Assessing hierarchical differences in job-related attitudes and turnover among retail managers

A model of organizational turnover is expended from previously reported models to include an extraorganizational antecedent and comparison across two different hierarchical levels of management. Role ambiguity, role conflict, and work-family conflict were used as antecedents of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intent to leave, and actual turnover. The basic model of turnover was supported in both levels of management. In addition, several additional relationships that have been found in previous studies were tested. Implications of these results for retail managers are discussed. She received her Ph.D. from Oklahoma Stae University. Her research interests include retail turnover, socialization of entry-level management trainees, the role of social support in reducing employee stress, consumer distribution systems in Russian and Poland, and motivation of Russian and Polish employees. Her articles have appeared inJournal of Retailing, International Marketing Review, andMarketing Education Review. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. His research interests include attitude-behavior relationships, information processing, and the use of structural equations in marketing. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Journal of Advertising, andJournal of Business Research. He received his Ph.D. from University of Utah. He has extensive experinece in computer applications in marketing and business and has conducted research and seminars for a variety of companies. His major interests are in quantitative methods and sales manamgement. His articles have appeared inJournal of Retailing, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Business Horizons, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, andJournal of Business Logistics and Business.     

How does sharing a sales force between multiple divisions affect salespeople?

An increasing number of firms are sharing a sales force between multiple divisions of their companies. Although this practice may increase organizational efficiency by reducing unit selling costs, it is not clear how it affects outcomes at the level of the individual salesperson. This study examines the effects of sharing a sales force between multiple divisions on salespeople’s role perceptions, satisfaction, and performance. The results indicate that sharing is associated with higher levels of role stress and lower levels of work satisfaction and nonfinancial performance. The association between sharing and financial performance is not significant. Formalization and centralization of the sales organization moderate the relationships between sharing and the outcome variables. Higher levels of formalization lessen the effects of sharing on salespeople’s role conflict, role ambiguity, and work satisfaction. Conversely, higher levels of centralization exacerbate the effects of sharing on role ambiguity and work satisfaction. His research interests include issues in personal selling, sales management, and channels of distribution. He has published in theJournal of Retailing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and various conference proceedings. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include management of brand equity and competitive analysis. He has published in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management, andPlanning Review. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests are in the areas of personal selling and sales management. His articles have appeared in numerous journals, and one of them received the William O’Dell Award for the most outstanding article published in theJournal of Marketing Research. He has coauthored several books includingSales Force Management: Planning Implementation and Control (Irwin, 1992). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois-Urbana.     

Attributions and behavioral intentions of inexperienced salespersons to failure: An empirical investigation

The goal of this research was to determine how inexperienced sales representatives (rookies) interpret and respond to their sales failure situations. The authors studied 296 rookie financial services sales representatives'performance attributions for a previous unsuccessful sales interaction and their intended behaviors for a future, similar selling situation. This provided the authors the opportunity to compare their results with Dixon, Spiro and Jamil's (2001) findings for experienced sales representatives (veterans). In the event of a sales failure, rookies'responses do not parallel those of veterans. The results suggest that rookies are likely to engage in several inappropriate behaviors in response to failed sales encounters. Implications for managers and directions for future research are discussed. Andrea L. Dixon (Andrea. Dixon@uc.edu) (Ph.D., Indiana University) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on selling behaviors, team selling, integrating technology and personal selling, and the role of developmental relationships in enhancing creativity and productivity in the sales division. The primary focus of her research is improving the performance of sales representatives and the sales organization or unit. She has published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Marketing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. She currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. Dixon is the vice chair for conference programming of the Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. Rosann L. Spiro (spiro@ indiana.edu), Ph. D., is a professor of marketing and chairperson of the Marketing Department at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where she teaches Sales Management, Personal Selling, International Marketing, Business-to-Business Marketing Strategy, and Managerial Research in Marketing. Her research interests focus on sales strategy, sales management, and personal selling. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Business, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. She currently serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management andMarketing Management. She is also a coauthor of a leading sales management text,Management of a Sales Force (11 th ed.). She formerly served as the chairperson of the Board of the American Marketing Association. Curtently she serves on an Advisory Board for the Univted States Bureau of Census and is the chair of the Selling and Sales Management Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. Lukas P. Forbes (Lukas.Forbes@wku.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Gordon Ford College of Business at Western Kentucky University. He received his B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point, his M.B.A. from worcester Polytechnic Institute, and is completing his Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky. His research interests include personal selling, services, and product development. He has previously published in the American Marketing Association Educators and Frontiers in Services conference proceedings.     

