MKT 470

MARKETING RESEARCH
Summer’21

Name ID
Literature Review

Independent Variable 1: The Role of Diversity

In the corporate world, the term ‘diversity’ is quite broad with various categories which has
different impacts in the firms’ performance. Firms engage in diversification to sustain
competitive advantages(Heirati, O'Cass,Schoefer, &Siahtiri, 2016; Najafi-Tavani, Najafi-Tavani,
Naudé,Oghazi, &Zeynaloo, 2018)and also response to uncertainties, fast changing business
environment, market disruptions and technological opportunities(Statsenko, Corral de Zubielqui,
2019, p.1; Almeida &Kogut, 1997; Rosenkopf&Tushman, 1994).

Knowledge diversity can be enhanced through education, skills, training from both internal and
external sources which makes the workforce more innovative in nature(Becker and Huselid,
2006; Coff and Kryscynski, 2011; Hunter et al., 2012; Bogers, J. Foss, Lyngsie, 2018, p.1) and
helps to boost the firms’ performance. “Adiverse knowledge background specifically allows
individuals to identifyand integrate distant external knowledge that is valuable for a
firm’sinternal innovation processes” (Allen, 1977; Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Rosenkopf and
Nerkar, 2001; Bogers, J. Foss, Lyngsie, 2018, p.3).It can help individuals in effective decision
making, stimulating creativity and promoting constructive debates ( Certo et al., 2006;
Heavey&Simsek, 2013; Talke et al., 2010; Boone, Lokshin, Guenter, Belderbos, 2018, p.281).

Nationality diversity or Workforce diversityin a firm refers to employees from different countries
and backgrounds. These employees have various knowledge about different markets on a global
scalewhich helps to grasp innovation opportunities and engage in a diversity of globalexternal
knowledge sourcing initiatives(Boone, Lokshin, Guenter, Belderbos, 2018, p.282). However,
teams may not prefer to work with members across their borders which leadsto conflicts in the
opinions, competition, dysfunctional political behavior(Boone, Lokshin, Guenter, Belderbos,
2018, p.283), group biases, social categorizationand this negatively impact the performance of
the firms (Jehn and Greer, 2013; Kim, Jeong, W. Yiu, Moon, 2020, p.5). Although a diverse
workforce of the organizations can signal the stakeholders as fair and non-discriminatory with
high levels of social inclusionthat helps to “develop along-term stable exchange relationship with

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the organizationbased on high levels of trust, which will allow them tohave positive expectations
about future long-term exchangeswith the organization” (Kim, Jeong, W. Yiu, Moon, 2020,
p.6).This results in better firm performances.

Men and women employees possess different knowledge, skills, opinions and perspectives which
helps firms in decision making(Rogelberg and Rumery 1996; Ali et al. 2014;Kim, Jeong, W.
Yiu, Moon, 2020, p.6).They have differences in their characteristics, behavior and also their
style of doing the tasks and handling their teams such as men are tend to be more competitive,
aggressive, rational, decisive, ambitious( Eagly&Carli, 2003; Fernando, Jain, Tripathy, 2020,
p.486); on the other hand women are collaborative, empathetic, kind and also have superior
information processing, monitoring, planning and corporate social engagement capabilities
(Glass, Cook, & Ingersoll, 2016; Herring,2009; Fernando, Jain, Tripathy, 2020, p.486). When it
comes to leadership styles men tend to be more task-oriented, dominant, and hierarchical where
as women are more people-oriented, democratic, interpersonal(Bass et al., 1996; Eagly& Carli,
2003),which tend to benefit the firms as employees became more cooperative rather than
competitive(Rosener, 1995) and motivate each other to be more productive and skilled
(Fernando, Jain, Tripathy, 2020, p.486).

Firms can improve their performance and sustain their growth through recruiting people from
different nations with knowledge diversityas they tend to have ideas, skills and knowledge on a
wider scale and also have the good decision making capabilities as they have already worked on
local and international firmsand gained experiences about the global market place. The gender
diversity on the other hand tend to act as a catalyst in running the firms and its operations; the
men employees, although they are strongheaded and dominant but their task-oriented nature will
provide the scope to their teammates and colleaguesto enhance their knowledge and decision
making capabilities while women employees will support and allow the executives to share their
own perspectives and make them feel important which raises team spirit and motivate them to
improve their performance.

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 Sales Executive
Diversity
Performance
(Independent
(Dependent
Variable)
Variable)

On the basis of the above model, this study has developed the following hypothesis:

H1: There is a positive relationship between the diversity and the performance of the sales
executives. The knowledge, national and gender diversity leads to better performance for firms.

