IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v120y2017icp323-333.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Salespeople knowledge search behavior and sales performance: An investigation of printing equipment industry

Author

Listed:
  • Jang, Seongsoo
  • Nemeh, André

Abstract

Despite a general consensus that salespeople's knowledge is an important determinant of sales performance, the extant literature provides only a limited explanation as to whether and how salespeople's learning styles and knowledge structures affect performance. This study investigates whether and how two learning styles – deep and surface – and two knowledge structures – vertical and horizontal – in respect of salespeople searching behavior in an inter-organizational information system lead to higher performance outcomes in printing equipment industry. We use a unique longitudinal dataset composed of 21,256 online search logs created by 408 salespeople and quarterly sales performance across 21 European countries from 2009 to 2013. The results show that salespeople must conduct a deep search to build rich product knowledge rather than surface search. Furthermore, instead of conducting a horizontal search across competing brands broadly, salespeople must focus on a vertical knowledge search for proximate competitors' products in addition to their own products. Finally, this study presents that the inter-organizational information system as a sales force control system can facilitate the identification and acquisition of external product knowledge and enable a firm to achieve superior performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jang, Seongsoo & Nemeh, André, 2017. "Salespeople knowledge search behavior and sales performance: An investigation of printing equipment industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 323-333.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:120:y:2017:i:c:p:323-333
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2016.12.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162517300033
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.12.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Hargadon & Angelo Fanelli, 2002. "Action and Possibility: Reconciling Dual Perspectives of Knowledge in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(3), pages 290-302, June.
    2. John Hauser & Gerard J. Tellis & Abbie Griffin, 2006. "Research on Innovation: A Review and Agenda for," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 687-717, 11-12.
    3. J. David Osborne & Charles I. Stubbart & Arkalgud Ramaprasad, 2001. "Strategic groups and competitive enactment: a study of dynamic relationships between mental models and performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 435-454, May.
    4. Chonko, Lawrence B. & Dubinsky, Alan J. & Jones, Eli & Roberts, James A., 2003. "Organizational and individual learning in the sales force: an agenda for sales research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(12), pages 935-946, December.
    5. Elie Ofek & Miklos Sarvary, 2001. "Leveraging the Customer Base: Creating Competitive Advantage Through Knowledge Management," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(11), pages 1441-1456, November.
    6. Alba, Joseph W & Hutchinson, J Wesley, 1987. "Dimensions of Consumer Expertise," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(4), pages 411-454, March.
    7. Stock, Ruth & Hoyer, Wayne, 2005. "An Attitude-Behavior Model of Salespeople’s Customer Orientation," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 60479, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    8. Clayton M. Christensen & Fernando F. Suárez & James M. Utterback, 1998. "Strategies for Survival in Fast-Changing Industries," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(12-Part-2), pages 207-220, December.
    9. Stock, Ruth & Hoyer, Wayne, 2005. "An Attitude-Behavior Model of Salespeople’s Customer Orientation," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 35542, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isabel Riquelme & Sergio Román, 2014. "The Influence of Consumers’ Cognitive and Psychographic Traits on Perceived Deception: A Comparison Between Online and Offline Retailing Contexts," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 119(3), pages 405-422, February.
    2. Kashif Shafiq & Muhammad Waqas & Arslan Rafi, 2017. "Impact Of Salespersons’ Skill-Sets On Sales Performance: An Empirical Investigation Of A Telecommunication Company," IBT Journal of Business Studies (JBS), Ilma University, Faculty of Management Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-10.
    3. Sergio Román, 2014. "Salesperson's listening in buyer-seller service relationships," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(7), pages 630-644, May.
    4. Puccinelli, Nancy M. & Goodstein, Ronald C. & Grewal, Dhruv & Price, Robert & Raghubir, Priya & Stewart, David, 2009. "Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 15-30.
    5. Carlos Monteiro & Mara Franco & Raquel Meneses & Rui Alexandre Castanho, 2023. "Customer Co-Creation on Revisiting Intentions: A Focus on the Tourism Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-22, October.
    6. Singh, Ramendra Pratap & Singh, Ramendra & Mishra, Prashant, 2021. "Does managing customer accounts receivable impact customer relationships, and sales performance? An empirical investigation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    7. Javalgi, Rajshekhar G. & Hall, Kenneth D. & Cavusgil, S. Tamer, 2014. "Corporate entrepreneurship, customer-oriented selling, absorptive capacity, and international sales performance in the international B2B setting: Conceptual framework and research propositions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1193-1202.
    8. Julio J. Rotemberg, 2010. "Empathy in salesperson-customer interactions," 2010 Meeting Papers 1099, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    9. Baliga, Ashwin J. & Chawla, Vaibhav & Sunder M, Vijaya & Ganesh, L.S. & Sivakumaran, Bharadhwaj, 2021. "Service Failure and Recovery in B2B Markets – A Morphological Analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 763-781.
    10. Tobias Scholz & Jörn Redler & Sven Pagel, 2021. "Re-designing adaptive selling strategies: the role of different types of shopping companions," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 1243-1280, July.
    11. Tobias Kraemer & Welf H. Weiger & Matthias H. J. Gouthier & Maik Hammerschmidt, 2020. "Toward a theory of spirals: the dynamic relationship between organizational pride and customer-oriented behavior," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 1095-1115, November.
    12. Miriam Benitez & Jose M. Leon-Perez & Alejandro Orgambídez & Francisco J. Medina, 2021. "Interpersonal Conflicts in the Unit Impact the Service Quality Rated by Customers: The Mediating Role of Work-Unit Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-13, July.
    13. Alex Mari & Andreina Mandelli & René Algesheimer, 2023. "Shopping with Voice Assistants: How Empathy Affects Individual and Family Decision-Making Outcomes," Working Papers 399, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    14. Wijnberg, Nachoem M., 2011. "Classification systems and selection systems: The risks of radical innovation and category spanning," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 297-306, September.
    15. Delpechitre, Duleeep & Beeler-Connelly, Lisa L. & Chaker, Nawar N., 2018. "Customer value co-creation behavior: A dyadic exploration of the influence of salesperson emotional intelligence on customer participation and citizenship behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 9-24.
    16. Lifang Shu & Haiying Wei & Leiqing Peng, 2019. "Making the Customer Orientation of Salespeople Unsustainable—The Moderating Effect of Emotional Exhaustion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, January.
    17. Castell, Carolin & Kiefer, Jasmin & Schubach, Sebastian & Schumann, Jan H. & Graf-Vlachy, Lorenz & König, Andreas, 2023. "Integrating digital platform dynamics into customer orientation research: A systematic review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    18. J. P. Eggers & Sarah Kaplan, 2009. "Cognition and Renewal: Comparing CEO and Organizational Effects on Incumbent Adaptation to Technical Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 461-477, April.
    19. Tung, Vincent Wing Sun & Chen, Po-Ju & Schuckert, Markus, 2017. "Managing customer citizenship behaviour: The moderating roles of employee responsiveness and organizational reassurance," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 23-35.
    20. Sandra Gountas & John Gountas & Felix T Mavondo, 2014. "Exploring the associations between standards for service delivery (organisational culture), co-worker support, self-efficacy, job satisfaction and customer orientation in the real estate industry," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(1), pages 107-126, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:120:y:2017:i:c:p:323-333. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.