The effect of social media use on

customer qualification skills and adaptive

selling behaviors of export salespeople
in China
Jihong Zhou and Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

Abstract Jihong Zhou and

Purpose – This study aims to draw on the categorization theory to explore the mediating role of customer Peerayuth
qualification skills in explaining how social media use in sales contributes to salespeople’s adaptive Charoensukmongkol are
selling behaviors to achieve high sales performance in export selling. The study also integrates network both based at International
effect theory and social linguistics theory to identify the specific social media platform (Facebook versus College, National Institute
non-Facebook) and the characteristics of salespeople in terms of English language proficiency, which
of Developmental
play a facilitating role in promoting the effectiveness of social media use in export sales.
Administration, Bangkok,
Design/methodology/approach – The sampling frame of the research is a list of Chinese export Thailand.
salespersons obtained on the FOB Business Forum website. Survey data were obtained from 873
Chinese export salespeople. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to
analyze the data.
Findings – Social media use in sales is associated positively with customer qualification skills and
adaptive selling behaviors. Moreover, the results revealed a partial mediating effect of customer
qualification skills on the positive impact of social media use in sales on adaptive selling behaviors. The
moderating effect analysis found that the positive association between social media use in sales and
customer qualification skills was stronger in export salespeople who used Facebook and had mastered a
high level of English language proficiency.
Originality/value – This study provides new findings, based on data collected from salespeople in
Mainland China, that support the effectiveness of social media use in an export sales context. Moreover,
the study advances prior research by showing that the effectiveness of social media use still depends on
the type of social media used and the English language proficiency of the salespeople.
Keywords Facebook, Sales management, Social media, International business,
Customer qualification skills, Adaptive selling behaviors
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
With the vast popularity of social media used in business, there has been a relatively recent
increase in social media use for sales activities (Nunan et al., 2018). The State of Sales
report recently found that the time salespeople committed to connecting with customers
exceeded the time they spent meeting customers in person since 2015 by more than 400% Received 25 December 2019
Revised 1 April 2020
(Salesforce, 2020). Early research in this area focused mainly on describing the status quo 3 June 2020
of social media use in sales, identifying its importance and proposing theoretically Accepted 12 August 2020

conceptualized strategies for sales professionals and organizations (Agnihotri et al., 2013; This research receives financial
support from the National
Andzulis et al., 2012; Berthon et al., 2012; Marshall et al., 2013; Charoensukmongkol and Institute of Development
Sasatanun, 2017; Sasatanun and Charoensukmongkol, 2016). Recent literature shows that Administration.

DOI 10.1108/JABS-12-2019-0377 © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894 j JOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES j
 sales scholars’ interest has shifted into exploring the underlying reasons that account for
different patterns of social media use among salespeople, factors affecting sales
organizations and professionals’ application of social media in sales activities, as well as
working mechanisms and outcomes of social media use in sales (Agnihotri et al., 2016;
Agnihotri et al., 2017; Nunan et al., 2018; Ogilvie et al., 2018; Tajvidi and Karami, 2017;
Tarsakoo and Charoensukmongkol, 2019b).
Despite the soaring research in the area of social media use in sales activities (Nunan et al.,
2018), some gaps remain in the literature. First, although scholars have argued that social
media can be a “panacea” for international business because it helps overcome both time
and spatial barriers between countries (Arromdee and Suntrayuth, 2020; Berthon et al.,
2012), a few studies have explored the impact of salespeople’s social media use in an
n-del-Amo et al.,
international selling context, particularly in the area of export sales (Alarco
2016; Alarco n et al., 2015). Export salespeople tend to face more complex selling
environments than do domestic salespeople (Charoensukmongkool, 2020). However,
whether the effectiveness of social media use in domestic sales contexts could apply to
export sales activities is an important issue that warrants exploration. Second, scholars
have argued that the use of information technology alone may not be enough to bring
benefits for both salespeople and sales organizations (Ahearne et al., 2008). Therefore, the
effectiveness of information technology is possible when it is used to improve the
salespeople’s behaviors or skills (Ogilvie et al., 2018). Despite this argument, the available
research remains unclear regarding how and why social media helps salespeople to
be effective in their selling tasks. Recent research shows that using social media in sales
might help salespeople to improve sales performance by facilitating their effective
engagement in adaptive selling behaviors (Itani et al., 2017; Ogilvie et al., 2018).
Nevertheless, there remains a lack of theoretical support to explain how social media can
promote adaptive selling behaviors. Finally, most research in the area of social media use of
sales has taken place in developed Western countries, such as the USA (Itani, 2017).
Researchers must broaden the understanding of social media use among salespeople from
the Eastern cultures, especially because Eastern and Western cultures differ in their
preferred social media platforms and use different patterns of communication on social
media (Alarco n-del-Amo et al., 2018; Berthon et al., 2012; Farrell and Hutasingh, 2018).
To fill the above-mentioned research gaps, this study sets its research contexts in an
export-selling context via social media. The study has three objectives. The first objective is
to investigate the contribution of social media use in sales to adaptive selling behaviors of
salespeople in Mainland China. In particular, Mainland China provides an ideal context for
research about social media use in export selling. It has the largest population of active
social media users in the world, and many Chinese salespeople have increased their use of
social media in export sales activities because of its export-driven economic development
policy (Wang et al., 2016). Using a sample of salespeople from Mainland China will provide
an additional research contribution, given that scholars have recently called for more
n-del-Amo et al., 2018).
studies focused on social media use in international selling (Alarco
The present research also broadens the knowledge gained from previous studies
conducted using salespeople in Western countries (Itani, 2017). Specifically, this research
extends prior research that supports the link between social media use in sales and
adaptive selling behaviors by examining why Chinese export salespeople who use social
media in sales processes perform appropriate adaptive selling behaviors. In the context of
selling via social media, salespeople can gain access to information about numerous
prospects and customers because of the powerful social networking and information-
sharing functions it provides (Lacoste, 2016). Thus, how salespeople can screen and use
relevant information is critical in their sales processes.
Salespeople need to acquire some basic skills to make information processing efficient and
effective in this specific context. Salespeople’s customer qualification skills might play a

