Antecedents and Consequences of Sales Force Technology Use

Abstract

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). During the last 30 years researchers from a diverse set of disciplines, such as information systems research, innovation research, social/organizational psychology, and marketing, have paid a lot of attention to examine the antecedents of individual technology acceptance and use (Brancheau and Wetherbe 1990; Kwon and Zmud 1987; Moore 1987; Taylor and Todd 1995; Venkatesh et al. 2003). The sales studies on the antecedents of technology acceptance primarily deal with features of the technology tools, such as perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness and salespersons’ individual traits and disposition toward technology (Jelinek et al. 2006; Jones et al. 2002; Mallin and DelVecchio 2008; Schillewaert et al. 2005). Little attention, however, has been paid to management policies and actions. Similar to findings related to IT (information technology), the majority of findings in the sales literature suggest technology use positively and that it significantly influences sales performance (e.g., Hunter and Perrault 2007; Jelinek et al. 2006; Mathieu et al. 2007; Rodriguez and Honeycutt 2011; Senecal et al. 2007). Clearly sales are important, but they do not consider salespeople’s feelings, emotions, and psychological aspects of the job (Karasek 1979).