(Luận văn) the benefits of social networking professional groups for salespersons, social capital salespersons performance

By drawing on the social capital theory, there are three kinds of benefits that salesperson can attain from SNPG, including SNPG bridging, SNPG bonding, and SNPG maintaining.. According

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Nguyen Minh Thien

THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFESSIONAL GROUPS FOR SALESPERSONS:

SOCIAL CAPITAL & SALESPERSONS

PERFORMANCE

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014 tot nghiep down load thyj uyi pl aluan van full moi nhat z z vbhtj mk gmail.com Luan van retey thac si cdeg jg hg

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY

International School of Business

-

Nguyen Minh Thien

THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFESSIONAL GROUPS FOR SALESPERSONS:

SOCIAL CAPITAL & SALESPERSONS

Recently social networking professional groups (SNPG) are increasing and becoming popular in various social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,

Google+, Pinterest, Forum, and Blog Many people using them as tools to share

information together, acquire existing & new connections, and maintain relationships

Typically, salesperson has demand to connect and maintain with customers every day,

and the SNPG is a very useful tool for them to build up, develop, and nourish

relationships with their business partners By drawing on the social capital theory, there

are three kinds of benefits that salesperson can attain from SNPG, including SNPG

bridging, SNPG bonding, and SNPG maintaining This study attempts to investigate the

effects of these SNPG benefits on salesperson’s self-efficacy, which in turn influence

salespersons performance The data were collected from 120 salespersons, and the result

shows that among the social capital benefits of SNPG, only bringing is positively

associated with self-efficacy of salespersons Besides, self-efficacy of salespersons is

found to significantly increase salespersons performance These findings implies that, in

order to improve salesperson performance, salespersons need to enhance their

self-efficacy, and two sub-dimensions of SNPG bridging can help salespersons enhance this

factor is bridging involvement and bridging devotion

Keywords

SNPG, Social Capital, Self- Efficacy of Salespersons, Salespersons Performance

Abstract List of tables

Chapter 1: Introduction……….1

1.1 Research Background……….1

1.2 Research Problems……… 3

1.3 Research Objectives………4

1.4 Research Methodology and Scopes………4

1.5 The Structure of Research……… 5

Chapter 2: Literature Review and Hypothesis Development………7

2.1 Social Networking Professional Groups (SNPG)……… 7

2.2 Social Capital Benefits: Bridging, Bonding, and Maintaining……… 7

2.3 Self-Efficacy of Salespersons ………9

2.4 Salespersons Performance………13

Chapter 3: Research Methodology……… 16

3.1 Research Process……… 16

3.2 Measurement Scale……… 17

3.2.1 Measures of Social Capital………17

3.2.2 Measures of Self-Efficacy of Salespersons……… 18

3.2.3 Measures of Salespersons Performance……….18

3.3 Data Collection Method………19

3.4 Qualitative Research……….21

3.6 Data Analyzing Method……… 23

Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results……… 25

4.1 Characteristic of Sample ……….27

4.2 Reliability Analysis: Cronbach’s Alpha Testing……… 28

4.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis………33

4.4 Revised Research Model………40

4.5 Multiple Regression Analysis……… 41

Chapter 5: Conclusions, Implications and Limitations………54

5.1 Conclusion……… 54

5.2 Managerial Implications……… 56

5.3 Limitation and Future Research……… 58

References……… 59

Appendix A……… 63

Appendix B……… 71

Appendix C……… …79

Appendix D……… 82

Appendix E……… 85

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Frequently of Salespersons using SNPG……….26

Table 4.2 Characteristic of Sample……… 27

Table 4.3 Reliability Statistics for SNPG Bridging……….28

Table 4.4 Item-Total Statistics for SNPG Bridging……….28

Table 4.5 Reliability Statistics for SNPG Bonding……… 29

Table 4.6 Item-Total Statistics for SNPG Bonding……….29

Table 4.7 Reliability Statistics after deleting Bonding3……… 30

Table 4.8 Reliability Statistics for SNPG Maintaining………30

Table 4.9 Item-Total Statistics for SNPG Maintaining………30

Table 4.10 Reliability Statistics for Self-Efficacy………31

Table 4.11 Item-Total Statistics for Self-Efficacy………31

Table 4.12 Reliability Statistics for Salespersons Performance……… 32

Table 4.13 Item-Total Statistics for Salespersons Performance………32

Table 4.14 KMO and Bartlett's Test ……….33

Table 4.15 Total Variance Explained ……….35

Table 4.16 Rotated Component Matrix ……… 35

Table 4.17 Rotated Component Matrix ………36

Table 4.18 Correlations……….43

Table 4.19 Model Summary……… ……… 44

Table 4.20 ANOVA……… 45

Table 4.21 Coefficients of multiple linear regression analysis in first running …………46

