The effect of sellers' cultural intelligence on sales self-efficacy and the performance of sales representatives with the seller's risk

EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Introduction
The global work environment needs people who are familiar with different cultures and can communicate properly with people from other cultures (Davaei, et al., 2022). A person's ability to adapt to values, traditions and customs different from what he is used to and to work in a different cultural environment represents cultural intelligence; cultural intelligence is a potential source of competitive advantage (Charoensukmongkol & Pandey, 2020). Sales presentations that salespeople make to external customers may not be the same as sales presentations to internal customers; this is because consumers in different cultures tend to change their attitudes, lifestyle expectations, and purchasing behaviors (Charoensukmongkol & Pandey, 2020). There is no research that examines sales presentations in cross-cultural selling situations (Baluku, et al., 2019). Therefore, according to the importance of the issues raised, it can be claimed that conducting a research on the effect of cultural intelligence of sellers on self-efficacy of sales and the performance of sales representatives with the role of moderating the seller's risk-taking is necessary.
Methodology
This research is applied, descriptive and survey type. Library studies and survey research methods were used to collect information. Two types of document review tools and questionnaires were used to collect data. The measuring tool of the research questionnaire is the Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the face validity method, for this purpose, the questionnaire was given to experts and the questionnaire was confirmed. In order to analyze the information, the structural equation modeling method was used with the help of SmartPLS software.
Discussion and Results
According to the hypotheses test, the cultural intelligence of salespeople has a direct relationship with the performance of sales representatives, which this part of the research is consistent with the results of the research of Balochi and Nemat Elahi (2014), Saberi (2019) and Charonsmonkol and Pandey (2020). The effect of sales self-efficacy on the performance of sales representatives was confirmed, and this finding is consistent with the results of Balochi and Nemat Elahi (2014), Saberi (2019) and Charunsmonkol and Pandey (2020). The effect of salespeople's cultural intelligence on sales self-efficacy was confirmed, and the result is consistent with the research of Balochi and Nemat Elahi (2014), Saberi (2019) and Charunsmonkol and Pandey (2020). According to the results of the hypotheses, the effect of cultural intelligence of salespeople on the performance of sales representatives was confirmed through the mediation of sales self-efficacy, which is consistent with the results of the research conducted by Balochi and Nemat Elahi (2014), Saberi (2019) and Charonsmonkol and Pandey (2020). Also, the effect of salespeople's cultural intelligence on sales self-efficacy is confirmed by the moderating role of seller's risk-taking, and this result is consistent with the results of the research conducted by Balochi and Nemat Elahi (2014), Saberi (2019) and Charonsmonkol and Pandey (2020). Also, the effect of sellers' cultural intelligence on the performance of sales representatives was not confirmed with the moderating role of seller's risk-taking, and this result is not consistent with the research conducted by Balochi and Nemat Elahi (2014), Saberi (2019) and Charonsmonkol and Pandey (2020).
Conclusion
Beliefs, values, expectations, attitudes and assumptions are elements of culture that cannot be seen; But they are effective on people's behavior and sometimes cause conflicts and contradictions at work. For this purpose, the adaptation and effective adjustment of cultures is needed. One of the factors that has received much attention and has been dubbed as a moderating factor is cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence is a new domain of intelligence that has a lot to do with diverse work environments. Cultural intelligence allows people to recognize how others think and respond to behavioral patterns, thereby reducing cross-cultural communication barriers and empowering people to manage cultural diversity. Cultural intelligence is very important for those people who are in contact with people of other cultures. Cross-cultural salespeople cannot be self-efficacious when dealing with foreign customers based on their previous experience with domestic customers; Rather, they should pay more attention to the cultural characteristics of foreign customers to learn and understand their expectations before they can provide sales presentations that match the cultural characteristics of foreign customers.