• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.62-76
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study is to identify apparel consumers' immoral shopping behaviors from apparel retail sales associates' perspectives. As a first step to understand immoral consumer behaviors in apparel retail setting, the study took an exploratory approach using five focus-group interviews with 35 apparel salespeople. The immoral behavior of fashion (product) consumers was divided into two categories: one was the immoral behavior associated with the product, and the other was the immoral behavior relative to the consumer. The immoral behavior associated with the product was classified into three types: shoplifting, inappropriate returns, and damaging to merchandise. Immoral behavior relative to the consumer was classified into two types: abusive behavior by a consumer toward sales associates and excessive demand. Although, shoplifting was the primary immoral behavior mentioned by all interview participants, most sales associates failed to recognize shoplifting as a serious criminal behavior. Another commonly mentioned immoral consumer behaviors was retail borrowing, which may pose serious problems to the fashion industry. The findings of this study will provide a basis for approaches that may help decrease immoral consumer behavior at fashion retail stores and provide a basis for developing materials for consumer education over the long term.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.35-48
• /
• 2021

Purpose: This research aims to analyze the influence of relational penetration capability on salesperson performance and the influence of customer orientation, customer knowledge accessibility, and salesperson-customer relationship quality on the relational penetration capability of the insurance service industry in Central Java. Research design, data, and methodology: This explanatory research involved 211 respondents. Path analysis was used to analyze the primary data obtained. Results: The customer orientation positively influences relational penetration capability and customer knowledge accessibility which can improve salesperson performance. The salesperson-customer relationship quality shows a positive impact on the salesperson's relational penetration capability, salesperson performance, and relational penetration capability which will lead to an improved salesperson-customer relationship. Higher knowledge levels of customer necessity have important implications for a salesperson's capability of finding potential customers and of fulfilling customers' requirements through careful analysis of necessity. Conclusions: The salespeople should be capable of building and maintaining a good relationship with their customers as an indication that salespeople of Insurance Service Company Distribution in Central Java have good performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.36 no.9
• /
• pp.979-990
• /
• 2012

This study explores the correlation between personality traits, customer orientation, job satisfaction, and job performance. This study examines the impacts of personality traits and customer orientation on job satisfaction and job performance. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey. A convenience sample was drawn from salespeople working for department stores in Daegu and Pohang between September $1^{st}$ to $7^{th}$ 2011. A total of 337 responses were complete and usable questionnaires. Data were tested through factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis, using SPSS 12.0. Three main points are shown through this study. First, the correlation of all five factors extracted from salespeople personality traits with customer orientation was statistically significant. Personality traits and customer orientation were partially correlated with job satisfaction or job performance. Second, the regression analysis was conducted to examine the influence of personality traits and customer orientation on job satisfaction; subsequently, only two factors extracted from customer orientation (consideration for customers and customer-centered thinking) were significant predictors of job satisfaction. Third, the result of the regression analysis between personality traits and job performance showed that the most influential predictor of job performance was conscientiousness, followed by likeability, openness and introversion. The most influential factor between customer orientation and job performance was competence in providing product information, followed by consideration for customers, customer-centered thinking, and a reliability-focused response.

• Human Ecology Research
• /
• v.60 no.1
• /
• pp.131-145
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study was to reveal the effects of sales services and organizational member relationships of fashion brand salespersons on job performance and job satisfaction, as well as how job performance, job satisfaction, salesperson services, and organizational member relationships differ according to the sales career and job position. The data were collected by administering a questionnaire to fashion brand salespeople in Gwangju from September to October 2020. Using 235 responses, the data were analyzed with SPSS 27.0 for frequency analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, factor analysis, and regression analysis. The research results were as follows. First, the basic services of the salesperson comprised factors such as 'consideration and convenience', 'appearance and dress', and 'kindness and greeting', which are considered better variables to explain job performance than job satisfaction. Second, the salesperson's professional service consisted of 'fashion product knowledge', 'professional self-management', and 'store display technology' factors, which are good variables to predict job performance. Third, the relationship between the members of a salesperson's organization consists of factors such as 'headquarters relations', 'colleague relations', and 'emotional labor', which was better for explaining job satisfaction than job performance. Fourth, depending on the position, professional salespeople exhibited significantly higher values in job performance, basic and professional services of salespersons, and 'headquarters relations' factors, whereas there were no significant differences in job satisfaction, 'colleague relations' and 'emotional labor'. Lastly, the more sales career, the higher the job performance, and the basic services, professional services, and 'headquarters relations' factors of salespeople were also good.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.71-81
• /
• 2018