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crucial role in supporting them to process customer information via social media to help
them make practical sales adaptations. Customer qualification skills represent an essential
skill for improving information processing efficiency (Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). It is a
kind of customer typology based on human beings’ categorization ability, which helps
simplify the processing of information (Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). Thus, salespeople’s
customer qualification skills might be a mediating factor that explains why social media use
in sales can contribute to salespeople’s ability to perform adaptive selling behaviors
effectively.
This study uses categorization theory in personal selling to support the mediating role of
customer qualification skills. In personal selling, categorization theory can explain
customers’ predictable behaviors and the effectiveness and efficiency of information
processing, particularly, in terms of customer qualifications (Roma n and Rodrı́guez, 2015;
Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). According to the categorization theory, people classify others
and objects that simplify information processing, especially when facing complex stimulus
environments (Cantor and Mischel, 1979). Categorization theory posits that salespeople
with customer qualification skills have a refined knowledge structure about different types of
customers. Their deep understanding of the characteristics of different types of customers
can help salespeople predict customers’ behavior and make appropriate and effective
adjustments to their selling behaviors (Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). Thus, the
categorization theory offers strong theoretical supports for the possible role of customer
qualification skills in explaining how salespeople’s social media use can facilitate
salespeople performing adaptive selling behaviors appropriately and efficiently.
The second objective of this study is to explore whether the effectiveness of social media
use by salespeople in Mainland China could depend on the platform use, in addition to the
level of English language proficiency they exhibit. Although leading social media platforms,
especially Facebook, have been banned in Mainland China because of the government’s
internet censorship, some Chinese salespeople rely on a virtual private network (VPN) to
bypass this restriction and connect to Facebook; which provides access to a large
population of potential foreign customers on the platform. Still, Chinese salespeople who do
not use a VPN to connect to Facebook must rely on leading Chinese social media platforms
(i.e. WeChat) to connect with foreign customers.
The size and scope of user account in Facebook that allows Chinese salespeople to access
to a larger population of potential global customers than other Chinese social media
platforms do. Therefore, it is crucial to explore whether the contribution of social media use
in sales to improve customer qualification skills might be more robust for Chinese
salespeople who can access Facebook than for those who cannot. In particular, this
research uses network effect theory (Metcalfe, 1995; Katz and Shapiro, 1985) to explain
why the contribution of social media use in sales to customer qualification skills could be
more prominent for Chinese salespeople who use Facebook in sales than those who do not.
Considering that Facebook has the largest number of active users globally, a unique
advantage for Chinese export salespeople is to obtain broader profiles of foreign
customers, which facilitates customer qualification skills development more effectively than
it does for non-Facebook users.
The third objective of this study is to explore whether Chinese salespeople’s English
language proficiency can moderate the contribution of social media use for customer
qualification skills in sales. Theoretically, the importance of English language proficiency in
this context can be explained by sociolinguistics theory (Seriwatana and
Charoensukmongkol, 2020; Diehl, 2019). Because of the importance of English as business
lingua franca for communication in global business (Louhiala-Salminen and Kankaanranta,
2012), the degree to which social media can help Chinese salespeople categorize and
understand the characteristics of foreign customers effectively might depend on how well
Chinese salespeople can use English to communicate with their foreign customers. To the

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 best of our knowledge, no research has investigated the moderating effect of the type of
social media platform and English language proficiency as moderating conditions that
influence the effectiveness of social media use in international selling. Hence, these findings
will provide new evidence to extend knowledge in this area.

2. Literature review and hypotheses

2.1 Social media use in sales
Social media use in sales refers to a salesperson’s utilization and integration of social media
technology to perform his or her job (Agnihotri et al., 2012). The ultimate purpose of a
salesperson’s use of social media in sales is to achieve success in his or her sales
performance. However, sales scholars argue that social media use in sales alone
is insufficient for a salesperson to achieve success; it works by influencing a salesperson’s
behavior first (Ahearne et al., 2008). This argument is the main reason that the current sales
literature supports the contribution of social media use in sales for adaptive selling behavior
and sales performance. Indeed, in domestic selling contexts in India and America,
salespeople’s social media use in sales is beneficial to improving their adaptive selling
behaviors that in turn contribute to an improvement in sales performance (Itani et al., 2017;
Rapp et al., 2008). Although export selling tends to be more complicated than domestic
selling is, the working mechanism in domestic selling contexts provides insights for
research in export selling contexts (Pandey and Charoensukmongkol, 2019). Thus, in the
following section, we explain how this study builds on previous research to demonstrate the
role of social media use in sales in adaptive selling behaviors and sales performance. Then,
we propose a mechanism to explain the contribution of export salespeople’s social media
use in sales for adaptive selling behaviors.

2.2 Social media use in sales and adaptive selling behaviors

Adaptive selling behaviors refer to “the altering of sales behaviors during a customer
interaction or across customer interactions based on perceived information about the nature
of the selling situation” (Weitz et al., 1986, p.175). Salespeople who use “canned” or
standardized sales presentations across sales encounters exhibit a low level of adaptive
selling. In contrast, those who adjust to make different sales presentations during sales
encounters show a high level of adaptive selling (Spiro and Weitz, 1990). According to the
definition, a requirement of adaptive selling behavior is the perceived information about
sales encounters (Weitz et al., 1986). Thus, obtaining enough information about customers
is critical for salespeople to make corresponding alterations in their sales behaviors.
This study proposes that an export salesperson’s social media use in sales is conducive to
adaptive selling behaviors. According to Hunter and Perreault (2007), the more information
salespeople have about their customers, the more likely they will adjust their presentations
and practice adaptive selling. The reachable profile of customers on social media
allows salespeople to develop a deeper understanding of customers’ needs, preferences,
beliefs and behaviors, which help them develop unique sales presentations for specific
customers (Charoensukmongkol and Pandey, 2020; Farrell and Hutasingh, 2018). Current
technology also equips social media with both synchronous and asynchronous media
characteristics (Moore et al., 2015). These functions of social media make export
salespeople’s alteration of their selling behaviors possible and convenient by offering
numerous ways to present their products and services during interactions with customers
(Okazaki and Taylor, 2013). Recent studies have also provided supportive evidence
proving that salespeople’s social media use improves their adaptive selling behaviors in
domestic sales contexts in America and India (Itani et al., 2017; Ogilvie et al., 2018). Based
on this rationale and findings in recent sales literature mentioned here, we propose the
following hypothesis:

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 H1. Social media use in sales associates positively with adaptive selling behavior.

