Các nhân tố thúc đẩy sự hài lòng và hiệu suất công việc của nhân viên bán hàng trong ngành công nghiệp bán lẻ: Trường hợp nghiên cứu tại Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

THE DRIVERS OF SALESPERSON’S JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB

PERFORMANCE IN RETAIL INDUSTRY: A CASE STUDY FOR DANANG,

VIETNAM

CÁC NHÂN TỐ THÚC ĐẨY SỰ HÀI LÒNG VÀ HIỆU SUẤT CÔNG VIỆC CỦA NHÂN VIÊN

BÁN HÀNG TRONG NGÀNH CÔNG NGHIỆP BÁN LẺ: TRƯỜNG HỢP NGHIÊN CỨU TẠI

ĐÀ NẴNG, VIỆT NAM

Truong Thi Hieu Hanh, Vo Thi Chuong

The Faculty of E-commerce, University of Economics, The University of Danang

[email protected], chuongvt[email protected]

Abstract

The importance of sales force in retail organizations has been recognized over the past decades. Not only

doing sales function better, motivating and increasing sales performance of employees is also a key strategy to

create core values for customers and commercial enterprises. This study validates the theoretical framework for

factors that promote employee satisfaction and job performance in the context of the retail sector in Danang,

Vietnam. The results of data analysis with PLS-SEM technique from 377 sales staffs showed the indirectly

positive impact of commitment, motivation, on salespeople’s job satisfaction and performance, through the

variable of their work effort. The study is expected to give managers a better insight into motivating and

creating a commitment to increase the efforts of salespeople at today's retail businesses.

Keywords: work effort, job performance, job satisfaction, salesperson commitment, salesperson

motivation

1. Introduction

Directly connecting and communicating with customers, salespeople not only implement

selling function but they also are core value creators for customers as well as sales organisations

(Herjanto et al., 2019). Particularly, besides selling process and making profits, they are required to

deal with more and more complex sales cases, persuade buyers, cultivate customer relationships, build

up trust and achieve overall organisational sales goals within the context of today’s dynamic selling

environment. A myriad of researches like Cespedes & Wallace (2017), Sunder et al. (2017) point out

that salesperson turnover has reached 27%, and average tenure is as short as two years despite an

average spending of more than $900 billion on building sales forces by US enterprises (Cespedes et

al., 2017). This implies the significance of improving salesperson’s sale productivity as the most

pressing issues facing today’s sales managers (Mallin et al., 2009). Provided such importance, many

scholars have put an emphasis on identifying a wide range of components affecting salesperson’s

performance (Evans, 2012). Surprisingly, there is still an inconsistency and far from perfection in the

existing literature despite the abundance of this research topic (Herjanto et al., 2019). In fact, many

scholars such as Brown et al (2005) called for a better integration of motivation, control and

compensation areas into future sales researches (Brown et al., 2005). It can be said that with an

increasingly competitive environment, today, this research area still deserves an adequate

consideration from both scholars and practitioners.

The retail industry in Vietnam has been growing over recent decades with the simultaneous

participation of both domestic and foreign players. Specifically, the retail market in Vietnam is still

recognised as the prospects of strong double-digit growth during the forecast period of 2019 to 2024

after experiencing a rapid development with a compound annual growth rate of 10.97% over the period

of 2013 to 2018, thanks to a variety of definite advantages (ResearchandMarket.com, 2019). They are

the emergence of E-commerce within the context of the fourth industrial revolution, the growing

economy, increasing urbanization, a younger population and rising incomes. All these factors have

contributed to creating the booming and competitive Vietnam retail sector in which human resource

408

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

typically is considered as one of the key factors to bring a competitive advantage among the customer-

oriented culture, whereby sales staffs play a crucial role in creation and delivery core value for

customers. Hence, the questions that “what are drivers of salesperson’s outcomes as well as job

satisfaction?”; “what should managers have to do to make profound impacts on salesperson’s work

effort?” need to be discussed publicly. Noticeably, nevertheless, the salesperson performance literature

in Vietnam remains scarce, having not been received adequate attention from both researchers and

sales managers yet. Admittedly, this claim provides the primary motivation for this study; exploring

“drivers of salesperson’s job satisfaction and job performance in the context of the retail sector in

Danang, Vietnam”. This study is expected to bring sales managers with a profound understanding of

various components such as job commitment, organisation commitment, intrinsic-extrinsic motivations

and work efforts that have effects on salesperson’s job satisfaction and outcomes; implying strategic

drivers of sales productivity for retail businesses in today’s fierce competition of Vietnam retail sector.

