Customer demandingness and salesperson’s performance: a meta-analytic examination

Abstract

Customer demandingness is a critical concept in sales research, potentially influencing a salesperson’s performance in complex ways. One perspective suggests a negative impact, while another sees the potential for a positive effect. To clarify this paradox, a meta-analysis was conducted, synthesizing over 20 years of research on customer demandingness. This study proposes a model examining the effects of customer demandingness on job performance, mediated by felt stress and job engagement. The findings reveal a dual impact: customer demandingness affects job performance both directly and indirectly through mediating processes involving salesperson job engagement and felt stress. Customer demandingness is a challenging stressor because the positive indirect effect of customer demandingness on salesperson performance through job engagement is stronger than its negative indirect effect through felt stress.