The Influence of Sales Force Technology Use on Performance: The Study of Mediating and Moderating Effects

Abstract

Rapid advancements in information technology (IT) are transforming the way relationships between companies and their customers are managed (Ahearne et al. 2012; Marshall et al. 2012). The increasing investment in IT in marketing and sales organizations has been a major area of investigation in terms of productivity, efficiency, and its ability to foster long-term customer relationships (Hunter and Perreault 2007; Papastathopoulou et al. 2007). Today’s salesperson is pressured to do more in less time, and technological advancements have become an integral part of the personal selling process (Rapp et al. 2008). Many organizations spend considerable human and financial resources in equipping their sales forces with IT (Ahearne et al. 2008).

Nevertheless, technology adoption failures are still being reported at the organizational level (e.g., Finnegan and Currie 2010). At the individual salesperson level, “the relationship between IT use and salesperson performance remains primarily unsubstantiated” (Ahearne et al. 2008, p. 671). In particular, prior research has yielded contradictory results that range from positive (e.g., Hunter and Perrault 2007; Jelinek et al. 2006; Senecal et al. 2007; Rodriguez and Honeycutt 2011) to non-significant (e.g., Avlonitis and Panagopoulus 2005; Sundaram et al. 2007). Avlonitis and Panagopoulos (2005) reasoned that a possible explanation for the absence of association between technology use and salesperson performance may be attributed to the complex process through which information technology improves performance.

The purpose of this study is therefore to empirically examine whether and how sales technology use helps salespeople perform better through the modification of their customer-related skills, role ambiguity and customer-oriented selling behaviors. These variables have been found to be key direct antecedents of sales performance (Churchill et al. 1985; Franke and Park 2006; Román and Iacobucci 2010), yet their potential mediating role in the technology use-performance link remains unexplored. We also analyze the extent to which a salesperson’s technology self-efficacy moderates the technology use-performance link. In this study, consistent with Hunter and Perrault (2007, p. 17), sales technology (ST) refers to ITs that can facilitate or enable the performance of sales tasks. Data is collected from a diverse sample of 265 salespeople across different industries. Hypotheses are tested with structural equation modeling. Our results indicate that a salesperson’s qualification skills, role ambiguity and customer-oriented selling fully mediate the effect of technology use on performance. Interestingly, salespeople high in technology self-efficacy seem to get the most out of their technology use and consequently improve their sales performance, whereas technology use does not significantly increase performance for salespeople with low technology self-efficacy. Our study adds value to both managers and scholars through a stronger understanding of the link between ST and performance and its underlying mediating and moderating processes. Without an understanding of the ST-performance relationship, sales managers may increase ST costs but decrease potential returns.