Furthermore, the significance of this research is also clearly highlighted because of the importance of

making commitment and motivation for Vietnamese young salesforce; increasing ambitious efforts in

their careers; boosting their job satisfaction and performance. As a result, these contribute to the full

and sustainable development of Vietnam retail sector.

2. Literature review and research model

2.1. Background of salesperson commitment, salesperson motivation, job satisfaction, salesperson’s

work effort and job performance

Salesperson commitment

There are two different approaches to the definition of commitment: behavioural approach and

attitudinal approach. While the former refers the link between an individual and an organization rather

than pursuit of other occupational alternatives (Salancik, 1977; Staw, 1997), the latter regards

commitment as an analogy between an individual’s identification and organization’s values, goals;

faithfulness to the enterprise (organizational commitment) as well as high involvement in work

activities (job commitment) (Hall et al, 1970; Buchanan, 1974). Many scholars like Ingram et al

(1989); Mulki et al (2008) agree that organizational and job commitment have attracted strongly

researchers’ attention in sales and marketing literature by comparison with other types of work

commitment identified by Morrow (1986). Following the researches of Chonko (1986); Ingram et al

(1989), this study applied the attitudinal approach of organizational and job commitment because of

some reasons. Firstly, the attitudinal view of commitment brings an-unique construct to the

commitment establishment (Chonko, 1986). Secondly, in comparison with other kinds of work

commitment, organizational and job ones are more amenable to managerial action. Thirdly, due to

Morrow’s criticism (1983), the remaining types of work commitment is found ambiguous and

redundant.

Provided the association with job satisfaction and salesforce turnover, unsurprisingly,

organizational commitment has drawn special attention of scholars in sales literature (John et al, 1990;

Schwepker, 2001; Rutherfold et al, 2009). This research concept is regarded as the relative strength of

an individual’s identification with as well as involvement in a particular organization (Hall et al, 1970;

Buchanan, 1974; Mowday et al, 1979). Besides, with the theoretical dominance in organizational

commitment research accepted by scholars such as Meyer et al (2002); Jaros (2007); Hartmann et al

(2013), this study inherits and employs the three-component model of organizational commitment

developed by Meyer & Allen (1997) including affective, normative and continuance facets.

Particularly, according to these researchers, affective organizational commitment refers to emotional

bond the employee evolves primarily from positive work experience in the organization. Normative

organizational commitment reflects perceived responsibility as well as an obligation toward the

organization while continuance organizational commitment reflects perceived costs of leaving the

organization. In contrast to organizational commitment, job commitment has received scant attention

409

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

from scholars in salesforce literature (Ingram et al, 1989). Chusmir (1982) suggests job involvement as

a contrast utilised interchangeably with job commitment in the context of salesforce researches.

Salesperson motivation

Salesperson motivation has played a vital role in sales research as the acknowledgement of many

scholars such as Anderson & Oliver (1987); Walker et al (1977); Dubinsky et al (1994). IIgen & Klein

(1988) regard motivation as either predisposition or psychological state of an individual concerning

choices that involve the direction, intensity as well as the persistence of behaviour. Churchill et al (1979)

consider salesperson motivation to be a process in which many attitude’s components interact to form an

individual’s motivation. Because of the differences in individual’s motivational needs in term of

cognitive and emotional aspects, salesperson’s motivation is typically regarded as two distinct aspects:

intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Amabile et al, 1994). Particularly, the former mentions either the

pleasure or value of an activity itself while the latter refers to not only the value an individual puts on an

action’s results but also the evaluation carried out by an individual about the probability of recognizing

the results (Staw, 1977). In other words, whereas intrinsic motivation could include challenge seeking as

well as task enjoyment, extrinsic one could contain both compensation and recognition seeking (Amabile

et al, 1994). These two components of salespeople motivation have been found to be changeable by the

immediate working environment (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Salesperson’s work effort

The concept of salesperson’s work effort has been recognized as one of the pivotal constructs

in salesforce and organizational behaviour literature (Walker et al, 1977). Illgen & Klein (1988) define

work effort as forces, energies or activities by which work is accomplished. This definition is fairly

similar to the interpretation of Naylor et al (1980), defining efforts as the amount of energy spent for a

task per unit of time. However, Campbell & Pritchard (1976) suggest that besides time spent on the

job, the work’s intensity should be regarded as a crucial aspect of salesperson’s work effort. In this

study, the work effort of the sales force is presented through a series of specific actions such as

acquiring potential customers, retaining current customers, planning sales, etc. These efforts of

salespeople help retail companies achieve their business goals.