2.3 Adaptive selling behavior and sales performance

Numerous studies have examined the relationship between adaptive selling behavior and
sales performance, and the majority of them have documented a positive association
between them (Leong et al., 1989; Porter et al., 2003; Fang et al., 2004; Franke and Park,
2006; Rapp et al., 2008; Jaramillo and Grisaffe, 2009; Kaynak et al., 2016; Singh and Das,
2013). Consistent with prior research, we propose a positive relationship between adaptive
selling behaviors and two aspects of sales performance, including (a) outcome
performance and (b) relationship performance. The former refers to what a salesperson
contributes to organizational goals (e.g. sales unit, quota achievement, market share,
increases in sales productivity and dollar volume; Zallocco et al., 2009). The latter refers to
the extent to which a salesperson cultivates a mutually beneficial relationship between the
selling and buying firms (Hunter and Perreault, 2007). Salespeople who practice adaptive
selling behavior achieve higher sales performance because they are sensitive to identify
customers’ expectations and needs, as they carefully observe the customers’ response
during the communication process (Limbu et al., 2016). Regarding the effect of adaptive
selling behaviors on sales performance, we propose the following hypotheses:
H2a. Adaptive selling behavior relates positively to outcome performance.
H2b. Adaptive selling behavior relates positively to relationship performance.

2.4 Mediating effect of customer qualification skills on the relationship between

social media use in sales and adaptive selling behaviors
Although prior research has provided clear evidence about the contribution of social media
use in sales to adaptive selling behaviors, little was known about how the use of social
media promoted adaptive selling behaviors. We propose that customer qualification skills
could explain why salespeople who integrate social media into their sales activities seem to
perform adaptive selling behaviors more effectively. According to Roma n and Iacobucci
(2010), customer qualification skills refer to a salesperson’s learned proficiency to qualify or
categorize prospects and customers. The skills include identifying and categorizing
different types of customers, associated products and selling requirements. These skills are
based on categorization, a cognitive ability fundamental to human beings (Sharma and
Levy, 1995).
When salespeople interact with customers, the accuracy of their categorization of a
customer depends on the level of their customer qualification skills (Weitz et al., 1986).
Customer categorizations are based on the cues from incoming information during
interactions with customers (Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). Salespeople with a high level of
customer qualification skills typically make typologies of customers that are more accurate
by categorizing sales encounters according to attributes, suggesting appropriate selling
strategies. Conversely, salespeople with a low level of customer-qualification skills are likely
to classify customers according to attributes that suggest surface similarities among
customers (e.g. titles, gender, styles of dress or position in firms) (Weitz et al., 1986). The
accurate typology of customers helps salespeople identify and analyze customers’ needs,
thereby helping salespeople to achieve a better understanding of customers’ buying
motives. Doing so also enables them to make better predictions about customers’ buying
behaviors (Roma n and Rodrı́guez, 2015; Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). Therefore, a
salesperson with a high level of customer-qualification skills likely has a more accurate
classification of customers and a better understanding of customer requirements (Roma n
and Iacobucci, 2010).

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 This study draws on the categorization theory to support the mediating effect of customer
qualification on the positive relationship between social media use in sales and adaptive
selling behavior. According to this theory, categorization is functional in that it helps people
enhance information processing efficiency and cognitive stability by grouping objects or
events together according to their similarities in important respects (Bruner et al., 1956;
Cohen and Basu, 1987). It helps people simplify cognitive processes and reduce cognitive
burden in complex situations involving a variety of stimuli (Bruner, 1957). It also guides
people to focus selectively on certain aspects of particular stimuli and to group these stimuli
under a unifying categorical label (Bruner, 1957). Based on categorization, people can
predict the specific features of any category’s member according to the general
expectations about that category (Bruner, 1957). In the social domain, categorizing people
enables perceivers to structure and link their general store of knowledge about people.
Doing so provides corresponding expectations about typical behavior patterns, along with
a set of likely variations among different types of people and their characteristic behaviors
(Cantor and Mischel, 1979).
In selling, customer typologies based on categorization can help salespeople predict
customers’ preferences or likely behaviors (Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). The underlying
assumption of this typology is that people of a certain type will behave in a manner
consistent with that of other members of a similar category (Szymanski, 1988; Szymanski
and Churchill, 1990). Sales scholars contend that customer qualification skills, a sales
competency based on categorization, can play an important role in the context of selling
characterized by a variety of information stimuli (Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010). As the
context of export selling via social media matches with these characteristics, one can also
expect that it may play a role in this specific context.
Based on the theoretical support from the categorization theory, this study proposes that
customer qualification skills might mediate the positive association between social media
use in sales and adaptive selling behaviors. Customer qualification skills can help improve
salespeople’s information processing efficiency and effectiveness when facing the vast
amount of information available on social media and help predict customers’ preferences or
likely behaviors. Because of the significant time and spatial barriers between countries,
export salespeople have difficulty collecting enough information about customers and
selling situations. Social media use can help overcome these barriers in export selling by
offering a channel for export salespeople to access prospects and their relevant profiles
(Okazaki and Taylor, 2013; Alarco n-del-Amo et al., 2016). In short, export salespeople can
use social media as information acquisition tools to collect information about customers and
foreign countries to qualify and categorize customers.
Social media is also an ideal platform for salespeople to listen to customers and interact
with them and can facilitate the identification of customers’ needs and expectations
(Lacoste, 2016). Thus, an export salesperson with a high level of social media use in their
selling processes is more likely to have an accurate typology of foreign customers because
they can approach more customers, collect more relevant information and better identify
customer needs and expectations through social media. The vast amount of information
about foreign customers and countries available on social media meets the prerequisite of
an information base for customer categorization and aids in qualifying customers. To date,
no research has linked social media use with customer-qualification skills. However, the
proposed relationship between them aligns with Roma n and Rodrı́guez (2015)’s findings of
the positive impact of salesperson’s information technology use on customer-qualification
skills. Given that social media is a form of information technology that helps salespeople
perform service behaviors that lead to value creation (Agnihotri et al., 2012), we posit that
the positive impact of salesperson’s information technology use on customer-qualification
skills extends to export salespeople’s social media use in sales.

