Salesforce Control Systems: A Review of Its Consequences Across Continents

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, researchers from all over the world have studied the phenomenon of salesforce control systems. They have analyzed the impact of salesforce control system on different salesperson and organizational variables. As the selling environment is changing, it is important to know what importance salesforce control system holds in different parts of the world. Taking this into account, this study attempts to review the literature on salesforce control systems across continents such as America, Europe, Australia, Africa and Asia. The findings from the review suggested that neither the consequences of salesforce control system nor the superiority of one control system over another differed with regard to the place where the study has been conducted.

Keywords

salesforce control system behavior-based control outcome-based control

Introduction

Salespeople all over the world are subjected to a certain kind of control system through which their behavior is guided. As salespeople are the lifeline of the organization, sales organizations want to employ a control system that maximizes the productivity of salespeople and the effectiveness of organization.

Salesforce control system is a global phenomenon. Therefore, studies in the area of salesforce control system have been conducted in all parts of the world. The interest in the phenomenon of salesforce control system arose since the publication of a 1987 article by Anderson and Oliver in United States. They gave propositions based on the impact of two types of salesforce control systems on salesforce cognitions and capabilities, affects and attitudes and motivation and performance. Later on, the interest in this area spread to other parts of the world, including Australia, the United Kingdom and Austria. Since the year 2000, the research on salesforce control system has been conducted in Africa, Asia and other European countries. As a salesforce control system is an organization’s set of procedures to monitor, direct, evaluate and reward salespeople,¹ it is used in all parts of the world.

Researchers around the world have studied the phenomenon of salesforce control system and its consequences. Researchers have developed different measurement methods and tools to analyze the impact of a salesforce control system on salespeople and sales organizations in different parts of the world. This study attempts to present a review of the consequences of salesforce control systems across various countries. Various kinds of review studies have been conducted in the area of salesforce control system but none of the reviews have analyzed the consequences of salesforce control system across countries. To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first study that will review the salesforce control system consequences across various continents such as Asia, Africa, America, Australia and Europe. It is believed that there are likely to be differences in the consequences of salesforce control system according to the culture of the country. Therefore, this study reviews literature on salesforce control system by categorizing the studies into the continents they were conducted in. Based on the findings of the review, directions for future research are highlighted.

Salesforce Control System

Apart from Anderson and Oliver’s conceptualization of salesforce control system, the other conceptualization is given by Jaworski,² whose conceptualization consists of formal, written, management-initiated (e.g., output and process) controls and informal, unwritten, worker-initiated (e.g., professional and cultural) controls. The focus of this study is on Anderson and Oliver,³ since this conceptualization is used by most of the studies conducted in the area of salesforce control system, and also the hypotheses that were tested by most of the studies were largely based on Anderson and Oliver’s propositions.

Salesforce control system is an organization’s set of procedures to monitor, direct, evaluate and reward salespeople, per Anderson and Oliver. There are two kinds of salesforce control system—behavior based and outcome based. As the name suggests, the focus of a behavior-based salesforce control system is on the behavior of salespeople, while that of an outcome-based salesforce control system is on the outcome of salespeople.

Behavior-Based and Outcome-Based Salesforce Control Systems

Behavior-based control systems are characterized by more monitoring of salespeople by management, more managerial direction to direct salespeople and use of subjective and more complex methods based on salespersons’ aptitude and product knowledge, number of calls and their sales strategies to evaluate and compensate the salesforce.⁴ Salespeople are given a fixed amount of salary. While outcome-based control systems are characterized by less monitoring of salespeople by management, they involve less managerial direction to direct salespeople and use of objective measures of outcomes to evaluate the salesforce. In an outcome-based control system, salespeople are left alone to achieve results in their own way using their own strategies. Salespeople are given incentives based on the amount of sales they bring for the company.

Framework for Organizing the Study

Using keywords salesforce control system, behavior-based salesforce control system and outcome-based salesforce control system, 31 studies for the years 1996 to 2014 from following journals were included in the study: Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management (4), Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (4), Journal of Business Research (3), Industrial Marketing Management (3), European Journal of Marketing (2), Journal of Research in Marketing (2), Australasian Marketing Journal, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, International Journal of Business Ethics, Team Performance Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Manpower, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Organizational Dynamics, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of World Business, International Business Review, International Marketing Review, Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science and Women in Management Review. Out of the 31 studies, 14 were from Europe, 11 from Asia, 7 from America, 4 from Australia and 1 study from Africa.