The impact of sales management changes on new product success

Although the role of the sales force and sales management mix can be significant in influencing successful new product launch, the impact of specific sales management programs and tactics has not been examined in detail. This study explores whether firms that introduce new products were more successful in achieving their objectives when the new product introduction was accompanied by associated changes in sales management mix variables. Firms that were more successful in achieving their new product objectives accompanied their new product launches with significantly more changes in sales force quotas than did firms whose achievement of new product objectives was less successful. However, no significant differences in the number of changes in sales force structure, training, or sales support were found between firms with more successful versus less successful new products. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She began her career as a chemist and has held research, sales, product management, and marketing management positions prior to entering academia. The major focus of her research is on the process of developing and marketing new products. Her articles have appeared in theJournal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, andIndustrial Marketing Management. He has written numerous books and articles in professional journals and is the former editor ofJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. He serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, andJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing and has been a consultant to many business and government organizations.     

Social values and salesperson performance: An empirical examination

Although social values have been used increasingly in consumer research, their utility in sales management research has received little attention. Using a national sample of industrial salespeople, the authors evaluate several hypotheses, developed from social adaptation theory and a theoretical framework of values domain, regarding the incremental ability of the List of Values (LOV) to predict salesperson performance beyond adaptive selling (ADAPTS) and customer orientation (SOCO). The LOV shows promise as a tool by which salesperson performance can be predicted. Managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Oregon. His experience includes five years in sales and sales management with Xerox and Digital Equipment Corporation. His research interests include sales force management and marketing strategy. He has published in theReview of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Forecasting, Journal of Marketing Education, and other journals. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Oregon. His current research interests include issues in cross-cultural marketing strategy, global and domestic sales force management, and research methodology. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Marketing Education, and other journals.     

An empirical test of trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships

This study examines three trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships. This study, based on a sample of more than 400 business-to-business salespeoples from a variety of industries, shows two trust-building processes (predictive and identification) to be significantly related to salesperson trust in the sales manager. Interpersonal trust was found to be most strongly related to shared values and respect. Trust was directly related to job satisfaction and relationalism, and indirectly related to organizational commitment and turnover intention. Thomas G. Brashear (brashear@mktg.umass.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. James S. Boles (jboles@gsu.edu) (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is an associate professor of marketing in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research has appeared in a variety of journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of Applied Psychology. His areas of research interest include personal selling, sales management, key and strategic account management, and business relationships. Danny N. Bellenger (mktdnb@langate.gsu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is currently chairman of the Marketing Department in the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. His research has appeared in a number of academic journals including theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Advertising Research, theCalifornia Management Review, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, and theJournal of Business Research. He has authored four monographs and four textbooks on marketing research, sales, and retailing. Charles M. Brooks (brooks@quinnipiac.edu) (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Marketing and Advertising at Quinnipiac University. His research has appeared in theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Retailing, Marketing Theory, and theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice.     