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Enhancing customer qualification skills through social media is also crucial for engaging
effectively in adaptive selling behavior. Hansen et al. (2011) argue that a salesperson’s
knowledge structure is a factor in determining the quality of his or her adaptive selling behaviors
because adaptation requires elaborate knowledge of selling situations. Salespeople with high
customer-qualification skills meet this pre-requirement because they have richer and better-
developed category knowledge about customer types. They can leverage well-classified
customer types to organize, interpret and evaluate sales situations better, select personalized
sales strategies for distinct customer types and make corresponding adjustments to meet
different types of customers’ needs during sales presentations (Leong et al., 1989). According to
Sharma and Levy (1995), salespeople with a well-developed category structure practice
adaptive selling behavior to a higher degree than those who do not. Roma n and Iacobucci’s
(2010) empirical research also confirmed that salespeople’s customer-qualification skills bear a
positive association with their adaptive selling behaviors.
Considering the role of customer-qualification skills, which can facilitate salespeople
utilizing social media effectively to demonstrate adaptive selling behaviors, we propose the
following hypotheses:
H3. Social media use in sales associate positively with customer qualification skills.
H4. Customer qualification skills associate positively with adaptive selling behaviors.
H5. Customer-qualification skills mediate the positive association between export
salespeople’s social media use in sales and adaptive selling behaviors.

2.5 Moderating effect of social media platforms on the relationship between social
media use in sales and adaptive selling behaviors
Although social media can play a beneficial role in promoting customer qualification, we posit
that the benefit of social media utilization in this regard might depend on the social media
platform that Chinese salespeople use in sales, especially when comparing Facebook to
Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat. In this study, we draw on the network effect
theory to posit that the contribution of social media use in sales to customer qualification skills is
more substantial for Chinese export salespeople who use Facebook in export selling than for
Chinese export salespeople who do not use Facebook. According to the network effect theory
(Metcalfe, 1995; Katz and Shapiro, 1985), the additional value of a good or service to a potential
user derives from the effect of the network formed by other users of the good or service; and the
value of that network increases exponentially with its size.
Social media provides an excellent example of products that display the network effect. The
more subscribed users a social media platform has, the greater the value the platform has
(Belvaux, 2011). Following this theory, Facebook should have the greatest value among
various social media platforms because it has the largest number of active users in the
world (Statista, 2019). Besides, with billions of active users from diverse countries in the
world, Facebook has its unique advantage in offering connections with people from different
countries. For Chinese export salespeople, such a unique advantage is particularly valuable
and attractive. Indeed, Chinese export salespeople who use Facebook in sales can obtain
broader profiles of foreign customers, which facilitates the development of their customer
qualification skills more effectively. Although other leading Chinese social media platforms,
such as WeChat, can also facilitate customer qualification skills, its global coverage is far
narrower than that of Facebook. Therefore, for export salespeople who do not use
Facebook in export selling, such effectiveness of social media use on customer qualification
skills can be weaker than for those who use Facebook, leading to the following hypothesis:
H6. The use of Facebook moderates the positive relationship between social media use
in sales and customer qualification skills.

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 2.6 Moderating effect of English language proficiency on the relationship between
social media use in sales and adaptive selling behaviors
In addition to the moderating effect of the type of social media platform, we propose that the
contribution of social media use in sales for customer qualification skills should be stronger
for export salespeople with a high level of English language proficiency. The literature has
long identified the critical status of English as a business lingua franca for export selling
(Charoensukmongkol, 2019; Hellekjær, 2012). English, as an international contact
language, brings together export salespeople and foreign buyers from different linguistic
backgrounds with varying levels of proficiency (Ehrenreich, 2010). It is a medium for export
salespeople to communicate with foreign buyers. Sociolinguistics theory can explain the
importance of English language proficiency in supporting the effectiveness of social media
use in sales on customer qualification skills. That is, sociolinguistics emphasizes the social
functions of language and seeks to understand how speakers use elements of language
appropriately in different situations and cultures (Diehl, 2019). According to this theory,
change or variations in language indicate categorical identities (e.g. gender, ethnicity and
class), role and group identities (e.g. supporters and opponents) and individual identities
(e.g. a corrupt but amiable president), that reflect particular social functions of language
(Tracy and Robles, 2013). Sociolinguistics holds that every language user has his or her
agency in choosing linguistic variants during interactions to indicate social meaning and
even intent (Jurafsky et al., 2009)
Numerous studies have identified the important role of language in detecting people with
different roles and characteristics (Jurafsky et al., 2009; Garg et al., 2008). For instance,
using rich discourse, as well as lexical and prosodic features, can identify flirtatious,
awkward and friendly speed-dates with 75% accuracy – a noticeable improvement in
comparison to the 50% baseline (Jurafsky et al., 2009). Another example comes from Garg
et al. (2008), who reported the accuracy of role identification in about 70% of surveyed time.
Researchers have integrated the analysis of linguistic forms and social network information
in a multi-modal meeting corpus, successfully identifying formal roles such as marketing
managers, project managers and industrial designers (Garg et al., 2008). These empirical
studies provide substantial evidence in support of the important role language plays in
helping classify people with different roles and features.
English is an important international business language and there are notable contributions
of language in classifying people. Therefore, we argue that, in the context of export selling
via social media, export salespeople with a high degree of English language proficiency
can be highly effective in demonstrating customer qualifications because it allows them to
understand the profiles posted on social media in English better. In turn, this proficiency
facilitating them to make a judgment about whether customers are qualified or not. In the
process of interacting with foreign customers via social media, such an effect can be
salient, as a high degree of English proficiency allows export salespeople to achieve a
better understanding of clues arising from interactions, thereby improving the effectiveness
and efficiency of qualifying customers. Considering the crucial role of English proficiency,
we propose the following hypothesis:
H7. The level of English language proficiency moderates the positive relationship
between social media use in sales and customer qualification skills.
Figure 1 presents the conceptual model that summarizes all hypotheses.

