Salesperson adoption and usage of mobile sales configuration tools

Published date14 May 2018
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-09-2017-0073
Date14 May 2018
Pages168-190
AuthorNodir Sanakulov,Sami Kalliomaa,Heikki Karjaluoto
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information systems,Information & communications technology
Salesperson adoption and usage of
mobile sales conguration tools
Nodir Sanakulov
School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Sami Kalliomaa
School of Business, JAMK Universityof Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä,Finland, and
Heikki Karjaluoto
School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine salespersonsadoption and usage of mobile sales
congurationtools (MSCT) and to identify areas for further developmentin this realm. Another objective is to
offer a conceptualizationof MSCT adoption.
Design/methodology/approach For this purpose, a qualitativecase study approach was selected as
the research method to better understand acceptance of a mobile conguration tool used by business-to-
business (B2B)salespersons. Primary data were collected through semi-structuredinterviews, which included
a series of open-endedquestions to gain more detailed and contextualdata.
Findings The results obtained from the interviews indicated several important determinants of
adoption of sales conguration tools, and three different personal innovativeness types were
identied.
Research limitations/implications The current study has certain limitations that should be
considered in future studies. First, the results of this study cannot be generalized in other contexts
because of small number of participants (nine salespersons) included. Second, social desirability might
have affected the results in a way that caused the salespersons to have been tempted to talk positively
about MSCT.
Practical implications Based on the ndings several suggestions for managers and software
developers are made such as furthertechnical development of MSCT, development of common sales routine
for all salespersons, mentoring new salespersons and establishing social media channels for salesperson to
interactwith each, share experience/knowledge.
Originality/value Current paper can serve as pathway toward understanding of MSCT adoption and
usage as it opens new avenues as a source of hypotheses for a quantitative analysis of certain phenomena
such as the correlationbetween MSCT usage and sales performance.
Keywords Qualitative, Sales, B2B sales, Mobile sales adoption, Sales force automation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Technological advancements in information systems and their introduction into business
organizations have made sales force automation (SFA) systems important business tools,
which companies are continuously investing in despite the high cost of implementation
(Buttle et al.,2006;Jelinek et al.,2006;Parthasarathy and Sohi, 1997). As part of an
organizations customer relationship management (CRM) system, which connects and
integrates sales with other operations, SFA system electronically supports organizational
sales activities that are performed by sales professionals (Barker et al.,2009). Many
JSIT
20,2
168
Received6 September 2017
Revised12 November 2017
25February 2018
Accepted22 April 2018
Journalof Systems and
InformationTechnology
Vol.20 No. 2, 2018
pp. 168-190
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/JSIT-09-2017-0073
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1328-7265.htm
denitions of SFA exist in the literature. Baker and Delpechitre (2013) dened SFA as
comprising computer-based software and relational database technologies designed to
support eld sales activities. Sinisalo et al. (2015) dened mobile SFA as a system that
enables a salesperson to retrievedata via mobile devices to support sales while on the road.
Jelinek (2013) denedit as the set of technologytools that better equip a sales and marketing
organization to practice CRM. The common point to these denitions is that SFA involves
the application of informationtechnology to support the sales function (Buttle et al., 2006).
Major SFA featuresinclude providing automated sales tools for thefollowing:
efcient sales activities;
connecting sales with the rest of the organization for better information ow;
offering standardized tools for more efcient sales; and
providing managers with the information needed for salesmonitoring and
evaluation (Barker et al., 2009).
Additional SFA functions include collecting, storing, analyzing and distributing customer-
related data among salespersons and managers (Buttle et al.,2006) as well as appointment
management, customer information management, time management, generating reports
and creating quotes (Baker and Delpechitre, 2013) among many other activities. Overall,
rms use SFA to make their sales forces more efcient (Honeycutt et al., 2005) and
productive (Sinisaloet al.,2015).
Depending on the nature of work involved rms may implement adoption of specic
types of SFA technologies at various levels. Mobile SFA is one of such technologies that
rms may choose to adopt. Buttle et al. (2006) suggestedthat mobile solutions are necessary
because SFA systems must be operableout of the ofce for companies with geographically
dispersed salespeople. A mobile sales conguration tool (MSCT) is one such solution; it is a
part of the SFA system used with mobile devices (laptops, smartphones and tablets) that
help sales professionals easily congure products in their sales activities. Flexibility of
communication is the most important characteristics of mobile devices in SFA context
(Sinisalo et al., 2015). Rodriguezand Trainor (2016) also support this in their study of mobile
CRM application adoption by stating that mCRM enablessalesperson to access information
and update sales activities anytime and anywhere in real time. Per Karjaluoto et al. (2014),
the laptop is currently the most used mobile device for accessinga companys CRM system.
With the help of MSCT, salespersons can congure products and update customer
information and offersin theircompanys CRM system.
Because of the high cost of SFA implementation, companies are concernedwith both the
return on investment (ROI) (Bush et al.,2005) and the benets of SFA in practice, while
researchers are interested in providing explanations and predictions for both adoption and
usage. Therefore, this area has been of great interest to researchers (Ahearne et al.,2005;
Moutot and Bascoul, 2008). SFA researchdates to the 1980s (Buttle et al.,2006;Collins, 1984;
Wedell and Hempeck, 1987), and it has been an active research stream in academia ever
since. Past SFA research has mainly focused on SFA system adoption (Avlonitis and
Panagopoulos, 2005;Jones et al., 2002;Morgan and Inks, 2001) and its effects on a
salespersons performance (Ahearne et al., 2005;Avlonitis and Panagopoulos, 2005;Park
et al.,2010;Robinsonet al.,2005). Different than consumer adoption, SFA adoption is a more
complicated process that progresses through two stages (Parthasarathy and Sohi, 1997).
First, the decision to adopt a technology is made at the organizationallevel, followed by the
individual salespersonsuseof the technology. Therefore, the entire process is dependent on
both organizations and individuals. Firms adopt SFA systems to improve efciency and
Salesperson
adoption
169

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