Job Satisfaction

Due to the challenges of keeping employees in the organization, researches on job satisfaction

have been received special interests of practitioners. Many scholars like Brown & Peterson (1994);

Singh et al (1996); Walker et al (1977) explain this concept in terms of how a sales staff feel about

their job, its role requirements, outcomes as well as organizational feedback. Meanwhile, the definition

suggested by Locke (1976) has been widely employed in sales literature (like Teas, 1983; Rich, 1997;

Fu et al, 2009). Particularly, the author mentions job satisfaction as a pleasurable emotional state

stemming from the appraisal of someone’s job as either gaining or facilitating the achievement of

someone’s job value.

The satisfaction of employees is very important to make them ready to work and contribute

positively to the company. Moreover, the feeling of satisfaction motivates them to work harder and be

loyal to their organization (Fu et al, 2009).

Job performance

Salesperson performance is defined by Churchill et al (1985) in term of salesperson behaviour

which has been evaluated after considering their contributions to the organization’s goals. In a similar

vein, Mulki et al (2015) consider this concept as a behaviour appropriate to goals of the organization

and often assessed on the basis of employee achievement. Meanwhile, with a brief explanation, Jex &

Britt (2014) refer to employees’ behaviours in work that are consistent with as well as contribute to

organizational goals.

410

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

This research agrees with Mulki et al (2015)’s evaluations in which job performance is

regarded as a function of both employees’ ability and their motivation to perform the job. Salespeople

output is illustrated by seeking effective ways to introduce products for customers and building a close

relationship with customers to yield substantial revenues for their business. These statements could be

appropriate to the orientation of sales force in organization with a customer-centric culture.

2.2. Research model

2.2.1. The salesperson’s commitment- work effort linkage

The relation between salesperson’s commitment and their work effort has not been clearly

recognised in the literature yet. Specifically, while Weiner & Vardi (1980) did not find the linkage

between organizational commitment and sales efforts in the context of insurance agents, some scholars

such as Hunt et al (1985); Chonko (1986) indicated the positive correlation between these two

variables and sales performance. However, there is more and more studies supporting the link between

salesforce commitment and their efforts in work like Weiner & Vardi’s research (1980) that accepted a

positive relationship between job commitment and selling effort; Cron & Slocum’s study (1986) that

indicated the coincidence of job involvement and performance level.

To explain this relation, Bagozzi (1992) argues that sales effort is one of salespeople’s

behavioural outcomes (such as turnover, job performance,…) that could be predicted by employing the

Meyer & Allen’s model of organizational commitment. Jaramillo et al (2005) conclude that affectively

committed employees are more likely to exert effort on behalf of the organization since they consider

the organization’s achievement as their own. Similarly, some researchers like Chusmir (1982); Ingram

et al (1989) suggest that because the personal and psychological attachment of employees to their job

can be considered as work commitment, the more increased sales staffs commit to their job when they

are satisfied with the workplace’s environment, the longer time they can work without feeling bored.

Accepting these researches, we propose the following hypothesis H1:

H1: Salespeople’s effort is positively related to their levels of commitment.

2.2.2. The Salesperson’s motivation- work effort linkage

Although myriad of researchers (Weitz et al, 1986; Anderson & Oliver, 1987) agree that in the

sales literature, salesperson motivation has been assessed as global intrinsic and extrinsic motivation,

there is still conceptual and empirical distinction between these two components (Amabile et al 1994).

In fact, the inconsistencies between the influences of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation on

sales staffs’ job performance or work effort illustrated in some empirical findings. For instance, while

Tyagi (1985) indicated the greater effect of intrinsic motivation on performance in comparison with

the extrinsic one, Oliver’s research results (1974) suggested the extrinsic outcome did predict

performance instead of intrinsic one.

Nevertheless, the wide acknowledge in salesforce and organisational behaviour literature is still

the mediate role of salesperson’s work effort in the relationship between sales force’s motivation and

job performance (Naylor et al, 1980; Walker et al, 1977). An important conclusion provided by

Chonko (1986) is that while job performance is an outcome of work effort, salesperson effort is an

outcome of their motivation. Therefore, it could be seen that salespeople’s motivation is an antecedent

of their effort in work. In one way, the more motivation salespeople have, the more efforts they place

in their work to achieve rewards associated with tasks. And this is in accordance with Sujan’s

explanations (1985) that selling effort is more likely to be related to the extrinsic motivation of sales

force whereas strategy-oriented behaviour could be linked with intrinsic motivation. From these

claims, we suggest the hypothesis H2 as the following:

H2: Salespeople’s motivation is positively related to their levels of work effort.

