Goal-setting paradoxes? Trade-offs between working hard and working smart: The United States versus China |
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Authors: | Fang Eric Palmatier Robert W Evans Kenneth R |
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Institution: | (1) University of Missouri, Missouri, USA |
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Abstract: | This article proposes a model of the impact of goal difficulty and goal specificity on selling behaviors (selling effort,
adaptive selling, and sales planning) and hence sales and behavior performance. The model suggests that goal-setting factors
may have opposing effects on different sales behaviors. The empirical findings suggest that goal difficulty positively influences
selling effort while negatively influencing adaptive selling behaviors. The results show that goal difficulty and goal specificity
both have opposite effects on the two dimensions of working smart: adaptive selling and sales planning. The findings support
the need for sales managers to account for the cultural context of the salesperson when determining optimal goal-setting strategies.
With data collected from salespeople in the United States and China, the cross-cultural differences regarding the effects
of goal-setting factors are also proposed and empirically supported.
Eric Fang (efe92@mizzou.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at Seattle University. His current research interests are in the
areas of relationship marketing in business-to-business context, markting strategy, and international marketing. He has articles
published and accepted at theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of International Marketing, andAdvances in International Marketing.
Robert W. Palmatier (rpalmatier@missouri.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received his bachelor’s
and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Georgia State University.
He has 15 years of professional work exprience, including various sales and marketing and senior executive positions in the
United States and Europe. His current research interests are in relationship marketing and value-creation strategies focused
in a business-to-business and channels context.
Kenneth R. Evans (evansk@missouri.edu), Ph.D., is a professor of marketing and associate dean of graduate studies in the College of Business
at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He holds the Pinkney C. Walker Professorship in Teaching Excellence. His research
interests are in the areas of marketing management, sales/sales management, marketing theory, and services marketing. He has
published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Advertising, to name but a few. In addition, he has a number of articles that have been published in proceedings and presented at national
conferences. He is either a member of the editorial review boards or serves in an ad hoc reviewer capacity for a variety of
journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. He currently serves as the associate editor of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. |
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Keywords: | goal setting goal difficulty goal specificity adaptive selling sales planning working hard working smart |
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