Salesperson regulatory knowledge and sales performance

Abstract

Salesperson knowledge is an important factor leading to sales performance. Extant literature, however, is silent on the impact of a specific sub-dimension of knowledge—namely, regulatory knowledge or a salesperson's understanding of his or her industry's regulatory environment. This study proposes that salesperson regulatory knowledge is positively associated with sales performance and that individual-level factors (i.e., self-efficacy and customer orientation) and the industry-level factor regulatory turbulence positively moderate this direct effect. Furthermore, the study predicts that the firm-level factor organizational entrepreneurial orientation (EO) positively influences salesperson regulatory knowledge. Two studies analyzing business-to-business salespeople test the conceptual model. The results show that regulatory knowledge is positively associated with sales performance and that customer orientation and industry regulatory turbulence positively moderate this relationship. The findings also reveal that organizational EO is an antecedent to salesperson regulatory knowledge.