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Consumers’ Personality Characteristics, Judgment of Salesperson Ethical Treatment, and Nature of Purchase Involvement

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Abstract

Successful marketing efforts and professional sales encounters often depend on consumer involvement in the purchase decision process itself, which in turn may impact firm performance. Despite the importance of consumer involvement, research has yet to fully explain the relationship between consumer personality characteristics and the nature of consumer purchase involvement. This study explores the degree to which consumer perception of salesperson ethical treatment helps explain the relationship between consumer personality characteristics and nature of involvement. Data were collected from a large sample of working adults placed in two scenario-based positive professional sales encounters featuring an important purchase decision. The results indicated that adult consumers’ personality characteristics functioned through judgment of salesperson ethical treatment to affect the nature of purchase involvement. Specifically, consumer judgment of salesperson ethical treatment fully mediated a positive relationship between internal locus of control and cognitive (as opposed to affective) involvement. By comparison, consumer judgment of a salesperson ethical treatment partially mediated the positive relationship between emotional awareness and cognitive (as opposed to affective) involvement. The above findings were similar for informational and relational salesperson customer-orientated scenarios. Key implications for selling professionals and sales organizations are discussed, such as augmenting consumers’ self-assessments to increase their perceptions of salesperson ethics and purchase involvement. The limitations and recommendations for future research are also presented.

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Notes

  1. Using a sample of practitioners who responded to the scenarios highlighting male salespersons instead of female salespersons, Bateman and Valentine (2015) found that a relational sales orientation was positively related to a salesperson’s ethical treatment, trust in a salesperson, and intention to purchase. A salesperson’s ethical treatment was also positively related to salesperson trust and purchase intention, and salesperson trust was positively related to purchase intention. Overall, these findings demonstrate the usefulness of the vignettes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, University of North Dakota, 293 Centennial Drive, Mailstop 8366, Grand Forks, ND, 58202-8366, USA

    Connie R. Bateman

  2. Department of Management, University of North Dakota, 293 Centennial Drive, Mailstop 8377, Grand Forks, ND, 58202-8377, USA

    Sean R. Valentine

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  1. Connie R. Bateman
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  2. Sean R. Valentine
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Correspondence to Connie R. Bateman.

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Appendix 1 Scenarios and Measures

Appendix 1 Scenarios and Measures

Scenario 1: Informational Salesperson Customer Orientation

Please carefully read the sales scenario below before answering any questions.

You are faced with making an important purchase decision that affects you and your family. In order to make a quality decision you meet with a salesperson to represents an organization you are considering making the purchase through. While you are with her, the salesperson is informative about the purchase at hand (features, benefits, costs) and comes across as highly professional, based on her presentation skills and good overall conduct. You perceive that the organization the salesperson works for, and its offering, would meet your needs.

Scenario 2: Relational Salesperson Customer Orientation

Please carefully read the sales scenario below before answering any questions.

You are faced with making an important purchase decision that affects you and your family. In order to make a quality decision you meet with a salesperson to represents an organization you are considering making the purchase through. While you are with her, you judge the salesperson to be empathetic, focused on the needs of you and your family, helping you work through emotional questions and anxieties relating to the purchase decision. The salesperson helps you realize how the decision you make will affect you and your family in the short and long terms and comes across as highly professional, based on her presentation skills and good overall conduct. You perceive that the organization the salesperson works for, and its offering, would meet your needs.

Locus of Control

Now, we would like to answer some questions on how you see yourself when relating to salespeople in general. Please indicate your level of agreement or disagreement. (7-point scale anchored by strongly disagree—strongly agree).

What happens is my own doing.

Getting people to do the right things depends upon ability, not luck.

When I make plans, I am certain I can make them work.

Emotional Awareness

Now, we would like to answer some questions on how you see yourself when relating to salespeople in general. Please indicate your level of agreement or disagreement. (7-point scale anchored by strongly disagree—strongly agree).

I am aware of the events that can trigger my positive and/or negative emotions.

I am aware of my emotional state when I engage in a sales encounter.

When I am in a sales experience I can easily identify the emotions I am feeling.

Judgment of Salesperson Ethical Treatment

All in all, I would consider the way the salesperson treated me to be: (7-point scale)

Unfair/Fair

Unjust/Just

Nor Morally Right/Morally Right

Unacceptable to My Family/Acceptable to My Family

Culturally Unacceptable/Culturally Acceptable

Traditionally Unacceptable/Traditionally Acceptable

Nature of Purchase Involvement (Cognitive/Affective)

How would you classify this type of purchase decision? (7-point scale anchored by):

Very Unimportant Decision/Very Important Decision

Decision Requires Little Thought/Decision Requires A Lot of Thought

Little to Lose if you Choose Wrongly/Lots to Lose if you Choose Wrongly

Decision is Not Mainly Logical or Objective/Decision is Mainly Logical or Objective

Decision is Not Mostly Based on Functional Facts/Decision is Mostly Based on Functional Facts

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Bateman, C.R., Valentine, S.R. Consumers’ Personality Characteristics, Judgment of Salesperson Ethical Treatment, and Nature of Purchase Involvement. J Bus Ethics 169, 309–331 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04312-7

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