Bilal Ahmad | North China Electric Power University (original) (raw)

Papers by Bilal Ahmad

Research paper thumbnail of Understanding the Antecedents and Consequences of Service-Sales Ambidexterity: A Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) Framework

Sustainability, 2021

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Research paper thumbnail of Validating a multidimensional perspective of relationship marketing on brand attachment, customer loyalty and purchase intentions: a serial mediation model

JOURNAL OF STRATEGIC MARKETING, 2021

Organizations are actively involved in relationship marketing (RM) activities to strengthen their... more Organizations are actively involved in relationship marketing (RM)
activities to strengthen their connections with customers. The current
study discusses the multidimensional constructs of relationship
marketing and its influence on customers’ brand attachment in
the hotel sector, taking into account the sequential mediation of
attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty between relationship marketing
and purchase intention constructs. In order to collect the
research data, we distributed questionnaires among 304 hotel customers
and used SEM technique to analyze the hypotheses. The
findings revealed that four dimensions of relationship marketing
played a critical role in improving customers’ brand attachment.
Furthermore, brand attachment has a significant and positive
impact on behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty. In addition,
brand attachment, attitudinal loyalty, and behavioral loyalty have
proved as significant serial mediators between the linkage of relationship marketing and purchase intentions. We also discussed the
study’s theoretical and managerial implications.

Research paper thumbnail of An investigation of sales managers’ aggressiveness in B2B sales leadership: The sequential mediation model of emotional exhaustion and adaptive selling

Management Science Letters, 2021

The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of sales managers’ aggressiveness on eth... more The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of sales managers’ aggressiveness on ethical sales leadership and salesperson performance in B2B context, taking into consideration the sequential
mediation of emotional labor and adaptive selling behavior. Sales managers spend most of their time in solving salesforce-related issues, while empirical studies have largely neglected such factors that can have negative consequences on salesforce-related tasks. In order to overcome this gap in the literature, we draw from conservation of resources (COR) theory to introduce and establish an advanced theoretical paradigm. The authors tested the model through 336 responses from B2B salesperson-manager dyads. The findings of the study reveal that sales managers’ aggressiveness has a negative association with ethical sales leadership. Also, sales managers’ aggressiveness is positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively related to salesperson performance. Consequently, we found significant serial mediation of ethical sales leadership and adaptive selling behavior between the relationship of sales managers’ aggressiveness and salesperson performance. In last, manager decisiveness is playing as a significant moderator in the study. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are also discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Key Drivers of Salesperson Performance: The Role of Sales Antecedents and Moderating Effect of Customer Directed Extra Role Behavior

Key Drivers of Salesperson Performance: The Role of Sales Antecedents and Moderating Effect of Customer Directed Extra Role Behavior, 2020

The salespersons are considered as one of the important sources while interacting between the com... more The salespersons are considered as one of the important sources while interacting between the company and its prospective customers. The purpose is to develop and test the model that involves salespersons performance in the pharmaceutical sector of Pakistan. Specifically, the study demonstrates the effects of salesperson creativity, adaptive selling behaviour, selling experience and customer directed extra-role behavior on salesperson performance. Adaptive selling behaviour has been taken as a mediator in this study. Individual salespersons in different pharmaceutical companies are the population of this study. Total 500 questionnaires were distributed among the salespersons, 367 useful responses were analyzed through structural education modeling (SEM). The results revealed that salesperson creativity has a positive and significant impact on adaptive selling behavior and performance. Furthermore, salespersons experience has significant impact on Original Research Article Ahmad and Akbar; AJEBA, 15(1): 22-34, 2020; Article no.AJEBA.55611 23 salesperson's performance. Moreover, the adaptive selling behavior has positive and significant impact on salesperson's performance. The research finding shows that the moderating role is stronger on the relationship among creativity, adaptive selling behaviour and salesperson performance but it is weaker on the relationship between salesperson experience and salesperson performance. This study is helpful to understand some indicators that could be highly influential on salesperson's performance. The findings of this paper have some managerial implications for improvising sales team performance.

Research paper thumbnail of Linking Emotional Brand Attachment and Sales Promotion to Post-Purchase Cognitive Dissonance: The Mediating Role of Impulse Buying Behavior

Linking Emotional Brand Attachment and Sales Promotion to Post-Purchase Cognitive Dissonance: The Mediating Role of Impulse Buying Behavior, 2020

The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-pu... more The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-purchase psychological state by examining the influence of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance, taking into account the mediating role of impulse buying behavior. The current study addresses several gaps in literature. Firstly, it is hard to find the direct impact of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Secondly, to the best of our knowledge, few studies have investigated the mediating role of impulse buying behavior in consumer research. A sample of 256 respondents was collected from Pakistani retail consumers. The statistical findings of this study show that sales promotion has a significant positive effect on the impulse buying behavior and post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, results indicate that emotional brand attachment has a negative influence on impulse buying behavior but has a significant positive impact on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile, impulse buying behavior is a potential mediator between sales promotion, emotional brand attachment, and post-purchase cognitive dissonance relationships. The moderating role of Gender describes that the positive relationship between sales promotion and post-purchase cognitive dissonance will be stronger for women as compared to men at a higher level of sales promotion.