411

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

2.2.3. Salesperson’s work effort and job performance

Being widely acknowledged as a crucial predictor of job performance, salesperson’s work

effort has attracted a lot of interest from researchers (Mulki et al, 2015). Unsurprisingly, the positively

strong relationship between salesperson’s work effort and their job performance has been accepted,

despite the lack of an empirical consensus about drivers of salespeople’s productivity in sales literature

(Churchill et al, 1978). The logic behind this relationship is that employees’ effort in work would

directly influence their performance which contributes to gaining business’s goal (Brown & Peterson,

1994; Kirkman et al, 2006). Hence, the hypothesis H3 should be developed as the following:

H3: Salespeople’s effort is positively related to their performance levels.

2.2.4. Salesperson’s work effort and job satisfaction

The association of salesperson’s work effort with their job satisfaction has been found in a

large number of previous researches (Brown & Peterson, 1994; Ingram et al, 1989). The logic behind

this relationship is that staffs’ efforts in work should meet their intrinsic needs of to be competent,

efficient and self-determined and then contributes to their satisfaction in job without the dependence

on their performance outcomes (Ingram et al, 1989). Additionally, Emmons (1986) also states that

spending on the effort at work tends to increase people’s appreciation of the objects, results, status and

membership they earned or experienced; resulting in job satisfaction. Accepted these findings, we

propose the following hypothesis H4:

H4: Salespeople’s effort is positively related to their satisfaction levels.

2.2.5. Job performance and job satisfaction

In line with prior researches, this study also expects the positive direct effect of salesperson’s

job performance on their job satisfaction. Specifically, Churchill et al (1993) conceive that not only a

result of a tool for the firm but job performance also is results of a key tool for personal goals,

promotion, welfare of sales staffs that brings about their satisfaction in work. The hypothesis H5 is

developed as the following:

H5: Salespeople’s job performance is positively related to their satisfaction levels.

Figure 1 below has been included to describe and summarize all of the hypothesized

relationship developed in this section.

Commitment

Job Performance

H1

H3

H5

Work Effort

H4

Job Satisfaction

H2

Motivation

Figure 1- Proposed model

3. Research Methodology

This study uses quantitative methods with questionnaires built by using different scales from

previous studies: Job commitment, organization commitment, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic

412

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

motivation, and work effort (Ingram et al., 1989); job satisfaction (Fu et al., 2009), job performance

(Mulki et al., 2015). A pilot survey was conducted on 20 salespeople with the aim of adjusting

indicators to suit sales staff in Vietnam. Afterwards, a survey was carried out among 398 sales staffs

over the age of 18 in Danang, who either were or are salespeople at retail locations such as

supermarkets, shopping centres, shopping malls,v..v

The partial least square (PLS) method which is implemented in Smart PLS 3.0 is used in this

study to test the proposed research model. There are some reasons for adopting PLS-SEMM (partial

least square- structural equation modelling) approach. Firstly, by employing a component-based

approach, PLS analysis allows examining both formative and reflective constructs (Lohmoller, 1988;

Gefen et al., 2000; Rai et al., 2006). As a second-order constructs, in this research, commitment and

motivation are considered to be a formative construct whereas other variables in the framework are

measured as reflective constructs. Thirdly, this analysis puts less restrictions not only on data

distribution but also on measurement scales (Chin et al., 2003). Moreover, two-step analytical

approach is adopted in this study, at Anderson & Gerbing (1988)’s suggestion. Specifically, to ensure

the appropriate validity as well as reliability of the constructs, the measurement model is first analysed;

followed by estimating the structural model to assess both the model’s theoretical explanatory power

and the hypothesized relationships’ significance levels.

4. Empirical Results and Discussion

4.1. Sample description

After excluding the invalid samples (those with the same answer for the majority of the

questions) to clean up the data, we finally obtained 377 valid samples out of a total of 398 samples

obtained from respondents. The majority of survey participants is women (accounting for 62.86%),

mostly in the age group of 18-25 (accounting for 76.6%). Regarding the income of the survey

participants, there is a significant difference between the high-income group (over VND 15 million),

which only accounts for 6.6% and is mainly in the two income groups: less than 5 million (accounting

for 46.7%) and from 5 million - <10 million (accounting for 29.9%). These reflect relatively the

situation of salespeople in Da Nang city, Vietnam.

4.2. Evaluation of the measurement model

This study applies the recommendations of Hair et al (2016) including Cronbach’s alpha,

composite reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity.