Table 4.23 ANOVA……….……….47

Table 4.24 Coefficients of multiple linear regression analysis in second running…… 48

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

According to We Are Social, a new kind of globe agency combines an innate understanding of social media with digital, public relation, and marketing skills, entirely

focused on innovative, creative and effective social media marketing and

communications Following this agency’s report of South East Asia (SEA) consist of

Vietnam in January, 2014: SEA has nearly 196 million internet users with 31% Internet

Penetration and nearly 162 active social networks users with 26% social networking

penetration (Kemp, 2014)

For further details, Internet Live Stats (2014) show a report: there are about 40 million internet users in Vietnam as of July 01st , 2014 Internet users grow 9% compare

with 2013 in the same period And internet penetration shares 1.28% country’s share of

World Internet Users, and ranges at No.14 of Global rank And We Are Social has just

updated the report of Vietnam in Jan , 2014 significant social indicators: social media

penetration as of percentage of the total population is 38%, the average time that internet

users spend using the internet each day through all devices: 6 hours and 20 minutes

While, the average time social media users spend on social media each day: 2hours and

23 minutes Specially, report also represent Vietnam situation in social media use: 97%

of Vietnam internet users have any social network’s account: Facebook, Google+,

Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and 81% all of them use one of these social network in the

previous month With the more detail in percentage of social media usage: 67%

Facebook, 34% Google+, 16% Twitter, 8% LinkedIn, 5% Pinterest Kemp (2014) also

state that: communities or social networking professional groups (SNPG): we can

categorise audience in the common group by instead, look for the interests, motivations

and attitudes that the people we want to engage have in common, and use these

commonalities to define your audience People are drawn to others whom they feel

affinity for, and when it comes to the borderless internet, this affinity is far more

dependent on passion than it is on place around their shared motivation Currently, in

Vietnam now there are many groups or e-communities in social networking They are

established everyday to invite the new members anytime whom have the common

professional or interests or fan club So that, they can connect together, sharing

experiences, new things or interesting topic

From this report, we observe Vietnam internet user, typically the benefits of social network is very large The development of social networking in Vietnam very fast which

make many organizations cannot overlook this opportunity This is the big chance for

salespersons whom need to connect people, customer engagement, building new

customer, approach new prospect or maintain relationship with customer for building

customer service or simply for product warranty or new product introduction

However, in order to understand in-depth SNPG in Vietnam, salesperson need to know what people think and feel when joining these professional groups Furthers detail,

salesperson need to understand what factor impact to salesperson when participate SNPG

and from this salesperson can enhance their skill and improving their working

performance when using SNPG

1.2 Research Problems

SNPG in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest, Forum, Blog… are becoming an indispensable part of every societies, with many people using them as tools

to share information together, acquire existing & new connections, maintain relationships

online & offline SNPG not only facilitate individuals to connect together but also allow

business organizations to find-out more customers and help generate new customers,

identify potential customers, build customer relationship effectively, and even solve

customer complaints on time As salespersons playing the role of boundary-spanners in

business organizations, they can utilize SNPG for both personal and professional

purposes which might improve the quality of their lives, and enhance their working

capacity, thus leading to better performance in their job

Besides, the reason of joining of salespersons in SNPG from different reasons, for instance, customer service for customer orientation, attracts and finding new customers,

while company think about their business, do some marketing campaign and public

relation activities to pose on SNPG Depending on particular purposes and objectives,

each subject will develop their account in right way

According to social capital theory, SNPG bring three kinds of benefits including SNPG bridging, SNPG bonding, and SNPG maintaining to the users within the networks