Managing culturally diverse buyer-seller relationships: The role of intercultural disposition and adaptive selling in developing intercultural communication competence

Given the increase in cultural diversity within marketing organizations as well as within current and potential customer bases, possessing the appropriate communication skills becomes crucial to success in managing culturally diverse relationships. Although marketing researchers have recognized the importance of adaptive selling behavior for successful buyer-seller relationships, the exploration of the intercultural aspects of these relationships has only recently begun. This article examines how adaptive selling behaviors and intercultural dispositions of marketing executives contribute to their perceived intercultural communication competence. Results show that in addition to being adaptive, the intercultural disposition of a marketer is of key importance in developing intercultural communication competence. Theoretical and practical implications for incorporating intercultural communication into the development of successful buyer-seller relationships are discussed. Victoria D. Bush (Ph.D., University of Memphis) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. Her research has appeared in such journals as theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, and theJournal of Services Marketing. Her research interests are in diversity, advertising, and ethics. Gregory M. Rose (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. His research interests include consumer socialization and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published or has forthcoming articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Marketing, and other journals and proceedings. Faye Gilbert (Ph.D., University of North Texas) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. She has published in theJournal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theJournal of Research in Pharmaceutical Economics, theJournal of Applied Business Research, theJournal of Marketing Management, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and theJournal of Marketing Education, among others. Her work emphasizes the application of consumer behavior theory to health care and to channel relationships. Thomas N. Ingram (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is a professor of marketing at Colorado State University. He has been honored as the Marketing Educator of the Year by Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) and as a recipient of the Mu Kappa Tau National Marketing Honor Society Recognition Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contributions to the Sales Discipline. He has served as the editor of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and is the current editor of theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice. His primary research is in personal selling and sales management. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others. He is the coauthor of three textbooks:Professional Selling: A Trust-Based Approach, Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making, andMarketing: Principles and Perspectives.     

The influence of ethical climate and ethical conflict on role stress in the sales force

Several leading models of ethical decision making include factors contributing to an organization’s ethical climate as significant determinants affecting ethical choice. The relationship of ethical climate to ethical conflict and role conflict is examined in a salesperson context. Results suggest that salespersons’ perceptions of a positive ethical climate are negatively associated with their perceived ethical conflict with sales managers. Implications and directions for future research are provided. He has experience in wholesale and retail sales. His research interests are in sales, sales management, marketing ethics, and consumer behavior. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Business Ethnics, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, andIndustrial Marketing Management, as well as various national and regional proceedings. He is coauthor ofSales Management: Analysis and Decision-Making. He is currently the president of the Academic Council of the American Marketing Association. He is a Southern Marketing Association Fellow and a Southwestern Marketing Association Fellow. He has published 15 books and more than 50 articles. His books includeMarketing: Concepts and Strategies andBusiness Ethics. His work has appeared inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others. His major research focus is marketing implementation and ethical compliance frameworks for organizations. Before commencing his academic career, he worked in sales, product management, and sales management with Exxon and Mobil. He has received various teaching and research awards, including being named the Marketing Educator of the Year by Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI). His primary research is in personal selling and sales management. His work has appeared inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, andJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others. He is the coauthor of five textbooks, includingThe Professional Selling Skills Workbook, Sales Management: Analysis and Decision-Making, andMarketing Principles and Perspective.     

The perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility on organizational effectiveness: A survey of marketers

A necessary but insufficient condition for marketers to act ethically and be socially responsible is that they must perceive ethics and social responsibility to be important. However, little is known about marketers’ perceptions regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility components of business decisions. The objectives of this study are (1)to assess the marketing practitioners’ perceptions regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility in achieving organizational effectiveness, and (2) to analyze the relative influences of selected personal characteristics and organizational factors underlying a marketer’s perceived importance of ethics and social responsibility. The results from a mail survey of American Marketing Association members indicate that the marketers generally believe that ethics and social responsibility are important components of organizational effectiveness. The results partly indicate that there is a positive relationship between a marketer’s corporate ethical values and his or her perceptions regarding the importance of ethics and social responsibility. The results also indicate that the marketers’ perceptions regarding ethics and social responsibility can be explained by idealism and relativism. He has also served on the marketing faculty at Thammasat University, Thailand. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. His research focusing on marketing ethics and social responsibility has been published inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, and elsewhere. He received his D.B.A. in management from the University of Maryland. His work on business ethics, organizational design, and strategic planning has been published inAcademy of Management Review, American Business Review, andJournal of Business Ethics. His current research interest centers on the measurement of moral intensity. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His work has appeared inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Research in Marketing, and elsewhere. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Mississippi. His research has been published inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management, Journal of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, and elsewhere. His research interests include marketing ethics, health care marketing, international marketing, and direct marketing.     

