Championing in Sales Management: Construct Definition and Measurement Development

Abstract

This study advances the understanding of a recently identified leader behavior known as championing, which is argued to be especially effective in a sales context. Championing occurs when sales managers protect their salespeople from nonessential tasks, enabling them to focus on activities that enhance sales performance. Building on the exploratory work by Peesker et al. (2019), the current study delves deeper into the theoretical underpinnings and practical implications of championing. The first major section is a literature review that relates championing to established leadership theories, including path-goal, transformational, ethical, and servant leadership. This review demonstrates how championing aligns with and reinforces these theoretical frameworks, providing a deeper understanding of the behavior. Following this theoretical groundwork, the authors developed a new multi-item measurement scale for championing by integrating traditional scale development methods with innovative techniques involving artificial intelligence. Specifically, items for the scale were generated using a chain-of-thought prompting process with ChatGPT-3.5. These items were empirically tested through conventional scale development procedures, which included analyzing data from a sample of 254 salespeople using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. This approach resulted in the creation of a robust four-item scale with a one-factor solution that demonstrated strong construct validity. Future researchers can use this measure to examine how championing interacts with other established leader behaviors to generate positive work outcomes, such as reduced role stress, increased trust in managers, and higher sales performance. Overall, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of championing by highlighting its relevance within the broader leadership literature, making a strong case for its effectiveness in a sales context, and offering a validated measurement tool for future research.