(Ellison et al, 2007) The benefits or values of SNPG are perceived as supportive among

salespersons upon their joining the groups (Madanka et al, 2013) A comprehensive and

intensive literature review on the application of social capital theory reveals that there is a

lack of research that apply the theory in online environment, especially so far no research

has been done on explaining the benefits and values that salesperson attain from SNPG to

improve their working performance Therefore, the purpose of the current research thesis

is to investigate the relationships mechanism that three aforementioned benefits of social

capital (i.e., SNPG Bridging , SNPG Bonding, and SNPG Maintaining) pertaining to

Salespersons Performance and Self-Efficacy of Salespersons at work

1.3 Research Objectives

The overall objective of this study is to examine SNPG benefits to Salespersons performance Typically, it investigates:

 The relationship between SNPG Bridging and Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

 The relationship between SNPG Bonding and Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

 The relationship between SNPG Maintaining and Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

 The relationship between Self-Efficacy of Salespersons and Salespersons

Performance

1.4 Research Methodology and Scopes

The research method that many researchers are using lately is the combination of qualitative and quantitative research It helps increase the accuracy and sufficiency of the

study Applying qualitative research to collect the ideas and opinions allows the

adjustment of the study is made While, the quantitative research guarantees many people

take the survey and allows the researcher to carry out the data analysis with more reliable

results

The researcher uses Statistical Package for the Social Science software (SPSS), an effective tool to analyze the data The first step is to study the Descriptive Statistics The

second one is to test the reliability of the scales (Cronbach’s Alpha), Factor Analysis

Finally, the Regression is used to examine the relationship between independents

variables and dependent variables

This study is to research salespersons performance in SNPG in Vietnam, so, the scope of this research is restricted to all salespersons who mostly live in Hanoi City and

Ho Chi Minh City Because these cities are the two biggest city of Vietnam with the huge

number of population, have modern technology and stable infrastructure, people who are

living in these areas have better facilities to access social networking sites than other

people in other areas Certainly, the respondents of this study must know about SNPG

and have created an account on it; otherwise, their answers are not qualified and cannot

be used in the data analysis

1.5 The Structure of Research

Structure of the research

The structure of this study consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter presents research background of the study, as well as, research problems, research objectives, research scopes

Chapter 2: Literature Review and Hypotheses Development

This chapter provides the literature review and previous studies Still, the conceptual model of the study and the hypotheses are also presented

Chapter 3: Methodology

In this chapter, the researcher introduces the method used to design and implement the research base on the research objectives and scopes, the processes of doing the

research are also reported

Chapter 4: Data Analysis

All the data collected from the survey are analyzed and translated in this section

Depending on withdrawal results from the analyzing, each factor will be deeply discussed

how it affects the attitude toward participating in SNPG

Chapter 5: Conclusions, Implications and Limitations

This chapter presents main conclusions and implications based on the results of the previous chapters, some suggestions for the improvement as well as the limitations of

this study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

In this chapter, researcher presents the literature review, the research model and the hypotheses development of the study

2.1 Social Networking Professional Groups (SNPG)

According Scoot & Johnson (2005) SNPG or e-communities are defined as groups

of people with common interests that communicate regularly, and for some duration, in

an organized way over the Internet, they are designed to provide users with a range of

tools for learning, personal development, and collective action point, all embedded in a

complex, continuing, and personally enriching network of social relations And Pinho

(2013) state that SNPG (e.g Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln and Pinterest) have become a

recent global phenomenon in human communication and interaction, more than a billion

individuals are globally connected through virtual communities, interacting with their

friends and working partners, exchanging valuable knowledge while being exposed to a

vast universe of brands SNPG are becoming an indispensable part of every societies,

with many people using them as tools to share information together, acquire existing &

new connections, maintain relationships online & offline, all of them have target users

and separately benefits differently

2.2 Social Capital: Bridging, Bonding, and Maintaining

According to social capital theory, the term “social capital” is what allows any organization or individual to make requests of its followers successfully, think of social

capital as funds in a sort of intangible bank account that you add to by listening to,

engaging with, and doing favors for others (Solomon, 2013)

Huvila et al (2009) also declare social capital has been acknowledged as it opens

up relational, structural and content dimensions related to sharing Social capital refers to

both norms and networks as facilitating collective action and encouraging cooperative

behavior, the positive effects of having a high level of social capital through networks

and through the relationships between individuals and social units Social Capital, a

method to measuring the value of connections that resident have to each other and to their

communities (Frank, 2010)

