Dr. Mallin’s paper receives Outstanding Article award

Dr. Michael Mallin’s paper "Power-Base Effects on Salesperson Motivation and Performance: A Contingency View," co-authored with Charles B. Ragland and published in the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing,  Outstanding Article Award from the University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation.

Sales literature shows that motivation is a key determinant of salesperson performance. The literature also suggests that how managers use social power will have an effect on important organizational outcomes, including salesperson performance. This study examines the five bases of social power that sales managers use (reward, coercive, legitimate, referent, and expert) as moderating influences in the salesperson motivation (extrinsic and intrinsic)—salesperson performance linkage.

The authors found support for five of eight hypotheses. Results and significant findings suggest that sales managers can impact sales performance in extrinsically motivated salespeople by using coercive and legitimate power. For intrinsically motivated salespeople, sales managers can impact sales performance by using coercive, legitimate, and referent power.

Dr. Mallin is a Professor of Marketing and Sales and the Faculty Director for MBA/EMBA programs at UT COBI The University of Toledo, College of Business & Innovation. He holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from Kent State University, an MBA from The University of Dayton, and a BS in Computer & Information Sciences from The Ohio State University. Dr. Mallin teaches and researches in the area of sales and sales management.

His research interests include salesforce leadership, motivation, and performance issues.
His research has appeared in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Selling & Major Account Management, Direct marketing, an International Journal, Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, American Marketing Association Educators Conference Proceedings, National Conference for Sales Management Conference Proceedings, and Academy of International Business Regional Conference Proceedings.

He is the recipient of faculty teaching and research awards at The University of Toledo and for outstanding teaching as a doctoral fellow at Kent State University.

Prior to joining the University of Toledo, Dr. Mallin’s industry experience includes positions as Sales Director for The SBC Corporation, Sales & Marketing Manager, and Account Executive for AT&T Corp.

Dr. Mallin said he had worked on the paper for a year with Dr. Ragland, Department of Marketing, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.