A Year of Accolades

The Stephen Stagner Sales Excellence Institute at the C. T. Bauer College of Business is tops in the world for sales education and research.

Its many distinctions earned in 2023 include recognitions of its faculty as leading scholars in the field.

C. T. Bauer Professor of Marketing Michael Ahearne placed in the Top 10 worldwide for number of publications in the Journal of Marketing (JM) and the Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) over the past 10 years. JM and JMR are leading academic journals in the field of marketing.

Marvin Hurley Professor of Marketing Seshadri Tirunillai placed 26th worldwide at an individual level for publications in JM and JMR over the past 10 years, and the Bauer College Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship placed 17th at a department level.

Yet another distinction is that for the past nine years, Bauer faculty or alums have won the American Marketing Association’s Sales SIG Excellence in Research Award, which honors the article published during the previous year that has made the most significant contribution in sales.

In 2023, the winning research was authored by a Bauer doctoral alum, Irene Nahm (’20). Her paper’s co-authors included Bauer’s Ahearne and Tirunillai, as well as Nick Lee, a marketing professor at the Warwick Business School.

Nahm is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

"Managing Positive and Negative Trends in Sales Call Outcomes: The Role of Momentum," published in JMR, was the first to address momentum in sales performance at high volume call centers. Its findings suggest managers can monitor sales performance in order to detect “hot” and “cold” streaks, and use interventions to sustain positive momentum or mitigate negative momentum. Its authors also show how a more social working environment can help to optimize overall sales performance.

Additional sales honors went to Bauer professors Johannes Habel and Martin Kramer in the past year.

Habel’s research titled “Sales Content Platform Usage and Sales Success” conducted with Heiko Wieland from California State University, Nathan Hartmann from the University of South Florida, Nawar Chaker from Louisiana State University, and independent researcher Frederick Tyler, was named winner of the 2023 National Conference in Sales Management (NCSM) Best Paper Award.

Kramer was named winner of the 2023 AMA Organizational Frontlines Young Scholar Research Competition for his research, "Multi-Tasking Incentives in B2B Sales: Fostering Multi-Tasking or Creating Goal Confusion," which shows that a common incentive program that rewards salespeople for achieving multiple goals does not necessarily enhance performance.

Kramer also received the 2023 IMU Research for Practice Award, given for a doctoral dissertation that addresses marketing issues highly relevant to practitioners.