Theoretically grounded and empirically testable conceptualizations that offer alternative explanations regarding sales force performance and turnover can: (a) enhance understanding regarding these pivotal outcomes, and (b) augment an organization's capability to increase sales and decrease turnover. The study advances one such explanation by conceptualizing and testing a perceptual model that links a salesperson's psychological climate dimensions to organizational commitment, performance, and turnover. The framework the study proposes respecifies the leadership and work group dimensions of psychological climate into four distinct perceptions (i.e., a salesperson's perceptions regarding the behaviors of work group, sales manager, senior management, and non sales employees in the organization). These climate dimensions are posited to influence positively a salesperson's organizational commitment which consequently influences positively the salesperson's effort and intention to stay with the organization. The proposed outcomes of organizational commitment result in increased performance and decreased turnover. Success beliefs and perceived behavioral control are posited to moderate the relationship between the salesperson's organizational commitment and effort. The study tests the hypothesized relationships on a sample of salespersons belonging to a telecommunications organization utilizing path and hierarchical regression analyses.

The first objective of this research was to identify whether Asian-Americans having higher than average levels of income and education represent an appropriate target market for four food product categories. Second, the impact of national origin membership, demographic variables, and level of acculturation on food consumption was determined. In addition, perceptions related to sensory and nutritional factors and the cultural acceptability of the products were identified and interpreted to determine if the variables differed among specific groups of Asian-American consumers.

Managing the movement of components and products from suppliers to customers and ultimately to end-users is undergoing rapid changes. Supply chain management has increasingly gained attention as companies have sought to reduce costs and improve service performance in a quest for gaining an advantage on the competition.

A discussion of reward, coercive, expert, legitimate, and referent power bases was the initial focus of this research. A review of the power sources literature suggested that vertical integration within a channel of distribution was a crucial precursor to develop a structure to facilitate the use of power without creating a significant conflict among channel participants. Elements of transaction cost analysis (TCA) were offered as being suitable for determining the existing level of vertical integration among respondent firms. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to develop a tentative model to determine proper use of power within varying levels of vertical integration.

Three major research questions were addressed in this study. First, does information technology contribute to the productivity of retail institutions? Second, to what degree can information technology be substituted for labor and capital in retailing? Finally, is the market efficient in allocating information technology? These questions were chosen after a careful review of the literature revealed gaps in these areas.

This research addresses the question of whether there are personal characteristics of purchasing managers that lead them to make decisions regarding buyer-seller partnerships, and supplier sourcing in particular, that may be suboptimal, therefore affecting the performance of the firm. This question warrants study due to the current business environment, in which business firms have been entering into both formal and informal buyer-seller partnerships as a means of surviving in a highly competitive environment.

This dissertation deals with the decision-to-move process of elderly persons—from a marketer's perspective. The central problem addressed is the lack of empirical knowledge concerning the factors and influences associated with the information search process of elderly persons in making a residential move decision. The purpose was to investigate and understand the key factors and influences which are viewed as important by elderly individuals in their search for and use of information.

This dissertation focuses generally on consumer behavior, and particularly on consumer attitudes toward products of foreign origin for the purpose of developing a theory that will assist in explaining and predicting this phenomenon. Existing research in the area of country of origin effects upon consumer attitudes toward foreign-made products demonstrates significant methodological limitations such as single cue approaches., The major objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of a theory based upon the expectancy-value attitude concept to better explain and predict consumer attitudes toward products of foreign origin. To achieve this objective, the research attempts to overcome the limitations identified in attitude research and specific methodological deficiencies in research focusing on attitudes toward products of foreign origin by: 1. utilizing the expectancy-value approach; 2. basing operationalization of the attitude concepts on Likert-like scales and subjective conditional probabilities; 3. measuring the operationalized attitudes both directly and indirectly via beliefs and evaluations; 4. simultaneously including multiple extrinsic cues; 5. including pictorial cues in the questionnaire; and 6. performing and reporting validity and reliability tests. The general model developed in this research, representing the theory of attitudes toward products of foreign origin is the Foreign Product Attitude Model (FPAM). This …

Store image research has attempted to identify factors contributing to formation of positive or negative perceptions of stores by consumers. These factors include tangible and intangible elements. Of the tangible factors, store atmosphere (including store layout and congestion level) is often identified as contributing to store image. Intangible factors influencing store image include emotional or psychological reactions that consumers have in response to various tangible store factors. One of these emotional responses is retail crowding. Retail crowding is a state of psychological stress occurring in consumers in response to perceived high density levels in stores. Crowding literature suggests that environmental cues, including layout and density level, contribute to this stress level. The overall purpose of this study was to expand on current research by incorporating the concept of retail crowding with store image research.

