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SEF Research Grants 2012

Introduction

Sales Education Foundation 2012 Annual Research Grant Program; Deadline 20 Apr 2012

 : : : Posting  

ANNOUNCING

Sales Education Foundation

2012 Annual Research Grant Program
Submission Deadline – April 20th 2012

The overall mission of the Sales Education Foundation (SEF) is to promote the profession of sales and its role as the driving force to the economy. As part of that mission, the SEF proposes to fund high-quality research that deals with topics of importance to sales practitioners and researchers.

The SEF Grant Program strongly encourages research with the potential for application by sales executives, sales managers, and/or salespeople. However more basic or exploratory work will be considered as well. No one approach or method is favored over another; proposed research may be conceptual or empirical and may involve field surveys, field or laboratory experiments, model building, or theory development. However, SEF strongly endorses using actual salespeople, sales managers and executives, and customers rather than students as participants in research projects.

Eligibility and Amount of Support

Faculty members or doctoral students working collaboratively with faculty advisors can apply for financial support for research projects. Practitioners may apply, but must meet the standards for academic research. SEF grants are made to cover researchers’ out-of-pocket costs for data collection, respondent fees, research assistants, and similar expenses. Generally, these grants are $5,000, though funding may be adjusted based on committee discretion. Note that SEF does not provide salary supplements for the principal researcher(s), funds for the purchase of equipment or software, university/organization overhead, tuition, or funds for travel to conferences.

Grant Recipient Responsibilities

The grant recipient will be expected to provide the results of their research in the form of a report to the SEF as well as a presentation at a conference of interest to the SEF.

Proposal Evaluation

The proposals will be evaluated on the bases of three criteria:

  1. Contribution of the research – Is the research innovative? Does it offer new concepts or methods for studying and understanding problems facing salespeople and sales executives? Does it develop new approaches and /or methods for enhancing sales productivity?
  2. Practical relevance and potential application and utility of the research – will the results of the proposed research be of interest and useful to sales executives in the near term?
  3. Dissemination of the research – will the results of the research likely be widely disseminated in a variety of outlets (e.g., articles in refereed journals, the popular press, scholarly monographs, working papers posted on web sites and disseminated to university sales centers, conference presentations)?

Proposal Submission

The proposals should include the following information:

  • One page summary of the research.
  • A statement of expected contributions, such as a better understanding of how key variables affect the sales process, new information to assist mangers in improving sales productivity, or new frameworks and methods for studying the sales process.
  • A very brief section that reviews the literature that is directly relevant to the research.
  • A description of the research questions, hypotheses, and/or model to be tested.
  • A detailed description of the research design and methodology.
  • A timetable, including key process completion dates as well as a completion date, and a report deliverable date.
  • Research support needs. This should take the form of an itemized budget.
  • Vita (e) of the researchers

. “The proposal should not exceed 20 double spaced pages of text including references, tables, and figures (Times Roman 12 font). However the proposal may include greater detail in appendices, such as questionnaires, pretest results, description of the data bases, and/or a detailed description of statistical analyses and/or modeling (an additional 5 pages maximum).” In total, the proposal should not exceed 25 pages. Shorter proposals are preferred to longer ones.

Proposal Due Dates: April 20th, 2012

Proposals should be emailed to: research@saleseducationfoundation.org

Questions concerning the program may be directed to the email address above or to Rosann Spiro, Chairperson of the Annual Research Grant Program (spiro@indiana.edu)

Proposal Evaluation and Decisions

The research proposals will be evaluated and ranked by the Research Grant Committee consisting of four or five people, both academics and practitioners. Decisions will be announced by May 21.

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