Alan Bush Published in Keller Center Research Report and Journal of Academy and Marketing Science

For release:  September 10, 2014

Dr. Alan J. Bush, professor of Marketing in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, recently had his article entitled, "Competitiveness, Coachability, and Context as Key Determinants of Sales Performance," published in the September issue of the Keller Center Research Report. The article, which won the Fogelman College Best Paper Award for 2013 for Best Empirical Paper, was originally published in the January 2013 edition of the Journal of Academy and Marketing Science. This article was co-authored with Drs. Kirby L. J. Shannahan and Rachelle J. Shannahan, associate and assistant professors of Marketing at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

In this article, the highly competitive nature of the real estate industry is discussed in relation to recruiting and retaining top performing sales agents as a part of a team structure. As a part of a two-part empirical study, the relationships among salesperson trait competitiveness, salesperson coachability, sales manager leadership style, and sales performance were explored. The findings of this study showed that competitive individuals can realize performance gains through being exposed to and open to the developmental coaching process. It was also demonstrated that the effect of salesperson trait competitiveness on sales performance is in part transferred through salesperson coachability and that sales manager leadership style works entirely through salesperson coachability to impact sales performance.