Madanka et al (2013) define social capital is crucial & vital ingredient of economic included: social supporting, integration, social cohesion, teamwork, density of

changes with colleagues Adler & Kwon (2002) also define social capital is the goodwill

available to individuals or groups Its source lies in the structure and content of the

actor’s social relations Its effects flow from the information, influence and solidarity it

makes available to others

Jones (1987) explained supporting of SNPG: Perceptions of their social network support, self-esteem, time of study participation, and motivation for using social networks

(e.g., to find new friends, new customers, to share good or bad things, to obtain new

information) interacted with SNPG use to predict changes in affective or cognitive

well-being or self-efficacy

Social capital help people to share of social networking, reduced probability of opportunism, cost of monitoring, encourage cooperative behavior, facilitating

development of new form & innovative organization, taking advantages of new

opportunities, featuring the structure, not of individual actor within social structure,

ecologic characteristic (Madanka et al, 2013) There is relation between supporting of

SNPG, interest in media such as: Internet, computer games, video games, computer, cell

phone, and television and personal’s well-being (Castella et al, 2011) And help

individual becoming strong, consistent, reciprocity, provide info people care abt, positive

way to bring benefit to someone, ask for opinion, giving back, reputation, value

contructive input, more controversial , to be involved, giving credit, encourage feedback

(Solomon, 2010)

Ellison et al (2007) state that social capital brings three kind benefits of SNPG:

including SNPG bridging, SNPG bonding, and SNPG maintaining to the users within the

networks and distinguishes between bridging and bonding social capital The former is

linked to what network researchers refer to as ‘‘weak ties,’’ which are loose connections

between individuals who may provide useful information or new perspectives for one

another but typically not emotional support (Granovetter, 1982)

2.3 Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

Based on research of Chelariu & Rodney (2011), Salesperson self-efficacy refers

to judgments about the individual’s capability to organize and execute courses of action

required to achieve designated levels of sales performance (Bandura, 1978) Self-efficacy

is not concerned with the skills one has, but with the judgment of what one can do with

whatever skills one possesses (Bandura,1986) From a cultural standpoint, self-efficacy is

often seen as being congruent with traditional Western values such as mastery,

self-reliance, and achievement (Gecas, 1989)

Sujan et al (1994) define self-efficacy is domain specific, it is a more general construct than expectancy, which involves success at specific sales tasks, but a narrower

construct than esteem, which refers to success in all life’s domains Strong

self-efficacy beliefs have been consistently associated with task performance or high levels of

sales performance in general (Ryerson, 2003) Sujan et al (1994) state that: performance

orientation motivates both “working hard” and “working smart” more so for high

self-efficacious salespeople than for those who are less self-self-efficacious Self-efficacy is

defined as how well one can execute courses of action required in dealing with different

situations

Self-Efficacy, establishing the foundation, can be credited as the foremost theorist

in the area o f self-efficacy His original work originated from social In simplifying the

definition of self-efficacy, Bandura (1986) propose that an appropriate measure is not o f

the skills one possesses but of the judgment of, “ what one can do with whatever skills

one possesses” (Ryerson, 2003)

The benefits or values of SNPG are perceived as supportive among salespersons upon their joining the networks (Madanka et al, 2013) Such is associated to improve

their professional knowledge and skills (Solomon, 2010), enable them to develop more

contacts and build relationships with both extant and potential customers (Jones, 1987),

thus enhancing their self-efficacy at work (Chelariu & Rodney, 2011), then eventually

leading to a better sales performance in their job (Sujan, 1994)

There are two types of social capital: bridging and bonding Putnam (2000)

“Bridging social capital” is accommodative It occurs in social networks linking

individuals of different backgrounds, providing opportunities for the exchange of

new information or resources Bridging social capital “is better for linkage to external

assets and for information diffusion” Putnam (2000) In the other words, bonding social

capital ensures a sense of social solidarity within groups, while bridging social capital

links often disparate people and provides information about opportunities outside the

groups

Based on this prior work, we proposed the following hypothesis having relation between Social Capital: SPNG Bridging and Self-Efficacy of Salespersons:

H1: SNPG bridging is positively associated with Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

