Abstract

Purpose: This study systematically examined the concept of digital selling readiness of salespeople. Additionally, this study empirically confirms the sequential mediating roles of digital literacy and salesperson self-efficacy in the impact of digital selling readiness on customer-oriented behavior. Research design, data, and methodology: We collected data from salespeople at a Bank and Financial Service firm in South Korea. A total of 254 salespeople were invited to participate, with 154 surveys returned. After removing the questionnaires with missing values, 150 complete surveys were employed for the analysis. Results: The empirical analysis indicates that digital selling readiness positively affects digital literacy. Digital literacy, in turn, is positively associated with self-efficacy, leading to increased customer-oriented behaviors among salespersons. This study also confirms the sequential mediating effects of digital literacy and self-efficacy in the impact of salespeople's digital selling readiness on customer-oriented behavior. Conclusions: Our research deepens the understanding of how digital selling readiness fosters customer-oriented behavior through the sequential mediating effects of digital literacy and self-efficacy. This study extends the previous model by sequentially involving digital literacy and self-efficacy to better understand the psychological processes of digital selling. The results highlight the role of digital selling readiness in preparing salespeople for digital sales.