Research Foundations for Future Research on Sales and AI: A Synthesis of the Sales Technology Literature
Scientific seminars
Gary K. Hunter, Professeur agrégé, Université du Mississipi.
Séminaire organisé par le Département de marketing
Ouvert à tous.
Salle : Manuvie, 1er étage, section bleue, édifice Côte-Sainte-Catherine
Information sur la conférence :
The paper is a work-in-progress that presents the results of a comprehensive literature synthesis of research on sales and technology, compiling and synthesizing 260 articles into three general domains. The domains are then subjected to thematic analysis intended to identify key themes in extant research relevant to advancing a foundation for future research, particularly embracing challenges related to sales and AI. The paper uses a qualitative approach that features an iterative abductive analysis to assess article content, revise its classification scheme, and confirm the synthesis results. Using abductive analysis, the synthesis produces three focal domains of research: sales technology emergent logic, digital transformation, and contextual influences. The first domain, Sales Technology Emergent Logic (STEL), emerges as an integrated framework and includes a variable-level synthesis of 72 articles. For the second and third domains, thematic analysis is used to identify themes beyond paper classifications found through abductive analysis. The Digital Transformation (DT) domain consists of 108 articles, forming three subdomains (people, process, and technology)—suggesting 13 underlying clusters of papers. The Contextual Influences domain includes 80 articles synthesized into four subdomains (environmental, strategy/culture, operational, and evaluative/futuristic) and 10 themed clusters of papers. The paper includes a primary focus on how to use extant literature to explore future research opportunities—and will discuss those in detail.
Information sur le conférencier :
Gary K. Hunter, Ph.D., is the FNC Founders Chair in Marketing & Data Analytics and an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. With over two decades of experience in research, teaching, and service at top-tier Carnegie R1 universities, he has a strong background in marketing, sales technology, and data analytics. Dr. Hunter holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA in Marketing & Finance from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He is a first-generation college graduate with a B.S. in Civil Engineering & Life Sciences from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Dr. Hunter has held academic positions at Clemson University, Case Western Reserve University, Florida International University, and Arizona State University. His industry experience includes roles at Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo, where he excelled in sales, marketing, and general management. He also served as a Captain in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. His research interests include sales technology, strategic account management, and sales analytics. Dr. Hunter has published award-winning papers in top-tier journals, including the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. He has also published in the International Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, and Marketing Letters. He co-authored the Sage textbook Professional Selling. Dr. Hunter is actively involved in serving the academic community, holding editorial board positions for the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. He has received numerous honors, including the Reviewer of the Year award from the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and the Publons Annual Peer Review Award. He has served on various committees for his employer. In addition to teaching a wide range of degree-granting courses in marketing and sales, he has also contributed to executive education and professional development programs. His teaching spans doctoral, master's, and undergraduate levels, with a focus on marketing, sales management, and business analytics.