Steven P. Brown

ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF SALESPERSON JOB SATISFACTION: META ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF CAUSAL EFFECTS

A three-phase quantitative investigation of relationships involving salesperson job satisfaction was undertaken. First, the strength, valence, and consistency of pairwise relationships were assesse...

A new look at psychological climate and its relationship to job involvement, effort, and performance.

This study investigated the process by which employee perceptions of the organizational environment are related to job involvement, effort, and performance. The researchers developed an operational definition of psychological climate that was based on how employees perceive aspects of the organizational environment and interpret them in relation to their own well-being. Perceived psychological climate was then related to job involvement, effort, and performance in a path-analytic framework. Results showed that perceptions of a motivating and involving psychological climate were related to job involvement, which in turn was related to effort. Effort was also related to work performance. Results revealed that a modest but statistically significant effect of job involvement on performance became nonsignificant when effort was inserted into the model, indicating the mediating effect of effort on the relationship. The results cross-validated well across 2 samples of outside salespeople, indicating that relationships are generalizable across these different sales contexts.

Antecedents and Consequences of Attitude toward the Ad: A Meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of pairwise relationships involving attitude toward the ad was conducted. Analyses of correlations across studies are first analyzed and reported. Because significant variance across studies was found, moderator analyses were conducted to account for interstudy variance. The results suggest a number of methodological variables that moderate the strengths of relationships found in studies of ad attitudes. Analyses were also conducted to assess the robustness of the dual-mediation path model of the effects of ad attitudes. Results indicate support for the model as well as a more important role for the indirect influence of ad attitudes on brand attitudes (via brand cognitions) than that found in previous model tests. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.

The effect of effort on sales performance and job satisfaction

The authors address a fundamental gap in understanding how sales performance and job satisfaction are determined in an investigation of the sales force of a direct-selling organization. Results ind...

The Influence of Goal Orientation and Self-Regulation Tactics on Sales Performance: A Longitudinal Field Test

The authors investigated the influence of goal orientation on sales performance in a longitudinal field study with salespeople. As hypothesized, a learning goal orientation had a positive relationship with sales performance. This relationship was fully mediated by 3 self-regulation tactics: goal setting, effort, and planning. In contrast, a performance goal orientation was unrelated to sales performance. These results suggest that a focus on skill development, even for a veteran workforce, is likely to be associated with higher performance. Management should seek evidence of a learning goal orientation when selecting new employees, while avoiding an excessive focus on performance goal orientation without a comparable skill-development focus.

On the Use of Beta Coefficients in Meta-Analysis.

This research reports an investigation of the use of standardized regression (beta) coefficients in meta-analyses that use correlation coefficients as the effect-size metric. The investigation consisted of analyzing more than 1,700 corresponding beta coefficients and correlation coefficients harvested from published studies. Results indicate that, under certain conditions, using knowledge of corresponding beta coefficients to input missing correlations (effect sizes) generally produces relatively accurate and precise population effect-size estimates. Potential benefits from applying this knowledge include smaller sampling errors because of increased numbers of effect sizes and smaller non-sampling errors because of the inclusion of a broader array of research designs.

Effects of Trait Competitiveness and Perceived Intraorganizational Competition on Salesperson Goal Setting and Performance

The authors assess the effects of trait competitiveness and competitive psychological climate on self-set goal levels and sales performance. The results indicate an interaction between trait compet...

The Changing Environment of Selling and Sales Management

New developments and trends in selling and sales management are creating demands and opportunities that require adaptation and new approaches on the part of both sales organizations and academic researchers. This paper summarizes critical dimensions of change in the environment that affect the practice of selling and sales management and introduces the papers that follow in this Anniversary Special Issue of JPSSM.

An integrated model of feedback-seeking behavior: Disposition, context, and cognition.

This study replicates, integrates, and extends prior research on the dispositional, contextual, and cognitive antecedents of feedback-seeking behavior. Regression analysis was used to analyze data collected from a sample of salespeople (N = 310) from 2 Fortune 500 companies. The study hypotheses were supported with the following results. First, the individual disposition of learning goal orientation and the contextual factors of leader consideration and leader initiation of structure influenced cognitions about the perceived cost and value of feedback seeking. Second, the strength of the relationship of learning goal orientation with the cost and value perceptions was moderated by the leadership style of the supervisor.

Structural Equation Modeling in Marketing: Some Practical Reminders

The authors review issues related to the application of structural equation modeling (SEM) in marketing. The discussion begins by considering issues related to the process of applying SEM in empirical research, including model specification, identification, estimation, evaluation, and respecification, and reporting of results. In addition to these process issues, a number of other issues, such as formulation of multiple theoretical models, model error versus sampling error, and relating study objectives to the capabilities of SEM, are considered, and suggestions offered regarding ways that SEM applications might be improved.