The effect of personality on salespeople’s information gathering

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the direct effects of intrinsic motivation, perceived information value, activity perception, perceived organizational support, and adaptive selling on the propensity to collect market information and how locus of control (LOC) moderates these effects. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using a cross-sectional design with a web-based survey. The respondents were business-to-business salespeople. All relationships were tested by regression modeling. Findings Support was found for most direct effects, and LOC moderated all supported direct effects. Thus, adding LOC as a moderator will increase the understanding of what motivates salespeople to gather information. Research limitations/implications This study shows that using the theoretical construct of personality as a moderator increases the understanding of what motivates salespeople to collect information. Practical implications Sales leaders use different motivational tools to ensure that their sales forces focus on important tasks, but the responses to a specific motivational tool may differ among salespeople. The most prominent managerial contribution of the present study is a possible explanation of why salespeople differ in information collection even when the same motivational tools are used. Originality/value Several researchers have focused on what drives salespeople to collect, share, and use market information at the individual-level perspective, but despite the long history of studies of the relationship between motivation and personality, focus on the effects of individual differences is lacking. This paper addresses this gap and shows how personality differences have a moderating effect on the propensity of salespeople to collect market information.