How psychological resourcefulness increases salesperson's sales performance and the satisfaction of their customers: Exploring the mediating role of customer-oriented behaviors

Abstract

This research examines the relationships among psychological resourcefulness, customer-oriented behaviors, sales performance, and customer satisfaction. Drawing from positive organizational behavior and broaden-and-build theory, the authors propose that (1) psychological resourcefulness positively influences customer-oriented behaviors and (2) customer-oriented behaviors mediate the influence of psychological resourcefulness on sales performance and customer satisfaction. The authors test, and provide support for, these hypotheses using a unique data set consisting of objective sales performance data and survey data collected from 175 salesperson-customer dyads from various industries within a business-to-business setting. The broader contribution of the article is that psychological resourcefulness may be central to salesperson performance and customer relationship effectiveness. Implications of the findings for theoreticians and practitioners are discussed.