Loek Worm - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
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Papers by Loek Worm
Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 2011
Machiavellianism is a personality style marked by the use of such tactics as deception and manipu... more Machiavellianism is a personality style marked by the use of such tactics as deception and manipulation so as to perform well and achieve power, status, or material wealth. Based on the assumption that Machiavellians are very sensitive to status seeking in social contexts, which leads over time to changes in neuroplasticity, we hypothesize and find that salespeople who score high versus low on the Mach IV Machiavellianism scale exhibit changes in gray matter volume in the following brain regions: basal ganglia, prefrontal cortex, insula, and hippocampus. A Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) advanced MRI technique is used to test the hypothesis on a sample of 43 healthy salespeople. Conjectures are made on the linkage between social psychological research on Machiavellianism and neuroscience research on the brain regions in question as they relate to social behavior.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2012
We explore genetic and neurological bases for customer orientation (CO) and contrast them with sa... more We explore genetic and neurological bases for customer orientation (CO) and contrast them with sales orientation (SO). Study 1 is a field study that establishes that CO, but not SO, leads to greater opportunity recognition. Study 2 examines genetic bases for CO and finds that salespeople with CO are more likely to have the 7R variant of the DRD4 gene. This is consistent with basic research on dopamine receptor activity in the brain that underlies novelty seeking, the reward function, and risk taking. Study 3 examines the neural basis of CO and finds that salespeople with CO, but not SO, experience greater activation of their mirror neuron systems and neural processes associated with empathy. Managerial and research implications are discussed.
Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2014
Managers increasingly realize the importance of involving the sales force in new product developm... more Managers increasingly realize the importance of involving the sales force in new product development. However, despite recent progress, research on the specific role of the sales force in product innovation related activities remains scarce. In particular, the importance of a salespersons' internal knowledge brokering has been neglected. This study develops and empirically validates the concept of internal knowledge brokering behavior and its effect on selling new products and developing new business, and explores whether a salesperson's internal brokering qualities are determined by biological traits. The findings reveal that salespeople with the DRD2 A1 gene variant engage at significant lower levels of internal knowledge brokering behavior than salespeople without this gene variant, and as a result are less likely to engage effectively in new product selling. The DRD4 gene variant had no effect on internal knowledge brokering. Management and future research implications are discussed.
Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 2011
Machiavellianism is a personality style marked by the use of such tactics as deception and manipu... more Machiavellianism is a personality style marked by the use of such tactics as deception and manipulation so as to perform well and achieve power, status, or material wealth. Based on the assumption that Machiavellians are very sensitive to status seeking in social contexts, which leads over time to changes in neuroplasticity, we hypothesize and find that salespeople who score high versus low on the Mach IV Machiavellianism scale exhibit changes in gray matter volume in the following brain regions: basal ganglia, prefrontal cortex, insula, and hippocampus. A Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) advanced MRI technique is used to test the hypothesis on a sample of 43 healthy salespeople. Conjectures are made on the linkage between social psychological research on Machiavellianism and neuroscience research on the brain regions in question as they relate to social behavior.
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2012
We explore genetic and neurological bases for customer orientation (CO) and contrast them with sa... more We explore genetic and neurological bases for customer orientation (CO) and contrast them with sales orientation (SO). Study 1 is a field study that establishes that CO, but not SO, leads to greater opportunity recognition. Study 2 examines genetic bases for CO and finds that salespeople with CO are more likely to have the 7R variant of the DRD4 gene. This is consistent with basic research on dopamine receptor activity in the brain that underlies novelty seeking, the reward function, and risk taking. Study 3 examines the neural basis of CO and finds that salespeople with CO, but not SO, experience greater activation of their mirror neuron systems and neural processes associated with empathy. Managerial and research implications are discussed.
Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2014
Managers increasingly realize the importance of involving the sales force in new product developm... more Managers increasingly realize the importance of involving the sales force in new product development. However, despite recent progress, research on the specific role of the sales force in product innovation related activities remains scarce. In particular, the importance of a salespersons' internal knowledge brokering has been neglected. This study develops and empirically validates the concept of internal knowledge brokering behavior and its effect on selling new products and developing new business, and explores whether a salesperson's internal brokering qualities are determined by biological traits. The findings reveal that salespeople with the DRD2 A1 gene variant engage at significant lower levels of internal knowledge brokering behavior than salespeople without this gene variant, and as a result are less likely to engage effectively in new product selling. The DRD4 gene variant had no effect on internal knowledge brokering. Management and future research implications are discussed.