Independent Variable 2: Motivation

The establishment of motivation is one of the crucial themes in selling and sales management
research. Through different researches of researchers theyidentify the importance of the
independent variable the motivation.

Without a doubt the motivated sales team happily enjoy their work better then rest and leads to a
satisfactory result. There are few steps where a salesperson can be motivated and sales
management team can easily follow these rules.

Focusing on the sales result can be a bit stressful. Through these sales you can influence but
can’t get better results. So, focusing on the key sales instead of results. Public displays of
appreciation can be another one to motivate your sales person, ex: Don’t just celebrate big
victories, try to enjoy the little ones too. Specific compliments can be one way to go.Encourage
them by saying that you trust them is also an effective way(OÜ, 2021). A simple THANK YOU
can be leads to better relationship and resultsaddition to that appreciation awards can be also
done by the managerial team to motivate. Bhavin Parikh the CEO of the test preparation
company said that everyone loves to taste a bit of ownership, it’s a very exquisite way to give the
employees the sense of ownership of their own project, and obviously train them to set the
destination and trust them to follow the path where they can find the path if they lost on their
own trail. As the sense of ownership is one of the keys to bring happiness to the sales person then
every new project should be divided a give a proper ownership. Not only those employees get
motivated or enjoy the work when the other colleagues or employees having a great time, better
interactions or healthy interactions are the way to get motivated.((Schwartz, 2015)

Not only that, there are three theories which elaborates the form of motivation and leads the sales
motivation research. The expectancy theory, attribution theory, self-determination theory.

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The expectation theory explains how the effort works, how the performance goes and the last the
reward an employee through hardship. About the attribution theory it talks about how experience
can affect on a salesperson, it can external and can be internal. The theory told us about the
inherent, the intentions of keen intereststowards the positive growth.(Lee, Khusainova, Jong and
Marshall, 2018)

So, these are the motivational theories that creates a positive aura through the salesperson. from
1970 these theories and structed way to motivate the salesperson.

Motivation Sales Executive

(Independent Performance
Variable) (Dependent Variable)

H2: Motivation has a Positive Impact on the Performance of Sales Executives.

Independent Variable 3: IT Capabilities

This part of the research explains how the IT capabilities (independent variable) of a firm
influences the performance of sales executives (dependent variable).

Many studies have not completely explored the areas of how there is a relationship between
information system strategies and the overall firm performance ("Knowledge strategy planning
and information system strategies enable dynamic capabilities innovation capabilities impacting
firm performance | Emerald Insight", 2021). Therefore, to know the relationship more
specifically how the IT capabilities influence the performance of sales executives will allow
suggesting firm on increasing overall performance.

One of the recent journals of 2020, called Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and
Performance showed the dark side of technology among sales professionals. The focus on
technostress, which is stress formed among sales professionals due to the use of technology. The
journal’s finding shows that the stress related to technology decreases job satisfaction and
increases stress among the role of salespersons ("The dark side of sales technologies: how
technostress affects sales professionals | Emerald Insight", 2021). On the other hand, our research
project is more significant as it will provide insights for firms on how improving IT capabilities
might increase the performance of sales executives.

Now let us look at the literature of one of the important service industries which is healthcare
service. A journal named International Health Care Management, suggests that the benefit of
Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) helps to identify the barriers of training of IT
capabilities, the skills required and use of HIT. the study focuses on the fact the how IT

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capabilities will boost the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery ("Brazilian Journal of
Operations & Production Management", 2021). This journal already suggests a positive
relationship between IT capabilities and the performance of healthcare services.

Sales Executive
IT Capabilities
Performance
(Independent
(Dependent
Variable)
Variable)

Over the past decade, the role of information technology (IT) in creating corporate value has
been the topic. On the other hand, the research findings discussed under the rubric of
“productivity paradox” showed a poor relationship between IT investment and productivity. But
recent studies have shown strong and positive linkages and contributed in the improvement in
business processes, practices and needed to leverage technologies and better metrics to asses
intangible IT benefits. Be that as it may, macro- level effects of IT capability on a full level
impact is undisputed but an inquiry stays on whether IT can give differential advantages to
individual firms.However, recently in corporate bordoms much controversies have been created
by the assertations of Carr. In his article “It doesn’t matter”, he contends that IT is universal,
progressively reasonable, and available to all organizations.All things considered, it can't give
differential benefit to anybody, since it is shortage (not omnipresence) that makes the capacity to
produce supernormal rents. He noticed that IT is following the example of rail lines.
Furthermore, broadcasts, where, as a chiefly replicable, normalized infrastructural innovation, its
advantages are available to all and can't create competitive advantage.

