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The Role of Reseller’s Salespeople in Price Setting Within Firms

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Part of the Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science book series (DMSPAMS)

Abstract

Although reseller’s salespeople contribute significantly to the selling efforts of many organizations, few studies have investigated their involvement in price setting within the firm. This study draws on the social exchange theory to explain how norms of exchange shape the type of price setting arrangements (whether participative or non-participative) adopted by the organizations. Furthermore, the study explains how these arrangements affect the selling efforts of the focal firms. We find that firms adopting participative price setting secure high sales volumes from their salespeople while those propelling non-participative pricing do not. These insights provide a socially situated view of price setting within the firm which complements existing theoretical perspectives. The practical implication of these findings is that managers and firms seeking to engage reseller’s sales people must carefully select the most suitable norm of exchange to secure positive outcomes. We also draw up an agenda for future research from our findings.

Keywords

  • Price setting
  • Salespeople
  • Price delegation
  • Selling

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Correspondence to Uchenna Uzo .

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Uzo, U., Ogbechie, C. (2017). The Role of Reseller’s Salespeople in Price Setting Within Firms. In: Rossi, P. (eds) Marketing at the Confluence between Entertainment and Analytics. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47331-4_211

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