Performance Expectations of Salespeople: The Role of Past Performance and Causal Attributions in Independent and Interdependent Cultures

Abstract

The study compares the role of self-reported causal attributions of past performance on self-generated expectations of future performance among salespeople from independent and interdependent national cultures. The results suggest that salespeople from independent cultures attribute successful past performance to internal factors (i.e., effort or ability), but not external factors (i.e., luck or organizational support). Salespeople from interdependent cultures, however, attribute successful performances to both internal and external factors. Furthermore, the relationship between past performance and future performance expectation is mediated by internal or external causal attributions depending upon whether the salespeople operate in independent or interdependent cultures, respectively.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas E. DeCarlo

Thomas E. DeCarlo (Ph.D., University of Georgia), Professor and Ben S. Weil Endowed Chair of Industrial Distribution, Department of Marketing and Industrial Distribution, School of Business, University of Alabama at Birmingham, [email protected].

Sanjeev Agarwal

Sanjeev Agarwal (Ph.D., The Ohio State University), Professor and Dean’s Faculty Fellow, Department of Marketing, Iowa State University, Ames, [email protected].

Shyam B. Vyas

Shyam B. Vyas (Ph.D., Jodhpur University), President, M.A.R.C. Group, New Delhi, India.