Thrill of victory and agony of defeat: Emotional rewards and sales force compensation

Ying Yang (), Niladri B. Syam () and James D. Hess ()
Additional contact information
Ying Yang: University of Houston
Niladri B. Syam: University of Houston
James D. Hess: University of Houston

Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), 2013, vol. 11, issue 4, No 1, 379-402

Abstract: Abstract When sales territories are imbalanced, how do salespersons’ emotions-pride and disappointment in goal attainment-affect the choice between sales contests and sales quotas? First, profits in a quota system increase when pride in the weaker territory or disappointment in the stronger territory increase. In a sales contest, by contrast, feelings of disappointment reduce profits regardless of territory characteristics. Second, a simultaneous strengthening of pride and disappointment enhances the advantage of quota over contest created by territory imbalance. However, the interpersonal nature of the contest, pitting a salesperson against a known rival, may generate stronger emotions than a quota-system, with its impersonal sales targets. So, third, a contest may overcome the profit advantages of the quota-system. Fourth, if pride and disappointment are strongly felt because of territory imbalance, handicapping either contest or quota is unprofitable, and moreover, if pride and disappointment are greater in interpersonal situations, handicapping may be more detrimental to a contest than to a sales quota-system.

Keywords: Sales; Compensation; Emotions; Quotas; Contests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 M31 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11129-013-9138-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:qmktec:v:11:y:2013:i:4:d:10.1007_s11129-013-9138-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ng/journal/11129/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11129-013-9138-y

Access Statistics for this article

Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME) is currently edited by Pradeep Chintagunta

More articles in Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME) from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().