Entrepreneurial Selling Practices: A Systematic Review and Reconceptualization of the Literature

Abstract

Selling constitutes a fundamental component of entrepreneurship, yet it has been overlooked in antecedent research. In order to incorporate entrepreneurial selling practices into existing entrepreneurship theory, it is a necessary first step to systematically analyse existing literature in order to develop a foundational understanding of this activity. We review 53 articles drawn from a wide range of scholarly disciplines that, in some way, conceptualise entrepreneurial selling practices. From this analysis we develop a multi-level model of entrepreneurial selling practices that operate across four theoretical dimensions: sales enablers; sales interactions; sales strategy and sales operations. Through the critical analysis of the literature, it is evident that selling constructs have been inconsistently applied and that there is little cumulative theory development. We propose that our multi-dimensional model can structure future studies of entrepreneurial selling and can inform both existing entrepreneurship theory (such as opportunity exploitation) and entirely novel theory. We suggest that a particularly promising area for future development concerns the study of situated sales interactions, which we argue constitute the entrepreneur- market nexus.