ICT adoption and moderating effects of institutional factors on salesperson's communication effectiveness: a contingency study in high-tech industries

Although many studies have suggested that the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) has a positive impact on global sales force performance, few have focused on more specific benefits, particularly as regards facilitating factors. This article uses an organizational approach to present empirical evidence regarding whether and how ICT adoption influences an individual salesperson's communication effectiveness. The authors define a set of institutional antecedents and moderators to empirically test a contingency model for four technologies, using data collected from salespeople in three high-tech industries. The results confirm the crucial role of institutional factors both in the initiation of individual ICT adoption and in subsequent communication effectiveness. However, most differences between the three samples are explained by the institutional factors as predictors of ICT adoption rather than as moderators of the relationship between ICT adoption and communication effectiveness. Another key finding of our study is the positive correlation between sales force IT adoption and communication effectiveness. This suggests that salespeople who use ICT tools and have a positive attitude toward those tools will achieve higher levels of communication effectiveness. In conclusion, we present the implications of our study for research and managerial practices.