Putnam (2000) also state that “bonding social capital” can be monopolized It occurs among personal acquaintances such as family members or close friends

who provide mutual support for one another, both emotionally and physically The

diversity of these social bonds and social capital is the result of strong interpersonal

connections “Bonding social capital is good for under-girding specific reciprocity and

mobilizing solidarity”,

Patulny & Svendsen (2007) claim the beneficial outcomes that flow from bonding social capital, such as reduced transaction costs among familiars, focuses upon secure

closed networks, in that special interest groups can cooperate to impose costs on

non-members in pursuit of member’s interests, the gains being much greater in this regard

than from cooperative action

Meadowcroft & Pennington (2008) define bonding social capital describes the cohesion that exists between small groups of similar people, such as family members,

close friends, and colleagues and perhaps the members of ethnic or religious groups, the

bridging variety describes the networks that link acquaintances who may be very

dissimilar people, such as businesswoman and her customers

These arguments lead to following hypothesis:

H2: SNPG bonding is positively associated with Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

Alternatively, bonding social capital is found between individuals in tightly-knit, emotionally close relationships, such as family and close friends After briefly describing

the extant literature on these two forms of social capital and the Internet, we introduce an

additional dimension of social capital that speaks to the ability to maintain valuable

connections as one progresses through life changes This concept, ‘‘maintaining social

capital,’’ permits us to explore whether online network tools enable individuals to keep in

touch with a social network professional groups (Ellison et al, 2007)

Penard and Poussing, (2010) state that: interesting relations between participatory online capital, a high level of trust in others increases the probability of maintaining

social capital through the Internet

Based on this prior work, we proposed the following hypothesis having relation

between SPNG Maintaining and Self-Efficacy of Salespersons:

H3: SNPG maintaining is positively associated with Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

2.4 Salespersons Performance

Barling & Beattie (1983) stated a correlation between self-efficacy beliefs and salespersons performance The generality of self-efficacy theory in a business

environment was indicated by the relationship between self-efficacy and objective

measures of sales performance Self-efficacy theory postulates that people will perform

better when they believe that they have the skills necessary to succeed

The definition for salespersons performance borrowed from (Michael, 2010) study

of sales performance evaluation Measures include presentation skills, product

knowledge, customer relations, as well as quantity o f sales The sales behaviors of sales

professionals are defined as actual assessments of what psychological and physiological

behaviors the sales professionals carry out (Anderson & Oliver, 1987)

General self-efficacy impacts on sales performance has been researched and measured the positive relationship between self-efficacy of performance rating and sales

performance, with mixed results as to the correlation between self-efficacy and

salespersons performance (Lee and Gillen 1989)

Krishnan et al (2002) state that: the individual characteristics of self-efficacy, competitiveness, and effort as potential antecedents of salesperson performance Based

on different selling contexts, it is observed that whereas effort mediates the relationship

between competitiveness and sales performance, self-efficacy has both direct and indirect

effects on sales performance

Based on this prior work, we proposed the following hypothesis having relation between Self-Efficacy of Salespersons and Salespersons Performance

H4: Self-Efficacy of Salespersons is positively associated with Salespersons

Performance

The Proposed Conceptual model and Hypotheses

Above mechanism, we draw-out the model for this research:

Figure 2.1: The proposed Research Model

H2

H4

H1

SNPG Bridging

SNPG Maintaining

Self- Efficacy

of Salespersons

Salespersons Performance

SNPG Bonding

H3

 H1: SNPG bridging is positively associated with Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

 H2: SNPG bonding is positively associated with Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

 H3: SNPG maintaining is positively associated with Self-Efficacy of

Salespersons

 H4: Self-Efficacy of Salespersons is positively associated with Salespersons

Performance

CHAPTER 3:RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter reported the methodology the researcher used to do the research, including the source of the data, collection method and the analysis At this stage, the

critical factors truly affect salespersons performance when participating in social

networking professional groups will be indentified

3.1 Research Process

Figure 3.1: Research Process

Literature review

Research model and Hypotheses

Draft questionnaire

Revision + Back translation

Final draft questionnaire

Pilot survey (n=90)

(n = 107)

Reliability Analysis (Cronbach’s Alpha)

Delete low total correlation item(s) (<0.3)

item-Delete low factor loading item(s) (<0.5)

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

Reliability Analysis

Analysis

3.2 Measurement Scale

3.2.1 Measures of Social Capital

Measures of social capital—Bridging, Bonding, and Maintaining —were created

by adapting existing scales, with wording changed to reflect the context of the study, and

creating new items designed to capture Internet-specific social capital (Ellison et al,