Research paper thumbnail of Understanding the Antecedents and Consequences of Service-Sales Ambidexterity: A Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) Framework

Sustainability, 2021

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Research paper thumbnail of Validating a multidimensional perspective of relationship marketing on brand attachment, customer loyalty and purchase intentions: a serial mediation model

JOURNAL OF STRATEGIC MARKETING, 2021

Organizations are actively involved in relationship marketing (RM) activities to strengthen their... more Organizations are actively involved in relationship marketing (RM)
activities to strengthen their connections with customers. The current
study discusses the multidimensional constructs of relationship
marketing and its influence on customers’ brand attachment in
the hotel sector, taking into account the sequential mediation of
attitudinal loyalty and behavioral loyalty between relationship marketing
and purchase intention constructs. In order to collect the
research data, we distributed questionnaires among 304 hotel customers
and used SEM technique to analyze the hypotheses. The
findings revealed that four dimensions of relationship marketing
played a critical role in improving customers’ brand attachment.
Furthermore, brand attachment has a significant and positive
impact on behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty. In addition,
brand attachment, attitudinal loyalty, and behavioral loyalty have
proved as significant serial mediators between the linkage of relationship marketing and purchase intentions. We also discussed the
study’s theoretical and managerial implications.

Research paper thumbnail of An investigation of sales managers’ aggressiveness in B2B sales leadership: The sequential mediation model of emotional exhaustion and adaptive selling

Management Science Letters, 2021

The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of sales managers’ aggressiveness on eth... more The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of sales managers’ aggressiveness on ethical sales leadership and salesperson performance in B2B context, taking into consideration the sequential
mediation of emotional labor and adaptive selling behavior. Sales managers spend most of their time in solving salesforce-related issues, while empirical studies have largely neglected such factors that can have negative consequences on salesforce-related tasks. In order to overcome this gap in the literature, we draw from conservation of resources (COR) theory to introduce and establish an advanced theoretical paradigm. The authors tested the model through 336 responses from B2B salesperson-manager dyads. The findings of the study reveal that sales managers’ aggressiveness has a negative association with ethical sales leadership. Also, sales managers’ aggressiveness is positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively related to salesperson performance. Consequently, we found significant serial mediation of ethical sales leadership and adaptive selling behavior between the relationship of sales managers’ aggressiveness and salesperson performance. In last, manager decisiveness is playing as a significant moderator in the study. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are also discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Key Drivers of Salesperson Performance: The Role of Sales Antecedents and Moderating Effect of Customer Directed Extra Role Behavior

Key Drivers of Salesperson Performance: The Role of Sales Antecedents and Moderating Effect of Customer Directed Extra Role Behavior, 2020

The salespersons are considered as one of the important sources while interacting between the com... more The salespersons are considered as one of the important sources while interacting between the company and its prospective customers. The purpose is to develop and test the model that involves salespersons performance in the pharmaceutical sector of Pakistan. Specifically, the study demonstrates the effects of salesperson creativity, adaptive selling behaviour, selling experience and customer directed extra-role behavior on salesperson performance. Adaptive selling behaviour has been taken as a mediator in this study. Individual salespersons in different pharmaceutical companies are the population of this study. Total 500 questionnaires were distributed among the salespersons, 367 useful responses were analyzed through structural education modeling (SEM). The results revealed that salesperson creativity has a positive and significant impact on adaptive selling behavior and performance. Furthermore, salespersons experience has significant impact on Original Research Article Ahmad and Akbar; AJEBA, 15(1): 22-34, 2020; Article no.AJEBA.55611 23 salesperson's performance. Moreover, the adaptive selling behavior has positive and significant impact on salesperson's performance. The research finding shows that the moderating role is stronger on the relationship among creativity, adaptive selling behaviour and salesperson performance but it is weaker on the relationship between salesperson experience and salesperson performance. This study is helpful to understand some indicators that could be highly influential on salesperson's performance. The findings of this paper have some managerial implications for improvising sales team performance.

Research paper thumbnail of Linking Emotional Brand Attachment and Sales Promotion to Post-Purchase Cognitive Dissonance: The Mediating Role of Impulse Buying Behavior

Linking Emotional Brand Attachment and Sales Promotion to Post-Purchase Cognitive Dissonance: The Mediating Role of Impulse Buying Behavior, 2020

The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-pu... more The primary objective of this research is to develop a better understanding of consumer's post-purchase psychological state by examining the influence of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance, taking into account the mediating role of impulse buying behavior. The current study addresses several gaps in literature. Firstly, it is hard to find the direct impact of sales promotion and emotional brand attachment on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Secondly, to the best of our knowledge, few studies have investigated the mediating role of impulse buying behavior in consumer research. A sample of 256 respondents was collected from Pakistani retail consumers. The statistical findings of this study show that sales promotion has a significant positive effect on the impulse buying behavior and post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Furthermore, results indicate that emotional brand attachment has a negative influence on impulse buying behavior but has a significant positive impact on post-purchase cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile, impulse buying behavior is a potential mediator between sales promotion, emotional brand attachment, and post-purchase cognitive dissonance relationships. The moderating role of Gender describes that the positive relationship between sales promotion and post-purchase cognitive dissonance will be stronger for women as compared to men at a higher level of sales promotion.