Abstract
Purpose Salesperson performance is accepted as a relevant factor of retailing success. However, scarce studies reveal the relationship between sales performance and brand relationship. The purpose of this study is both, from one side, to empirically demonstrate the impact of salesperson brand attachment (SBA) on sales performance and, on the other side, to identify the mediators of this relationship in small retailing. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with a sample of 206 small retailers from different sectors of an emerging country. The proposed model was tested using partial least squares–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS3. Findings The results demonstrated that SBA is relevant to driving sales performance through two relevant paths – one following SBA–satisfaction–performance and one path following the SBA–commitment–performance. The model was able to explain 63% of the outcome performance. Practical implications Regarding small retailers, where the owners, employees and managers have higher levels of interaction than the large national retail chains, the marketing executives must invest in improving the attachment to the brand and create emotional bonds and cognition between marketers and the brand. They must develop strategies to promote job satisfaction and organizational commitment because they determine performance. Originality/value Despite the relevance of small businesses for economies worldwide and the importance of salesperson brand relationships, no study has been developed to demonstrate the impacts of such relationships on salesperson performance in retailing. Furthermore, in addition to the central role of organizational commitment in the sales research, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore how to mediate the relationship between brand attachment and sales performance.
Highlights
In the past, a salesperson’s role was purely to mediate customer contact with the company; in recent years, the role has evolved beyond that, and it has become necessary for salespeople to create value for consumers and the organization (Schwepker, 2019; Badrinarayanan et al, 2019)
We propose that the motivation to sell impacts salesperson performance in small retailing, suggesting the following hypothesis: H6
This research aimed to propose and test a model that explored the impact of salesperson brand attachment (SBA) on salesperson performance in small retailing
Summary
A salesperson’s role was purely to mediate customer contact with the company; in recent years, the role has evolved beyond that, and it has become necessary for salespeople to create value for consumers and the organization (Schwepker, 2019; Badrinarayanan et al, 2019) Given this change, the importance of the salesperson as well as interest in gaining more knowledge about the factors that affect sales performance has grown simultaneously (Bagozzi et al, 2016). Verbeke et al (2011) developed a comprehensive meta-analysis (1982–2008) that demonstrated that role ambiguity, cognitive aptitude, involvement, degree of adaptability and sales-related knowledge are the main influencers of salesperson performance Recent studies confirm these relationships but emphasize specific dimensions such as self-efficacy (Peterson, 2020), coworkers, buyers and situational factors (Herjanto and Franklin, 2019) and ethical issues (Badrinarayanan et al, 2019). Despite the significant number of previous studies, the capacity of explanation of these models, in general, substantiates less than 50% of salesperson performance, suggesting the existence of other variables
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