2007) The factors of social capital analyzed to ensure that the items reflected three

distinct dimensions:

 SNPG Bridging

Bridging1: I feel I am part of the SNPG

Bridging2: I am interested in what goes on at SNPG

Bridging3: SNPG is a good place to be

Bridging4 I would be willing to contribute money to SNPG

Bridging5 Interacting with people at SNPG makes me want to try new things

Bridging6 I am willing to spend time to support general social media activities

Bridging7 At SNPG, I come into contact with new people all the time

Bridging8: Interacting with people at SNPG reminds me that everyone in the world is

connected

 SNPG Bonding

Bonding1: There are several people at SNPG I trust to solve my problems

Bonding2: There is someone at SNPG I can turn to for advice about making very

important decisions

Bonding3: The people I interact with at SNPG would be good job references for me

 SNPG Maintaining

Maintaining1: I’d be able to find out about events in another town from SNPG

acquaintance living there

Maintainging2: I’d be able to stay with SNPG acquaintance if traveling to a different city

Maintaining3: I would be able to find information about a job or internship from a SNPG

acquaintance

Maintaining4: It would be easy to find people to invite to SNPG reunion

3.2.2 Measures of Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

 Self-Efficacy of Salespersons

Measure of Self-Efficacy of Salespersons was created by adapting existing scales from (Chelariu and Stump, 2011):

Self-Efficacy1: It’s easy for me to make my customers understand me

Self-Efficacy2: I am confident of my ability to sell

Self-Efficacy3: I feel I have the capabilities to successfully perform well in my job

Sefl-Efficacy4: I am good at selling

3.2.3 Measures of Salespersons Performance

 Salespersons Performance

Measure of Sales Performance was created by adapting existing scale from (Frino, 2010):

Sales Performance1: Grade your selling skills

Sales Performance2: Your overall performance in terms of quantity of sales achieved?

Sales Performance3: Your overall performance in last year?

Sales Performance4: Where do you rank currently in the sales organization?

3.3 Data Collection Method

The primary data is mainly collected by sending email to salespersons through researcher’s email Most of them is doing business in sales jobs and they are belong

researcher’s networking from: customers, partners, suppliers, colleagues, and friend

Posting on Facebook and LinkedIn of researcher to invite salespersons to response

questionnaire list using Google Form

Sampling design

Salespersons

Salespersons for this study is Vietnamese salespersons who have been working sales area included B2C & B2B company, in HCMC, Hanoi City consist of: Sales Staff,

Sales Executive, Sales Manager, Sales Director and Private Owner

Sample size and Sampling Method

Preliminarily, the sample size for this study should be 200 people, the convenient sampling was also applied to increase the attendant probability in the survey and to

possibly get around 150 - 180 results in return but due to time limit, it was not easy to

reach that number The researcher received 133 questionnaires after several times of

sending the questionnaire to above 200 people including reminders In which, there were

7 respondents had no account social networking sites, they must be cleaned and 6

questionnaires lack of reliability are all given answer as “neutral” must be deleted

According to Hair et al (2006), “it is generally agreed that the minimum sample for appropriate use for statistical analysis is equal to or greater than 5 times of

independent variables, but not less than 100”:

n ≥ 100 and n ≥ 5k (where k is equal to the number of variables)

In this study, there are 23 variables, so the minimum sample size for this research is:

n = 5 x 23 = 115 (k = the number of variables)

Otherwise, Tabachnick and Fidell (2001) illustrated the minimum sample size, which is required for the multiple regressions analysis should be:

n ≥ 50 + 8m (where m is equal to the number of independent factors)

In this study, there are three independent factors, so the minimum sample size is required for the multiple regressions:

n = 50 + (8 x 3) = 74 (m = 3 is the number of independent factors)

Finally, 120 questionnaires remaining after cleaning all unqualified answers were possible for running data analysis