An exploratory study of reverse causality relationships among sales force turnover variables

This paper explores the directions of causality between selected work-related variables and quitting intentions. Based on the premise that quitting intentions may stem from predispositions that affect work-related variables, longitudinal data collected from a direct sales population were analyzed. When compared with previous literature, the results show the existence of reverse causality, indicating that quitting intentions are more likely to effect the perceptions of such variables as organizational climate, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Hie received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. His current research interests involve sales force turnover and organizational stress. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and others. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the former editor of theJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. He serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, andJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and has authored numerous books and articles in professional journals.     

Relational communication traits and their effect on adaptiveness and sales performance

Two relational communication traits, communication apprehension and interaction involvement, are investigated within an adaptive selling framework to assess their impact on salesperson adaptiveness and sales performance. Using a sample of 239 insurance salespeople, results demonstrate that salespeople exhibiting lower levels of communication apprehension are more highly involved in communication interactions, and higher involvement facilitates increased adaptiveness and sales performance. This research highlights the importance of effective communication within sales interactions and offers suggestions to improve salesperson communication skill. Michael L. Boorom is an associate professor of marketing and associate dean of the school of business and public administration at California State University, San Bernardino. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. His research interests are salesperson and sales manager communication skills. His work has been published in theJournal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and several conferences. Jerry R. Goolsby is an associate professor of marketing at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. His research interests include sales interactions and salesperson burnout and coping strategies. His work has been published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and other marketing journals. Rosemary P. Ramsey is a professor and chair of the management and marketing department at Eastern Kentucky University. She earned her Ph.D. from University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include sales interactions and measurement issues. Her work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. andJournal of Marketing Education.     

The effects of extrinsic product cues on consumers’ perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and value

The authors report the results of two experiments designed to test the effects of extrinsic cues—price, brand name, store name, and country of origin—on consumers’ perceptions of quality, sacrifice, and value. The results of the experiments support hypothesized linkages between (a) each of the four experimentally manipulated extrinsic cues and perceived quality, (b) price and perceived sacrifice, (c) perceived quality and perceived value, and (d) perceived sacrifice and perceived value. The results also indicate that the linkages between the extrinsic cues and perceived value are mediated by perceived quality and sacrifice. R. Kenneth Teas is a distinguished professor of business in the Department of Marketing, College of Business, Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. His areas of research include consumer behavior and decision processes, marketing research methods, services marketing, and sales force management. His articles have been published in numerous journals, including theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theAmerican Journal of Agricultural Economics, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Occupational Psychology, andIndustrial Marketing Management. Sanjeev Agarwal is an associate professor in the Department of Marketing, College of Business, Iowa State University. He received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. His areas of research include multinational marketing strategies, modes of foreign market entry, and sales force management. His articles have been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of International Marketing, International Marketing Review, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of International Business Studies, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.     