3. Methods
3.1 Sample and data collection procedure
The sampling frame of the research is a list of 24,191 Chinese export salespersons
obtained on the FOB Business Forum website. The website offers a platform for

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 Figure 1 Conceptual model

English Outcome sales

Use of Facebook
proficiency performance

Social media use Customer Adaptive selling

in sales qualification skills behavior

Relationship sales
performance

Control variables
Age, Gender, Education level
Export selling experience

international trade practitioners to share information and knowledge about international

trade; the site boasts of the largest professional Web portals for Chinese export and
import practitioners (FOBShanghai, 2019). We sent an email to export salespeople
whose names appeared in the database. The email contained a cover letter explaining
the academic purpose of the study. It provided a link to the questionnaire on
Wenjuanxing, a Chinese professional survey website known for its expertise in helping
researchers and marketers conduct surveys. The participants were assured of
anonymity and confidentiality. In return for their participation, each sincere participant
would be provided with 8.88 RMB and reports about research findings as a token of
gratitude. Of 992 responses, 873 were complete and usable for data analysis,
constituting a 3.61% response rate.
The respondents in this study came from 26 provinces and municipalities in China and
engaged in a wide range of industries. The respondents specialized in a wide range of
industries including textiles, food, toys, electronics, machinery and chemicals, among
others. Regarding the platforms of social media use in sales, the majority of the
respondents (72.6%) reported that they used Facebook and the rest (27.4%) did not use
Facebook. For non-Facebook users, the majority indicated that they used Chinese social
media platforms such as WeChat and QQ for their sales activities. Table 1 reports the
descriptive statistics of the respondents.

3.2 Measures
All measures used in this study were developed from previously validated measures
appearing in the literature. Translation and back-translation were adopted to ensure the
quality and validity of instruments in Chinese (Hult et al., 2008). Before the data collection on
a large scale, we conducted a pilot test among a group of export salespeople and sales
managers. We made minor adjustments to the wording of statements by following their
suggestions to ensure the meaning of each statement was clear.

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 Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the respondents
Characteristics Descriptive statistics

Age (in years) Mean: 33.07

Standard deviation: 6.159
Gender Male: 430 (49.3%)
Female: 443 (50.7%
Education level Below diploma: 74 (8.5%)
Diploma: 189 (21.6%)
Bachelor’s degree: 514 (58.9%)
Master’s degree and above: 96 (11%)
Export selling experience Less than one year: 74 (8.5%)
1–5 years: 464 (53.2%)
6–10 years: 242 (27.7%)
More than 10 years: 93 (10.7%)
Social media platforms Facebook use: 634 (72.6%)
Non-Facebook use: 239 (27.4%)
English language proficiency Below CET4: 70 (8.0%)
CET4: 234 (26.8%)
CET6/TEM4: 378 (43.3%)
TEM8:191 (21.9%)

Social media use in sales was measured by a seven-item scale developed by Moore et al.
(2015). We made minor changes to wording to ensure it was suitable for an export sales
context. Respondents indicated the frequency with which they used social media at each
stage of the sales process (i.e. prospecting, pre-approach, approach, sales presentation,
handling objections, closing the sale and follow-up service). Respondents rated all the
items on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often).
Adaptive selling behaviors were measured by a five-item ADAPTS-SV scale (Robinson
et al., 2002). Respondents rated themselves on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Salesperson’s customer qualification skills were measured by a three-item scale developed
by Roma n and Iacobucci (2010). Respondents evaluated their ability to qualify customers
and prospects on a five-point Likert-type scale, which ranged from 1 (needs improvement)
to 5 (outstanding).
This study used self-rated scales to measure the salesperson’s sales performance because
of salespeople’s reluctance to report their actual financial performance for privacy issues.
This practice appears extensively in sales literature (Roma n and Iacobucci, 2010; Banin
et al., 2016; Inyang and Jaramillo, 2019; Kwak et al., 2019). Salesperson’s outcome
performance was measured by a four-item scale developed by Behrman and Perreault
(1982). The respondents evaluated their own sales performance in terms of selling high
profit-margin products, generating a high level of dollar sales, quickly generating sales of
new company products and exceeding sales targets. All items used a five-point Likert-type
scale, ranging from 1 (needs improvement) to 5 (outstanding).
Salesperson’s relationship performance was measured by a three-item scale developed by
Hunter and Perreault (2007). The respondents evaluated their own sales performance in
terms of new account acquisition, the number of qualified leads/opportunities, and
customer retention rate. Items were scored on a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1
(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Facebook use in sales was a dummy variable. We coded this variable as 1 if the respondent
used Facebook in selling activities, as 0 if the respondent did not use Facebook in his or her
selling activities.

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Level of English language proficiency was measured using an ordinal scale (“less than
College English Test Band (CET) 4” = 1; “CET4” = 2; “CET 6 or Test for English Majors Band
(TEM) 4” = 3; “TEM 8 or above” = 4). In China, CET and TEM are two major and common
tests for English levels. CET bands consist of Band 4 and Band 6, and TEM bands include
Band 4 and Band 8. For both CET and TEM, the larger band number suggests a higher
level of English proficiency. Usually, the level of CET Band 6 is regarded as the same level
of TEM Band 4 by human resources managers.

