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In an increasingly technology-driven retail landscape, retailers face the challenge of making the most effective decisions regarding the selection and use of innovative technology. Although previous research provides insights into the added value of technology, it does not directly guide retailers in overviewing and selecting technology that supports their sales operations. This chapter contributes to the field of retail technology studies by introducing a sales-oriented model intended to assist retailers in inventorying available technologies and making decisions regarding the selection and use of these technologies for their physical stores. The model uses an updated version of the seven steps of selling as a foundation and, in line with the resource life cycle, decision support system and self-service technology literature streams, proposes applying technology in such a way that it supports the stages of the retailer's sales process. This chapter concludes with a discussion of practical guidelines for applying the model.

This article evaluates the effect of technostress due to implementation of sales technologies on sales professionals in terms of changes in job satisfaction and role stress and potential mitigation strategies including technostress inhibitors and job commitment.

The study utilizes a survey data collection from sales professionals in B2B consultative roles selling to business customers from construction, industrial supply and business service firms, including items that explore before and after factors around a customer relationship management implementation.

Technostress results in a decrease in job satisfaction and an increase in role stress of sales professionals. Job commitment moderates the decrease in job satisfaction, i.e. the higher the job commitment the less significant the decrease in job satisfaction.

Sales forces need to implement technostress inhibitors to help mitigate the effects of technostress in exacerbating other sales professional stressors. These inhibitors should be contextualized to the unique situation of the sales organization.

The study examines the dark side of sales technologies. Our research expands current understanding by considering new relations among technostress-creating conditions and two work-related outcomes that are salient to sales professionals, namely role stress and job satisfaction. Further, we investigate the change in these outcomes before and after the implementation of sales technologies rather than only considering them at one point of time, after the fact.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The main purpose of this research is to understand how the sudden shift to work from home (WFH) after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has caught several sales organizations underprepared and ill-equipped to combat emergent challenges. In this research, the authors provide initial evidence into how the WFH arrangement impacts salespeople and sales organizations. Specifically, this research is guided by two objectives: to understand how the shift to WFH environment is affecting salespeople, and to explore how organizations can mitigate dysfunctional effects of the shift to WFH practices and enhance salespeople’s commitment toward this new reality.

The authors did preliminary in-depth interviews with 13 executives operating in the business-to-business (B2B) space to identify themes that reflected the reality faced by B2B sales organizations when transitioning to WFH. The authors then conducted a quantitative study involving a survey with 130 B2B salespeople.

The findings from the qualitative research suggested that the WFH situation is quite different from the more traditional remote selling situations that B2B salespeople are used to. More specifically, salespeople experienced more anxiety because of the WFH situations. This finding was supported in the empirical study done by the authors where stress associated with WFH and job insecurity had a significant impact on salesperson anxiety.

The study primarily used subjective responses of salespeople with no objective measures. Furthermore, this study is cross-sectional in nature. Future research should build on the present work to understand the long-term consequences of WFH and factor in customer responses to the same. The impact of increased use of technology in the sales process will need further attention, including the sales management implication for the same.

Given the unforeseen nature of the COVID pandemic and how unprepared salespeople and sales organizations were to deal with it, this study is one of the first studies that documents the impact of WFH situations on salespeople.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the glaring gap in the sales literature due to the deficiency of historical research on the adoption of technology in personal selling and the resultant impacts on sales roles.

This paper traces the early adoption of technology by the sales force through information obtained from an extensive review of published works covering a nearly 130‐year timeframe. Where possible, efforts are made to chronicle the early use of these technologies by citing examples from historical publications of applications in selling situations.

In the exciting internet era, it is often unrecognized that adopting the latest technology in selling is a long, ongoing process which can be traced back at least to the beginning of professional personal selling in the mid‐1800s when the industrial revolution enabled dramatic increases in manufactured products. A review of the literature suggests that sales forces were often early adopters of new technologies that laid the groundwork for taking on new or expanded sales roles. With each new invention and its creative adoption and adaption to selling, new sales roles have been created or ongoing ones expanded or significantly modified. Many of the roles still entrusted to today's sales force are arguably linked to a succession of technological adoptions that occurred between the 1850s and 1980s.

From a historical perspective, this paper examines sales force technology development from the 1850s through the 1980s and the resultant impacts on sales force roles. To date, this historic technology‐sales force role relationship has not been adequately recognized or addressed in the sale literature. The analyses presented in the present study should prove useful for academics, students, and practitioners in the sales and marketing fields as well as researchers examining business history.

This paper aims to explore the impact of salespeople’s goal orientation and self-regulatory mode on their performance through sales ambidexterity and sales technology infusion (STI) using a sales technology ecosystem approach.

This paper adopts a qualitative methodology, through in-depth interviews with salespeople from a diverse range of industries, age profiles and contexts, to explore the narratives and original meanings related to their goal orientation, self-regulatory mode, ambidexterity, STI and performance.

Sceptics are salespeople who may fear or hesitate to fully use the sales technology, whereas enthusiasts are ambidextrous salespeople with high STI, who are more open to change and able to face uncertainty, regardless of the differences in their background in terms of industry, age and experience.

