Servant leadership, distributive justice and commitment to customer value in the salesforce

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to further understand salesperson distributive justice judgments by examining two controllable factors that may influence these perceptions: sales leadership (i.e. servant leadership) and salesforce control (i.e. quota).

Design/methodology/approach

The sample included 279 business-to-business salespeople from across the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

Findings

Servant leadership and salesperson participation in quota setting both positively impact distributive justice perceptions (i.e. fairness in reward allocation), which subsequently affect salespeople’s commitment to providing superior customer value.

Originality/value

First study to empirically examine connections between servant leadership, distributive justice and commitment to customer value in the salesforce.

Citation

Schwepker Jr, C.H. (2016), "Servant leadership, distributive justice and commitment to customer value in the salesforce", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 70-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-07-2014-0143