Review of Literature

Europe

The European continent (including countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Austria and Germany) holds a prime position in terms of research conducted on salesforce control systems. In their study on sales managers in U.K. companies, Piercy, Cravens and Morgan⁵ found that in more effective sales organizations, field sales managers spend significantly more effort on each aspect of behavior-based control. Piercy, Cravens and Morgan⁶ studied the relationship between salesforce control system and salesforce performance. The study on field sales managers in the United Kingdom showed that behavior-based salesforce control system was positively related with behavior and outcome performance. Baldauf and Cravens⁷ proposed a model of sales organization effectiveness in Austria. Collecting data from field sales managers and measuring salesforce control system in terms of monitoring, directing, evaluating and rewarding, they found that a behavior-based salesforce control system, especially in terms of directing activities, has a positive impact on sales organization effectiveness.

Baldauf, Cravens and Piercy⁸ conceptualized sales management behavior-based control as an antecedent to salesperson performance and sales organization effectiveness. Using regression to analyze data of chief sales executives in Austria and the United Kingdom, they concluded that in the Austrian sample behavior-based control is positively related to salesperson behavior performance while the relationship is not significant in the U.K. sample. As far as the effect of salesforce control system on sales organization effectiveness is concerned, it was found to be indirect. Baldauf, Cravens and Piercy⁹ examined the effect of salesforce control system on salesforce affects/attitudes, motivation, professional competence, behavioral strategy, performance and sales organization effectiveness in Austria and the United Kingdom. The analysis of field sales managers showed that the behavior-based salesforce control system has a positive impact on behavior and outcome performance as well as on sales organization effectiveness. The study also found a positive impact of the behavior-based control system on affects and attitudes (accepting direction, cooperating as a sales team and accepting authority) and intrinsic and recognition motivation. Piercy, Lane and Cravens¹⁰ examined the relationship between sales manager control strategy and salesperson organizational citizenship behavior. The study on 214 salespeople and 35 sales managers in the United Kingdom showed that a behavior-based control system is positively associated with salesperson organizational citizenship behavior and sales organization effectiveness.

Piercy, Low, Cravens¹¹ examined the impact of salesforce control system on salesperson performance and sales unit effectiveness in three countries including Greece. The analysis of field sales managers in Greece showed that behavior control is associated with higher behavior performance while incentive compensation has no apparent impact on outcome performance. As far as sales organization effectiveness is concerned, behavior control as well as incentive pay have a positive impact on it. Piercy, Low and Cravens¹² examined the consequences of sales management’s behavior-based and compensation-based control on satisfaction with sales territory design, salesperson behavior and outcome performance and sales unit effectiveness. The study on 120 field sales manager showed that compensation control has a positive impact on effectiveness while behavior control indirectly influences effectiveness through behavior performance and outcome performance. Behavior control was also found to have a positive impact on territory design and behavior performance. Cravens, Piercy and Low¹³ examined the differences in sales management control and its consequences across countries such as Austria, Greece and the United Kingdom. The study revealed positive effects of behavior control.

Katsikea, Theodosiou and Morgan¹⁴ examined the influence of salesforce control systems on salesforce performance. Using structural equation modeling to analyze data of U.K.-based export sales managers, they found no significant influence of either behavior-based salesforce control systems or outcome-based salesforce control systems on export sales managers’ behavioral performance and outcome performance. Theodosiou and Katsikea¹⁵ investigated the impact of salesforce control systems on salesforce motivation and performance in their study on U.K. exporters engaged in following sectors: textile, apparel, chemical, rubber and plastic products, machinery and electronic products. The results of the study showed that behavior-based sales control has a positive effect on export sales manager’s motivation and behavioral performance. Verano-Tacoronte and Melián-González¹⁶ also examined the impact of a salesforce control system on firm outcomes in Spain. The analysis of sales and human resource managers showed that a higher level of behavior-based control leads to a higher level of performance attained by the firm, which occurs in the form of salesforce outcomes and performance, such as sales call planning, product knowledge and sales presentation skills. In their study in Spain, Küster and Canales¹⁷ investigated the relationship between salesforce control system and sales organization effectiveness. Using partial least squares to analyze data of sales managers, they found that behavior control has a positive impact on salesforce effectiveness. Piercy, Cravens and Lane¹⁸ examined the consequences of a salesforce control system on salesperson behavior and outcome performance. The analysis of sales managers in the United Kingdom revealed a strong, significant positive relationship between sales manager behavior-based control level and salesperson behavior performance.

