The role of leadership in salespeople’s price negotiation behavior

Sascha Alavi (), Johannes Habel (), Paolo Guenzi () and Jan Wieseke ()
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Sascha Alavi: University of Bochum
Johannes Habel: ESMT European School of Management and Technology
Paolo Guenzi: Bocconi School of Management
Jan Wieseke: University of Bochum

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2018, vol. 46, issue 4, No 7, 703-724

Abstract: Abstract Salespeople assume a key role in defending firms’ price levels in price negotiations with customers. The degree to which salespeople defend prices should critically depend upon their leaders’ influence. However, the influence of leadership on salespeople’s price defense behavior is barely understood, conceptually or empirically. Therefore, building on social learning theory, the authors propose that salespeople might adopt their leaders’ price defense behavior given a transformational leadership style. Furthermore, drawing on the contingency leadership perspective, the authors argue that this adoption fundamentally depends on three variables deduced from the motivation–ability–opportunity (MAO) framework, that is, salespeople’s learning motivation, negotiation efficacy, and perceived customer lenience. Results of a multi-level model using data from 92 salespeople and 264 salesperson–customer interactions confirm these predictions. The first to explore contingencies of salespeople’s adoption of their transformational leaders’ price negotiation behaviors, this study extends marketing theory and provides actionable guidance to practitioners.

Keywords: Sales; Leadership; Price negotiations; Salesperson–customer interaction; Transformational leadership; Social learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11747-017-0566-1

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