Correspondence: José M. Barrutia, Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, University of the Basque Country, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea, Avda. Lehendakari Aguirre, 83, Bilbao 48015, Spain. E-mail: josemaria.barrutia@ehu.es

¹holds a degree in Economics and a PhD in Business Studies from the University of the Basque Country. He was Consultant Manager for Price Waterhouse over a 5-year period, working for companies in the private and public sectors, and was Director of Marketing for a bank over a 9-year period. His special research area is financial services marketing. He has published several books and research papers in Spanish. His papers in English have appeared in The International Journal of Service Industry Management, The Service Industries Journal, The International Journal of Market Research and The International Journal of Financial Services Management. He is a regional editor of the International Journal of Financial Services Management.

²holds a degree in Economics and a PhD in Business Studies from the University of the Basque Country. His special research area is quantitative research methods in marketing. He has published several books and research papers in Spanish. His papers in English have appeared in The International Journal of Market Research and The Service Industries Journal.

³holds a degree in Business Studies from the University of the Basque Country. His special research area is service quality. His papers in English have appeared in The Service Industries Journal.

Received 17 February 2009; Revised 17 February 2009.

Abstract

Our research has a dual purpose. The first is to deepen our understanding of the dimension of power transference within the concept of empowerment. We consider power transference to be a driver of the individual feeling of empowerment, and identify two kinds of power to be transferred and, as a consequence, two different drivers of empowerment: process-driven empowerment (PDE) and decision-making-driven empowerment (DDE). The second is to study the relationship between both of them in relation to performance. We use multiple sources of evidence to build validity. We show that empowerment has its limits. Top management decisions regarding the transference of power to salespeople are performance-driven. A positive relationship between PDE and performance is confirmed. Nevertheless, the existence of a positive relationship between DDE and performance might be questioned.