Salesperson Attitudes Research Articles

Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior to Purchase Vegan Cosmetics in Vietnam

The research aims to examine the factors that significantly influenced consumer behavior to purchase vegan cosmetics in Vietnam, including Reference Group, Consumer Perception, Salesperson Attitude, Product Quality, Price, Place, Promotion, and Brand. Data was collected through self-administered close-ended questionnaire from a sample of 480 consumers in Vietnam. For analysis purpose, SPSS 22 were used to confirm the validity concerns and determine the proposed relationship among selected variables. The output reveals that product quality is the strongest influencers of consumer behaviour to purchase vegan cosmetics, followed by Reference Group, Salesman Attitude, Place, Price, Promotion, Brand and Consumer Perception. This study provides a ‘snapshot’ to the government and cosmetics businesses about the determinants of consumer behaviour to purchase vegan cosmetics in Vietnam. Keywords: factors, consumer behaviour, vegan cosmetics DOI: 10.7176/JESD/14-6-03 Publication date: March 31 st 2023

Transformational leadership effects on salespeople’s attitudes, striving, and performance

Sales managers face challenges in leading their salespeople. Viewing transformational leadership (TL) as pivotal to gain attitudes necessary for good performance, we present, justify and test a leader behavior (TL) - salesperson's attitudes - salesperson's behavior - performance model. No previous research has done this, with our presented model, investigation, and results providing important contributions to the salesforce leadership literature and managers. An online survey with 313 salespeople in sales positions for 3+ years provided data analyzed using SEM. Results indicate: (1) TL has a direct positive effect on both salespeople's sense of empowerment and self-efficacy and an indirect effect through the mediation of employee vigor; (2) sense of being empowered and self-efficacy positively affect salespeople’s accomplishment striving (AS); and (3) AS, in turn, positively affect performance. The results provide strong support for the importance of how sales managers lead salespeople due to TL's profound effects on salespeople's attitudes.

Reconceptualizing the measurement of multidimensional salesperson job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is a key construct in many models examining salesperson attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Job satisfaction has often been conceptualized and measured as a multidimensional construct – often via the INDSALES scale. Yet many researchers have not utilized this scale due to its length. Further, extant versions of reduced INDSALES scales are lengthy and have been questioned about whether they accurately represent the dimensions measured. The current research revisits the INDSALES scale and provides a reduced version based on more-advanced techniques than used previously. The proposed reduced scale is of benefit to subsequent research using a multidimensional measure of job satisfaction.

Mentoring characteristics and functions: mentoring’s influence on salespeople

PurposeThis paper aims to examine a longitudinal study of mentoring functions and their effect on salesperson attitudes and intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a multi-year study of salespeople beginning when the salesperson entered the industry being examined.FindingsThe level of interaction between the mentor and protégé was found to be the only antecedent examined that related to the perceived quality of mentoring functions. Age, education and length of employment for both parties; the degree of age and education difference; and the length of the mentoring relationship were not significant. Successful mentoring appeared to be based heavily on a mentor’s willingness and ability to interact frequently with the protégé.Originality/valueThis study adds to the literature on mentoring, looking at mentoring in a sales context. Research examining mentoring in a sales setting is much more limited than in many other professions, so the findings represent a valuable addition to the sales mentoring literature. Its influence on sales socialization may be very important.

Social media use in B2b sales and its impact on competitive intelligence collection and adaptive selling: Examining the role of learning orientation as an enabler

This paper examines the use of social media by business-to-business (B2B) salespeople to assist in their job functions. The authors propose that a salesperson's attitude toward social media usefulness, as well as a salesperson's learning orientation, will influence how much a salesperson uses social media to assist in day-to-day job tasks. Additionally, the impact that the use of social media has on collecting knowledge about competitors, adapting to customers, and sales performance is considered. Accordingly, a broad literature review is provided to introduce extant theory contributing to the proposed model. The practical uses of social media by salespeople will be described, and then the theoretical foundation is built, encompassing social media use, goal orientations, and adaptive selling theory. Results of an empirical model are provided, followed by a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications.

