Abstract:
Recently, sales literature has begun to recognize that emotional intelligence (EI), which is a distinct form of intelligence entailing the perception, understanding, facilitation, and management of emotions, is a salesperson characteristic that has the potential to substantively impact interpersonal success and, ultimately, performance. This research explores specific outcomes and boundary conditions of EI in a sales context with a field study including a salesperson sample. Further, it stands to contribute to the considerable debate surrounding emotional intelligence by first empirically comparing competing conceptualizations in the same sample. Second, this research proposes and provides empirical support for a new conceptualization of emotional intelligence as consisting of cognitive and behavioral components which are not only distinct from each other but also are progressive in nature. Finally, moderators are found which impact a salesperson’s ability to translate cognitive EI into behavioral EI.
