Knowledge structures and retail sales performance: An empirical examination

Retailers are constantly trying to improve the performance of their salespeople. In this research, we suggest that elements of knowledge structures held by salespeople enhance their understanding of the antecedents to retail sales effectiveness. These structures also provide information that can help retail sales managers select, train and supervise salespeople more efficiently. For better salespeople, such knowledge structures contain useful insights about customers and how to respond to their needs effectively. We examine retail salespeople's knowledge structures and find strong relationships between the complexity of knowledge structures of salespeople and their performance.