What is it about?
Customer demandingness is a critical concept in sales research, potentially influencing a salesperson’s performance in complex ways. One perspective suggests a negative impact, while another sees the potential for a positive effect. To clarify this paradox, a meta-analysis was conducted, synthesizing over 20 years of research on customer demandingness. This study proposes a model examining the effects of customer demandingness on job performance, mediated by felt stress and job engagement. The findings reveal a dual impact: customer demandingness affects job performance both directly and indirectly through mediating processes involving salesperson job engagement and felt stress. Customer demandingness is a challenging stressor because the positive indirect effect of customer demandingness on salesperson performance through job engagement is stronger than its negative indirect effect through felt stress.
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Why is it important?
Customer demandingness is a critical concept in sales research, potentially influencing a salesperson’s performance in complex ways. One perspective suggests a negative impact, while another sees the potential for a positive effect. To clarify this paradox, a meta-analysis was conducted, synthesizing over 20 years of research on customer demandingness. This study proposes a model examining the effects of customer demandingness on job performance, mediated by felt stress and job engagement. The findings reveal a dual impact: customer demandingness affects job performance both directly and indirectly through mediating processes involving salesperson job engagement and felt stress. Customer demandingness is a challenging stressor because the positive indirect effect of customer demandingness on salesperson performance through job engagement is stronger than its negative indirect effect through felt stress.
Perspectives
Customer demandingness is a critical concept in sales research, potentially influencing a salesperson’s performance in complex ways. One perspective suggests a negative impact, while another sees the potential for a positive effect. To clarify this paradox, a meta-analysis was conducted, synthesizing over 20 years of research on customer demandingness. This study proposes a model examining the effects of customer demandingness on job performance, mediated by felt stress and job engagement. The findings reveal a dual impact: customer demandingness affects job performance both directly and indirectly through mediating processes involving salesperson job engagement and felt stress. Customer demandingness is a challenging stressor because the positive indirect effect of customer demandingness on salesperson performance through job engagement is stronger than its negative indirect effect through felt stress.
Dr Omar S. Itani
Lebanese American University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Customer demandingness and salesperson’s performance: a meta-analytic examination, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, October 2025, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/08853134.2025.2566039.
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