Africa

If we talk about the studies that have explored the consequences of salesforce control system in the continent of Africa, there is only one study to name. This study is a multi-country study undertaken by Cravens, Piercy and Low,¹⁹ in which they examined the impact of control on salesforce and sales unit success across eight countries including Nigeria. The analysis of data collected from field sales managers showed that incentive compensation has no apparent impact on performance in most of the countries, while incentive pay also has a mixed impact on sales unit effectiveness. The results further indicated a clear evidence concerning the positive effects of behavior control.

Asia

Asian countries like China, Japan and Malaysia have contributed a lot in the research on salesforce control systems. Fang, Evans and Zou²⁰ proposed a contingency model in which the effects of sales control systems on job performance are moderated by goal-setting characteristics (goal difficulty, goal specificity and goal participation). The study on sales managers in China showed that when goal difficulty is at a moderate level, outcome control has a significant positive effect on outcome performance, while when goal difficulty is low and high, outcome control has no significant effect on outcome performance. Under the high goal-specificity condition, activity control is not significantly related to behavior performance, while under the low goal-specificity condition, activity control has a significant, positive relationship with behavior performance. Piercy, Low and Cravens²¹ examined the impact of salesforce control system on salesperson performance and sales unit effectiveness in three developing countries including India, and Malaysia. Collecting data from field sales managers who were responsible for the supervision of business-to-business salespeople and using multiple regression analysis to analyze the data, they found that behavior-based control is an important predictor of outcome performance in India and Malaysia. Incentive pay was found to have a positive impact on sales unit effectiveness in India, but it has no effect on salesperson performance. Piercy, Low and Cravens²² examined the consequences of behavior-based and compensation-based control on important salesperson and organizational consequences (satisfaction with sales territory design, salesperson performance and sales unit effectiveness) in three countries including India and Malaysia. In India, data were collected from field sales managers in the cities of Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata. The results showed that compensation control has a positive effect on sales unit effectiveness, while compensation control has no effect on outcome performance in India. In Malaysia, territory design was found to have a positive relationship with sales unit effectiveness, but the relationship between behavior control and sales unit effectiveness was not significant.

Fang, Evans and Landry²³ investigated the impact of a salesforce control system (outcome, activity and capability control) on salespeople’s attributional ascriptions (effort, strategy and ability), attributional dimensions (internal/external, stable/unstable) and psychological consequences (job satisfaction, performance expectation). Collecting data from managers in China, they concluded that under failure conditions, the stability has a negative effect on salespeople’s performance expectations, while for success conditions, stability has a positive effect on salespeople’s performance expectations. For failure conditions, internality has a negative effect on salespeople’s job satisfaction, while for success conditions, internality has a positive effect on salespeople’s job satisfaction. Cravens, Piercy and Low²⁴ examined the consequences of a salesforce control system across countries including the Gulf States (Bahrain and Saudi Arabia), India and Malaysia. The analysis of field sales managers employed in wide range of companies from different industries showed positive effects of behavior control. Atuahene-Gima and Li²⁵ investigated the relationship between output and process controls and supervisee trust (salesperson’s trust in the sales manager). Employing hierarchical regression analysis to analyze data of salespeople in 250 high-technology firms in China, they found that process control has a positive relationship with supervisee trust while the relationship between output control and supervisee trust is not significant. Makoto Matsuo²⁶ investigated the influence of sales management control on the innovativeness of the sales departments in their study on sales managers in Japan. The structural equation modeling analysis revealed that sales innovativeness is enhanced by behavior-based and knowledge-based controls but not by outcome-based control.

