 Compliance versus preference: Understanding salesperson response to contestsF. Juliet Poujol, Christophe Fournier and John F. Tanner Journal of Business Research, 2011, vol. 64, issue 7, 664-671 Abstract: Firms use sales contests to motivate salespeople; however, knowledge of their impact on salespeople is scarce. Acceptance of the contest, according to goal-setting theory, is essential for a contest to motivate salespeople (Hile-Hart et al., 1989). Yet attitude toward (or preference for) the contest is an important factor in motivating effort (Murphy and Dacin, 1998). In an experiment with financial services salespeople, this study examines the compliance effect (Chowdhury, 1993) and propositions that Murphy and Dacin (1998) suggest. Results support goal-setting theory, but also the importance of salesperson's attitude to the contest. While the study partially confirms Chowdhury's (1993) results regarding the influence of contest difficulty, his suggestion that difficulty leads to goal acceptance was not. Valence for winning does not relate to attitude significantly in the study here, contrary to Murphy and Dacin's (1998) propositions. The article develops an integrative model with implications for research and practice. Keywords: Sales; contest; Motivation; Incentive; Salespeople; Compliance; effect; Goal-setting; theory (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:64:y:2011:i:7:p:664-671 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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