The empirical results show that the majority of scales achieve internal consistency when

Cronbach’s alpha is within the acceptable range; composite reliability of scales is about 0.7 <CR <0.9.

The outer loading of each item is most likely within the ideal range (greater than 0.7). Besides, the

convergence value AVE (average variance extracted) is greater than 0.5 and also achieve discriminant

validity according to Fornell & Larcker standards (1981). After performing a Cronbach’s Alpha

assessment for the scales, items with an outer loading <0.7 will be removed in order to better improve

the reliability of the scale. Specifically, the removed items include AC5 (0.077), AC6 (0.028) of the

“affective commitment” component. Similarly, the results showed that the items CC1 (0.654), CC4

(0.604) of the “continuance commitment” scale, and the items NC5 (0.447), NC8 (0.364) of the

“normative commitment” scales are also removed because the load factor is less than 0.7.

According to the results of testing the Fornell- Lacker criterion, all square root AVE (values on

the diagonal) are greater than 0.5 that meet the requirements. Besides, the majority of the squared root

of AVE in each factor is higher than the correlation coefficient of other factors in the same column.

Therefore, all factors reach discriminant value. Table 1 below presents in detail the results of the

reliability testing of scales.

413

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

Table 1- The results of assessing the validity and reliability of research’s measurements.

Cronbach's

Alpha

Composite

Reliability

Average Variance

Extracted (AVE)

0.842

0.876

0.871

0.882

0.855

0.893

0.876

0.882

0.903

0.900

0.919

0.896

0.918

0.911

0.546

0.539

0.545

0.74

Affective Commitment (AC)

Continuance Commitment (CC)

Normative Commitment (NC)

Job Commitment (JC)

0.635

0.652

0.674

Intrinsic Motivation (IM)

Extrinsic Motivation (EM)

Work Effort (WE)

Job Performance (JP)

Job Satisfaction (JS)

0.898

0.803

0.922

0.884

0.663

0.718

Table 2- The square root of AVE and correlation coefficients between variables

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Affective Commitment 0.799

Continuance

Commitment

0.714 0.834

Normative Commitment 0.789 0.803 0.738

Job Commitment

Commitment

0.714 0.801 0.782 0.870

0.730 0.731 0.919 0.806 0.897

0.728 0.781 0.753 0.774 0.821 0.897

Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic Motivation 0.750 0.833 0.808 0.853 0.805 0.84 0.907

Motivation

Work Effort

0.732 0.830 0.819 0.854 0.807 0.847 0.869 0.905

0.774 0.826 0.852 0.869 0.842 0.842 0.838 0.836 0.851

0.726 0.689 0.645 0.774 0.762 0.614 0.733 0.711 0.751 0.814

0.791 0.789 0.817 0.773 0.861 0.746 0.859 0.845 0.834 0.679 0.847

Job Performance

Job Satisfaction

4.3. Evaluation of the structural model

For the purpose of estimating the relationship of latent variables, the structural model will be

analysed based on the evaluation of Path coefficient and R-square with the significance level of 5%.

These are indicators of model fit as the suggestion of many researchers like Hulland (1999) and Chin

(2003). Furthermore, the variance inflation factor (VIF) is considered to assess whether the existence

of multicollinearity between two or more formative indicators can seriously bias the results.

In this study, there are two hypotheses H1 and H2 with a VIF of 5,612 greater than 5. However

according to Hair et al (1995), the appropriate range of this index could be less than 10, so in this case,

it can be concluded that the multicollinearity phenomenon is not a threat in this study. Table 3 shows

the results of the research hypothesis test.

This study also considers the mediation roles of both job performance in the relation of work

effort with job satisfaction and work effort in the relation of input factors (commitment and

motivation) with output factors (job satisfaction and job performance). The proposals of Peacher &

Hayes (2008) were employed with the results presented in Table 4. Accordingly, the analysis results

allow conclusions that exist the mediating role of job performance and work effort variables in the

mentioned relationships. Specifically, zero does not appear in the result of the Bootstrap’s confidence

intervals and the specific indirect effect is statistically significant (Zhao &amp et al., 2010).

414

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

Table 3- The results of testing research hypotheses.

