Entrepreneurial orientation among sales professionals: performance implications and mediating mechanisms

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of individual entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of sales professionals. It also identifies ambidexterity and role ambiguity as mediating mechanisms linking entrepreneurial orientation to sales performance. Design/methodology/approach The author polled 252 UK-based sales professionals in 2020. The analytical strategy is partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings The author finds that entrepreneurial orientation significantly improves behavioural and selling performance and that ambidexterity – joint farming and hunting – and role ambiguity mediate this relationship. Post hoc analysis reveals that, in contrast, entrepreneurial intent has no direct effect on sales performance. These findings bridge the entrepreneurship and sales literatures, demonstrating that, for salespeople, thinking like an entrepreneur has a direct and positive effect on sales performance, whereas having a strong entrepreneurial intent does not. Research limitations/implications This study establishes individual entrepreneurial orientation as a key driver of sales performance. It advances theory by identifying ambidexterity – joint hunting for new customers and farming of existing customer relationships – and role ambiguity as central mechanisms converting entrepreneurial orientation into performance outcomes. Practical implications Sales organisations should foster entrepreneurial orientation – innovativeness, proactivity and risk-taking – since it improves performance both directly and indirectly, by enabling salespeople to jointly hunt for new customers and farm existing ones (ambidexterity) while reducing role ambiguity. By contrast, entrepreneurial intent has no direct performance effect, so fostering entrepreneurial intent, for example, hiring aspiring entrepreneurs – will not lead to a direct improvement in sales performance. Social implications Because sales uses a large share of the workforce and shows extreme output dispersion, interventions that build entrepreneurial orientation, ambidexterity and role clarity can deliver meaningful economic and social benefits. Originality/value There is, to this date, not a single empirical study examining the effect and pathway of entrepreneurial orientation of sales professionals on their performance. This study bridges the entrepreneurship and selling literatures to test the entrepreneurial orientation-performance relationship in the sales function and to explore mediating mechanisms. The author also conducted a post hoc test on the effect of entrepreneurial intent on sales performance.