Salesforce control systems: an integrated approach

Abstract

Salesforce management has strategic importance to a company's competitive advantage. However, to date, the direct effects of the salesforce control systems on sales personnel's key job outcomes are inconclusive and the findings are sometimes contradictory. This dissertation advances and empirically tests a theoretical framework integrating salesperson's intrinsic/extrinsic (I/E) motivation, adaptive selling behavior, and selling effort as key mediators. Empirical results suggest that the effectiveness of salesforce control systems hinges on the extent to which they enhance adaptive selling behavior through salesperson's motivation. Moreover, this dissertation clarifies the role of salesperson's motivation in the sales control context by (1) demonstrating salesperson's I/E motivation as a state (cultivated on the job) as opposed to a stable trait (selected for in recruitment) and (2) by disaggregating the global I/E motivation into cognitive and affective dimensions that have distinct antecedents and consequences. Finally, this dissertation found competitive intensity, salesperson experience, and selling effort to be important boundary conditions that must be considered in the effective design and deployment of salesforce control systems.