Purpose: This study empirically examines the antecedents of salespeople’s digital literacy at both the individual and organizational levels, as well as the impact of digital literacy on their selling behaviors. First, the study proposes digital selling readiness as an antecedent of digital literacy at the individual level, and sales control systems at the organizational level. Second, to investigate the relationship between digital literacy and salespeople's selling behaviors, this study adopts the SOCO concept proposed by Saxe and Weitz (1982), thereby distinguishing between selling-oriented and customer-oriented selling behaviors. Third, the study empirically analyzes the antecedents and consequences of digital literacy.Research design, data, and methodology: A survey was conducted through a professional research agency targeting employees engaged in sales- and business-related roles. Among 240 respondents, 222 completed responses were used for the final analysis. SEM was employed to test the hypotheses.Results: The empirical findings indicate that digital selling readiness exerts a positive effect on digital literacy. In terms of sales control systems, both activity control and capability control positively influence digital literacy, whereas outcome control does not show a statistically significant effect. Furthermore, digital literacy positively affects both selling-oriented and customer-oriented selling behaviors. In addition, both types of selling behaviors positively contribute to sales effectiveness.Implications: First, While prior research has explored the effectiveness of digital literacy across various contexts, studies identifying its antecedents remain scarce. This study thus contributes by integrating individual-level traits and organizational-level control systems. Second, this study extends the research scope of digital literacy from psychological outcomes to behavioral and performance, thereby offering academic contributions.
Lee et al. (Fri,) studied this question.