Transformational and transactional leadership and salesperson performance

This study examines the impact of transformational and transactional leader behaviors on the sales performance and organizational citizenship behaviors of salespeople, as well as the mediating role played by trust and role ambiguity in that process. Measures of six forms of transformational leader behavior, two forms of transactional leader behavior, trust, and role ambiguity were obtained from 477 sales agents working for a large national insurance company. Objective sales performance data were obtained for the agents, and their supervisors provided evaluations of their citizenship behaviors. The findings validate not only the basic notion that transformational leadership influences salespeople to perform “above and beyond the call of duty” but also that transformational leader behaviors actually have stronger direct and indirect relationships with sales performance and organizational citizenship behavior than transactional leader behaviors. Moreover, this is true even when common method biases are controlled. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed. Scott B. Mackenzie (Ph.D., UCLA, 1983) is the IU Foundation Professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. His research on advertising effectiveness, organizational citizenship behavior, and leadership issues can be found in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, andThe Leadership Quarterly. Currently, he serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, andJournal of Consumer Psychology. Philip M. Podsakoff (DBA, Indiana University, 1980) is a professor of organizational behavior and human resources and the John F. Mee Chair of Management at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. He is the author or coauthor of more than 65 articles and/or scholarly book chapters that have appeared in such journals as theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Academy of Management Journal, Psychological Bulletin, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Psychology, The Leadership Quarterly, Organizational Dynamics, Research in Organizational Behavior, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and theJournal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. He serves on the Board of Editors of theJournal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, andThe Leadership Quarterly. Gregory A. Rich (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1996) is an assistant professor of marketing at Bowling Green State University. His primary research interest is in the application of leadership theory to issues of sales management, and his work has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, and several conference proceedings.     

Efficacy of perceived risk as a correlate of reported donation behavior: An empirical analysis

Various environmental trends suggest a challenging future for nonprofit organizations’ quests for fund-raising and volunteer recruitment. Previous research indicates that the perceived risk paradigm may be a valuable framework for examining donation behavior. The evidence generated in this study shows that risk perception has little bearing on money and time donation behaviors. Results also suggest that while perceived risk does not predict donation behavior well, it improves prediction when used in conjunction with demographic variables. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of the Market Research Society, Long Range Planning, Journal of Business Research, andInternational Journal of Research in Marketing. Dr. Yavas serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, and other journals. His articles have appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, andInternational Journal of Advertising. Dr. Riecken’s contributions have received outstanding paper awards at the conferences of the Decision Sciences Institute, Academy of Marketing Science, and Southwestern Marketing Association. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Consumer Affairs, and other marketing and management journals. Dr. Babakus serves on the editorial review boards of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Research, and other marketing journals.     

Do feelings of success mediate sales performance-work attitude relationships?

A psychological success model of the relationships between sales performance and job attitudes is developed and tested. The model posits that feelings of success mediate the relationship between work performance and job satisfaction. Previous research based on purely cognitive theoretical models has posited a direct relationship between performance and satisfaction, but typically has found no empirical relationship. The psychological success model posits that the relationships between performance and job attitudes are indirect and mediated by feelings of success. The results generally validate the model. Implications for theory and managerial practice are drawn and directions for future research incorporating affect into models of work behavior are suggested. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Advertising Research, and other publications. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and other publications. He is coauthor (with Douglas J. Dalrymple) ofSales Management: Concepts and Cases, 4th ed., published by John Wiley & Sons. He is actively involved as a consultant to the health care industry. His research has appeared in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Advertising Research, and other publications. He is active in executive education and serves as chapter chairman of the East Georgia Chapter, American Red Cross.     

The role of relationship quality in the stratification of vendors as perceived by customers

Companies implement preferred supplier programs to reduce their vendor relationships to a reasonable few. Consequently, vendors who do not effectively manage their customer-based relationships are strong candidates for deletion from a customer’s list of long-term suppliers. The emergence of preferred supplier programs suggests that businesses are beginning to formally recognize and reward differences between their qualified vendors. Vendor stratification is proposed as a framework for understanding the evolution of preferred vendor programs. With the growing interest in relationship marketing, a study was conducted to empirically examine the extent to which businesses use relationship quality perceptions to differentiate their qualified vendors. The findings support the notion that relationship quality is a higher-order construct that can be used as a basis for developing vendor stratification systems. The article concludes with a discussion of the managerial and research implications of the study findings. Michael J. Dorsch (Ph.D., University of Arkansas) is an associate professor of marketing at Clemson University. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, among others. His research interests include issues concerning relationship marketing and marketing research methods. Scott R. Swanson (Ph.D., University of Kentucky) is an assistant professor of marketing at East Carolina University. He previously spent 9 years as a purchasing executive and his research interets include issues related to services marketing, atmospherics, and marketing ethics. His research has been published in theJournal of Business to Business Marketing, theInternational Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, AMA Educators’ Proceedings, andRetailing: Theories and Practices for Today and Tomorrow. Scott W. Kelley (D.B.A., University of Kentucky) is an associate professor of marketing. His research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Advertising, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, among others. His research interests include issues concerning services marketing and marketing ethics.     

