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This article considers ‘pricing’, that is, offers and requests for the price of sales items, as a communicative practice deployed by vendors and customers during sales interaction on street markets. It examines the organisation of sales interaction by pursuing the question of how and when market participants, vendors and customers alike, embed offers and requests for price information within their interaction. The analysis suggests that pricing is deployed as a technique to manage the ‘floor’ and the interaction at the stall. For example, offers for items are being tailored to customers’ display of interest and commitment to particular items, and requests for price information are deployed in ways that challenge anticipated offers, that is, offers that are about to be made by a vendor. The data, field observation and video-recording have been gathered at market stalls in London and Berlin. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A specific empirical finding in the buyer–seller literature – initially discovered by Moorman, Zaltman, and Deshpande and subsequently replicated by Grayson and Ambler – still suffers from incomplete explanation. In business-to-business marketing, why do some long-term buyers appear to trust their providers a great deal but not use the service provided? This research endeavours to more fully explain this ‘dark side’ of relationship selling by integrating work on the economic theory of entrenchment with Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh's seminal buyer–seller framework. The result is a modified conceptual model of the buyer–seller exchange in which potential seller entrenchment follows Dwyer et al.'s courting and commitment stages. Motivated by Dwyer et al.'s urging to examine their model using a negotiation lens, this research then borrows two contrasting orientations from the negotiation literature and offers propositions regarding how buyers and sellers interact at each stage of the exchange. In addition to enriching understanding of how buyers and sellers negotiate in the courting and commitment stages, this research is the first to offer insight into how both sides might negotiate when faced with seller entrenchment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While most scholars debate the importance of doing things to improve the quality of the buyer-seller relationship and investigate the positive side of salesperson's behavior, little is known about salesperson's negative behavior or what causes it. In this study, social undermining theory is employed to investigate how a variety of social undermining behaviors influence salesperson deviant behavior. A sample of 469 frontline bank employees responded to a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling and moderated regression were used to test the model, which produced results suggesting that various types of social undermining affect deviant behavior by influencing employee emotional exhaustion. The results also show that salesperson motivation moderates the effect of emotional exhaustion on deviant behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to various reports in the special section on social media in sales, including “A Review of Social Media and Implications on the Sales Process,” "Revolution in Sales: The Impact of Social Media and Related Technology on the Selling Environment,” and “Social Media’s Influence on Business-to-Business Sales Performance."