Wang, Dou, and Zhou²⁷ investigated the interactive effects of output, activity and capability control on salespeople’s customer-directed behaviors (problem solving and opportunism) and customer outcomes (relationship satisfaction and share of wallet). Using structural equation modeling to analyze data of buyer–seller dyads in China, they found that output control–activity control interaction and activity control–capability control interaction negatively affects problem solving. As far as the effect of salesforce control system on opportunism is concerned, output and activity controls negatively interact to affect opportunism while activity and capability controls positively interact to affect opportunism. Matsuo, Hayakawa and Takashima²⁸ identified organizational conditions for developing a learning-oriented behavioral control system. The case study at a Japanese office of a large pharmaceutical company revealed that a behavior-based salesforce control system facilitates learning by salespersons when (1) the focus is on skill development, (2) fewer key performance indicators are being used and (3) supportive supervision and knowledge sharing are promoted. Kim and Tiwana²⁹ investigated how formal controls influence salesforce performance in the presence of input control and informal control in a salesforce control portfolio. The study on 120 apparel manufacturers and 94 matching retailers in South Korea showed that process control, when preceded by high input control, improves salesforce performance, while outcome control, when preceded by high input control, hampers salesforce performance. Kim and Takashima³⁰ considered the impact on supplier relationship management and organizational performance when retailers manage buyers based on an outcome-based control. Using AMOS-based structural equation modeling to analyze data of retail company executives in Japan, they found that outcome-based control has a positive impact on relationship continuity. Overall, the results revealed that outcome-based control, through the central, mediating role of relationship continuity, encourages cooperation with suppliers, and this cooperation yields greater organizational performance for retailers.

America

America holds an important place in conducting research on salesforce control systems. Fang, Evans and Zou³¹ proposed a contingency model in which the effects of sales control systems on job performance are moderated by goal-setting characteristics (goal difficulty, goal specificity and goal participation). Analysis of salespeople in the United States showed that when goal difficulty is at a moderate level, outcome control has a significant positive effect on outcome performance, while when goal difficulty was low and high, outcome control has no significant effect on outcome performance. The study by Fang, Evans and Landry³² on salespeople in the United States demonstrated that a salesforce control system (outcome, activity and capability control) influences salespeople’s effort strategy and ability attributional ascriptions, respectively, and that salesforce control systems moderate the causal relationship between causal ascriptions (effort, strategy and ability) and attributional dimensions (internal/external and stable/unstable). Flaherty, Arnold and Hunt³³ explored the differences in the effects of the control system type on individual sales performance across various sales configurations. The study on salespeople and sales managers showed that the effects of output, process, self and professional controls on salesperson performance vary according to the sales situation clusters.

Saini and Martin³⁴ examined the impact of ethical climate and output control on a firm’s risk-taking propensity. The multiple regression analysis of marketing executives in two manufacturing industries in the United States showed that there is a positive relationship between output control and firm risk-taking propensity. Miao and Evans³⁵ examined the interactive effects of outcome control, activity control and capability control on job engagement (adaptive selling behavior and selling effort) and job stress (role ambiguity and role conflict), which subsequently affect salesperson performance. Using a partial least squares structural equation model to analyze data of salespeople employed in the U.S. manufacturing sector, they found that (1) at a high level of capability control, outcome control is positively related to adaptive selling behavior; (2) outcome control directly enhances selling effort; (3) both outcome control and activity control suppress role ambiguity and (4) outcome control has a negative effect on role conflict. Miao and Evans³⁶ investigated the combinatory effects of outcome, capability and activity control on salesperson knowledge, role ambiguity, intrinsic motivation and performance. A partial least squares analysis performed on the data of industrial salespeople and managers in the U.S. manufacturing industry showed that capability control has a negative main effect on salesperson knowledge, while activity control has a negative effect on role ambiguity. Outcome control was found to have a positive effect on intrinsic motivation and salesperson performance.

Miao and Evans³⁷ examined the interactive effects of outcome control, activity control and capability control on industrial salespeople’s cognitive and affective dimensions of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Challenge seeking is a cognitive dimension of intrinsic motivation and task enjoyment is an affective dimension of intrinsic motivation, while compensation seeking is a cognitive dimension of extrinsic motivation and recognition seeking is an affective dimension of extrinsic motivation. Moderated regression analysis of industrial salespeople showed that (1) outcome control and capability control have positive interactive effects on task enjoyment and recognition seeking, (2) outcome control and activity control have a positive interactive effect on compensation seeking but a negative interactive effect on task enjoyment and (3) activity control and capability control have a negative interactive effect on recognition seeking.