Path Coefficient (β)

VIF

Std

T Values

13.655

11.859

27.869

19.021

2.689

P Values

0.000

Conclusion

Accepted

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

0.526

0.459

0.751

0.743

0.121

5.612

1.000

2.295

0.038

0.039

0.027

0.039

0.045

0.000

0.007

Table 4- The result of mediator role at Percher & Hayer (2008)’s suggestion

Indirect 97.5% confidence interval

The relationship

T

P

influence

0.091

of indirect effects

[0.022; 0.162]

[0.324; 0.454]

[0.329; 0.458]

[0.282; 0.409]

[0.289; 0.411]

values Values

2.585 0,010

11.634 0.000

11.882 0.000

9.982 0.000

10.796 0.000

Work Effort‰ Job performance‰ Job satisfaction

Commitment‰ Work effort ‰ Job satisfaction

Commitment‰ Work effort ‰ Job performance

Motivation‰ Work effort ‰ Job satisfaction

Motivation‰ Work effort ‰ Job performance

0.391

0.395

0.341

0.345

Non-parametric bootstrap analysis with 5000 samples was performed to evaluate the results of

the study, because the re-sampling was, according to many researchers, an appropriate strategy to test

the model in practice. After removing items with loading factor less than 0.7, the Bootstrap procedure

with 5000 samples was performed again to improve the model's quality. The path factors related to the

remaining relationships of the model are significant with the significance level (p-value <5%), and the

average convergence AVE (average variance extracted) values are greater than 0.5. The visual results

are shown in Figure 2 below.

ꢀ^ꢁ= 0.564

Affective

Commitment

ꢀ^ꢁ= 1.000

Job

Performance

β=0.264**

Continuance

Commitment

Normative

Commitment

ꢀ^ꢁ= 0.927

Work

Effort

Job

Commitment

β=0.751

ꢀ^ꢁ= 1.000

Intrinsic

Motivation

ꢀ^ꢁ= 0.701

Motivation

Job

Satisfaction

Extrinsic

Motivation

Note: *p < 0,01; **p < 0,001

Figure 2- The ultimate PLS-SEM model

415

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

It can be seen that the salesperson's perceptions of commitment have a positive impact on their

work effort (β = 0.531). At the same time, motivation positively impacting work effort is β = 0.456.

Moreover, this work effort has a positive impact on job satisfaction (β = 0.743) and job performance (β

= 0.751). Especially, the job performance has a positive impact on job satisfaction (β = 0.121).

The empirical findings also showed that the variables about organizational commitment, job

commitment, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and work effort could explain 70.1% of the

variable value of the job satisfaction and 56.4% of the variable value of the job performance.

4.4. Discussions

From the empirical results presented above, there are four major noteworthy points which will

be discussed in this section.

Firstly, this study allows us to confirm the positive effects of commitment on salesperson's

efforts. This result is thought to be similar to the result of the study Ingram et al (1989) conducted in

the midwestern and northeastern regions of the United States in the sales industry. Remarkably, both

components of the commitment are organizational commitment (which includes 03 aspects: AC, CC

and NC) and job commitment have a positive impact on the employee's work capacity variable; in

accordance with previous studies of Ingram et al (1989), Jaros (2007). This once again confirms the

reliability and validity of the research scale when implemented for the environment in Vietnam.

Secondly, in line with Ingram et al (1989), the relationship between the sales force (including

intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation) of salespeople and the efforts in their work has been

admitted. Interestingly, compared to the commitment factor, individual motivation has a stronger

impact on their work efforts, especially outside motivations such as salaries, bonuses and benefits. It

can be said that the more motivation salespeople have, the more efforts they place in their work to gain

awards they desire.

Thirdly, the salesperson's efforts have a direct impact on both job satisfaction (in line with Fu et

al (2009) and their performance (in compliance with Mulki et al (2015)). In this study, in particular, we

examine the mediating role of employees' efforts in the impact of inputs such as their commitment and

motivation on outputs such as Satisfaction and performance at work. The strong direct effect of effort

on job satisfaction implies that the perspective of work as a terminal value merits greater attention in

conceptual models of work behaviour and job attitudes. This effect is consistent with theories of

intrinsic motivation (Csikszentmihalyi 1990; Deci 1975; Deci and Ryan 1985; White 1959), which

emphasize people's inherent needs to be competent, effective, and self-determining and maintain that

high levels of involvement in instrumental activities such as work constitute a primary means of

satisfying these needs.

Fourth, the analytical results of the data allow us to confirm a significantly positive relationship

between job performance and their satisfaction with their work. Here, we again verify and confirm the

intermediate effects of job performance variables in the relationship between employees' efforts and

their satisfaction with their jobs. This brings up interesting implications to be discussed.

5. Conclusions and Suggestions

5.1. Conclusions

This study achieved the goal of systematizing the salesperson's theory of job satisfaction and

their job performance in the retail industry. Moreover, we have verified the reliability of concepts’

measurements and the relevance of the research model in the context of the retailing sector in Vietnam.

