The Impact Mechanism of Self-leadership on Sales Performance: The Mediation Effect of Self-efficacy and Moderation Effect of Internal Locus of Control

Abstract

Sales leadership has always been a hot topic in sales management, however, the previous research on sales leadership was mostly in the top-down approach to attention. Based on the characteristics of sales position (e.g., self-managing teams, virtual work away from direct supervision, self-motivation), this study focuses on salespeople's self-leadership-a specific way of leadership. Integrated with self-regulation theory, social cognitive theory, intrinsic motivation theory, we construct a research model of the relationship between salespeople's self-leadership and sales performance. Through the survey data analysis of 243 B2B salespeople in domestic IT enterprises, we examine the relationship between self-leadership and sales performance, the mediating effect of self-efficacy and the moderating effect of internal locus of control. The results show that: (1)Salespeople's self-leadership has a significant positive impact on sales performance; (2)Self-efficacy plays partial mediating role between self-leadership and sales performance; (3)Internal locus of control moderates the relationship between salespeople's self-leadership and self-efficacy. Collectively, this research extends our understanding of sales leadership and how salespeople's self-leadership facilitates sales performance. Our study showed salespeople's self-leadership plays an important role on sales performance, and also provide better guidance for the choosing and training of salespeople in sales management practice.