H3: Increase in IT capabilities will increase the Performance of Sales Executives

Dependent variable: Performance of sales executives.

Companies invest tons in their sales organizations. Unsurprisingly, there is a really sizable
expectation placed on sales teams to deliver results – but they can’t appear in the hay alone.
Successful sales performance management planning requires the collective effort and support of
cross-functional teams, all working collaboratively toward the same goals.

Before moving forward, let’s take a step back to define key terms and ensure we are all on the
same page.

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Sales Performance is that the effectiveness of the sales team, both individually and as a whole ,
in selling activities; the facility to understand sales goals. Sales performance is often measured
during a kind of way relying on the sales role and sales environment, like sales revenue,
customer retention rate, or number of net new accounts. With greater transparency and reliable
sales data, sales reps stay track with goals that are aligned to corporate objectives.

Fewer payout errors gives sales reps the arrogance to specialize in revenue-producing sales
activities rather than dalliance calculating their own pay, also mentioned as shadow accounting.

With a reduction in payout errors and drill down capabilities for sales reps to determine details
on commissions, exceptions, and adjustments, sales ops spends less time addressing questions
and payout disputes from sales reps and should focus instead on adding strategic value.

Standardized processes and integrated, automated tools reduce operational complexity leading to
less time required to process sales compensation.

Assess your organization’s current state by asking questions like , “What quite reporting is out
there for sales reps to understand their performance?” 12% of companies provide no reporting to
their sales representatives. (2018 Sales Comp Administration Survey, OpenSymmetry and
Xactly)

According to the 2018 Sales Comp Administration Survey, sponsored by OpenSymmetry and
Xactly, 49% of respondents indicated that Sales Operations owns sales comp administration.
However, this only accounts for the administration component. Other components of an SPM
program (e.g. overall program ownership, program management, etc.) could each have different
owners.

Being a sales professional is typically very stressful, as there are high demands to satisfy sales
quotas. After all, if salespeople don’t make their numbers, it not only impacts their goals, but the
financial needs of the companies . due to this, there's tremendous pressure placed on hitting their
sales.

But albeit sales numbers are hugely important, they’re not the only because of evaluate the
success of your sales team. If you’re trying to identify which salespeople on your team are the
very best performers and which of them might need to make a career change, it’s important to
know the way to look beyond the immediate numbers and develop a more nuanced because of
evaluate sales reps’ performance.

Final sales numbers are often the foremost attention-getting stats for sales managers, but there
are plenty of other elements that enter creating those final numbers.

Many sales managers believe the 80-20 rule—the concept 80% of your sales results come from
the very best 20% of your sales reps. If this 80-20 rule is true for your organization, it are often
tempting to only let your top sales reps keep doing their own thing and keep selling and selling—
but this will be an error . rather than evaluating your top sales reps based only on their sales
numbers, plan to capitalize further on their success by asking them to form best practices and
training opportunities which can be shared with the rest of the team.

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The best players in sports don’t just rack up great statistics for themselves; they find the way to
form people on the team recover . It’s an equivalent for sales. Enlist the support of your best
salespeople in training the rest of the team. determine what they're doing so well, and replicate
that success—and confirm your top sales people understand that training may be a component of
their job performance evaluation.

Performance of sales executives plays a very important role in the success of firm, how
performance of sales executives is dependent on the variables- motivation, diversity and It
capabilities of a firm can be understood now as Sales executives are the key point of contact
between an organisation and its clients: answering queries, offering advice and introducing new
products. How you contact these clients will change across different companies and roles.

Diversity

Performance of
Motivation
Sales Executives

IT Capabilities

Reference:

1. Linh, N. T. T. (2019). Factors Influencing on Salesperson Performance in Information

Service Industry. Vietnam National University.
https://thesiscommons.org/ugcre/download#:~:text=Since%201985%2C%20Churchill
%2C%20Ford%2C,%2C%20organizational%2C%20and%20environmental%20variables

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Geographic Localization of Innovation. Small Business Economics, 9(1), 21-31.
https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007995512597

3. Bogers, M., Foss, N. J., &Lyngsie, J. (2018). The “human side” of open innovation: The
role of employee diversity in firm-level openness. Research Policy, 47(1), 218–231.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2017.10.012

4. Boone, C., Lokshin, B., Guenter, H., &Belderbos, R. (2018). Top management team
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5. Certo, S. T., Lester, R. H., Dalton, C. M., & Dalton, D. R. (2006). Top management
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7. Fernando, G. D., Jain, S. S., &Tripathy, A. (2020). This cloud has a silver lining: Gender
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