본 연구는 직무자원 -요구모델(job demand and resource model, JD-R) 이론에 근거하여, 백화점 판매원들의 지각된 고객 인게이지먼트가 적응판매행동에 미치는 영향에 대해 알아보고자 하였다. 백화점 판매원들의 관점에서 지각된 고객 인게이지먼트는 직무자원으로 직무열의에 긍정적인 영향을 미치며, 직무열의는 적응판매행동에 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 지각된 고객 인게이지먼트와 직무열의 관계가 판매원들의 접근 · 회피성향에 따라 달라지는지 조절효과를 통해 검증하였다. 마지막으로 직무열의와 고객에 대한 스튜어드십이 적응판매행동에 미치는 영향을 검증하였다. 연구결과, 판매원은 고객의 브랜드 또는 기업에 대한 자발적이고 긍정적인 공헌을 지각하게 되면 이를 고객차원의 지원행동으로 파악하고, 이를 바탕으로 판매원 자신의 업무에 대한 열의가 증가한다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 특히 판매원의 업무달성과 관련된 동기요인인 접근성향과 회피성향에 따라 지각된 고객의 열의가 판매원의 직무와 관련된 열의를 고취시키는 효과가 달라진다는 점을 실증적으로 제시하였다. 마지막으로 판매원이 자신의 업무에 대한 열의를 느끼고 동기를 유발할 때 고객에 대하여 가지는 의무감, 책임감, 고객이익 우선태도 등이 증가하여 결국 고객에게 더욱 필요한 판매활동에 집중한다는 것을 알 수 있다. 본 연구는 그동안 고객 중심의 고객 인게이지먼트 연구의 영역을 확장하여 서비스 조직의 중요한 구성원인 판매원의 입장에서 고객 인게이지먼트가 직무자원으로 기능하는 것을 실증적으로 규명하였다. 또한 고객에 대한 스튜어드십이 접점직원들의 고객중심행동을 유발시키는 중요한 요인으로 서비스마케팅에서 주요 변수로 작용할 가능성을 발견했다는 것에 의의가 있다.
Purpose: This study aims to confirm the effect of perceived customer engagement of department store salespersons on adaptive selling behavior. Based on the job demand-resource model, we want to verify whether perceived customer engagement plays a role as a salesperson’s job resource. In addition, it is intended to check whether approach orientation and avoid orientation, which are the goal-oriented characteristics of individual salesperson, have moderating effects between perceived customer engagement and work engagement.
Research design, data, and methodology: To verify the hypotheses, a survey was conducted with department store sales representatives in South Korea. After conducting a pretest with 30 people, some ambiguous and awkward expressions were corrected. The survey was conducted for about two weeks from September 20, 2021, and 468 responses out of 480 distributed questionnaires were collected. SPSS22.0 and SmartPLS 3.3.3. were used for statistical processing, and after verifying the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items, hypothesis testing was conducted.
Results: As a result, all the hypotheses were supported. First, the more the salesperson recognizes the customer’s positive engagement, the more the salesperson will interact with the customer to enhance their work engagement and ultimately create higher value with the customer. This indicates that salesperson who perceive customer’s engagement are inclined to be more faithful to their job, and the higher the likelihood of showing performance. Second, it was found that the salesperson’s approach orientation positively strengthens the relationship between perceived customer engagement and work engagement. This means that salespeople with a strong tendency to achieve personal goals increase their enthusiasm for their jobs by interacting positively with customer-level efforts such as customer engagement. Third, it was found that salespersons with passive and negative motivation for personal goal achievement reduce the effect of perceived customer engagement on work engagement. The avoidance tendency of salespeople, such as pre-checking and taking action on problematic areas to achieve organizational goals, reduces the positive effect of perceived job resources on work engagement. Fourth, it was found that when salespersons increase their engagement for their jobs, this in turn induces high motivation for work and has a positive effect on adaptive selling behaviors to achieve actual sales goals. Salespersons with enthusiasm for their job will show high sales performance by flexibly and actively responding to fluid sales situations, non-flexible sales conditions, and various customer needs. Fifth, it was found that salespeople who actively perform their duties will actively engage in stewardship for customers who are dedicated to their customers’ interests. This means that a salesperson with high work engagement will act as a steward to his/her duties and responsibilities towards customers and to help the welfare of customers. Sixth, salesperson who are tend to have customer-oriented stewardship would increase customer-oriented adaptive sales behavior. This means that the salesperson actively responds to the sales situation by serving the customer with a stewardship attitude and prioritizing the customer’s interests. Based on the above study results, the following implications are suggested. First, it was verified that the salesperson’s perceived customer engagement plays as an antecedent variable of work engagement. Unlike previous studies, this paper examines customer engagement from the perspective of a salesperson. Second, the empirical analysis targeting department store salespeople expanded the field of application and added depth to the study. In previous studies, empirical analysis was mainly conducted in the tourism industry, but it was extended to the distribution industry and focused on the salesperson rather than the customer. In particular, it is meaningful to empirically analyze the relationship between the salesperson’s approach/avoidance tendency and perceived customer engagement formed based on emotional factors in the salesperson-customer relationship.
Conclusions: Summarizing the above results, the salesperson"s recognition of customer engagement by identifying the homogeneity with the customer, the salesperson"s personality toward the goal, and the sense of duty, responsibility, and customer interest-first attitude toward the salesperson are related to work engagement and adaptive selling behavior. Salespeople activate their work engagement through perceived customer engagement and enhance adaptive selling behavior. As the salesperson’s personal approach/avoidance toward the goal increases, the perceived job enthusiasm may interact to activate the work engagement or negatively affect the work engagement.