More than money: establishing the importance of a sense of purpose for salespeople

Valerie Good (), Douglas E. Hughes () and Hao Wang ()
Additional contact information
Valerie Good: Seidman College of Business
Douglas E. Hughes: University of South Florida
Hao Wang: University of South Florida

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2022, vol. 50, issue 2, No 4, 272-295

Abstract: Abstract Much of the current research on salesperson motivation focuses on extrinsic reward expectancy related to compensation, contests, incentives, and quotas. We find that while salespeople want to make money, they also want to make a difference and contribute to society through their work. In Study 1, the qualitative findings reveal that a sense of purpose–the belief that one is making a contribution to a cause greater and more enduring than oneself–is a significant motivator for salespeople. Hence, in Study 2 we develop a measure for sense of purpose and distinguish it from related constructs. Finally, in Study 3 we use a dynamic modeling approach with longitudinal salesperson data to empirically demonstrate that sense of purpose is an antecedent to intrinsic motivation. We also discover that intrinsic motivation is more positively associated with increased salesperson effort, adaptivity, and performance than is a desire for money on average over time, particularly for younger salespeople. These findings not only contribute to theory but also have important ramifications for the effective management of modern sales organizations.

Keywords: Intrinsic motivation; Sense of purpose; Personal selling; Self-determination theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-021-00795-x 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:spr:joamsc:v:50:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11747-021-00795-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... gement/journal/11747

DOI: 10.1007/s11747-021-00795-x

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science is currently edited by John Hulland, Anne Hoekman and Mark Houston

More articles in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().