Do we have a car for you? Encouraging the uptake of electric vehicles at point of sale

This study investigates shopping experiences at dealerships selling electric vehicles (EVs) in Ontario, Canada. In 2014, twenty mystery shoppers were trained and sent into 24 EV-certified dealerships (with a total of 95 shopping experiences) to observe the sales approach towards EVs. Results show that a common barrier for shoppers is the unavailability of EVs at the dealership – including a lack of EV models on site to view or test-drive as well as a three- to four-month waiting period to receive the vehicle once ordered. A multiple regression model was developed to explore which factors influence the likelihood of deciding to purchase an EV. Findings suggest that, controlling for brand, the key success factors are a salesperson's positive attitude and the availability of an EV on site. It is important for future policy makers to acknowledge the influential role of market intermediaries, such as dealerships, in the adoption of EVs. The research findings demonstrate a potential for government agencies to work with dealerships and/or salespeople to improve EV uptake by encouraging the presence of floor models and vehicles for test-driving on site, and by increasing the accuracy of information being provided to customers.

Dimensions and contingent effects of variable compensation system changes

Compensation systems are regarded as one of the best incentives to motivate salespeople. Organizations aim to align compensation incentives with organizational strategies in order to integrate top-level initiatives with ground-floor implementation, often requiring periodic adjustments to reflect fluctuating market conditions. What is not known, however, is to what extent variable compensation system changes (VCSCs) impact the attitudinal and performance outcomes of salespeople. Using a sample of 306 business-to-business salespeople, the authors study the conditional effects of VCSC. Specifically, the authors conceptualize a multi-dimensional assessment of VCSC – frequency, magnitude, and implementation speed – and investigate each dimension's effect on salesperson job satisfaction and performance, contingent upon two environmental conditions—technological turbulence and competitive intensity. Findings show a mixture of accentuating and attenuating effects on both outcomes, allowing future researchers to gain a better understanding of under which conditions VCSCs impact salesperson attitudes and performance.

Leadership style, salesperson's work effort and job performance: the influence of power distance

As multinational organizations increase operations in emerging economies, firms need to understand how cultural values prevailing in a host country can influence leadership practices developed and practiced in Western economies. This study explores the relationships among leadership styles and salespeople's attitudes and behaviours with data from salespeople in India with power distance measured at the individual level. Results suggest that for employees' instrumental leadership is more effective in promoting employee effort and increasing job performance. In addition, the relationship between satisfaction with supervisor and turnover intentions is weaker or insignificant, while the relationship between satisfaction with supervisor and effort is stronger for employees in higher power distance organizations. The study highlights cultural sensitivities that need to be considered in formulating an effective leadership style in emerging market contexts.

Contingent cross-selling and up-selling relationships with performance and job satisfaction: an MOA-theoretic examination

Cross-selling and up-selling are common sales strategies firms use to increase the revenue their salespeople garner from customers. However, these sales approaches are difficult to implement and a large percentage of these programmes fail. Examinations of cross-selling and up-selling traditionally rely on transactional databases which do not assess the salesperson's orientations and attitudes. To overcome this limitation, the authors capture the behavioural tendencies towards cross-selling and up-selling by salespeople and embed them within a motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) theoretical framework. Variables which fit an MOA categorization moderate the efficacy of cross-selling and up-selling on performance and job satisfaction. Using a multi-industry sample of 224 business-to-business salespeople, findings indicate a unique subset of factors differentially interact with cross-selling and up-selling in predicting performance and job satisfaction.

