The effects of formal controls on supervisee trust in the manager in new product selling: Evidence from young and inexperienced salespeople in China

Kwaku Atuahene-Gima (First Author), Haiyang Li (Participant Author)

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal

    33 Citations (Web of Science)

    Abstract

    How should sales managers enhance the support and commitment of young, inexperienced sales people during a new product selling? Some scholars have suggested sales managers should use formal controls (i.e., output and process controls) to develop the salespeople's trust in their benevolence. Drawing on a sample of young, inexperienced sales people with rather low education selling new products in China's competitive, volatile, and transitional economic environment, the present study investigates the relationship between output and process controls and supervisee trust (i.e., the salesperson's trust in the sales manager). The empirical results of the study suggest that process and output controls have differential effects on supervisee trust. Specifically, the results indicate that process control enhances supervisee trust by itself and also under conditions of intense training for new product selling and when market volatility is perceived as high. However, process control hinders supervisee trust when the manager is long-term oriented and engages in participative supervision. It was found that output control engenders supervisee trust when the manager is long-term oriented but hinders supervisee trust when salespeople have undergone intensive training for new product selling. Implications of these results are provided for both researchers and practitioners involved in launching and selling new products.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)342-358
    JournalJournal of Product Innovation Management
    Volume23
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2006

    Corresponding author email

    kwaku@ceibs.edu

    Keywords

    • BEHAVIOR
    • BUYER-SELLER RELATIONSHIPS
    • CONSEQUENCES
    • CONTINGENCY
    • COOPERATION
    • DETERMINANTS
    • FRAMEWORK
    • ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL
    • PERFORMANCE
    • SALESFORCE CONTROL-SYSTEMS

    Indexed by

    • ABDC-A*
    • SCIE
    • EI
    • Scopus
    • SCI
    • SSCI

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