However, the research also has some limitations in the scope of the research when only conducting the

survey in Da Nang, as well as the research model, has not considered the impact of variables related to

corporate culture affecting the organization commitment.

416

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

5.2. Suggestions

Retailing sector in Vietnam has been experiencing dynamics, in recent years, with the

participation of various domestic and foreign players in the market. Hence, recruiting and retaining

sales staffs who are skilled, dedicated and long-serving are an urgent matter sales managers need to

deal with since salespeople are the people who play an important role in supporting retail companies

gain organizational goals and make close relationships with customers. Practitioners should focus

heavily on drivers of salesperson’s job performance and job satisfaction. Especially, our findings have

implications for sales managers concerning recruiting and retaining.

In term of recruiting, the results imply the significance of creating salesperson’s motivation

both intrinsic and extrinsic aspects; then making them put more effort into their work. The needs of

“self-actualization” could be possible in this case when managers concern intrinsic motivation of their

employees by creating a working environment that enables salespeople to improve themselves (for

example, creating opportunities for salespeople to attend domestic or foreign training courses to hone

their selling skills); or create challenges for them to overcome and create a feeling for the salesperson

to be freely creative to achieve the set results. Besides, facing considerable pressures from making

customers satisfied, salespeople should be encouraged and supported by their supervisors who can

provide them with benefits or awards.

In term of retaining, these empirical results suggest the vital role of giving commitment on job

as well as organization. Particularly, commitment at work leads to better productivity, retaining

employees also helps the salesperson feel valued and that leads to increased commitment to work. So

in order to retain employees and improve work commitment, we need to consider things like building

strong teamwork, creating an effective teamwork culture among salespeople for them to work together,

solve common issues and gain work experience from colleagues; building a transparent working

environment, salespeople are free to participate in contributing ideas and being treated fairly, so they

feel they are valuable to the business and increase commitment; Building a culture of trust, in order to

build trust in the organization, it requires the efforts of both managers and employees, having faith in

the organization of salespeople will work hard and increase commitment.

REFERENCES

1. Amabile, T. M., Hill, K. G., Hennessey, B. A., & Tighe, E. M. (1994). The Work Preference Inventory:

assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations. Journal of personality and social psychology,

66(5), 950.

2. Anderson, E., & Oliver, R. L. (1987). Perspectives on behaviour-based versus outcome-based salesforce

control systems. Journal of Marketing, 51(4), 76-88.

3. Bagozzi, R. P. (1992). The self-regulation of attitudes, intentions, and behaviour. Social psychology

quarterly, 178-204.

4. Brown, S. P., Jones, E., & Leigh, T. W. (2005). The attenuating effect of role overload on relationships

linking self-efficacy and goal level to work performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(5), 972.

5. Brown, S. P., & Peterson, R. A. (1994). The effect of effort on sales performance and job satisfaction.

Journal of Marketing, 58(2), 70-80.

6. Buchanan, B. (1974). Building organizational commitment: The socialization of managers in work

organizations. Administrative science quarterly, 533-546.

7. Campbell, J. P., & Pritchard, R. D. (1976). Motivation theory in industrial and organizational psychology.

Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, 63, 130.

8. Cespedes, F. V., & Wallace, C. (2017). Executives and salespeople are misaligned—and the effects are

costly.

417

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

9. Chonko, L. B. (1986). Organizational commitment in the sales force. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales

Management, 6(3), 19-28.

10. Christen, M., Iyer, G., & Soberman, D. (2006). Job satisfaction, job performance, and effort: A

reexamination using agency theory. Journal of Marketing, 70(1), 137-150.

11. Churchill, G. A., Ford, N. M., Walker, O. C., Johnston, M. W., & Tanner, J. F. (1993). Salesforce

management: Irwin Homewood, IL.

12. Churchill Jr, G. A., Ford, N. M., Hartley, S. W., & Walker Jr, O. C. (1985). The determinants of

salesperson performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of marketing research, 22(2), 103-118.

13. Churchill Jr, G. A., Ford, N. M., & Walker Jr, O. C. (1978). Predicting a salesperson's job effort and

performance: Theoretical, empirical, and methodological considerations. Paper presented at the

AMA/MSI Sales Management Workshop, Boston, MA.

14. Churchill Jr, G. A., Ford, N. M., & Walker Jr, O. C. (1979). Personal characteristics of salespeople and the

attractiveness of alternative rewards. Journal of Business Research, 7(1), 25-50.

15. Chusmir, L. H. (1982). Job commitment and the organizational woman. Academy of management review,

7(4), 595-602.