Insurance Salespeople's Attitudes towards Collusion: The Case of Taiwan’s Car Insurance Industry

Insurance researchers believe that the increase in insurance fraud may be associated with the unethical decisions made by some insurance salespeople. However, to date, research that has empirically investigated the link between insurance salespeople and collusion is scant. Using the car insurance industry in Taiwan as an example, this paper explores the impact of the opportunity to obtain the fraudulent claim and that of the size of actual loss on car insurance salespeople's attitudes towards collusion in situations involving contract renewal and non-covered loss. The results showed that the size of actual loss and the fraud type (customer fraud vs insider fraud) may correlate with the decision-making of the car insurance salespeople. It seemed that the responders have a higher acceptance of customer fraud rather than insider fraud. Empirical research on insurance salespeople's attitudes towards salespeople-customer collusion is very rare. This study may make some contribution to insurance research and practice.

The role of the sales employee in securing customer satisfaction

PurposePrevious research has emphasized the pivotal role that salespeople play in customer satisfaction. In this regard, the relationship between salespeople's attitudes, skills, and characteristics, and customer satisfaction remains an area of interest. The paper aims to make three contributions: first, it seeks to examine the impact of salespeople's satisfaction, adaptive selling, and dominance on customer satisfaction. Second, this research aims to use dyadic data, which is a better test of the relationships between constructs since it avoids common method variance. Finally, in contrast to previous research, it aims to test all of the customers of salespeople rather than customers selected by salespeople.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs multilevel analysis to examine the relationship between salespeople's satisfaction with the firm on customer satisfaction, using a dyadic, matched business‐to‐business sample of a large European financial service provider that comprises 188 customers and 18 employees.FindingsThe paper finds that customers' evaluation of service quality, product quality, and value influence customer satisfaction. The analysis at the selling firm's employee level shows that adaptive selling and employee satisfaction positively impact customer satisfaction, while dominance is negatively related to customer satisfaction.Practical implicationsResearch shows that customer‐focus is a key driver in the success of service companies. Customer satisfaction is regarded as a prerequisite for establishing long‐term, profitable relations between company and customer, and customer contact employees are key to nurturing this relationship. The role of salespeople's attitudes, skills, and characteristics in the customer satisfaction process are highlighted in this paper.Originality/valueThe use of dyadic, multilevel studies to assess the nature of the relationship between employees and customers is, to date, surprisingly limited. The paper examines the link between employee attitudes, skills, and characteristics, and customer satisfaction in a business‐to‐business setting in the financial service sector, differentiating between customer‐ and employee‐level drivers of business customer satisfaction.

의복 불만족의 고차요인구조 -오프라인 의복구매 및 사용-

This study investigates the ultimate factor structure of consumer dissatisfaction with the off-line purchase and usage of clothing. It identifies the determinant dimensions of consumer dissatisfaction on clothing purchase and usage and investigates the hierarchical structure of consumer dissatisfaction by assessing and comparing the effectiveness of five alternative factor structure models. A total of 300 women were online-surveyed to assess the level of dissatisfaction based on their dissatisfying experience with clothing purchases and usage in terms of product quality, price, salesperson's attitude, and store environment. The exploratory factor analysis identified the underlying dimensions of dissatisfaction: Handling, Aesthetics, Salesperson, Size, Price, Product Quality, Service, and Environment. By employing a first-order confirmatory factor analysis and higher-order confirmatory factor analysis, consumer dissatisfaction was confirmed to have a hierarchical structure with three second-order constructs Intrinsic instrument is manifested by handling, quality, and size, Intrinsic expression consists of service, salesperson, and environment, and Extrinsic circumstance contains aesthetics and price. On empirically demonstrating the multi-dimensional constructs of consumer dissatisfaction by identifying its hierarchical structure, the study provides the theoretical and practical insights to comprehend consumer purchase and post-purchase behavior. Specifically, it affords an empirical platform to extend the scope of research with condensed concepts of dissatisfaction to researchers. In addition, it also enables marketers to take a broader view of consumer dissatisfaction by providing cues about potential problems and identifying the source of those problems.

