Technology adoption and its influence on salespeople’s performance in the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa

Abstract

This study sought to examine technology adoption and its influence on the performance of salespeople in the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa. There has been some reluctance in the adoption of technology by pharmaceutical companies in South Africa. As a result of this failure to adopt new technologies, pharmaceuticals sales representatives have been left behind in the highly digitised economy. This has resulted in them either failing to meet their sales targets or failing to adequately market new products to the right prospective markets. The study objectives were to determine factors influencing technology adoption by salespeople in the Pharmaceutical industry in South Africa, to establish the influence of technology adoption on the performance of salespeople in the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa, and to establish the antecedents to the factors influencing sales representatives’ intention to adopt technology usage in the pharmaceuticals sector in South Africa. The theoretical framework was underpinned by the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The methodology adopted for the study involved a positivist research philosophy and an explanatory research design. The study population comprised 500 participants who were sales representatives and the sample size was 217. The study employed the Cronbach Alpha to test for reliability, which was confirmed across all 13 constructs of the study. The study employed the use of factor analysis as a descriptive tool. A multicollinearity test established that there was no variable construct which was above 0.9. The study results accepted the hypothesis that competition, innovation, communication, and the size of the organisation influenced technology adoption, whereas the hypothesis which tested iv demographics and change dynamics against influence on technology adoption was rejected using t-values and the p-values to accept and reject the hypothesis. The study established that there is a positive relationship between technology adoption and salespeople's performance within the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa as evidenced by a positive correlation of 0.820 and p -value which was significant (p<0.0.05). The goodness of fit of the model was 67.2% (R-squared=0.672). Perceived usefulness, perceived convenience, and perceived ease of use were supported by positive Pearson coefficients and supported statistically by values less than 0. 005. As antecedents to technology usage. The study recommended that the sector be receptive to change in management as well as embrace fully the adoption of technology. If need be, incentives can be provided to overcome resistance