An emerging paradigm shift in the marketing discipline has prompted renewed research interest in the nature and scope of exchange. A common theme in the research to date is a departure from the traditional transactional orientation to a relational perspective of exchange. The relational emphasis is particularly germane to contractual Vertical Marketing Systems (VMS) where the emphasis is on long-term, mutually beneficial interaction between various channel members. The franchisor-franchisee relationship, a type of contractual VMS, is governed by norms that impact system efficiency and effectiveness. Despite the unprecedented growth of international franchising systems in the marketplace, a paucity of empirical attention has focused on cross-national franchisor-franchisee relationships. With many U.S.-based business format franchisors penetrating foreign markets, the primary purpose of the dissertation is to provide insights into tools which franchisors, and franchisees can use during the evolution of the exchange relationship. To identify differences across geographic boundaries, the dissertation simultaneously studies domestic and cross-border franchisor-franchisee relationships.

The use of influence tactics by sales representatives appears to be related to a number of latent constructs and factors such as, manifest needs, role conflict and role ambiguity, and perception of sales managers' power bases. However, such relationships have not been examined by researchers. These relationships were examined in this study in an effort to improve the current level of understanding of causes and results of the use of influence tactics in a sales environment. The contention of this study was that individuals in work settings engage in a variety of influence tactics, and that the type of influence tactics used are influenced by factors such as personal characteristics of the salespersons, the nature of goals to be achieved, the salespersons' perceptions of their superiors' power bases, and the nature and complexity of the dyadic relationship that exists between supervisor and subordinates.

Female teenagers have been found to be the most affluent teens according to the Rand Youth Poll's nationwide survey. The survey finds the average weekly income from female teens age 16 to 19 to be $82, with $50 from earnings and the balance from their allowances. Other findings from the survey indicate that adolescent girls receive more than adolescent males in allowance from parents, as mothers understand the need for the female teen to have the income necessary to purchase clothing and cosmetics. Past research studies have attempted to measure the influence sources on teenagers when purchasing clothing by asking teens to rank different influence sources or by asking the teens who accompany them when shopping. The current research study develops a structural equation model that allows for the comparison of the three predominant influence sources identified in the consumer socialization literature, i.e., parental influence, peer influence, and promotional communications sought out by the teen. To test the model, 206 randomly selected female teenagers completed a mail questionnaire regarding the influences on clothing interest. The female teens were all members of a non-denominational youth group, age 13 to 19, living in the North Texas region. The model derived is only …

Companies’ new primary source for sustainable revenue growth comes from creating new innovations, rather than from mergers and acquisitions. Companies are finding it difficult to align internal support for the innovative creativity of teams with standard operating procedures. This research aims to discover how innovative teams contribute to forming development strategies that CPG firms use to create new products. Dimensions of the Theory of Team Climate in Innovation (TTCI) offer insight on the dimensions of development strategy. Specifically, by integrating the theories, a proposed model identifies the innovation team’s impact on the firm’s development strategies. Such understanding has the potential to increase firm profits, lower innovation costs, increase innovation speed, and support innovation training. To empirically test this model, employees responsible for product development in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries were surveyed. Structural modeling techniques were used to analyze the data. Findings indicate support for using TTCI to explain the compressed development strategy. Theoretical contributions include: 1) extending TTCI and its associated measures into tangible products industries, 2) refining and adding to TTCI measures, 3) extending the development strategies theory into tangible products industries, and 4) adding to the measures for development strategy. Future research appears fertile for methods …