Australia

Important studies on salesforce control system have been conducted in Australia. Grant and Cravens³⁸ investigated the role of the salesforce control system in salesperson performance. The analysis of sales managers from 58 companies in Australia revealed that a behavior-based salesforce control system is positively associated with behavior and outcome performance. Babakus and colleagues³⁹ empirically tested the relationship among salesforce control system, sales territory design, sales behavior, outcome performance and sales organization effectiveness. The study on chief sales executives in Australia showed that a behavior-based salesforce control system has a positive impact on sales organization effectiveness through salesforce behavioral and outcome performance and through sales organization design. Behavior-based control was also found to have a positive impact on behavior performance. Grant and Cravens⁴⁰ investigated the effect of salesforce performance, sales territory design, salesforce control system, customer relationship strategy and organizational commitment on sales organization effectiveness. The study on field sales managers in Australian sales organizations showed that sales unit effectiveness is positively related to the use of a behavior-based control system. Baldauf, Cravens and Grant⁴¹ explored the effects of behavior-based salesforce control on salesperson characteristics, salesperson performance and sales organization effectiveness with data collected from field sales managers in Australia. The structural equation modeling analysis showed that a behavior-based control system has a positive impact on salesforce characteristics (attitudes, motivation and cognitions and capabilities) while the relationship between behavior-based control and behavior performance was not significant.

Details of the studies reviewed in this article are provided in Table 1.

Table 1.

Chronological List of Articles Reviewed Along With Relevant Details (1996-2014).

