Empirical Analysis of Factors which Generate Voluntary Participation in Selling Centers

Purpose of the research: In response to the increasing number of selling centers, this paper examines factors that influence the voluntary participation in selling centers. The goal of this study is to enable organizations to meet changing market conditions, which require interdisciplinary collaboration during sales projects. This paper also discusses potential problems which may occure during the implementation of these factors in practice. Research design and methodology: The research method consists of a qualitative crosssectional study with N=12 interviewees. All interviewees are current or former selling center participants. During the interview sessions, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used, which were evaluated using a qualitative content analysis. In addition, a frequency analysis was applied to evaluate the number of mentions per factor. Research results: In total, five factors were raised in order to improve the framework conditions of voluntary participation. These factors are performance incentives, transparency, availability of resources, goal orientation, as well as collegiality and affiliation. Major conclusions: The identified factors are also under discussion in the existing literature. Knowing about factors that generate voluntary participation in selling centers pays off particularly in improving the probability of completion of sales projects in which buying centers and selling centers are working together.