Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Because of the distal characteristic of personality and the demands of sales jobs, an understanding of personality and sales performance can be improved by considering two mediating variables: self-efficacy and relational investment. Therefore, this study proposes a multi-level model that mediates the relationship between salesperson’s personality traits and customer retentions through sales-specific self-efficacy and relational investment. Using structural equation modeling with the maximum likelihood method, this study examines whether two mediating variables simultaneously or sequentially mediate the effect of personality traits on customer retention. Results indicate that the link between personality traits and customer retention can be more reasonably explained by assuming the sequential influence of the two mediators rather than simultaneous mediation or their direct effect. More specifically, this study provides evidence that sales-specific self-efficacy mediates the connection of personality traits and customer retentions and, in turn, the cumulative effect of self-Efficacy is fully mediated by relational investment.
Keywords: Customer Retention, Personality Traits, Relational Investment, Sales-specific Self-efficacy