This research began with the Hill Inventory. Cognitive style preference variables were classified as one of following four types: Theoretical Codes, Qualitative Codes, Social-Cultural Codes or Reasoning Modalities. A consumer behavior perspective was then used to form an alternative structure for the Hill Inventory variables. The following three constructs were proposed: Evaluation Codes, Perceptual Codes, and Reasoning Modalities. The purpose of this research was to assess the structural form and measurement validity of the Hill Inventory. Specific steps taken to accomplish this objective included: developing confirmatory factor and structural equation models; using the LISREL software package to analyze the model specifications; and assessing the validity of the questions used to measure the variables. A descriptive research design was used to compare the model specifications. The research instrument consisted of eight statements for each of twenty-eight variables for a total of 224 questions. Five-point response choices were described by the words: often, sometimes, unsure, rarely, or never. The sample consisted of 285 student subjects in marketing classes at a large university. Data analysis began by comparing the distributions of the data to a normal case. Parameter estimates, root mean square residuals and squared multiple correlations then were obtained using the LISREL …

The objective of this study was to examine whether the factors which constitute the manufacturer/industrial-representative relationship, influence performance as predicted by control theory. In addition, the study evaluated the contribution of selected demographic factors such as size of the firm, and the representative's experience, on performance.

The purpose of this study is, therefore, to investigate empirically the firm- and location-specific determinants of the magnitude of FDI by Korean manufacturing MNCs--one of the leading Third World MNCs. This study also examines firm-specific characteristics that distinguish Korean MNCs investing in developing countries from those investing in developed countries.

The problem examined in this study was the nature of compulsive purchasing behavior. Three proposed models depicting this behavior as a learned adaptive response to anxiety and/or depression, an addiction, and a personality disorder were introduced and discussed in Chapter I. Background information concerning the areas examined in the models was presented in Chapter II. The research methodology was discussed in Chapter III and the findings of the research presented in Chapter IV. A summary, conclusions, implications, and recommendations were presented in Chapter V.

An exploratory field study was conducted to examine internal and external factors that influence adolescents' consumer behavior when serving as the family purchasing agents. Demographic, lifestyle, and marketing activities were examined to determine the influences that affect whether the adolescent will purchase the preferred family brands or other brands. Participating adolescents were sent by their parents to the grocery store on two separate occasions to purchase four preselected grocery items. The brands purchased were recorded and compared to the preferred brand names provided by the parents. While no statistical significance was found, occasional trends were observed. The analysis indicated that adolescents who experience a pluralistic family communication style will purchase products other than the preferred household brands. Adolescents who are exposed to television and radio tend to deviate more from the preferred family brands more often than do adolescents with less media exposure. Adolescents who work are more likely to go to the grocery store more often for their families than do nonworking adolescents. Also, adolescents seem to possess a price sensitivity to both high and low-involvement grocery items.

Today many selling organizations are reexamining and revising their philosophy for managing salespeople because of increase costs of hiring and maintaining a sales force. More than everm management is looking for ways to assist salespeople in becoming more productive and effective faster. One avenue for enhancing salespersons' performance is through improved sales training practices. improved sales training practices should help salespeople view training, and how sales training transcends to the job environment. Considering the need for greater understanding concerning salespeople's perceptions of sales training and assuming the influence of those perceptions on job performance and other outcomes, this study develops and executes an analysis of several proposed relationships among personal characteristics, job related characteristics, perceived training needs, sales training variables, and related outcomes. The program of research identifies and evaluates salespeople's attitudes toward sales training and specifies influences of those training perceptions on salesperson' behaviors and general attitudes. As well, a relationship between salespeople's transfer of training materials, their use, and individual performance are evaluated.

Location-based ads are defined as any ads that are sent by an identified source to consumers' mobile devices when they are around the advertised product/store. Although mobile ad spending is said to have accounted for 68% of all digital ad spending in 2020, knowledge of how businesses can use mobile and location-based technology to reach their customers effectively is limited. Thus, the purpose of this three-essay format dissertation is to review the literature on LBA and identify the gaps in the literature and attempt to address a few of these gaps in the remaining two essays. The second essay tests an integrated model by examining the effects of the various retailer and consumer-controlled factors on two retail performances. In the third essay, we explore how LBA affects different dimensions of consumer-brand engagement. The results and findings provide important implications for retailers and brands to increase their performances.