Examining Salesperson Performance In Pharmaceutical Industry In Malaysia : Influence Of Control, Empowerment, Adaptive Selling Behavior And Emotional Intelligence
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Date
2016-03
Authors
Wong, Kok Leong
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This study aims to examine the influence of managerial factors of supervisory control and empowerment on salesperson performance in the pharmaceutical industry in Malaysia. Control and empowerment were often seen as contradictory managerial practices and these practices were rarely studied simultaneously. However, scholars opined that control and empowerment practices should co-exist in the context of modern management. Thus, this empirical study intends to validate that both control and empowerment practices have to be present to enhance salesperson performance. This study also investigates the mediating effect of salesperson‘s adaptive selling behavior on the relationships between these managerial practices and salesperson performance. Besides that, it also examines how emotional intelligence of the salesperson moderates the relationship between salesperson‘s adaptive selling behavior and salesperson performance. The empirical findings involving 133 salespersons using Partial Least Square method revealed that certain dimensions of control and empowerment can co-exist. Activity control, empowering practices such as promoting participation, expressing confidence and providing autonomy were having significant impact on salesperson performance as well as on adaptive selling behavior. Adaptive selling behavior partially mediated the relationship between activity control and salesperson performance, between expressing confidence and salesperson performance and between providing autonomy and salesperson performance. Emotional intelligence was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between adaptive selling behavior and salesperson performance. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed. Research limitations were presented and recommendations for future studies were proposed.
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Keywords
Salesperson performance