Purpose - Our research aims to investigate the mediating effect of employee creativity on the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job performance using relationship using Chinese department salespeople samples. Another objective of this study is to be clear boundary conditions that strengthen or weaken the effects of intrinsic motivation on work outcomes (i.e., employee creativity and job performance). Drawing on JD-R theory, we suggest that the two types of coworker support play differential moderating roles in the intrinsic motivation, employee creativity relationship by increasing or decreasing job resources and demands in different ways. Research design, data, and methodology - This empirical study data were collected from gathered from a sample of full time salespeople in China. A total of 550 questionnaires were distributed and 300 responses were collected, indicating a response rate of 84.0%. Working with a sample of 300 salespeople working in a department store in China. SPSS 18.0, Process 2.16 Macro, and M-Plus 8.0 software were used in the data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to evaluate the distribution of the employee profiles and correlations between variables. M-Plus 8.0 software was used to test the model fit, validity and reliability of the variables. Finally, all research hypotheses was estimated by SPSS Macro 2.16. Results - To test our research hypotheses, we employed an analytical strategy suggested by Hayes (2013; 2015) and Shrout and Bolger (2002). In this study, we tested the relationship between intrinsic motivation and job performance throughout employee creativity. Results showed intrinsic motivation and job performance was partially mediated by employee creativity. The positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and employee creativity when coworker emotional support was high than when it was low. In contrast, the positive association between intrinsic motivation and employee creativity was stronger when coworker instrumental support was low than when it was high. Coworker emotional and instrumental support further moderated the indirect effect of intrinsic motivation on job performance through employee creativity. Conclusions - This study extends the conceptual model and empirical researches in coworker supports literature by representing a fundamental mechanism of how salespeople's intrinsic motivation and job performance throughout employee creativity.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.101-109
• /
• 2017

Purpose - Previous studies related to emotional labor of salespeople have mainly focused on identifying the antecedents of emotional exhaustion and turnover intention and exploring the mitigating effects salespeople's motivation on emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. They also demonstrates that there are different roles for moderating in social support, which means mental/physical support related to the job in supervisors, colleagues and organizations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how service employees' surface acting affect turnover intention through emotional exhaustion. Another important objective of this paper is to investigate whether perceived social support moderates 1) the relationship between surface acting and emotional exhaustion 2) the relationship between emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. Research design, data, and methodology - To test the hypotheses, we collected the data from Korean insurance company sales employees. A total of 235 responses were received, from which 220 usable responses were obtained after list-wise deletion. Working with a sample of 220 responses, structural equation modeling was employed to empirically test research hypotheses(

The relationship between surface acting and emotion exhaustion,

The relationship between emotion exhaustion and turnover intention,

The moderating effect of perceived social support(PSS) on the relationship between surface acting and emotion exhaustion, and

The moderating effect of perceived social support(PSS) on the relationship between emotion exhaustion and turnover intention. SPSS 22.0 and AMOS software were used in these data analysis. Results - The service employees' surface acting was positively related to the emotional exhaustion; in turn, the service employees' feelings on emotional exhaustion are positively related to turnover intention. In addition, Perceived Social Support significantly moderated the relationship between surface acting and emotional exhaustion. However, perceived social support has a non-significant moderating effect on the path from emotional exhaustion to turnover intention. On the basis of these results, the following conclusion can be drawn. First, distribution service companies will be needed the administrative efforts to offer counseling programs and space to provide their members with enough rest in experiencing psychological pain due to the salespeople's surface acting. Also, it is necessary for distribution service companies to identify and share the examples of successfully solving emotional exhaustion caused by salespeople's surface acting.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.15 no.12
• /
• pp.85-94
• /
• 2017