Study	Sample and country	Mode of data collection	Industry	Method	Findings	Type of study	Variables
Babakus et al. (1996)⁴²	58 chief sales executives and 146 sales managers in Australia	Mail questionnaire	Companies selling consumer product (58%), consumer services (7%), industrial products (28%), industrial service (7%)	Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling using LISREL 7	When behavior-based salesforce control is used, sales managers are more satisfied with their field unit designs and performance of salespeople	Empirical (Quantitative)	Sales territory design, Salesforce performance, Sales organization effectiveness, Salesforce control system
Grant and Cravens (1996)⁴³	146 field sales managers in 58 sales organizations in Australia	—	Companies selling consumer products (58%), consumer services (7%), industrial products (28%), industrial services (7%)	—	Salesforces with high behavior and outcome performance experience a greater extent of sales manager monitoring, directing, evaluating and rewarding than those with lower performance	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Adaptive selling, Salesforce performance, Sales territory design
							IV: Salesforce control system
Piercy, Cravens and Morgan (1997)⁴⁴	144 field sales managers in the United Kingdom	Postal survey	Companies selling consumer products (28%), industrial products (49%), services (23%)	—	More effective organizations have salespeople with important success characteristics, high salesperson performance, more active behavior-based sales management control and sounder sales organization sizing and design	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Sales organization effectiveness
							IV: Behavior-based salesforce control system, Salesforce characteristic, Salesforce performance, Sales organization design
Piercy, Cravens and Morgan (1998)⁴⁵	144 field sales managers in 62 companies in the United Kindgom	—	Companies selling consumer products (28%), consumer services (8%), industrial products (49%), industrial services (15%)	—	Behavior-based salesforce control system is positively related with behavior performance and outcome performance	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Adaptive selling, Salesforce performance, Sales territory design
							IV: Salesforce control system
Grant and Cravens (1999)⁴⁶	146 field sales managers in 58 sales organizations in Australia	—	58% represented consumer products, 7% consumer services industries, 28% industrial products and 7% industrial services	—	Sales unit effectiveness is positively related to the use of behavior-based control system	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesforce performance, -Territory design, Customer relationship strategy and Organizational commitment
Baldauf and Cravens (1999)⁴⁷	159 field sales managers from Austria	—	Consumer products (46%), industrial goods (34%) and industrial services (15%)	—	Behavior-based salesforce control system results in higher levels of sales unit effectiveness	Empirical (Quantitative)	Sales organization effectiveness, Salesforce performance, Salesforce characteristics, Territory design, Salesforce control system
Baldauf, Cravens and Piercy (2001)⁴⁸	Chief sales executives in Austria and the United Kingdom	—	For Austria: Consumer products (43%), consumer services (28%), industrial products (24%) and industrial services (5%)	Regression	There is a direct relationship between salesperson outcome performance and sales organization effectiveness, as well as important indirect impacts on effectiveness for sales management control strategy, territory design and salesperson behavior performance	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salespeople performance, Sales organization effectiveness, Territory design, Salesforce control system
			For the United Kingdom: Industrial products (49%), consumer products (28%), industrial services (15%) and consumer services (8%)	Regression
Baldauf, Cravens and Piercy (2001)⁴⁹	159 field sales managers from Austria and 142 respondents from the United Kingdom	—	For Austria: Consumer products (43%), consumer services (28%), industrial products (24%) and industrial services (5%)	—	Both sales unit effectiveness and satisfaction with salespeople are positively and significantly correlated with behavior-based salesforce control	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesforce characteristic, Salesforce performance, Salesforce control system
			For the United Kingdom: Industrial products (49%), consumer products (28%), industrial services (15%) and consumer services (8%)
Baldauf, Cravens and Grant (2002)⁵⁰	174 field sales manager in Austria and Australia	Mail questionnaire	Consumer and industrial products	Structural equation modeling	There is positive relationship between behavior-based salesforce control and intrinsic motivation	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesperson characteristics, performance, organization effectiveness, salesforce control system
Piercy, Lane and Cravens (2002)⁵¹	214 salespeople and 35 managers in the United Kingdom	Postal survey	Large commercial directory publisher who sells advertising space to diverse businesses in a wide range of industries and markets	—	Level of behavior control is positively associated with the level of organization citizenship behavior	Empirical (Quantitative)	Sales organization effectiveness, organization citizenship behavior, salesforce control system
Piercy, Low and Cravens (2004)⁵²	Field sales manager of companies in Greece, India and Malaysia	—	Different companies involved in business-to-business selling	Multiple regression	Salesforce control is a relevant predictor of performance and effectiveness, incentive pay has no effect on salesperson performance	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesforce performance, sales organization effectiveness, salesforce control system, sales territory design, incentive pay
Piercy, Low and Cravens (2004)⁵³	Data collected from Greece, India and Malaysia	—	Different companies involved in business-to-business selling	Regression	Performance increases at high levels of both behavior control and compensation control	Empirical (Quantitative)	Behavior performance, outcome performance, sales organization effectiveness, sales territory design, salesforce control system
Fang, Evans and Landry (2005)⁵⁴	308 salespeople in the United States and 247 managers of 30 companies in China	United States: Postal survey	In the United States, responders sold products such as health insurance, computer components, home electronics, mechanical products and financial products	A series of nested confirmatory factor model comparisons were estimated using EQS multigroup analysis	Outcome control negatively moderates the relationship between effort ascriptions and stability under both failure and success conditions in the United States and China	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesforce control system, salespeople’s attributional ascriptions (effort, strategy and ability), attributional dimensions (internal/external, stable/unstable), job satisfaction, performance expectation
		China: Personal administration	In China, respondent sold products in areas such as insurance, medical equipment, home electronics and information technology
Fang, Evans and Zou (2005)⁵⁵	290 salespeople in the United States and 247 salespeople in China	Postal survey	Sample covered a variety of products, including health insurance, computer components, home electronics, mechanical products and financial services	To estimate the measurement model, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used	Participation in the goal-setting process helps clarify the task to be performed by salespeople which enhances the effectiveness of activity control and capability control	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Job performance
