Salesforce management factors for successful new product launch

New innovative products constitute a central source of economic value creation, but in many industries, salesforce management significantly conditions the appropriation of innovative products during their launch. Very little previous research addresses the salesforce management factors that contribute to successful new product launches. This study identifies and examines a set of salesforce management factors that contribute to successful new product launches by drawing on previous studies related to new product launches and salesforce management. The multivariate analysis in this study uses data covering new product launches in the Swedish pharmaceutical industry. This study unearths a complex and unique complementarity pattern of factors resting upon the duality of a highly dynamic marketplace and sales representatives with an innovative personality type, which are complementary with other specific factors such as training, management control, and reward systems. These findings contribute to the literature on new product launches, salesforce management, and firm complementarities and have managerial implications for practitioners who oversee salesforce readiness during new product launches.

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