3.3 Control variables

This study controls for age, gender, education level, export selling experience and English
proficiency level, as these variables may affect adaptive selling behaviors and sales
performance (Ogilvie et al., 2018; Charoensukmongkol and Suthatorn, 2018). We measured
age in years; gender was coded as a dummy variable (“male” = 1; “female” = 0). We
measured education level as an ordinal variable (“below diploma” = 1; “diploma” = 2;
“bachelor” = 3; “master’s degree or above” = 4) and export selling experience as an ordinal
variable at four levels (“less than one year” = 1; “1–5 years” = 2; “6–10 years” = 3; “more
than 10 years” = 4).

3.4 Data analysis

We use a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to
analyze the data and estimate the proposed model. PLS-SEM is representative of a
variance-based least squares estimation technique (Chin, 2001). Its primary objective is to
enable a causal-predictive analysis of data high in complexity but low in theoretical support
(Henseler et al., 2009). Chin (2010) argued that PLS-SEM is advantageous in analyzing
complex models with a high number of indicators and constructs. Such an advantage of
PLS-SEM matches the complexity of the proposed model in this study which includes two
moderators. We used Warp-PLS version 6.0 to conduct a PLS regression analysis (Kock,
2017).

4. Results
4.1 Measurement model
We conducted a set of preliminary tests to ensure that all constructs had satisfactory
psychometric properties. First, we assessed convergent validity via factor loadings. Factor
loadings must be above 0.5 to confirm a satisfactory degree of convergent validity (Hair
et al., 2006). Results of factor loadings for all the latent constructs were above 0.5,
indicating satisfactory convergent validity. Second, we assessed discriminant validity by
comparing the square root of the average variance extracted (AVE) with its corresponding
correlations to other constructs. To support satisfactory discriminant validity, the square root
of AVE for each construct must exceed its correlation with any other construct (Fornell and
Larcker, 1981). The results shown in Table 2 confirm that all the square root of AVEs met this
requirement, suggesting satisfactory discriminant validity. Third, we assessed construct
reliability via Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and composite reliability coefficient. Both
coefficients should be higher than 0.7 (Nunnally, 1978). The results in Table 2 indicate that
both Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and composite reliability coefficients of all reflective
constructs are above 0.7, suggesting satisfactory reliability.
We evaluated multicollinearity by using full variance inflation factor (VIF) statistics. The full
VIF, lower than 3.3, confirms that multicollinearity is not a serious issue (Lee et al., 2011).
The results showed a range of the full VIFs of the latent variables from 1.037 to 3.135, which
confirmed that multicollinearity was not a serious issue in this study. Additionally, Kock and
Lynn (2012) argued that the full collinearity test could be used as a technique to check

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Table 2 Correlation among variables and the square root of average variance extracted
Cronbach’s
alpha
Variables coefficient Composite reliability coefficient SMU CQS ASB OP RP FB ENG GEN AGE EDU EXP

SMU 0.925 0.94 (0.831)


CQS 0.869 0.925 0.287 (0.89)
 
ASB 0.813 0.87 0.31 0.738 (0.758)
  
OP 0.898 0.929 0.179 0.758 0.674 (0.875)
   
RP 0.79 0.878 0.239 0.629 0.66 0.661 (0.84)
 
FB n/a n/a 0.1 0.039 0.026 0.082 0.043 (1)
ENG n/a n/a 0.007 0.035 0.042 0.024 0.002 0.035 (1)
GEN n/a n/a 0.022 0.06 0.297 0.046 0.05 0.007 0.019 (1)

AGE n/a n/a 0.002 0.001 0.253 0.017 0.012 0.006 0.064 0.097 (1)

EDU n/a n/a 0.054 0.013 0.021 0.054 0.001 0.023 0.173 0.062 0.1 (1)
 
EXP n/a n/a 0.006 0.006 0.001 0.02 0.035 0.001 0.047 0.048 0.442 0.092 (1)
Notes: Square roots of average variance extracted of latent variables are shown in the parentheses. SMU = social media use, CQS = customer qualification skills, ASB = adaptive
selling behavior, OP = outcome performance, RP = relationship performance, FB = Facebook dummy variable (use = 1; not use = 0), ENG = English language proficiency, GEN =
gender dummy variable (male = 1; female = 0), EDU = education, EXP = export sales experience.  p < 0.05  p < 0.01  p < 0.001
whether common method bias (CMB) is a problem in the PLS model analysis. A
conservative criterion to justify CMB is not a problem if the full VIF is less than 3.3. Results of
full VIF provide evidence that CMB is likely not a significant threat to the analysis.
Additionally, we also adopted Harman’s single-factor test to assess CMB. We analyzed all
indicators in the model by extracting a single factor in the principal component analysis.
The result showed that the one-factor solution explained only 36.24% of the variance, which
was substantially smaller than the 50% threshold. The one-factor confirmatory factor
analysis model did not fit the data well ( x 2 = 2174.92;d.f. = 800; p < 0.001). Thus, it can be
determined that CMB was not a problem in our data.

4.2 Hypotheses testing

Figure 2 presents the results of the PLS analysis. All fit indices of the PLS model estimation,
including the average path coefficient (Average path coefficient = 0.0370; p < 0.001), average
r-squared (Average R-squared = 0.382; p < 0.001), average full collinearity (Average full
variance inflation factor = 1.039; good if <3.3), Sympson’s paradox ratio (Simpson’s paradox
ratio = 1.000; ideally = 1), r-square contribution ratio (R-squared contribution ratio = 1.000;
ideally = 1), and statistical suppression ratio (Statistical suppression ratio = 1.000; good if
>0.7) were satisfactory.
As indicated in Figure 2, social media use in sales associated positively with adaptive
selling behaviors (H1: b = 0.096; p < 0.001) and customer qualification skills (H3: b =
0.288; p < 0.001). Hence, H1 and H3 were supported. Adaptive selling behaviors had a
statistically significant positive association with outcome performance (H2a: b = 0.674, p <
0.001) and relationship performance (H2b: b = 0.678; p < 0.001), supporting H2a and
H2b. The association between customer qualification skills and adaptive selling behaviors

