Evolution of salesperson motivation research: A bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT Researchers have sought to understand salesperson motivation for more than 70 years and, as a result, have compiled a substantial and divers body of knowledge on the topic. The current study uses a bibliometric research design for performance analysis (N = 998) and science mapping (N = 621) to trace the evolution of the intellectual structure of the salesperson motivation literature over time, identify emerging research fronts, and outline key future research questions. The results show a substantial expansion in publication activity: only two articles were published in 1953 and nine in 2003, compared with 74 articles in 2021 The findings also show the intellectual structure changes in the field’s thematic focus. Specifically, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic motivation, adaptability, psychological status and job attitudes, and self-development were the prevalent foci in pre-2017 publications, but adaptability, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic motivation, organizational climate, job satisfaction and competitiveness, and organizational engagement received the most attention in post-2017 publications, as ranked by theme cluster size. The prominent themes in the current scholarly works as of 2024 are extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, emotion and psychological well-being, adaptability, sales control system, and uncertainty and change. The paper concludes with future research questions, which are extracted from our identification of extant research fronts.