16. Emmons, R. A. (1986). Personal strivings: An approach to personality and subjective well-being. Journal

of personality and social psychology, 51(5), 1058.

17. Evans, D. (2012). The internet of everything: How more relevant and valuable connections will change the

world. Cisco IBSG, 2012, 1-9.

18. Hair Jr, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C., & Sarstedt, M. (2016). A primer on partial least squares structural

equation modelling (PLS-SEM): Sage publications.

19. Hartmann, M., Oriani, R., & Bateman, H. (2013). The performance effect of business model innovation: An

empirical analysis of pension funds. Paper presented at the 35th DRUID Celebration Conference.

20. Hall, D. T., Schneider, B., & Nygren, H. T. (1970). Personal factors in organizational identification.

Administrative science quarterly, 176-190.

21. Herjanto, H., & Franklin, D. (2019). Investigating salesperson performance factors: A systematic review of

the literature on the characteristics of effective salespersons. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 27(2),

104-112.

22. Hunt, S. D., Chonko, L. B., & Wood, V. R. (1985). Organizational commitment and marketing. Journal of

Marketing, 49(1), 112-126.

23. Ilgen, D. R., & Klein, H. J. (1988). Individual motivation and performance: Cognitive influences on effort

and choice. Productivity in organizations: New perspectives from industrial and organizational

psychology, 143-176.

24. Ingram, T. N., Lee, K. S., & Skinner, S. J. (1989). An empirical assessment of salesperson motivation,

commitment, and job outcomes. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 9(3), 25-33.

25. Jaros, S. (2007). Meyer and Allen model of organizational commitment: Measurement issues. The Icfai

Journal of Organizational Behavior, 6(4), 7-25.

26. Jaramillo, F., Mulki, J. P., & Marshall, G. W. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relationship between

organizational commitment and salesperson job performance: 25 years of research. Journal of Business

Research, 58(6), 705-714.

27. Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2014). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach: John

Wiley & Sons.

28. Johnston, M. W., Varadarajan, P. R., Futrell, C. M., & Sager, J. (1987). The relationship between

organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among new salespeople. Journal of Personal

Selling & Sales Management, 7(3), 29-38.

418

Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020

29. Kirkman, B. L., Lowe, K. B., & Gibson, C. B. (2006). A quarter-century of culture's consequences: A

review of empirical research incorporating Hofstede's cultural values framework. Journal of international

business studies, 37(3), 285-320.

30. Locke, E. A. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction. Handbook of industrial and organizational

psychology.

31. Mallin, M. L., & Pullins, E. B. (2009). The moderating effect of control systems on the relationship

between the commission and salesperson intrinsic motivation in a customer-oriented environment.

Industrial Marketing Management, 38(7), 769-777.

32. Morrow, P. C., & McElroy, J. C. (1986). On assessing measures of work commitment. Journal of

Occupational Behaviour, 7(2), 139-145.

33. Mulki, J. P., Caemmerer, B., & Heggde, G. S. (2015). Leadership style, salesperson's work effort and job

performance: the influence of power distance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 35(1), 3-

22.

34. Mulki, J. P., Locander, W. B., Marshall, G. W., Harris, E. G., & Hensel, J. (2008). Workplace isolation,

salesperson commitment, and job performance. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 28(1),

67-78.

35. Naylor, J., Pritchard, R. D., & Ilgen, D. R. (1980). A Theory of Behavior in Organizations, AcademicPress,

New York. NaylorA Theory of Behavior in Organizations1980.

36. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new

directions. Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54-67.

37. Salancik, G. R. (1977). Commitment and the control of organizational behavior and belief. New directions

in organizational behavior, 1, 54.

38. Schwepker Jr, C. H. (2001). Ethical climate's relationship to job satisfaction, organizational commitment,

and turnover intention in the salesforce. Journal of Business Research, 54(1), 39-52.

39. Staw, B. M. (1977). Motivation in organizations: Toward synthesis and redirection. New directions in

organizational behavior.

40. Steers, R. M., Mowday, R. T., & Porter, L. W. (1979). Employee Turnover and Post Decision

Accommodation Processes. Retrieved from

41. Walker Jr, O. C., Churchill Jr, G. A., & Ford, N. M. (1977). Motivation and performance in industrial

selling: Present knowledge and needed research. Journal of marketing research, 14(2), 156-168.

42. Wiener, Y., & Vardi, Y. (1980). Relationships between job, organization, and career commitments and

work outcomes—An integrative approach. Organizational behavior and human performance, 26(1), 81-96.

419