Purpose - Owing to economic development and rapid globalization, the number of people traveling abroad has increased dramatically in recent years. For instance, according to data from World Tourism Organization, approximately 1,724 million tourists traveled abroad in 2016. This phenomenon has resulted in a change for domestic markets, as they no longer serve only domestic customers but also serve foreign customers as well. Therefore, intercultural service encounters between services providers and customers from diverse cultural backgrounds are becoming more frequent. Especially in the field of retailing, salesperson's customer oriented selling behavior is particularly important for the successful interactions. However, it is hard to find some factors that can improve salesperson's customer oriented selling behavior in intercultural sales encounters. Research design, data, and methodology - A quantitative survey methodology was utilized to collect data on 312 salespeople at duty-free shops located on Jeju Island, Korea. As a tourism-based region, Jeju Island has attracted a large number of foreign tourists since being designated as an international free city in 2002. Owing to this phenomenon, intercultural sales encounters between salespersons and customers from different cultures have become commonplace. Compared to other salespeople, salespeople working in duty-free shops have more frequent intercultural interactions, as over 90% of their total customers are from foreign countries. Additionally, regular professional training programs for salespeople help cultivate cultural intelligence. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 20. Results - This paper explores the role of empathy and cultural intelligence in intercultural sales encounters using a theoretical model incorporating the causal relationships between empathy(cognitive empathy and emotional empathy) and customer oriented selling behavior, as well as the moderating effects of cultural intelligence in these relationships. Conclusions - This study is almost the first to explore the influence of empathy and cultural intelligence in intercultural sales encounters. Thus, this study provides a meaningful contribution to the application of empathy and cultural intelligence in the retailing field and will draw the attention of personal distribution practicers and researchers to the importance of empathy and cultural intelligence. Additionally, this study has useful managerial implications for employee selection, training, and development in retailing firms engaged in intercultural sales encounters.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.11
• /
• pp.182-190
• /
• 2018

Many pharmaceutical companies operate the SFA system to support salespeople. The SFA system is used for various behaviors of salespeople. However, there is a lack of empirical analysis on the performance of SFA in Korea. The purpose of this study is to investigate the utilization of SFA system and the non - financial performance of SFA system. The subjects of the survey were 347 pharmaceutical community members who consisted of pharmaceutical salespeople and surveyed online for 18 days from March 13, 2018 to April 30, 2018. and the effective response rate was 23.1% (80/347). The analysis shows that the higher the level of SFA system utilization, the higher the non - financial performance. By type of company, the utilization level of multinational companies was higher than that of domestic companies. Among the SFA utilization level items, 1.47 points (3.65, 2.18) were higher than the domestic companies in terms of the support service items. Among the SFA performance items, foreign companies were 1.47 points (3.16, 1.69) Respectively. This suggests that the SFA development and operation method of the domestic company focuses on the management service rather than the support service for the salesperson and the customer satisfaction. Through this study, it is considered that domestic companies should strengthen sales person support and customer satisfaction information providing function when operating SFA system.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.10 no.6
• /
• pp.7-17
• /
• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore how advertising for multilevel marketing brands affect the salesperson's activity including customer-salesperson interactivity, work attitude, and perceived and actual performance after the campaign. Research Design, data, and methodology - This study collects experimental data, survey data, and actual sales data and applies statistical analyses such as factor analysis, t-tests, and a structural equation model. Results - The results show that advertising campaign can enhance a salesperson's selling activities and provide wide managerial implications to a multilevel marketing firm by filling the gaps for the field of advertising research. Conclusions - Managerial implications include: i) multilevel marketing firms should consider advertising campaigns as a means of changing customer responses because advertising plays a significant role in increasing familiarity with, and knowledge of, attitudes toward the brand, which also helps salespeople interact with customers; ii) multilevel marketing firms should consider brand advertising as a means to support the sales activities of salespeople including sales effectiveness, work attitudes, and perceived performance, and iii) multilevel marketing firms should consider brand advertising as a means to enhance a salesperson's pride and motivation for selling their brand, which will lead to improved sales performances.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of leader-member exchange (LMX) on employees' behaviors as well as to test the mediating roles of feeling trusted in the relationships. Research design, data, and methodology - Survey data were collected and analyzed from 285 sales people who work for various organizations in eastern China. The corresponding research models were verified using SPSS 22 and Amos 22. Results - The empirical results show that LMX plays a positive role in job performance and is positively related with subordinate's feelings of trust. However, the study was shown to have negative correlations between LMX and workplace ostracism. Feeling trusted by superiors mediated the relationship between LMX and job performance, resulting in employees being more motivated to do better, creating a positive synergetic effect. However, this relationship did not show to have significant mediating effects on the relationship between LMX and workplace ostracism. Conclusions - This study further enriches the relevant theory of LMX and has significance for management practices such as distribution sectors, guiding leaders to create a suitable team atmosphere. Leaders need to pay attention to build a high quality LMX with employees based on the empirical results of this study.