The Impact Mechanism of Self leadership on Sales Performance: The Mediation Effect of Self efficacy and Moderation Effect of Internal Locus of Control
Sales leadership has always been a hot topic in sales management, however, the previous research on sales leadership was mostly in the top down approach to attention. Based on the characteristics of sales position (e.g. self managing teams, virtual work away from direct supervision, self motivation) this study focuses on salespeople's self leadership a specific way of leadership. Integrated with self regulation theory, social cognitive theory, intrinsic motivation theory, we construct a research model of the relationship between salespeople's self leadership and sales performance. Through the survey data analysis of 243 B2B salespeople in domestic IT enterprises, we examine the relationship between self leadership and sales performance, the mediating effect of self efficacy and the moderating effect of internal locus of control. The results show that: (1)Salespeople's self leadership has a significant positive impact on sales performance; (2)Self efficacy plays partial mediating role between self leadership and sales performance; (3)Internal locus of control moderates the relationship between salespeople's self leadership and self efficacy. Collectively, this research extends our understanding of sales leadership and how salespeople's self leadership facilitates sales performance. Our study showed salespeople's self leadership plays an important role on sales performance, and also provide better guidance for the choosing and training of salespeople in sales management practice.
IMMS 2019