Relationships among measures of retail salesperson performance

A lack of understanding of the relationships among measures of salesperson performance exists in practice and in the retailing/sales management literature. This article examines the relationships among three commonly used measures—one outcome (sales volume) and two judgmental measures (managerial evaluations and salesperson self-evaluations). We empirically demonstrate that not all judgmental measures are related to outcome measures; that is, salesperson self-evaluations are significantly related to sales volume, but managerial evaluations are not. The study also examines the efficacy of retailers using short outcome-measuring periods for evaluation purposes. The results suggest that outcome measure variance within salespeople for short periods is high and therefore these data should be used with caution. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from The Ohio State University. His research interests are in the areas of retailing, logistics, and sales management. He has published extensively in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Retailing. He is co-author of Retailing Management. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are in the area of sales management and organizational behavior. His has published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management.     

Salesperson stereotypes,consumer emotions,and their impact on information processing

This study examines salesperson stereotypes and their effect on the selling environment. After reviewing relevant literature, the authors advance a hierarchical structure of salesperson stereotype categories. Experimental results suggest that stereotypes influence consumer emotions, and these emotions then mediate the relationship between stereotype activation and subsequent consumer cognitions. He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 1991. His expertise is in the area of consumer behavior and research methods. Current research topics center on consumption-related emotions, their measurement, and their impact on decision making. His research appears in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Advances in Consumer Research, as well as in numerous other national and regional publications. He received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. His research centers on sales management and the conflicting roles of salespeople. His work appears in prestigious outlets such as theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Marketing Education, as well as in various conference proceedings. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina. He was named Outstanding Marketing Educator by the Academy of Marketing Science in 1990. He has published more than 400 scholarly articles in prestigious outlets such as theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, andJournal of Marketing.     

Goal-setting paradoxes? Trade-offs between working hard and working smart: The United States versus China

This article proposes a model of the impact of goal difficulty and goal specificity on selling behaviors (selling effort, adaptive selling, and sales planning) and hence sales and behavior performance. The model suggests that goal-setting factors may have opposing effects on different sales behaviors. The empirical findings suggest that goal difficulty positively influences selling effort while negatively influencing adaptive selling behaviors. The results show that goal difficulty and goal specificity both have opposite effects on the two dimensions of working smart: adaptive selling and sales planning. The findings support the need for sales managers to account for the cultural context of the salesperson when determining optimal goal-setting strategies. With data collected from salespeople in the United States and China, the cross-cultural differences regarding the effects of goal-setting factors are also proposed and empirically supported. Eric Fang (efe92@mizzou.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at Seattle University. His current research interests are in the areas of relationship marketing in business-to-business context, markting strategy, and international marketing. He has articles published and accepted at theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of International Marketing, andAdvances in International Marketing. Robert W. Palmatier (rpalmatier@missouri.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Georgia State University. He has 15 years of professional work exprience, including various sales and marketing and senior executive positions in the United States and Europe. His current research interests are in relationship marketing and value-creation strategies focused in a business-to-business and channels context. Kenneth R. Evans (evansk@missouri.edu), Ph.D., is a professor of marketing and associate dean of graduate studies in the College of Business at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He holds the Pinkney C. Walker Professorship in Teaching Excellence. His research interests are in the areas of marketing management, sales/sales management, marketing theory, and services marketing. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Advertising, to name but a few. In addition, he has a number of articles that have been published in proceedings and presented at national conferences. He is either a member of the editorial review boards or serves in an ad hoc reviewer capacity for a variety of journals such as theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. He currently serves as the associate editor of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.