 Salesperson self-esteem: Measure development and validationNadia Pomirleanu and Babu John-Mariadoss Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 196, issue C Abstract: Although scholarly interest in salesperson self-esteem has always been high, past research on self-esteem in selling contexts has almost always measured salespersons’ self-esteem using items adapted from global self-esteem measures. In this paper, we use mixed methods to develop and validate a new measure for self-esteem in sales settings. Through grounded theory, we build and propose a multidimensional conceptualization encompassing professional, task and relational dimensions of salesperson self-esteem (SpSE). Analyses of data obtained from multiple surveys of salespeople show (i) better fit for a 3-factor structure when compared to competing models; (ii) high reliability and content validity for the new measure; (iii) convergent and discriminant validity with related constructs, and (iv) incremental validity while predicting key outcomes over and above prior salesperson self-esteem measures. Cumulatively, we show that the SpSE measure is reliable and valid, advancing a nuanced approach to research relating to self-esteem in selling organizations. Keywords: Sales; Salesperson; Self-esteem; Scale development; Salesperson performance; Mixed-methods (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:196:y:2025:i:c:s0148296325002450 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115422 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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