Multinational companies increasingly focus on subsistence marketplaces, given their enormous market potential. Nevertheless, their potential is untapped because subsistence consumers face extreme constraints. The authors contend that subsistence consumers need marketplace literacy to effectively and beneficially participate in marketplaces. Marketplace literacy entails the knowledge and skills that enable them to participate in a marketplace both as a consumer and as an entrepreneur. This is crucial for subsistence consumers, as they often need to function in both roles to survive. Past research, however, has not empirically examined the influence of marketplace literacy on wellbeing or marketing outcomes related to wellbeing. To address this gap, the authors implemented three large-scale field experiments with approximately 1,000 people in 34 remote villages in India and Tanzania. They find that marketplace literacy causes an increase in psychological wellbeing and consumer outcomes related to wellbeing (e.g., consumer confidence and decision-making ability), especially for subsistence consumers with lower marketplace access, whereas it causes an increase in entrepreneurial outcomes related to wellbeing (e.g., starting a microenterprise) for those with higher marketplace access. Overall, this research generates practical implications for the use of marketplace literacy as a pathway to a better world.

Salesperson turnover can have a negative overall effect on a firm. Research on salesperson turnover has conceptually studied the consequences of voluntary turnover on a firm. However, little empirical research has investigated the antecedents of salesperson turnover—specifically, the role of own effects (relative performance, customer satisfaction, and goal realization) and peer effects (peer performance variance and turnover). Therefore, the authors propose a framework to assess the influence of own factors (through identity theory) and of peer factors (through social identity theory) on salesperson turnover. Using a proportional hazard model implemented on data consisting of 6,727 salespeople over two years, the results suggest that in addition to own behaviors, managers need to pay attention to peer behaviors because peer turnover (voluntary and involuntary) greatly increases a salesperson's turnover probability. Furthermore, the results indicate that peer effects have a greater impact than own effects. This research has implications for sales force management because it helps managers (1) identify a salesperson's turnover risk, (2) diagnose the drivers of turnover behavior, and (3) build strategies to prevent salesperson turnover.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand how a salesperson’s preset goals, customer satisfaction levels and past performance affect the extent of goal achievement, as well as how job-specific attitudes and emotions affect the relationship between preset goals and goal achievement. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a modeling framework with both main, moderating and mediating effects, using transaction data and survey results from a telecommunications firm. Findings The results indicate that preset goals and customer satisfaction, interestingly, have an inverted-U relationships with goal achievement. Further, attitudes and emotions regarding workplace conduciveness and workplace ethics and diversity, reduce the effect preset goals have on goal achievement. However, attitudes and emotions regarding workplace philosophy strengthens the effect preset goals have on goal achievement, whereas with disagreement, this relationship diminishes. Research limitations/implications Two of the primary limitations of this study are: one, because of the cross-sectional nature of the study, there is limited opportunity to control for unobserved heterogeneity; and two, performance goal achievement, though is important for the firm, is one of many potential goals that affect a salesperson. For example, customer satisfaction goals or a one-time special event goals could play a role. Therefore, only using performance goal achievement could be a limitation of this study. Originality/value This study contributes to academic literature in three ways. First, it demonstrates the diminishing effect of customer satisfaction on goal achievement. Second, it identifies an inverse U-shaped relationship between preset goals and goal achievement. Finally, it examines how attitudes and emotions regarding workplace culture (conduciveness, ethics and diversity and philosophy) affect the relationship between preset goals and goal achievement.

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