Barriers to the use of mobile sales force automation systems: a salesperson’s perspective
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers associated with the adoption and use
of mobile sales force automation (SFA) systems from a salesperson’s perspective.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative investigation of two business-to-business
companies was conducted. Data collected from ten semi-structured interviews with directors or sales
managers were analyzed to understand the main barriers to SFA system adoption.
Findings – The study confirms the existence of three barriers (customer knowledge, quality of
information and the characteristics of mobile devices) to a mobile SFA system use and identifies two
additional barriers: lack of time and optimization issues.
Research limitations/implications – The explorative nature of the study and the qualitative
method employed limit the generalizability of the results. The propositions could be further validated
and tested with a wider population.
Practical implications – Organizations wishing to speed the adoption of a mobile SFA system
should evaluate the importance and significance of the five identified barriers to adoption, and plan how
to overcome them. It is important for the providers of the mobile SFA systems to focus on developing
systems that can exploit the different characteristics of each channel and, in parallel, overcome the
inherent limitations of any single channel. The content of an SFA system should be customizable for
each type of mobile device.
Originality/value – Ever increasing mobility has led to a rise in the use of smartphones and tablet
PCs (tablets) in business and the consequent growth in the use of SFA systems. Although SFA systems
have been studied for roughly 30 years, little is known of the impact of newly developed mobile devices
on sales management and sales personnel.
Main Authors
Format
Articles
Research article
Published
2015
Series
Subjects
Publication in research information system
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited; Edith Cowan University
The permanent address of the publication
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201512164061Käytä tätä linkitykseen.
Review status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1328-7265
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-09-2014-0068
Language
English
Published in
Journal of Systems and Information Technology
Citation
- Sinisalo, J., Karjaluoto, H., & Saraniemi, S. (2015). Barriers to the use of mobile sales force automation systems: a salesperson’s perspective. Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 17(2), 121-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSIT-09-2014-0068
Copyright© 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. This is a final draft version of an article whose final and definitive form has been published by Emerald. Published in this repository with the kind permission of the publisher.