An Empirical Assessment of Salesperson Motivation,Commitment, and Job Outcomes |
| |
| Authors: | Thomas N Ingram Keun S Lee Steven J Skinner |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Thomas N. Ingram (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is Professor of Marketing and Holder of the Sales and Marketing Executives Chair in Sales Excellence in the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at Memphis State University. His experience includes six years in sales, product management, and sales management with Exxon and Mobil. He has published in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. He is co-author of Professional Selling (Macmillan) and Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making (The Dryden Press).;2. Keun S. Lee (D.B.A., University of Kentucky) is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Hofstra University. His research interests include sales management, channels of distribution, and cross-cultural marketing activities. He has published in the conference proceedings of the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Marketing Science.;3. Steven J. Skinner (D.B.A. University of Kentucky) is Professor of Marketing and Ashland Oil Research Fellow at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include sales management, channels of distribution, and marketing ethics. His research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, and Academy of Management Journal. |
| |
| Abstract: | This study contributes to the efforts to integrate work commitment constructs into the long-dominant expectancy theory framework of salesforce motivation and performance. Responses were gathered from 231 industrial salespeople in order to: 1) provide evidence concerning discriminant and convergent validity of two measures of work commitment and 2) distinguish expectancy and commitment constructs; and investigate the relationships between motivation, commitment, and two important outcomes—effort and performance. The results of the study indicate that conceptual and empirical differences do exist between commitment variables and expectancy-based motivation variables. Job commitment and extrinsic motivation are found to be related to salesperson effort, which in turn is related to salesperson performance. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