Fang, Evans and Zou (2005)⁵⁵						Empirical (Quantitative)	IV: Salesforce control system, Goal-setting characteristic
Atuahene-Gima and Li (2006)⁵⁶	170 salespeople in 250 in China	On-site interviews with a questionnaire	High-technology firms	Hierarchical regression analysis	Process control has a significantly positive relationship with supervisee trust	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesforce control system, trust, supervisory, environmental and product factors (new product)
Cravens, Piercy and Low (2006)⁵⁷	1,000 field sales managers in 8 countries (Austria, Greece, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, India, Israel, Malaysia, Nigeria and the United Kingdom)	—	—	—	Behavior control and effectiveness relationship is consistently positive across all of the countries except India and the Gulf States	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesforce control system, country differences
Theodosiou and Katsikea (2007)⁵⁸	210 exporters in the United Kingdom	Postal survey	Sample sectors included textile and mill products, apparel and similar goods, chemical and allied products, rubber and plastic products, machinery, and electrical and electronic products	Structural equation modeling	Behavior-based salesforce control has a positive effect on export sales manager’s motivation and attitudes as well as on export sales manager’s behavioral performance	Empirical (Quantitative	Salesperson performance, motivation, attitudes, salesforce control system
Flaherty, Arnold and Hunt (2007)⁵⁹	147 sales manager-salesperson dyads in the United States	Postal survey	Health care sector	Hierarchical clustering, OLS (ordinary least squares) regression analysis	The effects of output, process, self and professional controls on salesperson performance vary according to the sales situation clusters	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Salesforce performance
Flaherty, Arnold and Hunt (2007)⁵⁹						Empirical (Quantitative)	IV: Salesforce control system, Selling situation
Katsikea, Theodosiou and Morgan (2007)⁶⁰	146 British exporters	Mail-administered survey	Multiindustry sampling frame from the Dun & Bradstreet database of Key British Enterprises	Structural equation modeling using EQS statistical package	This study contributes to the existing body of literature by investigating the relationships among psychic distance, export venture territory situation, sales management control strategy, salesperson performance and sales organization effectiveness in an export-marketing context	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Sales performance, Sales organization effectiveness
Katsikea, Theodosiou and Morgan (2007)⁶⁰						Empirical (Quantitative)	IV: Salesforce control system, Sales territory design
Verano-Tacoronte and Melián-González (2008)⁶¹	Sales and human resource managers of 108 Spanish firms	Postal survey	—	Regression	If the uncertainty is high and so is the risk aversion of the salesforce, better outcomes will be achieved if the control system is behavior based rather than outcome based	Empirical (Quantitative	Uncertainty, risk preferences, salesforce performance, firm performance, salesforce control system
Küster and Canales (2008)⁶²	108 field sales managers in SMEs in Spain	Personal interviews	—	Partial least squares (PLS) using SmartPLS 2.0	Salespeople behavior-based control and their outcome performance are associated with higher salesforce effectiveness	Empirical (Quantitative	Salesforce control system, behavior performance, outcome performance, sales organization effectiveness
Piercy, Cravens and Lane (2009)⁶³	300 sales managers in the United Kingdom	Postal survey	Industrial products (30%), industrial services (11%), consumer products (52%) and consumer services (7%)	Structural equation modeling	There is a positive relationship between market orientation and sales manager behavior-based control level	Empirical (Quantitative	Salesforce control system, market orientation, sales manager control competencies, salesforce behavior performance, salesforce outcome performance, sales organization effectiveness
Matsuo (2009)⁶⁴	199 sales managers in Japanese sales departments in Tokyo	Postal survey	—	Structural equation modeling	Sales departments tend to be innovative when salespeople are evaluated based on their behavior and knowledge rather than on outcome	Empirical (Quantitative	Salesforce control system, innovativeness of sales department, salesforce performance
Saini and Martin (2009)⁶⁵	174 marketing executives in Midwestern United States	Postal survey	Two manufacturing industries	Multiple regression	There is a positive relationship between marketing output control and firm risk-taking propensity	Empirical (Quantitative)	Output control, ethical climate, risk-taking propensity of the firm
Wang, Dou, and Zhou (2012)⁶⁶	301 buyer–seller dyads in China	Personal interviews	—	Structural equation modeling using LISREL 8.71	There was a positive interaction between activity and capability controls on opportunism	Empirical (Quantitative)	Problem solving, opportunism, customer relationship satisfaction, customer share of wallet, market turbulence, competitive intensity, salesforce control system
Miao and Evans (2013)⁶⁷	223 salespeople in U.S. manufacturing companies	Postal survey	Manufacturing companies	Confirmatory factor analysis was used using EQS 6.1, partial least squares (PLS), structural equation model	High level of capability control, outcome control is positively related to adaptive selling behavior and selling effort	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Adaptive behavior, Selling effort, Role ambiguity, Role conflict, Salesforce performance
							IV: Salesforce control system
Miao and Evans (2012)⁶⁸	195 salesperson–sales manager dyads in the United States	Postal survey	Manufacturing sector	Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed using EQS 6.1, partial least squares analysis was performed for hypotheses testing	Capability and outcome control styles have positive combinatory effects that enhance salesperson knowledge and intrinsic motivation	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Salesperson performance, Knowledge, Role ambiguity, Intrinsic motivation
							IV: Salesforce control system
Matsuo, Hayakawa and Takashima (2013)⁶⁹	Case study was done at Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim (NBI), the Japanese office of a large pharmaceutical company	Semistructured interviews with 16 employees of NBI	Pharmaceutical company	—	Behavior-based salesforce control system facilitates learning	Empirical (Qualitative)	Salesforce control system, supervision, learning orientation
Miao and Evans (2014)⁷⁰	223 industrial salespeople in the United States	—	Manufacturing sector	Confirmatory factor analysis using EQS 6.1, moderated regression	Sales control systems have interactive effects on intrinsic/extrinsic motivation which affect sales performance and job satisfaction	Empirical (Quantitative	Salesperson motivation, sales performance, job satisfaction, salesforce control system, hybrid control
Kim and Takashima (2014)⁷¹	176 executives in Japan	Postal survey	Retail companies	AMOS-based structural model was developed to test the hypotheses	Outcome-based control has a positive impact on relationship continuity	Empirical (Quantitative)	DV: Organizational performance, Relationship continuity, Cooperation
							IV: Salesforce control system
Kim and Tiwana (2014)⁷²	Salesforce of 120 apparel manufacturers and 94 matching retailers in South Korea	Personal survey	Apparel manufacturers	Exploratory factor analysis was performed, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis for reflective scales using LISREL 8.54	More outcome control is associated positively with centralization, while it is associated negatively with increase in performance ambiguity of salesforce	Empirical (Quantitative)	Salesforce performance, performance ambiguity, salesforce power, salesforce control system

