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      The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training
      30 Jun 2019Working Paper Summaries

      The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training

      by Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim, and Byoung G. Park
      When sales forces are well managed, firms can induce greater performance from them. For this study, the authors collaborated with a major multinational firm to develop and estimate a dynamic structural model of sales employee responses to various management instruments like compensation, training, and recruiting/termination policies.
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      Author Abstract

      This paper provides a comprehensive model of an agent’s behavior in response to multiple sales management instruments, including compensation, recruiting/termination, and training. The model takes into account many of the key elements that constitute a realistic sales force setting: allocation of continuous effort, forward-looking behavior, present bias, effectiveness of training, and employee selection and attrition. The paper provides insights into the way that employee training, recruiting policies, and various compensation components affect both the selection and performance of heterogeneous sales agents. In addition, the paper provides two key methodological contributions. First, we provide identification results for dynamic models with continuous and unobserved choice variables, which arise in many empirical applications but are often ruled out due to theoretical intractability. Second, we consider a hyperbolic discounting model as well as an exponential discounting model and provide conditions under which each model is identified. The key to identification is that, under a multi-period nonlinear incentive scheme, an agent’s proximity to a goal affects only future payof

      Paper Information

      • Full Working Paper Text
      • Working Paper Publication Date: June 2019
      • HBS Working Paper Number: HBS Working Paper #19-122
      • Faculty Unit(s): Marketing
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      Doug J. Chung
      Doug J. Chung
      MBA Class of 1962 Associate Professor of Business Administration
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