Figure 2 Results from PLS analysis

2
R = 0.45

English Outcome sales

Use of Facebook
proficiency performance

0.056* 0.107***
2 0.674***
R 2 = 0.1 R = 0.54

Social media use Customer Adaptive selling

in sales qualification skills behavior
0.288*** 0.696***

0.66***

2
R = 0.43

Relationship sales
performance
0.11***

Control variables
Age, Gender, Education level
Export selling experience

Notes: *p < 0.1; **p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01; standardized coefficients are reported;
adjusted R-square values are reported

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 was positive and statistically significant ( b = 0.696; p < 0.001). Therefore, H4 was
supported.
H5 proposed that customer-qualification skills would mediate the positive association
between social media use in sales and adaptive selling behaviors. The mediating effect was
tested using the indirect and total effect analysis in WarpPLS suggested by Kock (2014).
First, the indirect association between social media use in sales and adaptive selling
behavior linked by customer qualification skills is statistically significant ( b = 0.194; p <
0.001; f2 = 0.058). Second, the direct association between social media use in sales and
adaptive selling behavior is also significant ( b = 0.096; p < 0.001, f2 = 0.028). Finally, the
total association between social media use in sales and adaptive selling behavior, which
combines the direct and indirect association, is significant ( b = 0.290; p < 0.001; f2 =
0.086). Together, these findings show that the relationship between social media use in
sales and adaptive selling behavior was partially mediated by customer qualification skills
(Kock and Gaskins, 2014). Moreover, as indicated by the f2 coefficient for the total
association (f2 =0.086), this total association has an unignorable effect size (i.e. 0.02  f2 
0.350) (Kock, 2017). Thus, H5 was supported.
H6 proposed that the use of Facebook would moderate the positive relationship between
social media use in sales and customer qualification skills. The result shows that the beta
coefficients of the interaction term between social media use in sales and the use of
Facebook is positive ( b = 0.107; p < 0.001). The result is also statistically significant
meaning that the positive relationship between social media use in sales and customer
qualification skills was stronger for export salespeople who used Facebook in sales than it
was for those who do not use Facebook in sales. Given this result, H6 was supported. The
result from a moderating effect analysis appears in Figure 3.
H7 proposed that English language proficiency would moderate the positive relationship
between social media use in sales and customer qualification skills. The result shows that
the beta coefficient of the interaction term between social media use in sales and English
language proficiency is positive and statistically significant ( b = 0.056; p = 0.036). This
result means that the positive relationship between social media use in sales and customer
qualification skills was stronger for export salespeople with high English levels than it was

Figure 3 Moderating effect of Facebook use

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for those with low English proficiency levels. Thus, H7 was supported. Figure 4 presents the
result of the moderating effect analysis.
The effect of control variables that were found statistically significant was as follows. Gender
positively correlates with outcome performance ( b = 0.008; p = 0.003); education level
positively correlates with adaptive selling behaviors ( b = 0.056; p = 0.028) and relationship
performance ( b = 0.06; p = 0.022).

5. Discussion
5.1 General discussion
Although salespeople and sales organizations increasingly use social media, academic
research about it lags the practice because of its relatively recent emergence (Nunan et al.,
2018). The current sales literature identifies the indirect impact of social media use on sales
and sales performance mediated by adaptive selling behaviors (Itani et al., 2017; Nunan
et al., 2018). However, a thorough understanding of how social media use in sales can
facilitate adaptive selling behaviors remains scarce. This study builds on previous social
media research findings by exploring the underlying mechanism and possible conditions
that might account for the impact of social media use in sales on adaptive selling behaviors.
This study integrated categorization theory, network effect theory and social linguistics
theory to propose a model to explain how salespeople can develop a high level of adaptive
selling behaviors via social media in sales. The research findings provide statistical
evidence that supports the effectiveness of social media use in sales on adaptive selling
behaviors. Additionally, such behaviors can be better explained by customer qualification
skills and the positive association between social media use in sales and customer
qualification skills. However, the effectiveness of social media use in sales on customer
qualification skills is contingent on the specific social media platform and English language
proficiency. The remaining discussion reviews the findings in detail and outlines important
theoretical and managerial implications.

Figure 4 Moderating effect of English language proficiency

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 5.2 Theoretical contributions
This study contributes to social media literature in three ways. First, no previous research
has examined how social media can promote adaptive selling behaviors. However, the
present study fills this void by drawing on the categorization theory to investigate the
mediating role of customer qualification skills in the impact of social media use in sales on
adaptive selling behaviors. The results demonstrated a partial mediating effect of customer
qualification skills in the positive relationship between social media use in sales and
adaptive selling behaviors. Moreover, the results indicate that social media use in sales
alone does not ensure that salespeople have a tool to maximize adaptive selling behaviors.
Instead, salespeople can use social media in sales to develop customer qualification skills,
in turn leading to improved adaptive selling behaviors.
In particular, the results regarding the mediating role of customer qualification skills further
contribute to Itani et al. (2017) and Ogilvie et al. (2018)’s research that explored the
importance of adaptive selling behaviors in transforming salespeople’s social media use
into sales performance in domestic selling contexts. These results broaden the knowledge
about social media’s influence on sales and adaptive selling behaviors while advancing
the current understanding of categorization theory in domestic sales contexts. The results
contribute to the categorization theory by highlighting the importance and necessity of
categorizing customers in export sales contexts via social media, adding to its explanatory
power and applicability in this new sales context.
Second, this study adds to the social media literature by examining the moderating
variables, which may serve as conditions to determine the effectiveness of social media use
on customer qualification skills. We used the network effect theory to add that the
effectiveness of social media use in sales on customer qualification skills was contingent on
the specific kind of social media platform. Specifically, the result regarding the moderating
role of Facebook in the positive association between social media use in sale and customer
qualification skills demonstrate that, whereas social media use in sales is conducive to
enhancing salespeople’s customer qualification skills, such effectiveness could be
amplified by using a particular social media platform (i.e. Facebook).
For Chinese export salespeople, Facebook has its distinctive advantage in facilitating the
improvement of customer qualification skills, because of having the largest network effect
around the world. Thus, it could particularly enable customer qualification skills in export
selling. Although no prior research has explored the utility of Facebook in this specific
context, this study’s finding of the positive utility of Facebook aligns with previous studies
reporting that Facebook was a powerful platform for promoting sales in the countries where
Facebook was freely accessible (Bodnar and Cohen, 2011; Galati et al., 2017).
This study’s finding about Facebook aligns with the thesis of network effect theory as well.
According to the theory, the most active users of Facebook in the world bring more relevant
information and provide more value to each user. Chinese export salespeople need to
integrate Facebook into their sales processes to use the network effect brought by
Facebook fully, through which they can gain access to global customers and develop a
better understanding of foreign customers. Thus, Facebook facilitates the improvement of
their customer qualification skills; this finding offers empirical evidence for network effect
theory as well. The finding contributes to network effect theory by advancing our
understanding of the great utility and penetration of network effect even in business across
borders.
Additionally, this study integrated social linguistic theory to add that English language
proficiency can be an essential condition for export salespeople to leverage social media
to maximize customer qualification skills. The research finding regarding the moderating
effect of English language proficiency indicates that English language proficiency
augmented the positive association between social media use in sales and customer

