Salesperson–brand relationship: main dimensions and impact within the context of private brand retailing

Private branding is considered one of the most effective and efficient influencers of retailers’ return on investment in their fiercely competitive industry. However, no study to date has examined these brands’ impact on salespeople's motivation and commitment to their own employer. This study, based upon extensive qualitative and quantitative research, shows that salespeople's relationships with their private brands can be influential in increasing their selling motivation and organizational commitment. Toward this end, our study first identifies the three important dimensions of salesperson–brand relationship (affect, trust, perceived customer recognition due to the brand) and develops their measures. Second, the findings show that salesperson–brand relationships, which exist between the retail frontline employees and retailers’ private brand, strongly influence sales motivation and firm commitment with a moderating influence of role clarity regarding management's expectations from its salespeople.     

Corporate Culture and Sales Force Management in Japan and America

Abstract

Managers' personal values are a key aspect of corporate culture. Sales representatives' agreement with their managers' values (hereafter “value congruence”) can be expected to influence sales performance, satisfaction, and propensity to quit. These propositions are investigated in two countries. One hundred seventy-five sales representatives and 93 sales managers from a Japanese firm and 146 sales representatives and 21 sales managers from a comparable American firm participated in the study. A questionnaire was distributed to the managers and representatives. Value congruence was found to be weakly related to performance, but strongly related to satisfaction and propensity to quit for both cultural groups. The Japanese group was found to be higher in value congruence and propensity to quit, but lower in satisfaction. Suggested are implications for future research and for managers.     

Salesperson Job Involvement: A Modern Perspective a New Scale

Job involvement is a person's psychological identification or commitment to his/her job. Job involvement is an important construct in salesforce performance research because (1) it is a relevant consequence of a salesperson's work environment and internal feelings, (2) it is a relevant antecedent of a number of important sales job outcomes, and (3) it impacts the socialization process for salespeople. Because sales jobs have changed markedly over the past decade, a salesperson's job involvement now tends to be more focused on relationships with clients and less on aspects within an organizational boundary. The most widely used measure of job involvement (Lodahl and Kejner 1965) is not occupation-specific to sales. This article outlines the development of a new scale for relationship-based salesperson job involvement utilizing rigorous assessments of reliability, validity, and dimensionality within a broad sample of practicing salespeople.     

Effect of salespeople's acquisition–retention trade-off on performance

This research examines the impact of the acquisition–retention resource allocation at the individual salesperson level – that is, the proportion of their time dedicated to acquisition versus retention activities – on their sales performance. We extend prior research that investigates the acquisition–retention trade-off below (i.e., customer value approach) or above (i.e., firm portfolio approach) the salesperson's perspective by also incorporating many ‘within-firm’ factors that are critical to capturing the contingent nature of the allocation decision. The results suggest that firms can double their sales gains by implementing a trade-off strategy that customizes the acquisition allocation at the salesperson level. Using matched triadic data gathered from 227 salespersons, 106 supervisors and the seller's database, the authors find an inverted U-shaped linkage between the proportion of time allocated to acquisition activities and sales performance. Moderation analyses show that salespeople's optimal acquisition allocation depends on their knowledge breadth and job commitment, their supervisor's experience and job commitment and the quantity and quality of the prospects in their relationship portfolio.     

The Role of Culture Strength in Shaping Sales Force Outcomes

Although a strong culture has been widely acknowledged as a defining characteristic of successful firms, past research has failed to examine the influence it exerts on the attitudes and behavior of salespeople. In a two-sample study, we measure culture strength and explore its relationship to value congruity and to three sales force outcomes that define the sales management research tradition: role stress, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Within the contexts of the sales subculture of a Fortune 500 firm (Study 1) and specialized sales organizations (Study 2), the results reveal a compelling portrait of the forces that shape salesperson–culture fit. Specifically, the results of both studies indicate that a strong culture leads to higher levels of value congruity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and lower levels of role stress. Key implications are highlighted for sales managers and for researchers.     

The effect of environmental orientation on salesperson effort and participation: the moderating role of organizational identification

Environmental orientation has emerged as a noteworthy strategy for firms attempting to provide an authentic, unified image of environmental commitment to stakeholders. However, it is yet to be assessed from those employees most responsible for conveying an environmental image. This research examines the construct from the salesperson's point of view. Integrating social identity theory within a traditional Input-Process-Output framework, we demonstrate the importance of aligning firm ideals with individual boundary spanner identity in an environmental context. Our findings suggest that salespersons' perceptions of a firm's environmental orientation directly influence their effort and participation. Further, this relationship is amplified when the salesperson also has strong organizational identity. Finally, when salespeople put more into their work or actively engage in improving their company's environmental image, this increased effort and participation ultimately contributes to individual sales performance and job satisfaction.     

