The role of top management in developing a customer-oriented sales force

Subhra Chakrabarty*, Gene Brown, Robert Widing

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A national random sample of industrial salespeople was surveyed to examine the effects of salespeople's perceptions of top management long-term orientation, top management emphasis, and top management risk aversion on customer-oriented selling behaviors. The results indicated that perceived top management long-term orientation had a significantly positive effect on perceived top management emphasis and a significantly negative effect on perceived top management risk aversion. In turn, perceived top management emphasis positively affected customer-oriented selling, whereas perceived top management risk aversion did not affect customer-oriented selling. The study underscores the importance of salespeople's perceptions of top management factors for implementing the marketing concept. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed and several directions for future research are proposed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)437-449
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management
Volume32
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2012

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The role of top management in developing a customer-oriented sales force'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this