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qualification skills. This finding solidifies long-held assumptions about the important role
of English as a business lingua franca for international business by providing empirical
evidence in Chinese export selling contexts (Hellekjær, 2012). In this way, our research
finding also contributes to social linguistic theory by empirically proving the social
function of language in an export selling context, an underexplored professional field in
social linguistic research.
More importantly, the finding uncovered the great utility for mastering English in developing
customer qualification skills for salespeople who engage in export selling via social media.
The social linguistic theory holds that language has social functions and can be used to
identify people’s identity and roles in society (Diehl, 2019). This theoretical explanation adds
to social media literature by clarifying why export salespeople with a high level of English
language proficiency can better leverage social media use to develop customer
qualification skills.
Third, the research findings provided additional empirical evidence in support of the
effectiveness of social media use in an export sales context. Scholars have long pointed out
the important role of social media in international business and called for more research
about it (Berthon et al., 2012; Marshall et al., 2013). This study responds to these calls and
broadens the understanding of social media use of export salespeople from Eastern
cultures, adding to previous research conducted mainly in domestic sales contexts and
Western countries.

5.3 Practical contributions

The findings of this study yield several recommendations to salespeople and sales
organizations that are interested in leveraging social media to improve sales performance in
export sales. First, Facebook contributes to the effectiveness of Chinese export
salespeople’s social media use in export sales; Therefore, Facebook should be accessible
to Chinese export salespeople; and sales organizations should provide training about how
to integrate Facebook and other social media platforms into sales processes to reap the
benefits they deliver.
Second, sales organizations realize the importance of developing salespeople’s ability in
conducting a content analysis on social media. Therefore, because social media platforms
contain vast and valuable information about consumers’ characteristics, knowing how to
extract and analyze relevant information about customers can determine the effectiveness
and efficiency of salespeople’s selling behaviors. While using social media to identify and
qualify customers, salespeople should focus on analyzing which customer traits to observe,
how to recognize those traits and which selling strategies are appropriate for specific
customer categories. For example, customers’ posted information on social media about
purchasing background, previous job roles, career development, and business activities
can prove critical for salespeople to qualify customers in the identification process.
Third, the role of English language proficiency is important in facilitating customer
qualification skills by export salespeople selling via social media. Therefore, these
salespeople should seek to improve their English levels to achieve a better understanding
of their foreign customers and qualify them. Training from sociolinguists about how to
categorize the identity and role of people can also offer some insights for salespeople to
qualify customers. Sales organizations involving international selling should recruit sales
personnel who have a high level of English proficiency and can use social media,
particularly Facebook, skillfully.
Overall, export salespeople with a high level of English proficiency, and who are skilled at
using social media in sales processes, may demonstrate high customer qualification skills
and make appropriate adaptive selling behaviors, which may finally contribute to an

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 improvement of sales performance and establishing good relationships with foreign
customers.

5.4 Limitations
Despite the above-mentioned contributions, some limitations are important to consider.
First, this study may be subject to the generalizability problem because of its single-country
data in export selling. These research findings are limited to Chinese export salespeople
who use social media in export selling. Generalizations of the present research findings
could be improved if researchers test the model in different countries. Second, this study
used cross-sectional data for relationship analysis; thus, the results of this study could only
be interpreted as an association rather than causation. Third, the measurement scales used
in this study were based on self-evaluation question items, so the results of this study may
be prone to social desirability bias.

5.5 Directions for future research

This study’s research findings yield several recommendations for future research. This
study identified customer qualification skills as a new mediating factor in explaining the
mechanism of the impact of social media use in sales on adaptive selling behaviors.
Therefore, future research should consider other factors, such as customer-oriented selling,
intrinsic motivations and behavioral controls, which might better explain why salespeople
who use social media can practice adaptive selling behaviors more efficiently. Doing so is
particularly important because previous studies have found that these factors play
important roles in transforming salespeople’s use of information technology into sales
performance (Ahearne et al., 2007; Roma n and Rodrı́guez, 2015). Future studies should
also explore the moderating role of other social media platforms popular in specific
industries or countries (e.g. LinkedIn), which may play an important role in facilitating
business because of its focus on offering professional networks. Future studies should also
explore salespeople’s other personal characteristics as possible moderating factors such
as cross-cultural communication skills, which might facilitate their practice of adaptive
selling behaviors appropriately in international selling (Suthatorn and Charoensukmongkol,
2018; Charoensukmongkol and Suthatorn, 2020). Finally, future studies should investigate
the working mechanisms of social media use in sales in other Eastern countries to facilitate
a better understanding of these emerging marketing tools.
Adjusted R-square values are reported.

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Corresponding author
Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol can be contacted at: [email protected]

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