Conclusion

The review of studies showed that the highest number of studies exploring the consequences of salesforce control systems have been conducted in Europe, followed by Asia and America. Australia too holds an important place in its contribution to salesforce control system research. The studies in the continent of Africa were found to be insufficient. The second observation that has been made through the review of studies is that more or less same consequences of salesforce control systems (such as salesforce performance and sales organization effectiveness) have been studied in almost all the continents. The third observation is about the superiority of one control system over another. The review of studies have showed more positive consequences of behavior-based salesforce control system than outcome-based salesforce control system regardless of the place where that study has been conducted. The review also confirmed that most of the studies around all parts of the world have used mail questionnaire as a means of collecting data from the respondents.

Implications and Directions for Future Research

The review revealed the superiority of behavior-based salesforce control system in having positive consequences for salespeople and sales organizations in all countries of the world. This holds important implications for sales organizations as they can use more of monitoring and directing on salespeople without fearing that it will backfire. As the geographical fragmentation of salesforce control system studies has not been made before, this study will also help academicians in widening their horizon.

The continent-wise review of the consequences of salesforce control systems has raised some important issues that should be taken care of by future researchers. Lack of studies in Africa is alarming. The continent of Africa consists of so many countries having a good number of well-established sales organizations. Researchers should come forward and take up studies in following well-known countries: South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco, Mauritius, Tanzania, Ghana, Libya, Namibia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author Biography

Zoha Fatima is a research scholar at Faculty of Management Studies and Research, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. She is doing her research in the area of Marketing Management. Her PhD deals with the implementation of salesforce control systems in Pharmaceutical companies in India. She is also working as a guest teacher in the Department of Business Administration, Aligarh Muslim University Centre, Bihar, India. Her areas of interest include salesforce control systems, compensation plans, salesforce ethical behaviour and motivation. She has published papers in various national and international journals such as The Marketing Review, Management Dynamics, Journal of Management Research etc.