The contingent value of sales partecipation in marketing decision-making for market performance

In market oriented companies the Sales Unit participates in marketing decision-making. The commonly held belief says that participation is always beneficial to the firm because it increases comprehensiveness of decisions and enhances consensus and commitment to their implementation. However, organization theory, strategy making theory, and also marketing contingency theory suggest that benefits in terms of increased effectiveness of decision?making are often counteracted by detrimental effects in terms of reduced efficiency. The combination of these effects has traditionally been overlooked by marketing scholars. In this study we investigate the moderating role of the organizational context ? namely, organizational culture, processes and structure ? in the relation between Sales participation in marketing decision-making and market performance.