An Examination of the Relationships between Retail Work Environments, Salesperson Selling Orientation-Customer Orientation and Job Performance

TLDR

The study investigates how three organizational-level factors influence salesperson selling orientation and customer orientation in an in‑store retail context. Researchers surveyed a broad range of retail firms to examine the relationships between organizational constructs and salesperson SOCO. Results showed that firm customer orientation and perceived work‑environment support were positively associated with salesperson customer orientation and negatively with selling orientation, centralization increased selling orientation but not customer orientation, and only customer orientation predicted higher performance.

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between three organizational level constructs and salesperson's selling orientation-customer orientation (SOCO) in an in-store retail setting. Respondents represent a wide variety of retail firms. A firm's customer orientation, centralization, and employee perceptions of support from individuals in the organization were significantly related to customer orientation, selling orientation, or both. Firm level customer orientation and perceptions of work environment support were positively related to a salesperson's degree of customer orientation and negatively related to selling orientation. Centralization was positively related to selling orientation but not to customer orientation. Customer orientation was positively related to performance, while selling orientation was not related.