Delusive perception—antecedents and consequences of salespeople’s misperception of customer commitment

Abstract

Although salespeople’s perception of their customers is often systematically biased, research on the antecedents and consequences of perceptual inaccuracy in customer–salesperson relationships is still scarce and limited in scope. Drawing on findings from personality research and social psychology, we therefore empirically examine potential antecedents and consequences of salespeople’s misperception of customer commitment in 233 customer–salesperson dyads. Results provide evidence of the effects of customer-related factors, relationship-related factors, and salesperson-related factors on the extent of salespeople’s misperception of customer commitment. Moreover, we show that salespeople with an upwardly biased perception of customer commitment engage in less relationship-building effort, which in turn negatively affects customer behavior.Although salespeople’s perception of their customers is often systematically biased, research on the antecedents and consequences of perceptual inaccuracy in customer–salesperson relationships is still scarce and limited in scope. Drawing on findings from personality research and social psychology, we therefore empirically examine potential antecedents and consequences of salespeople’s misperception of customer commitment in 233 customer–salesperson dyads. Results provide evidence of the effects of customer-related factors, relationship-related factors, and salesperson-related factors on the extent of salespeople’s misperception of customer commitment. Moreover, we show that salespeople with an upwardly biased perception of customer commitment engage in less relationship-building effort, which in turn negatively affects customer behavior.