If One Steps Out of the Phalanx: Analyzing Leaders' Influence on Sales Force Automation Adoption with a Four Source Dataset

The implementation of sales force automation applications (SFA) often fails owing to the lack of adoption by salespeople. Previous studies investigating drivers of salespeople’s SFA adoption have mainly scrutinized predictors on the level of salespeople (within-level analysis). Hence, these studies have mostly neglected the social influence of coworkers’ and superiors’ SFA adoption on salespeople’s SFA adoption. We introduce a new perspective using a multilevel framework of SFA adoption at several hierarchical levels. The findings demonstrate that coworkers’ and superiors’ SFA adoption has a positive effect on subordinates’ SFA adoption which goes beyond the commonly tested determinants. Also, results reveal differences among predictors of the Technology Acceptance Model (within-level effects) examined at three different hierarchical levels.