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NTU Management Review Vol. 33 No. 3 Dec. 2023

branch offices with better prior sales performance. Echoing prior studies (Foa, Converse,
Tömblom, and Foa, 1993; Wilson, Sin, and Conlon, 2010; Leventhal, 1976; Sutcliffe
and McNamara, 2001), these findings suggest that allocators prefer to distribute financial
resources to recipients who show similar preferences (goals) and tend to distribute

resources in accordance with recipients’ contributions, as allocators believe this will
maximize performance and productivity over the long term.
The insignificant relationship between goal consensus and the number of senior sales

personnel is not surprising. In this case company, the allocation of salespersons requires
that the regional manager negotiate with the branch managers; regional managers may
be required to justify the criticality of transferring and redeploying senior salespersons
to a specific branch office in the region. Therefore, it is only when the regional managers
have strong incentives and reasons (e.g., to ensure the overall sales performance of branch

offices within their region) that regional managers (re)deploy senior salespersons to a
specific branch office.
The effect of a branch’s prior performance on the association between goal consensus

and the regional manager’s resource allocation preferences is also presented in Table
5. Columns (6) and (7) in Table 5 show that the product term of goal consensus and the
branch offices’ past performance is statistically insignificant in relation to either Ab_
SENIOR or Ab_ADV , which indicates that the impact of goal consensus on regional
i,t
i,t
managers’ resource allocation decisions does not depend on the subordinates’ previous
performance. These findings suggest that although the two factors (goal consensus and
subordinates’ previous performance) may exist simultaneously and act as antecedents that
influence regional managers’ resource allocation preferences, they may affect regional

managers’ resource allocation preferences separately and individually; therefore, H3 is not
supported.
With regards to our control variables, we find that ratio of senior salespersons
(allocated advertising funding) in the previous month is positive and significantly related
to Ab_SENIOR (Ab_ADV ), indicating that regional managers adjust the branch office’s
i,t
i,t
unexpected portion of senior salespersons (advertising funding) according to how many
senior salespersons (advertising funding) a branch had in the previous month. In addition,
we find that branch offices with longer-serving managers, a longer period of existence, and

that are located in regions with more branch offices are less likely to receive more than

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