An Exploratory Assessment of Sales Culture Variables: Strategic Implications Within the Banking Industry

Growing, or even simply sustaining, profitability in today's rapidly changing environment is a daunting task. Today's firm must contend with increasing competition, changing customer requirements, and unprecedented technological change. Further, changing government regulations, such as the recent wave of deregulation, have dramatically changed the way business has traditionally been done in certain industries. In such a turbulent environment many firms have discovered that a total organizational sales effort is necessary. For many firms, this means a paradigm shift that involves strengthening their sales culture.

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the sales culture (SC) concept and discuss its importance in contemporary business strategy. First, we will discuss market orientation from a corporate culture perspective. Second, the sales culture component of a market orientation will be defined and examined. Third, an exploratory investigation of constructs associated with sales culture will be investigated using an example taken from an industry that is experiencing rapid change, the banking industry. Finally, strategic implications, limitations and suggestions for future research will be shared.     

Stuck like glue: the formation and consequences of brand attachments among salespeople

Although managers and researchers put utmost importance on uncovering factors that affect effort and performance of sales representatives, they have largely overlooked a key factor. This research aims to remedy this neglect by shedding light on salesperson brand attachment. A qualitative study first examines the prevalence of attachment and uncovers several potential antecedents. Two follow-up empirical studies show that identification and psychological ownership are significant predictors of salesperson brand attachment. Informed by this research, managers can encourage brand attachment, with the end goal of increasing salesperson effort and ultimately performance, by increasing feelings of identification and psychological ownership among salespeople. This impact is particularly notable among brands with low market share, which are often a key concern of managers. The findings provide novel insights into how attachment affects sales representatives, as well as potential methods to cultivate such an attachment.     

Salesperson brand attachment: a job demands-resources theory perspective

Sales researchers have largely ignored the idea that salespeople form attachments to the brands that they sell, and that these attachments hold important consequences for sales outcomes. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, the authors suggest that salesperson brand attachment (SBA) serves as a unique psychological resource for salespeople. Using data from 154 salespeople from the beverage industry, they provide evidence that SBA increases selling effort toward the brand, and ultimately job satisfaction. In addition, they show that salesperson's brand attachment acts as a buffer against perceived job demands, including job codification and hierarchy of authority. In general, results support the job demands-resources framework and confirm that SBA is a resource that may be leveraged to offset job demands, under certain situations.     

Attracting Graduates to Sales Positions: The Role of Recruiter Knowledge

Corporate recruiting on college campuses has been an important vehicle for selecting and hiring new employees. Previous research has focused on identifying, locating, and selecting new employees, but the recruiting function of attracting good prospects to the interview and job has received less research attention. Increased importance of the attraction function of recruiting may be indicated for the future, particularly given projections of a decline in business college enrollments. The purpose of this article is to examine recruitment of college graduates for sales positions, using the perspective of attracting employees by communicating aspects of the job and company which are important to them. A survey of students and recruiters was used to reveal the attributes of importance to students, differences among students, and the extent to which recruiters are aware of student importance ratings. Differences between students and recruiters perceptions are identified for half of the 50 attributes examined, revealing an opportunity for recruiters to obtain better knowledge of students' perceptions and, thus, to improve their ability to attract graduates to sales positions.     

Leading future orientations for current effectiveness: The role of engagement and supervisor coaching in linking future work self salience to job performance

Recent research suggests that the salience of a future work self has a considerable impact on future-oriented activities such as skill development, career planning, career networking, and job searching. However, little is known as to whether, how, and under what conditions a more salient future work self may influence concomitant work outcomes such as job performance. Drawing on self-regulation theory, we argue that future work self salience (FWSS) affects job performance via its influence on engagement, with this influence amplified as a function of supervisor coaching. Using multi-source and lagged data collected from employees (N = 441), their direct supervisors (N = 98), and archival records in an insurance company, we found that engagement mediated the relationships between FWSS and both supervisor-rated and archival sales performance. Furthermore, the relationships FWSS has with employee engagement and sales performance, as well as the indirect effects of FWSS on two performance indicators, were stronger for employees exposed to higher levels of supervisor coaching.     

Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Job Performance: Job Ambivalence as a Moderator

Based on research regarding the role of attitudinal ambivalence in the validity of attitudes in predicting behavior, we propose job ambivalence as a promising concept for job satisfaction research. In particular, we argue that job ambivalence (i.e., coexistence of positive and negative evaluations of one's job) may moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Results of a study conducted with managers of an IT company show, as predicted, that job satisfaction is a better predictor of job performance (i.e., higher satisfaction related to higher performance) when individuals experience low job ambivalence, as compared to when individuals experience high job ambivalence. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The Effect of Name on Pre‐Interview Impressions and Occupational Stereotypes: The Case of Black Sales Job Applicants

Name is an important, yet under‐researched racial cue that can affect evaluators' opinions, attitudes, and beliefs about minority job applicants. This study examined a two‐way ANOVA interaction between name and sales job type on White sales professionals' pre‐interview impressions of Black applicants. Results indicated a significant interaction between applicant name and sales job type on pre‐interview impressions. For outside sales jobs, Anglicized‐named applicants received more favorable pre‐interview impressions than did ethnic‐named applicants. In addition, pre‐interview impressions of Anglicized‐named applicants were more favorable for outside versus inside sales jobs. Findings, implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.     

Leader Behavior,Work-Attitudes,and Turnover of Salespeople: An Integrative Study

Data were collected from the national field sales force of a major consumer goods manufacturer. The study develops a structural model of salespeople's perceptions of their supervisors' behaviors (i.e., leadership consideration and leadership role clarity), and the influence of supervisors' behaviors on the sales force's role perceptions, job anxiety, job satisfaction, propensities to leave and actual turnover. The study integrates previous research regarding sales force turnover to form the underpinning for the relationships between the constructs, and finds empirically that sales managers' leadership behaviors directly and indirectly influence job satisfaction, which influences salespeople's propensity to leave the organization and actual turnover.     

Are Workplace Friendships a Mixed Blessing? Exploring Tradeoffs of Multiplex Relationships and their Associations with Job Performance

Theory and research note the ubiquity of multiplex workplace friendships—multifaceted relationships that superimpose friendship with work‐focused interactions—but it is unclear how they compel or hinder job performance. In a study of insurance company employees (n = 168), we found that the number of multiplex workplace friendships in one's social network is positively associated with supervisor ratings of job performance. However, we also found that there is a negative indirect effect on job performance through emotional exhaustion, which is offset, in part, through enhanced positive affect. Results of a second study of restaurant and retail sales employees (n = 182) provide greater insight into the positive and negative effects of multiplex workplace friendships. Specifically, these relationships enhanced job performance through trust but detracted from job performance through maintenance difficulty. Collectively, our results illustrate that having a large number of multiplex friendships at work is a mixed blessing. Although the provision and restoration of resources fostered by multiplex relationships benefits employee job performance, these benefits are muted somewhat by the personal resources they deplete.     

Fearless dominance and performance in field sales: A predictive study

In a prospective study of 150 junior salespeople in the same company, we examined the relation between fearless dominance, which is a dimension of trait psychopathy, and objective performance in field sales. After controlling for demographic variables, length of job tenure, initial sales training quality, and disciplined achievement motivation, the results supported an inverted U‐shaped relation, which showed that, after a certain turning point, increases in fearless dominance resulted in decreases in performance. Thus, the most successful salespeople in our sample possessed moderate levels of fearless dominance. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are provided in light of a number of notable strengths and limitations.     

Comparing two attributional models of job performance in retail sales: A field study

Research investigating attributional style and job performance among sales staff has been limited by its focus on specific sales roles: notably selling insurance by telephone. Important questions therefore remain regarding the mechanism by which attributions influence job performance in sales roles more generally. This paper describes a field study comparing two attributional models of job performance: (1) a learned helplessness (LH) model, and (2) an achievement motivation (AM) model. Managers' performance ratings were collected for 452 retail sales assistants who completed a job‐specific attribution questionnaire and a work‐satisfaction questionnaire. Results indicate that sales assistants who made more internalcontrollable attributions for positive outcomes received higher performance ratings (r =.20, p<.01) and were more satisfied in their work (r =.12, p< .05). The findings provide support for an AM model of job performance among retail sales assistants. They suggest that more successful sales assistants proactively manage their environment in order to create opportunities for successful interactions with customers.     

Job emotions and job cognitions as determinants of job satisfaction: The moderating role of individual differences in need for affect

Research has shown that job satisfaction is determined by both cognitions about the job and affect at work. However, findings from basic and applied attitude research suggest that the extent to which attitudes are based on affective and cognitive information is contingent on stable individual differences, in particular need for affect. Based on current conceptualizations of job satisfaction as an attitude toward the job, we hypothesized that job satisfaction depends more on affect and less on cognitions, the higher a person's need for affect is. To test these hypotheses, we conducted two correlational studies (N = 194 university employees; N = 134 employees from various organizations) as well as an experimental study (N = 191 university employees) in which the salience of positive versus negative job cognitions was varied. Results supported our hypotheses. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these differences in affective and cognitive underpinnings of job satisfaction.