Customer-salespeople relationship: Influence of salespeople entrepreneurial behaviours

Purpose – Based on customer value-based and social exchange theories, the purpose of this paper is to hypothesize and examine the relationships between salespeople entrepreneurial behaviors (innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking) and customer trust in, satisfaction with and commitment to the salespeople. Design/methodology/approach – The influences of salespeople’s entrepreneurial behaviors on customer trust in, satisfaction with, and commitment to salespeople were examined utilizing a structural equations model with a sample drawn from the newspaper industry. Findings – As predicted salespeople entrepreneurial behaviors (treated as a higher order factor) significantly and positively influence customer trust in, satisfaction with, and commitment to the salespeople. Research limitations/implications – This study confirms innovative, proactive, and risk-taking practices are useful in fostering customer trust, satisfaction, and commitment in the domain of personal selling. The key limitations are the small sample size, the use of a single company, and the omission of other potential outcomes. Practical implications – Entrepreneurial behaviors/activities such as, innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk taking are worthy undertakings for salespeople. Considering these traits in salespeople hiring and/or fostering them in salespeople training should be worth pursuing. Social implications – By improving the quality of exchanges through salespeople’s entrepreneurial behaviors and customer-salespeople relationship quality, social exchanges, and in turn social welfare are promoted. Originality/value – As per the literature search, this is the first study linking salespeople’s entrepreneurial behaviors and customer-salespeople relationship quality represented by trust in, satisfaction with, and commitment to salespeople drawing insights from customer value-based and social exchange theories.