3.4 Qualitative Research

It is important to carry out qualitative research for the brainstorming and summarizes knowledge The researcher has to acknowledge all factors and explain their meaning in the

easiest way to be able to understand by most of people for having the precise results then

establish four hypotheses for the study After achieving the measurement scale borrowed

from others, the researcher had to modify and design into preliminary scale to be suitable for

the topic of this study

Creating the first questionnaire based on the preliminary scale when conducting the in-depth interview with a group of targeted salespersons who frequently use internet for sales

job Typically, usually participate in SNPG to engage with customers and others The

researcher interviewed salespersons to know if they can understand the scale and explore

other opinions or suggestions for the improvement of official questionnaire While collected

data, respondents also feedback and called back researcher to advise opinion to adjust

questionnaire list appropriately This step allowed the researcher supplementing and

adjusting the questionnaire (See Appendix A)

The researcher modified the questionnaire according to the reviewing of comments and ideas or suggestions from those interviewees The questionnaire was structured into 3

parts for screening and classifying The first part is for screening, the respondents must know

about SNPG and used to login frequently The second part was the main part of the research

which focused on salespersons of factors associated with self-efficacy and salespersons

performance The third part was to classify demographic data such as gender, age, education

and employment However, it was written in English while the study was carried out within

Vietnam with Vietnamese people, so, before giving to the respondents, the researcher

translated it into Vietnamese (See Appendix B)

At that moment, the revised questionnaire was used for 20 pretest first This test was needed to know whether people can understand each question or misunderstand some things

or not To check the contents and meaning of the words, there were salespersons already took

this test In this stage, if anyone had other ideas or could not get it, the questionnaire had to

be corrected again Fortunately, all of them committed to ans agreement that every question

was easy to understand and there were nothing cause confusions After all, the final

questionnaire was officially completed

3.5 Quantitative research

Since collecting data as many as possible are necessary and the key point of the quantitative method, the official questionnaire was finished earlier must be issued widely for

the coming process

When the main research started, the first thing was to fix the time of recalling questionnaire

results All of information must be in hand of the researcher within 3-4 weeks since the

starting day of sending questionnaire The questionnaire of this research was delivered to the

respondents in early of August, 2014

In the condition of time limit, the communication method through email was reasonable and better Sending email will save time and cost and makes the respondents feel

comfortable to answer the questions Collecting data through email took long time, so, twice

to three times or more reminders to the recipients helped increase the responses, in this

situation, the reminder happened every 02 days Posting the link of the survey on Facebook

was a good way because its wide and convenient network helped collecting very quickly and

four other members of Facebook also gave a hand to share that link to their contacts

Following the details of data cleaning, the errors including unqualified respondents and lack

of reliability were removed turned the final sample to 120 observations

3.6 Data Analyzing Method

The specific processes of data analysis will be declared in the next section This part only presents the encoding of the data with the scale

 SNPG Bridging: Bridging1, Bridging2, Bridging3, Bridging4, Bridging5, Bridging6,

Bridging7, Bridging8

 SNPG Bonding: Bonding1, Bonding2, Bonding3, Bonding4

 SNPG Maintaining: Maintaining1, Maintaining2, Maintaining3, Maintaining4

 Efficacy of Salespersons: Efficacy1, Efficacy2, Efficacy3,

Self-Efficacy4

 Salespersons Performance: SalesPerformance1, SalesPerformance2,

SalesPerformance3, SalesPerformance4

All the data was analyzed by the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) 16

Firstly, the descriptive statistic helped figure out the characteristics of the sample After that,

by using Cronbach’s alpha measurement and Exploratory Factor Analysis, the reliability of

factors was tested and the conceptual model was assessed and modified For more

specifically, Cronbach’s alpha is the most commonly used in internal consistency reliability

testing which is above 0.6 and the higher, the more reliable Also, EFA is used when

developing scale and to identify underlying relationship between measured variables

Normally, the number of factors is less than the numbers of measures, therefore, a factor

must represent a set of measures and at least three to five measures per factor for the

accuracy Finally, Multiple Regression was conducted to test the relationship between

independent and dependent variables to come up with an equation

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS and RESULTS

In this chapter, researcher will test Reliability of Scale by: Testing Cronbach’s Alpha and EFA After testing, Cronbach’s Alpha EFA, researcher will running multiple

regression analysis

After cleaning data, we collected total 120 respondents from salespersons joined to answered this survey through email, posting on personal Facebook and LinkedIn, some of

them researcher also posted in popular group of Buy-Sell Online on Facebook, LinkedIn

and others Forum to targeted the salespersons such as: otosaigon.com,

webtretho.com…etc… to capture almost salespersons there There are 95% respondents

used to use professional group in social networking sites and 5% do not use any social

networking profession groups (SPGs) And there is 84.09% salespersons using Facebook,

