Antecedents and Consequences of Salesperson Perceptual (In)accuracy in Customer Relationships

Perceptual accuracy, or lack thereof, often influences a salesperson’s effectiveness in delivering value to customers, yet prior research has generally assumed that salespeople can accurately evaluate customer relationship quality. Using survey and performance data from salesperson-customer dyads within a global industrial goods supplier, I demonstrate the vital role of salesperson perceptual accuracy in achieving relationship marketing effectiveness. Surprisingly, salesperson perceptual accuracy does not bring benefits from all customers; rather, it provides a curvilinear improvement for both customer profitability and future purchase intention. Salesperson perceptual inaccuracy always reduces customer profitability, but only hurts future purchase intentions when perceptions are overblown. The effects of salesperson perceptual (in)accuracy depend on the relationship phase. To explain salesperson perceptual inaccuracy, I demonstrate that relationship quality antecedents (i.e., customer orientation, self-efficacy) can bias salesperson perception. Finally, a behavior-based control system is shown to be a managerial solution to attenuate salesperson perceptual inaccuracy.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Mullins, Ryan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ahearne, Michael

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Hu, Ye
• Syam, Niladri B.
• Werner, Steve

• Relationship marketing
• Customer relationship management
• Salespeople
• Perceptual bias

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10657/510

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/510