Using two samples of salespeople, the authors investigate how a combination of general mental ability (GMA) and specific skills and capabilities (social competence and thinking styles) enables salespeople to reach their sales goals. The study finds evidence for an interaction between GMA and social competence. When combined with high social competence, high GMA leads to the highest sales performance; when combined with low social competence, high GMA leads to the lowest sales performance. In addition, the authors find interaction effects between GMA and a judicial thinking style. Salespeople with a high GMA have the most potential for attaining high levels of sales performance when combined with specific skills; when salespeople with a high GMA lack these skills, they may become the firm's worst performers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors propose some psychological principles to describe the boundaries of loss aversion. A key idea is that exchange goods that are given up "as intended" do not exhibit loss aversion. For example, the authors propose that money given up in purchases is not generally subject to loss aversion. The results of several experiments provide preliminary support for the hypotheses. The authors find that, consistent with prospect theory, loss aversion provides a complete account of risk aversion for risks with equal probability to win or lose. The authors propose boundaries for this result and suggest further tests of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various explanations for the well-known "soft-sell" style adopted in Japanese TV ads are examined. The common culturally based explanation is found wanting as is an alternative explanation based on a theory of the persuasive role of social factors in Japan. A more complete explanation draws upon the peculiar institutional arrangements which exist in the Japanese agency world and the economic function played by advertising in the Japanese marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketers are accused of selling people products they do not need. This can frustrate consumers and eventually lead to angry social commentators. The authors define hard-sell as an effort to match customers to goods that is so annoying to the average consumer that the displeasure exceeds its potential benefits. Using this definition, they derive three results: Hard-sell (1) prevails in the market because it mitigates price competition, (2) injures all consumers, including the often-overlooked customers who avoid direct encounters with the practice, and yet it (3) may increase social welfare because sellers gain more than consumers lose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of attitudinal similarities on the dyadic interaction of salesmen and their prospects was examined with particular attention to the unsold prospect. Unsold prospects differed significantly from salesmen and sold prospects on all variables, and perceived role congruence was found to be the major discriminator of unsold prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successfully assimilating salespeople into an organization is a critical responsibility of sales managers, but little published research has explored this topic. The authors test a model of salesforce assimilation (socialization). The findings indicate that realism and congruence are important antecedents to several desirable job-related outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of strategic ethnic performance (SEP), when members of one ethnic group present themselves as members of a phenotypically similar ethnic group for economic gain. I use ethnographic and interview data focused on Sub-Saharan African merchants involved in the Hip Hop fashion boutique business in urban Japan to show how SEP develops from four interconnected areas: the opportunity structure for ethnic entrepreneurs, the physical presentation of sellers, the arrangement of the selling venue, and feedback loops between the seller and the consumer. By utilizing SEP, ethnic entrepreneurs enhance the perceived authenticity of their goods and themselves. A thorough analysis of this process illuminates the interactional nature of ethnic authenticity as it is understood by consumers within urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer reactions to product categories, online seller reputation, and brand name syllables. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses four experimental designs to explore the seller reputation, product category, and brand name syllable effects in internet shopping. The authors chose sellers of (low/high) repute from Yahoo Mall. ANOVA is used to evaluate the results. Findings – Seller reputation moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase intention and product category moderates the effect of the brand name syllable level on purchase on internet (experiment 1). Consumers take the longest time to make purchasing decisions when buying credence goods or buying from sellers of low repute and that the response time mediates the moderating role of the product category (experiment 2) or reputation (experiment 3). Moreover, the effect of brand name syllable levels chosen/assigned by sellers of low repute is weakened for consumers with low (vs high) skepticism toward non-store shopping (experiment 4). Practical implications – This study is helpful to online sellers if they can identify their reputation, product category and those consumers have skepticism, they can create extra profit through brand name syllable practice. Originality/value – This paper extends the literature on consumers' brand name syllable processing by identifying important moderators and probing into the decision process. The results allow us to substantiate prior research and suggest prescriptive strategies for internet retailers. Keywords Purchase intention, Product category, Brand name syllable, Non-store shopping, Seller reputation, Skepticism Paper type Research paper [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a unique selling strategy, Group Buying, under which consumers enjoy a discounted group price if they are willing and able to achieve a required group size and coordinate their transaction time. We argue that Group Buying allows a seller to gain from facilitating consumer social interaction, i.e., using a group discount to motivate informed customers to work as 'sales agents' to acquire less-informed customers through interpersonal information/knowledge sharing. We formally model such an information-sharing effect and examine if and when Group Buying is more profitable than (1) traditional individual-selling strategies, and (2) another popular social interaction scheme, Referral Rewards programs. We show that Group Buying dominates traditional individual-selling strategies when the information/knowledge gap between expert and novice consumers is neither too high nor too low (e.g., for products in the midstage of their life cycle) and when interpersonal information sharing is very efficient (e.g., in cultures that emphasize trust and group conformity, or when implemented through existing online social networks). We also show that, unlike Referral Rewards programs, Group Buying requires information sharing before any transaction takes place, thereby increasing the scale of social interaction but also incurring a higher cost. As a result, Group Buying is optimal when interpersonal communication is very efficient or when the product valuation of the less-informed consumer segment is high. Key words: Group Buying; word of mouth; interpersonal information sharing; Referral Rewards programs; pricing; social interaction; marketing; Internet History: Received May 2, 2009; accepted March 4, 2011, by Preyas Desai, marketing. Published online in Articles in Advance June 30, 2011., 1. Introduction Recent advances in technology have created many new opportunities for marketers to develop and implement innovative selling strategies (Shugan 2004), such as Referral Rewards programs (Biyalogorsky et al. [...]

A sociological investigation is presented on ticket scalpers. Topics include ethnographic data, in-group perspectives and various methodologies used by scalpers, such as the rough hustle and the fast hustle.

This study considers customer characteristics as situational influences on a salesperson's ethical judgment formation. Specifically, customer gender, income, and propensity to buy were considered as factors which may bias these judgments. Additionally, the gender of the salesperson and their moral value structure were examined as moderating effects. An experiment using real estate agents reading hypothetical sales scenarios revealed differences across (1) customer gender, (2) customer income, and (3) level of the respondent's idealism. Significant interactive effects with these factors were also found involving respondent gender and level of idealism. These and previous findings which consider situational effects on ethical decision-making, indicate that a more contingent approach to ethics studies is warranted.

The relationship between salesperson autonomy and performance is well researched in the literature. Little research has, however, investigated the moderating effects of need for autonomy on this relationship. This study found weak support for the moderating effect of need for autonomy on the relationship between agent performance and perceived autonomy in an analysis of Midwestern insurance agents. Additional research is needed to determine whether more job/situation specific measures of these variables will more clearly delineate this effect., INTRODUCTION Studying the autonomy-performance relationship for insurance agents is important. Primacy is usually given to the personal selling side of the promotional mix (over sales promotion and advertising) in the [...]

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. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Evaluates transportability of personal selling measures across cultural boundaries. Concept of measurement development; Emic and etic approaches to developing measures for cross-cultural applications; Cross-national dimensionality, reliability and construct validity of adaptive selling (ADAPTS) and customer-oriented selling (SOCO); Measurement validations.

Introduces a series of articles on the social aspects of marketing.