The moderating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between control systems and sales performance

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on control systems and self-efficacy theories, the authors propose two alternative perspectives: a control systems convergence, which refers to a salesperson’s perception of their sales manager’s use of both behavior-based and outcome-based controls together, and a control systems divergence, which is an unbalanced and more traditional view toward one dimension or the other. Using multi-sourced data, this research examines two frameworks: (1) the moderating role of self-efficacy on the main effects of control systems convergence and divergence on sales performance, and alternatively (2) the moderating role of past performance on the pattern of relationships leading to self-efficacy. The results suggest that control systems convergence has a significant impact on sales performance. Furthermore, self-efficacy moderates the main effect of control systems convergence whereas high (vs. low) levels of self-efficacy generate greater levels of performance in low (vs. high) levels of convergence. Moreover, high (vs. low) levels of self-efficacy generate greater levels of performance in high (vs. low) levels of divergence toward outcome-based control (i.e., when outcome-based control is greater than behavior-based control). In the alternative model, we found that performance explains self-efficacy, generating something like a reciprocal causality).