Motivating Salespeople to Sell New Products: The Relative Influence of Attitudes, Subjective Norms, and Self-Efficacy

This research explores the relative influence of salespeople's attitudes toward selling a new product, perceptions of subjective norms, and self-efficacy on the development of selling intentions and, ultimately, the success of a new product launch. The longitudinal study employs a nonlinear growth curve model that leverages survey data from industrial salespeople and objective performance records of their daily sales during the first several months in the market of two new products: a new-to-market product and a line extension. By examining salesperson-level variance on new product performance, the authors suggest that managers should focus on increasing salesperson self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward selling the product to build selling intentions and quickly grow new product performance. They also suggest that sales managers should resist the temptation to rely on normative pressure during a new product introduction. Not only are subjective norms less effective in building selling intentions, but they also diminish the positive impact of attitudes and self-efficacy on salesperson intentions and constrain the positive relationships between intentions and performance and self-efficacy and performance.

Compliance versus preference: Understanding salesperson response to contests

Firms use sales contests to motivate salespeople; however, knowledge of their impact on salespeople is scarce. Acceptance of the contest, according to goal-setting theory, is essential for a contest to motivate salespeople (Hile-Hart et al., 1989). Yet attitude toward (or preference for) the contest is an important factor in motivating effort (Murphy and Dacin, 1998). In an experiment with financial services salespeople, this study examines the compliance effect (Chowdhury, 1993) and propositions that Murphy and Dacin (1998) suggest. Results support goal-setting theory, but also the importance of salesperson's attitude to the contest. While the study partially confirms Chowdhury's (1993) results regarding the influence of contest difficulty, his suggestion that difficulty leads to goal acceptance was not. Valence for winning does not relate to attitude significantly in the study here, contrary to Murphy and Dacin's (1998) propositions. The article develops an integrative model with implications for research and practice.

Predicting Store Profit and Customer Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Customer BATNA and Salesperson's Job Attitude

This study examined real world sales negotiations. We collected data in collaboration with a large Taiwanese eyeglasses company. Our data showed that the higher the first offers (made from either side) the higher the store profit for the final deal, but this effect was lessened when the had a stronger BATNA (measured by the number of times the customers had compared other stores’ prices in advance). In terms of customers’ perceptions of service quality, a different set of predictors emerged. Customers of salespeople who spent more time talking to customers about the product reported higher service quality, but this only occurred among salespeople high in job satisfaction. We discuss the implications of our findings both for the management and for the customers.

The effects of coaching on salespeople's attitudes and behaviors

PurposeThis paper's aim is to provide an empirical test of the assumption that coaching impacts salespeople's attitudes and behaviors under various contingencies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the survey responses of 2,532 salespeople and regression analyses.FindingsSalesperson‐organization value fit reduces the likelihood that coaching will engender more affective commitment to the organization, improve satisfaction with job and supervisor and lower perceived role ambiguity. The number of years of formal education reduces the impact of coaching on affective commitment, satisfaction with job and supervisor. Salespeople's confidence in their company's product superiority over competitors' brands also reduces the effectiveness of coaching. Salesperson's organizational tenure has no impact on the effectiveness of coaching. Finally, the age of a salesperson dampens the positive relationship between coaching and affective commitment and job satisfaction but accentuates the negative relationship between coaching and perceived role ambiguity.Research limitations/implicationsAnalyses relied on cross‐sectional data. Thus the findings are only suggestive and causal relationships cannot be claimed. Also, the empirical setting limits the generalizability of findings to other professions.Practical implicationsIncreasing the amount of coaching can engender positive attitudes and behaviors in salespeople. More coaching time should be devoted to younger salespeople, salespeople with lower confidence in the superiority of company's products over competitors' brands, salespeople with fewer years of formal education, and salespeople whose values fit the least with that of the organization.Originality/valueThe paper provides an empirical test of how, under different situations, coaching influences salespeople's attitudes and behaviors.