STI may be influenced by individual factors, such as the salesperson’s goal orientation and self-regulatory mode. Hence, sales organizations should try to foster and facilitate further STI and sales ambidexterity, which are key to achieving positive outcomes in today’s technology-intensive sales settings.

This paper extends the current literature on sales technology and sales ambidexterity within a sales technology ecosystem perspective and provides new insight on the combined impact of these variables on the salesperson’s performance.

This paper aims to understand an emerging paradigm for business-to-business selling, Sales 2.0, which connects various enabling technologies within leading sales processes to drive improved business and relational outcomes. In the context of Sales 2.0, this paper addresses the need for buyer–seller dyadic sales research in the literature and highlights the importance of understanding buyer and seller perspectives regarding technology expectations and relationship-building performance.

This research utilizes a dyadic (salesperson–customer) data collection methodology, involving 74 matched salesperson and customer responses (37 dyads) to an online survey. Existing salesperson (self-report) measures of customer technology expectations and relationship-building performance with customers were utilized and adapted to provide dyadic measures to test for buyer–seller perceptual differences.

The dyadic data analysis supports the presence of significant perceptual differences between the salesperson and their customer, respective of customer technology expectations and relationship-building performance measures. In particular, the analysis reveals bidirectional perceptual differences for the two measures, whereas the salesperson underestimates the importance of their customer’s technology expectations, but overestimates their relational performance relative to their customers.

As technology continues to transform salesperson interactions with customers, the value of capturing a deeper understanding about those interactions increases. This study uses matched salesperson–customer dyads from a health-care sales organization to provide researchers and practitioners with insightful findings with respect to buyer–seller interactions and perceptual differences. Further, the research uniquely advances dyadic measures of customer technology expectations and relationship-building performance with customers to advance sales research in the context of Sales 2.0.

Digital technologies have made it possible for organizations to enhance service delivery and provide consumers a way to experience a product or service before even seeing it in person. Prior work has validated consumer purchase decision-making models like the Engel, Kollat and Blackwell (EKB) model in digital and multi-channel purchase environments. This research aims to explore the various impacts of digital technologies, specifically virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) features, on the different stages of the EKB model in a high involvement purchase decision context. In addition, the use of such technologies is examined as a competitive advantage for sales agents.

An in-depth market analysis of VR and AR technologies related to residential real estate is conducted. Then the research questions are analyzed through detailed feedback gathered from 33 prospective home-buyers and realtors in the USA.

Insights from buyers and sales agents (realtors in the context of this research) suggest that VR and AR technologies can enhance consumer information search and expedite the time consumers spend evaluating purchase alternatives. As these technologies advance in their customization features, they may also increase the conversion between alternative evaluation and purchase, but only if they are realistic and provide high quality experiences. Finally, digital technologies are viewed as becoming a necessity in high involvement sales contexts, suggesting that additional features or innovative ways to use these technologies may serve as sources of competitive advantage for sales agents.

This is one of the first research studies to explore the perceived impacts of VR and AR technologies on the stages of the EKB model consumer decision model. It builds on prior work and offers direction for future research.

Many organizations still struggle with sales force technology implementation because of low user adoption rates. The ubiquity of mobile computing devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and the proliferation of mobile customer relationship management (mCRM) applications, may lead to increased CRM adoption and higher returns on CRM technology investments. The purpose of this study is to attempt to extend the current literature by developing a model of mCRM antecedents and outcomes by incorporating the idiosyncratic mCRM characteristics that have not yet been examined in the sales technology literature.

This research utilizes the technology acceptance model and the technology-to-performance chain as the foundation of a conceptual model of the drivers and outcomes of mCRM adoption.

This conceptual study provides several contributions to both the sales technology literature and to practitioners within sales organizations. The proposed conceptual model outlines the benefits of providing mCRM capabilities to sales professionals. These benefits include increased productivity, sales activity and collaboration among both internal stakeholders (management and peers) and external stakeholders (prospects and customers).

Despite the increased use of mobile applications in sales, research on this particular form of technology is limited, and sales researchers have yet to examine mCRM or its relationship to sales performance. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to forward a conceptual model that allows researchers to explore the drivers of mCRM use and how mCRM influences individual and organizational-level outcomes.

Increasingly, salespeople adopt, or are being asked to adopt, and use a variety of technologies to increase their selling productivity and efficiency. Given this trend, many researchers have begun to explore the question of sales force adoption of technology. However, little work has been done to consider what happens once this technology is adopted. The purpose of this paper is to report two studies that investigated if and why salespeople had different technology usage and if the extent of usage had an impact on their performance.

First, a qualitative study was performed to gain insights about extent of technology usage and the reasons that may explain differences. In order to test some of the research propositions that emerged from the qualitative study, an empirical study was conducted with 130 salespeople.

Innovativeness was found to be helpful in distinguishing between different technology usage levels across various technologies (internet, e‐mail, intranet, etc.). Results also suggest three potential antecedents of technology use, as well as a potential moderator of the usage to performance relationship.

This paper provides a research agenda for studying this important area. Further, the practicing manager will gain insight into some variables that help predict usage extent, and may provide better ideas on implementing and managing the use of technology by their sales force.