33.33% salespersons using Forum, 23.48% salespersons using LinkedIn, 16.67%

salespersons using Google Plus, a few salespersons using Twitter and Pinterest are not

much familiar in Vietnam with the same 4.55%, 15.91% salespersons using Blog and

remain 1.52% salespersons using others professional groups in social networking

websites

Figure 4.1 Statistic using SNPG of Salespersons

According below Table 4.1 & Figure 4.2 to show how of salespersons using social networking profession groups frequently, there is 48% salespersons using it frequently

and only 3% dit not using it frequently

Table 4.1 Frequently of Salespersons

4.1 Characteristic of Sample

Table 4.2 Characteristic of Sample

Characteristics Description Frequency Percent

4.2 Reliability Analysis: Cronbach’s Alpha Testing

Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to test the reliability of the measurement scales The value of Cronbach’s alpha need to be accepted is over 0.6 and any variables

which the Item-total correlation are smaller than 0.3, negative and the lowest value will

be considered to delete from factor

SNPG Bridging factor

Table 4.3 Reliability Statistics for

SNPG Bridging

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items

N of Items

Table 4.4 Item-Total Statistics for SNPG Bridging

Scale Mean

if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Squared Multiple Correlation

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

Bridging factor at 0.834 So it should be considered to remove to raise the better

reliability of Bridging factor

We tested again and Reliability Statistics is better at 0.834 See results detail in Appendix C

SNPG Bonding factor

Table 4.5 Reliability Statistics for

SNPG Bonding

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based

on Standardized Items

N of Items

Table 4.6 Item-Total Statistics for SNPG Bonding

Scale Mean

if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Squared Multiple Correlation

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

be considered to delete for better result

We tested again and the result as below:

Table 4.7 Reliability Statistics after

deleting Bonding 3

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based

on Standardized Items

N of Items

Cronbach's Alpha Based

on Standardized Items

N of Items

Table 4.9 Item-Total Statistics for SNPG Maintaining

Scale Mean

if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Squared Multiple Correlation

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

We found item: Maintaining2 have the lowest Corrected Item is 0.446, if we remove this item then cannot help Cronbach’s Alpha (0.71 > 0.6) of Maintaining factor is

higher even lower at 0.675 So all of these 04 items should be keep for next EFA testing

Self-Efficacy of Salespersons factor

Table 4.10 Reliability Statistics for

Self-Efficacy

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based

on Standardized Items

N of Items

Table 4.11 Item-Total Statistics for Self-Efficacy

Scale Mean

if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Squared Multiple Correlation

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

Self-Efficacy is measured by 04 items and having Cronbach’s Alpha is 0.824 >

0.6 And we found in Table 4.8: Self-Efficacy1 have the lowest Corrected Item- Total

Correlation is 0.536, however deleting this item raise more reliability very little at 0.828,

the difference is 0.004- too small Therefore, we still keep it for next EFA testing to see

what happen

Reliability testing of Salespersons Performance factor

Table 4.12 Reliability Statistics for Salespersons Performance

Cronbach's Alpha

Cronbach's Alpha Based

on Standardized Items

N of Items

Table 4.13 Item-Total Statistics for Salespersons Performance

Scale Mean

if Item Deleted

Scale Variance if Item Deleted

Corrected Item-Total Correlation

Squared Multiple Correlation

Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted

4.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis

For this study, Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is conducted to analyze validity

At the beginning, this study has defined 23 independent variables affecting to

salespersons After tow variables consist of Bonding3 and Bridging4 had been deleted

because of the low Item-total correlation through reliability analysis, 21 variables were

used to run EFA analysis We will run EFA for all variables together, including both

independent factors and dependent factor If there are some variables appear in 02 or

more than 02 components, then it should be considered to delete for better result in EFA

analysis

4.3.1 Factor Analysis

The KMO’s value is 0.862, means the data set is likely to factor well and Bartlett’s test shows the significant value lower than 0.05 (Sig =.000) which indicating that the

correlation matrix is significant different from an identity matrix and the correlation

between variables are all zero As result, both acceptances for diagnostic tests confirm

that the data are suitable for factor analysis

Table 4.14 KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity

Approx Chi-Square 1.087E3