An Empirical Analysis of the relationship between Motivation-Mediated Incentive and Sales Performance in the Malaysian IT Industry

Abstract

This research aims to investigate whether incentive, mediated by motivation, drives higher sales performance in Malaysia’s IT industry. Numerous studies have investigated the influence of incentive and motivation in delivering better work performance, but not many have researched whether incentive, with motivation as a mediator, can drive higher sales performance, especially in Malaysia’s IT industry. The conceptual framework in this study was formulated based on the Incentive Theory of Motivation, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory, and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. Online questionnaires were distributed to targeted salespeople in Malaysia’s IT industry and total of 311 respondents answered the survey. All four hypotheses regarding the impact on sales performance were accepted including the moderating variable. This study helps sales organizations especially in Malaysia’s IT industry by providing holistic insights into how incentive, with motivation as a mediator, could drive higher sales performance. The conceptual framework could be fleshed out even more in future work such as what type of incentive and motivation will have a stronger impact on sales performance and the mediating effect of motivation could be further analyzed whether it has a short-term mediating effect or a long-term mediating effect on sales performance, as this could help organizations to plan an effective and appropriate incentive program.