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 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.

Various constructs are related to predicting consumers' perceptions of brand extensions. Among these, three constructs, perceptions of perceived quality (PQ) associated with the parent brand, product category similarity (PCS) of an extension to its parent brand, and brand breadth (BB) of the parent, are central to many brand extension studies. The purpose of this study is to clarify the roles of these three constructs and to pit predictions from an alternative theoretical perspective — cognitive response theory — against predictions based on categorization theory.

Some salespeople cope with the chronic stress that accompanies sales jobs better than others. That is, while all salespeople possess some ability for coping with job stress, some coping mechanisms work better than others. Thus, it is critically important to identify the coping mechanismwhich are associated with the most positive organizational outcomes (i.e., higher performance, increased retention). Research on the coping mechanisms of salespeople is in its exploratory stage. Increased knowledge concerning how salespeople cope with chronic job stress would help researchers and managers to clarify why certain job outcomes occur instead of others (i.e., performance, retention, and burnout). This study proposes and tests a set of relationships pertaining to the dimensionality and the outcomes of salespeople's coping styles. The model identifies the antecedents of coping style and proposes three types of coping style salespeople employ to reduce job stress- emotion focused coping (EFC), problemfocused coping (PFC) and action oriented coping (AOC). It also elucidates the outcomes associated with EFC and PFC styles. The empiricalfindingssuggest that among salespeople, those who use PFC possess a more pronounced internal locus of control, perceive higher social support, and project higher continuance commitment, and higher self efficacy than those who use EFC. The findings …

A firm can deploy a variety of arrangements (entry modes) like wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures, contracts, and export modes to implement its product market strategies in foreign countries. Each of these arrangements entails decisions about the location of production facilities and/or marketing operations, and the type of ownership of these operations. The choice of an entry mode is of strategic importance to a firm because it can involve investment of substantial amount of resources and has a strong bearing on the firm's marketing mix. Due to its strategic importance, the entry mode choice phenomenon has been extensively researched. In the past, seven major theories have been proposed but none is able to explain the choice from the complete set of entry modes. Thus, there exists a gap between the theory and practice of entry mode choice. This study provides breakthrough on two fronts. First, it develops a new theory of entry mode choice grounded in the resource-based perspective of the firm. The theory posits that the decision to locate its production and/or marketing operations in a country is related to the actualizability of the firm's competitive advantage in that country. However, the ownership decision is related to the sustainability …

Because of the high and rapidly increasing cost of health care, wellness has become a significant issue for both health care practitioners and the general public. This research examines the issue of wellness and seeks to develop a model that identifies the factors that are most significant in explaining why people engage in wellness activities. A questionnaire was mailed to a sample (n = 499) randomly selected from the general population of the United States. Predictor variables are the demographic variables of age, income, education and gender together with the cognitive variables of self-actualization, benefits of wellness behavior, health locus of control and threat to health. Dependent variables are the health-seeking behaviors of exercise, stress management, nutrition, health responsibility and social support. Canonical correlation, t-tests, regression and analysis of variance are used to analyze the data. Chapter one presents two existing health models. The first presents prevention or threat to health and the second proposes self-actualization as motivating wellness behavior. The research model combines the two models. Chapter two presents relevant studies in the literature regarding use of multivariate models in consumer behavior, dimensions of wellness and empirical findings of wellness-related research. Chapter three presents the research hypotheses, research design …

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.

The role of marketing and marketing communication in hospitals has grown in the last decade. The need for hospitals to make careful decisions about their marketing communication efforts is mandated, given the changes taking place in the hospital industry. The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct empirical research to determine whether for-profit and non-profit hospitals perceive and utilize promotion as a marketing strategy element. The two steps taken included: identifying important factors considered by hospital administrators and marketing staff in the development of communication messages designed for patients, hospital staff and medical staff; and testing the factors developed and studying the attitudes of hospital personnel toward promotion using a national sample of hospitals. In phase 1, focus group interviews were conducted in a surrogate for-profit hospital and a surrogate non-profit hospital. In phase 2, an original mail questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 80 hospitals. A total of 38 hospitals participated, providing 114 usable responses. Test statistics included content analysis, Chi-Square, Pearson correlation coefficient and Analysis of Variance. The results of the focus group study indicated the practice of marketing in hospitals is in its early growth stages and marketing is viewed as nothing more …

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 purpose of this research was to examine how the intervening variable of comparative well-being (which is how persons view their age, financial resources, and health compared to others of their own age) will enhance the significance of the relationship between selected demographic and psychographic variables and perceived risk. Specifically, the research investigated the structural relationship between comparative well-being in four different statistical models: (1) as an independent predictor of perceived risk; (2) as an intensifier of the psychographic and demographic predictors of perceived risk; (3) as a covariate of perceived risk; and (4) finally, as a jointly dependent variable with perceived risk. This approach was pursued in an effort to enhance the traditional marketing use of demographic and psychographic variables in predictingconsumer buying behavior. The data for this study were gathered as part of a national consumer-panel mail survey utilizing approximately 3,000 households. The research instrument was a self-administered questionnaire which collected demographic, psychographic, and perceived risk information from purchasers of apparel wear. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation analysis, factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The findings have identified the importance of how consumers position themselves in society, based …

The purpose of this research was to conduct an exploratory study of the information processing utilized by incubator-housed manufacturers during channel member selection. The study included the evaluation of the decision models used by the manufacturers as well as criteria used in the selection process. The study was specifically designed to achieve the following objectives. First, the research was to identify the evaluation modes used by the manufacturers as either compensatory or noncompensatory. Second, the study was to evaluate the effect of the task on the selection of the evaluation model(s) used during the channel member selection process. Third, the study was to evaluate the effect of the selected decision strategy on the amount of information used during the decision process. Finally, the study was to identify and examine the importance of the criteria used by the manufacturers in the selection process. The methodology in this study consisted of primary research using protocol analysis as the main data gathering technique. A ranking instrument was also mailed to the respondents prior to the protocol session. The population for the study was identified as all manufacturers located in publicly-sponsored business incubators. A total of 235 incubators were in existence with approximately 47 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

Small retailers are searching for a basis of competitive advantage to compete against larger retailers. The independent sales representative (rep) may represent such a basis. Little is known about how the role of reps and their performance is perceived by suppliers and retailers. We do not know what is expected from reps, if the reps' performance meets suppliers and retailers expectations, or whether met expectations lead to a basis of competitive advantage. Primarily, the study was designed to identify the role and contributions reps in the interactions between the supplier and retailer in the channel of distribution.

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 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.

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.