendance sont multiples, incertaines, incohérentes et parfois artificiellement restrictives ou extensives, en droit du travail comme en droit économique. Des distributeurs connaissant un même degré de dépendance à leur fournisseur peuvent être traités de façon différente sans justification au regard des fondements des règles considérées. Il existe ainsi des inégalités de traitement. Il est donc proposé un nouveau droit de la dépendance des distributeurs, plus cohérent et égalitaire. Celui-ci se traduirait par un statut légal des distributeurs remplaçant les multiples statuts spéciaux existants, traçant une frontière plus nette avec le droit du travail et conciliant les intérêts des distributeurs avec la liberté des fournisseurs d’organiser la distribution de leurs produits et services. Dépassant la notion trop restrictive de contrat et les conflits de qualification, ce statut viserait la relation de distribution et prévoirait un régime appréhendant la complexité et l’évolutivité de la dépendance des distributeurs grâce à l’information, à une garantie de revenus et différentes indemnités de fin de relation. / Distributors are economic intermediaries because they offer on the market goods and services produced or served by others (the suppliers). This research demonstrates that the degree of protection offered by the Law to the various distributors isn’t correlated with their degree of dependence towards suppliers. The qualifications of dependence are numerous, incoherent and sometimes artificially restrictive or extensive, in labour law as in business law. Distributors experiencing a same degree of dependence towards their supplier can be treated differently without any justification regarding the grounds of the rules in question. Hence, appear inequalities towards the Law. Therefore, new legal rules are suggested. They would take the form of a statute ruling distributors and replacing the numerous statutes in force at the present time. It would draw a clearer line between labour law and business law and conciliate the distributors’ interests with the freedom of suppliers to organize the distribution of their goods and services. Going other the too restrictive notion of contact and the conflicts between qualifications, this statute would rule the relation of distribution and contain rules comprehending the complex and changing nature of dependence. It would ensure sufficient information of distributors and offer them an income guarantee and various compensations when the relation is terminated.