The effect of social media use on customer qualification skills and adaptive selling behaviors of export salespeople in China
| Pages | 278-300 |
| Date | 18 November 2020 |
| Published date | 18 November 2020 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-12-2019-0377 |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,International business |
| Author | Jihong Zhou,Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol |
The effect of social media use on
customer qualification skills and adaptive
selling behaviors of export salespeople
in China
Jihong Zhou and Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol
Abstract
Purpose –This study aimsto draw on the categorization theory to explorethe mediating role of customer
qualification skills in explaining how social media use in sales contributes to salespeople’s adaptive
selling behaviors toachieve high sales performance in export selling.The study also integrates network
effect theory andsocial linguistics theory to identify the specificsocial media platform (Facebook versus
non-Facebook) and the characteristics of salespeople interms of English language proficiency, which
play a facilitatingrole in promoting the effectivenessof social media use in exportsales.
Design/methodology/approach –The sampling frame of the research is a list of Chinese export
salespersons obtained on the FOB Business Forum website. Survey data were obtained from 873
Chinese export salespeople. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to
analyzethe data.
Findings –Social media use in sales is associated positively with customer qualification skills and
adaptive selling behaviors. Moreover, the results revealed a partial mediating effect of customer
qualification skillson the positive impact of social mediause in sales on adaptive selling behaviors. The
moderating effect analysis found that the positive association between social media use in sales and
customerqualification skills was stronger in export salespeoplewho used Facebook and had mastered a
high levelof Englishlanguage proficiency.
Originality/value –This study provides new findings, based on data collected from salespeople in
Mainland China,that support the effectiveness of social media usein an export sales context. Moreover,
the study advancesprior research by showing that the effectiveness of social media use still dependson
the type of socialmedia used and the English language proficiencyof the salespeople.
Keywords Facebook, Sales management, Social media, International business,
Customer qualification skills, Adaptive selling behaviors
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
With the vast popularity of social media used in business, there has been a relatively recent
increase in social media use for sales activities (Nunan et al., 2018). The State of Sales
report recently found that the time salespeople committed to connecting with customers
exceeded the time they spent meeting customers in person since 2015 by more than 400%
(Salesforce, 2020). Early research in this area focused mainly on describing the status quo
of social media use in sales, identifying its importance and proposing theoretically
conceptualized strategies for sales professionals and organizations (Agnihotri et al.,2013;
Andzulis et al.,2012;Berthon et al., 2012;Marshall et al., 2013;Charoensukmongkol and
Sasatanun, 2017;Sasatanun and Charoensukmongkol, 2016). Recent literature shows that
Jihong Zhou and
Peerayuth
Charoensukmongkol are
both based at International
College, National Institute
of Developmental
Administration, Bangkok,
Thailand.
Received 25 December 2019
Revised 1 April 2020
3 June 2020
Accepted 12 August 2020
This research receives financial
support from the National
Institute of Development
Administration.
PAGE 278 jJOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES jVOL. 15 NO. 2 2021, pp. 278-300, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894 DOI 10.1108/JABS-12-2019-0377
sales scholars’ interest has shifted into exploring the underlying reasons that account for
different patterns of social media use among salespeople, factors affecting sales
organizations and professionals’ application of social media in sales activities, as well as
working mechanisms and outcomes of social media use in sales (Agnihotri et al.,2016;
Agnihotri et al.,2017;Nunan et al.,2018;Ogilvie et al.,2018;Tajvidi and Karami, 2017;
Tarsakoo and Charoensukmongkol,2019b).
Despite the soaring research in the areaof social media use in sales activities (Nunan et al.,
2018), some gaps remain in the literature. First, although scholars have argued that social
media can be a “panacea” for international business because it helps overcome both time
and spatial barriers between countries (Arromdee and Suntrayuth, 2020;Berthon et al.,
2012), a few studies have explored the impact of salespeople’s social media use in an
international selling context, particularly in the area of export sales (Alarc
on-del-Amo et al.,
2016;Alarc
on et al.,2015). Export salespeople tend to face more complex selling
environments than do domestic salespeople (Charoensukmongkool, 2020). However,
whether the effectiveness of social media use in domestic sales contexts could apply to
export sales activities is an important issue that warrants exploration. Second, scholars
have argued that the use of information technology alone may not be enough to bring
benefits for both salespeople and sales organizations (Ahearne et al., 2008). Therefore, the
effectiveness of information technology is possible when it is used to improve the
salespeople’s behaviors or skills (Ogilvie et al.,2018). Despite this argument, the available
research remains unclear regarding how and why social media helps salespeople to
be effective in their selling tasks. Recent research shows that using social media in sales
might help salespeople to improve sales performance by facilitating their effective
engagement in adaptive selling behaviors (Itani et al.,2017;Ogilvie et al.,2018).
Nevertheless, there remains a lack of theoretical support to explain how social media can
promote adaptive selling behaviors.Finally, most research in the area of social media use of
sales has taken place in developed Western countries, such as the USA (Itani, 2017).
Researchers must broaden the understanding of social media use among salespeople from
the Eastern cultures, especially because Eastern and Western cultures differ in their
preferred social media platforms and use different patterns of communication on social
media (Alarc
on-del-Amo et al., 2018;Berthonet al., 2012;Farrell and Hutasingh, 2018).
To fill the above-mentioned research gaps, this study sets its research contexts in an
export-selling context via social media. The study has three objectives. The first objectiveis
to investigate the contribution of social media use in sales to adaptive selling behaviors of
salespeople in Mainland China. In particular, Mainland China provides an ideal context for
research about social media use in export selling. It has the largest population of active
social media users in the world, and many Chinese salespeople have increased their use of
social media in export sales activities because of its export-driven economic development
policy (Wang et al.,2016). Using a sample of salespeople from Mainland China will provide
an additional research contribution, given that scholars have recently called for more
studies focused on social media usein international selling (Alarc
on-del-Amo et al.,2018).
The present research also broadens the knowledge gained from previous studies
conducted using salespeople in Western countries (Itani, 2017). Specifically, this research
extends prior research that supports the link between social media use in sales and
adaptive selling behaviors by examining why Chinese export salespeople who use social
media in sales processes perform appropriate adaptive selling behaviors. In the context of
selling via social media, salespeople can gain access to information about numerous
prospects and customers because of the powerful social networking and information-
sharing functions it provides (Lacoste, 2016). Thus, how salespeople can screen and use
relevant information is criticalin their sales processes.
Salespeople need to acquire some basic skills to make information processing efficient and
effective in this specific context. Salespeople’s customer qualification skills might play a
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