Elements of salesperson control: an organization theory perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present an argument for the importance of organizational culture and organizational socialization as controls for business‐to‐business salespeople.Design/methodology/approachOrganization theory suggests that social forms of control can be an effective influence on salesperson activities and behaviors. Based on organization theory, the paper presents a typology of social control combinations and offers propositions to guide future research.FindingsIt is suggested that different combinations of organizational culture and socialization moderate the relationship between person‐organization fit and relevant outcomes such that, under various social control environments, creativity is greater, salesperson performance is higher, and salespeople are less likely to leave the firm and will experience greater job satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsThe primary limitation is that it is conceptual in nature. Despite this, arguments presented herein support that socialization activities set the stage for salespeople's attitudes, behaviors, and performance, while organizational culture can reinforce or undermine the firm's socialization efforts. This provides the necessary foundation for future empirical research applying organizational theory to salesperson control.Practical implicationsSalespeople remain the driving force for revenue generation for many business‐to‐business firms. Sales managers are challenged with the task of directing salespeople to meet organizational objectives. However, based on organizational theory, traditional control methods may be less effective because of the unique characteristics of the business‐to‐business sales position. The research suggests that the organizational culture and the socialization tactics used by the sales manager can be tools that sales managers can use to control and direct the activities of salespeople.Originality/valuePrevious research has focused predominantly on outcome‐ and behavior‐based controls for business‐to‐business salespeople and has largely overlooked the potential influence of social controls such as organizational culture and organizational socialization. This research fills that gap.

The role of the seven dimensions of job satisfaction in salesperson's attitudes and behaviors

To date, the majority of studies on job satisfaction use either a global measure or the JDI measure. To extend current research, this study uses the seven dimensions of job satisfaction as described by Churchill et al. [Churchill, G.A., Ford, N.M., Walker, O.C. Measuring the job satisfaction of industrial salesmen. J Mark Res 1974; 11 (3): 254-260.] to explore the relationship between job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, organizational commitment and propensity to leave. Findings suggest that: 1) emotional exhaustion only relates to certain dimensions of job satisfaction and 2) job satisfaction dimensions related to organizational commitment and propensity to leave are not necessarily the same. Overall, this research provides an argument for the use of the seven dimension job satisfaction scale, as opposed to global measures or the JDI measure.

The Effects of Sales Message and Suspicion of Ulterior Motives on Salesperson Evaluation

This research investigates the extent to which a salesperson's presentation and consumer suspicion of ulterior motive affect salesperson evaluations and purchase intentions. Study 1 indicates that a salesperson's presentation plays an essential role in confirming or discontinuing consumer suspicion and that this process has important implications in the formation of salesperson attitudes. Evidence from Study 2 demonstrates that these interaction effects are mediated by persuasion‐motive attributions. The findings also support a direct link between attitude toward the salesperson and purchase intentions. Collectively, these results extend the persuasion literature by demonstrating that suspicion of motive is a dynamic state in which consumers entertain rival hypotheses about the salesperson (e.g., is the salesperson truly motivated to help me, or motivated to make his or her commission?) and that, depending on the degree of suspicion, the same salesperson's tactics will be processed very differently by consumers.

When Customers Disappoint: A Model of Relational Internal Marketing and Customer Complaints

The objective of this study is to examine internal marketing relationships and their influence on salesperson attitudes and behaviors in retail store environments. The authors investigate the moderating role of customer complaining behavior on the nature of these relationships. Specifically, they examine the relationship between organization-employee and supervisor-employee relationships and their association with salesperson job motivation and commitment to customer service. Customer complaints are expected to have differential moderating effects on the relationship between organizational and supervisory support and these salesperson outcomes. Our hypotheses were tested using a sample of 392 retail employees within 115 stores of a national retail organization. The model was partially supported. Theoretical and managerial implications are explored.