C. Speier and V. Venkatesh
Journal of Marketing, 66, 2002, 98-111.

Sales force automation technologies are increasingly used to support customer relationship management strategies, however, commentary in the practitioner press suggests high failure rates. Identity theory was used as a lens to better understand salesperson perceptions associated with technology rejection. Survey and interview data were collected from 454 salespeople across two firms that had implemented sales force automation tools. Results indicate that immediately after training, salespeople had very positive perceptions about the technology. However, six months post implementation, the technology had been widely rejected and salesperson absenteeism and voluntary turnover had significantly increased. There were also significant decreases in perceptions of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, person-organization fit, and person-job fit across both firms. Finally, salespeople with stronger professional commitment indicated more negative job-related perceptions as experience with the technology increased.

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