Self-oriented competitiveness in salespeople: sales management implications

We explore the complexity of salesperson competitiveness and the concept of self-oriented competitiveness (SOC). Study 1 develops and validates a measure of SOC within a nomological network of achievement-related and personality constructs. Study 2 leverages a field experiment with a corporate sales force to explore alternative financial incentive structures facilitating performance across salespeople possessing different types of competitiveness. Using a contingency approach to leadership behavior and a multilevel field study with salesperson–sales manager dyadic data, Study 3 shows that other-oriented competitiveness (OOC) and SOC lead to conditionally distinct salesperson behaviors and differential performance outcomes. Collectively, the three investigations suggest that SOC is a unique construct having important sales management and future research implications.