Very few people would ever think that one day they may discover a research opportunity in their home country while teaching in another, but that’s exactly the situation that University of West Georgia’s Dr. Minna Rollins found herself in.

“The Marketing and Real Estate Department here at UWG is a very internationally oriented department,” Rollins said. “We have had visiting researchers from different countries, and many of us conduct research in international teams and also teach abroad.”

It was that atmosphere of collaboration and support within UWG’s Richards College of Business that encouraged Rollins to look homeward once more. As a result, she recently took advantage of an opportunity to collaborate in research at the University of Eastern Finland while continuing to teach online classes for UWG.

“UEF started a master’s program in international business and sales management in 2014,” Rollins said. “It’s a program where they have students from a number of different countries, about 14 or 15 countries, and also faculty from a number of countries. So that was a great opportunity for collaboration in many ways. And we have the technology for me to still teach here, so I thought, ‘Why not?’”

It was while on research leave in her home country that she met the colleagues who would help her conduct an international study in business management. Specifically, the study looked at effective incentives to motivate sales people in business-to-business companies.

“Sales research has been largely conducted in North America, so the research that is out there is very limited to one cultural context,” Rollins explained. “Those same incentives, such as annual monetary bonuses, may not motivate sales people in all cultures. In addition, work satisfaction is a somewhat different concept in many countries in Asia than it is in North America.”

As a result, Rollins and her colleagues, Dr. Saara Julkunen, Dr. Mika Gabrielsson and Dr. Jonna Koponen, set out to see just what may contribute to increased performance among sales employees and what types of incentives may motivate them and improve their work satisfaction.

The company they worked with to collect the data has about 200 sales representatives across 29 countries. Rollins said having a varied group to gather data from was key.

“There are big differences across countries in sales compensation and even how the sales profession is viewed,” Rollins said. “And if you are conducting business in one country and you want to expand into another, you want to remain effective, and having this information could be vital.”

For example, knowing that your sales people in more feminine cultures tend to be more motivated by paid time off than monetary bonuses would be critical information for your managers as you begin to expand your company in a new location.

“It is very hard to collect data in area of business-to-business sales, even more difficult in international business-to-business sales,” Rollins said. “We cannot use student data, or even panel data can be problematic. Often the only way to collect suitable data is to collaborate with companies, and it can be difficult to find a company willing to partner with you. We are always very excited to share our findings with the company, with our students, and with our colleagues, and of course, publish the results.”

Rollins and her team shared their findings with the company they partnered with for the project and found an opportunity to also share the information with their students.

“I teach B2B Marketing and International Marketing, and most of my research also focuses on these areas,” Rollins said. “If I’m working on a project, I share it with my students by integrating it into my lectures or give them a summary of the key results. I think it’s important to share the latest research to our students.”

Rollins and Julkunen, who was visiting UWG in fall 2016, also went the extra mile outside the classroom and conducted a special workshop, Sales Theater, for marketing students.

“We wanted to offer this opportunity to our students as extra credit assignment,” Rollins said. “So we set up one Friday and then we gave our students the chance to come and participate in a ‘Sales Theater.’ First we provided online lectures about sales and the sales process, and then the students role played real case studies.”

Rollins said she was excited to be able to share this kind of experience with her students.