ERIC Number: EJ1118514
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Dec
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0273-4753
EISSN: N/A
Sales Role-Plays and Mock Interviews: An Investigation of Student Performance in Sales Competitions
Mani, Sudha; Kothandaraman, Prabakar; Kashyap, Rajiv; Ashnai, Bahar
Journal of Marketing Education, v38 n3 p183-198 Dec 2016
Sales competitions provide students with opportunities to apply their understanding of sales. Despite a long tradition of scholarship on sales role-plays, the answer to what drives student performance in sales competitions remains elusive. In this research, we examine how motivation (work engagement) and ability (cognitive aptitude and selling-related knowledge) affect student performance in sales role-play competitions. We also examine how success in sales role-plays engenders job attainment for the students. Using data from a sales competition held at a large public university in the United States, we provide empirical evidence that both motivation and ability affect sales performance. But, contrary to expectation, they have a substitution effect and not a complementary one. We also find evidence that success in sales role-plays translates into improved success in job interviews and that this effect is stronger for students with greater cognitive aptitude, that is, sales role-play performance complements the cognitive aptitude of the student to improve their mock interview performance.
Descriptors: Salesmanship, Competition, Role Playing, Interviews, Motivation, Success, Employment Potential, Education Work Relationship, Undergraduate Students, Job Search Methods, Aptitude, Cognitive Ability, Hypothesis Testing, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A