Journal of Marketing Education

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A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Stereotype for Salespeople: Professionalizing the Profession Christophe Fournier, Emmanuel Chéron, John F. Tanner, Jr., P. J. Bikanda and Jorge A. Wise Journal of Marketing Education published online 28 May 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0273475314536399 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jmd.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/05/27/0273475314536399

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JMDXXX10.1177/0273475314536399Journal of Marketing EducationFournier et al.

Article

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Stereotype for Salespeople: Professionalizing the Profession

Journal of Marketing Education 1–12 © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0273475314536399 jmed.sagepub.com

Christophe Fournier1, Emmanuel Chéron2, John F. Tanner Jr.3, P. J. Bikanda4, and Jorge A. Wise5

Abstract The purpose of this research is to investigate the image of salespeople and of the selling function as perceived by business students across cultures. Of the several empirical investigations that exist in the sales literature, most are based on a single-country sample. This study extends previous knowledge on single-country perception of salespeople by conducting a quantitative survey of business students in Cameroon, France, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. Substantial differences and similarities are found across countries on salesperson’s image, feelings in the presence of a salesperson, as well as the perception of a career in sales. They all appear to be influenced by cultural values. Several practical strategic implications are suggested, including examining cultural values to identify the origin of negative images, careful gatekeeping to promote professional positions, and supporting mobility of both students and faculty. Finally, limitations to the findings are presented with suggested future research directions. Keywords salespeople stereotype, selling function, student perceptions, sales education, Cameroon, France, Japan, Mexico, United States Salespeople and the sales profession suffer from a negative stereotype (Lee, Sandfield, & Dhaliwal, 2007). This negative stereotype inhibits entry into the profession by qualified people and makes it more difficult for salespeople to achieve success. Indeed, according to Lee et al. (2007), these negative stereotypes may attract salespeople not fully convinced of the importance or value of the sales profession, or attract people unable to fully fulfill the sales function in a professional manner, reinforcing adverse stereotypes and images of salespeople. Despite the relevance of the sales function for every business, to our knowledge, research studies on stereotypes of salespeople and the sales function has been limited to a few countries, primarily the United States and recently the United Kingdom (Lee et al., 2007). This study is presented as a response to several calls to conduct more international research coming from the areas of sales management (e.g., Panagopoulos et al., 2011) and sales education (Cummins, Peltier, Erffmeyer, & Whalen, 2013). With regard to sales management research, this article is a direct response to Lee et al.’s (2007) call for more sales stereotype research in areas such as Asia. This study extends the investigation to five world regions, adding insights from North and Latin America (United States and Mexico), Europe (France), and Africa (Cameroon) to data from Asia (Japan),

thus addressing a concern raised by Baldauf and Lee (2011) who deplored the lack of cross-cultural investigation in sales research. As they point out, the literature has been in “a suboptimal situation that ignores a major part of today’s global business world and leaves scholarly research unable to offer insights to managers in such context” (p. 212). Moreover, in their review of international sales studies, Panagopoulos et al. (2011) found that the majority of international studies on sales have been done comparing mostly samples from the United States and Europe and fewer from less developed or emerging countries. Sales education literature has also deplored the lack of global research. According to Cummins et al. (2013), there are few articles with a non-U.S. sample that explore the perceptions of sales, an important need that should be remedied. 1

IAE de Montpellier, Montpellier Recherche Management, Montpellier, France 2 Akita International University, Akita City, Japan 3 Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA 4 Université Catholique d’Afrique Centrale, Ekounou Yaoundé, Cameroun 5 CETYS Universidad, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico Corresponding Author: Christophe Fournier, IAE de Montpellier, Montpellier Recherche Management, Place Eugène bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cédex 5, France. Email: [email protected]


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Journal of Marketing Education

Indeed, Gray, Peltier, and Schibrowsky (2012) noted that at several times the editor of the Journal of Marketing Education was calling for more articles coming from or written in collaboration with authors from non-U.S. countries to have a better knowledge of sales and marketing practices from around the world. One beginning is the study of perceptions of sales conducted by Barat and Spillan (2009), in Peru and Guatemala. The literature, though, is devoid of studies involving African countries. Consequently, in this study, we break with such a crosscultural research tradition by including very diverse countries such as developed ones (France, Japan, and the United States) and developing ones (Cameroon and Mexico). This study addresses these many calls for cross-cultural research, particularly research to see if the negative stereotype of the sales profession (Honeycutt, Ford, Swenson, & Swinyard, 1999) is similar across cultures, both in established and developing countries. Furthermore, this study aims to address Lee et al.’s (2007) argument that “national culture would appear to be a vital influence in the stereotype formation and perpetuation process” (p. 729). Last, this is a direct response to calls by Cummins et al. (2013) and Gray et al. (2012) to have more research in sales education literature considering a cross-cultural perspective, including samples coming from emerging countries, especially from Latin America (Barat & Spillan, 2009).

Literature Review Studies of students’ sales stereotype are relatively plentiful, though few have examined cross-cultural stereotypes. The research can be split into three different categories: the first focuses on student attitudes, perception, or preferences for selling; a second group questions whether this image varies across individual variables; and last, some empirical work considers the relationship between image and other actions such as intentions to pursue a sales career.

Sales Stereotype Studies In the first category of sales stereotype studies, the image of salespeople is investigated by examining students’ attitude, perception, or preferences for a career in sales. Lee et al.’s (2007) work belongs to this group, but there are many more (e.g., Amin, Hayajneh, & Nwakanma, 1995; Dubinsky, 1980; Swenson, Swinyard, Langrehr, & Smith, 1993; Weeks & Muehling, 1987). In particular, Swenson et al. (1993) claim that between 1980 and 1990 students’ preferences for a sales career declined. But students’ negative attitude toward sales continues to prevail (see Lee et al., 2007), even nearly 20 years after Swenson et al.’s (1993) study of U.S. undergraduates. Lee et al. (2007) employed two U.K. samples of postgraduate students. In the second group, studies investigated how individual variables may influence sales stereotypes. The variable most

frequently considered was gender (Amin et al., 1995; Cook & Hartman, 1986; Muehling & Weeks, 1988) but nationality was also considered (e.g., Barat & Spillan, 2009; DelVecchio & Honeycutt, 2000, 2002; Karakaya, Quigley, & Bingham, 2011; Karakaya, Quigley, Bingham, Hari, & Nasir, 2014). Honeycutt et al. (1999) measured students’ perceptions of the appeal for 17 possible career areas, including consumer product sales, international sales, and industrial sales. More than 150 respondents from the United States, New Zealand, and the Philippines responded. Two important results were drawn from the latter research. The first was that globally “students in all three nations have perceptual problems about sales careers” (p. 34), especially for industrial sales and consumer product sales. These results held true across all three countries. Second, although the international sales position was perceived as the most appealing job across the three countries, cross-cultural differences were found. The international sales position was significantly more appealing for New Zealand students than for U.S. students. Furthermore, the consumer product sales position was more appealing in the Philippines than in the United States, and finally, the industrial sales position was found more appealing in the Philippines than in the United States or in New Zealand. More recently, Sohail (2004) measured the influence of nationality on student’s sales career preference considering Malay, Chinese, and Indian students. The data were collected in Malaysia from students of all three nationalities. Students were asked to give their perception of the status of 20 possible career areas, including sales manager, missionary salesperson, sales representative, and sales engineer. Selling positions were far from being the most preferred career, with the following ranking: sales engineer 7th, sales manager 12th, sales representative 16th, and missionary salesperson 19th. Barat and Spillan (2009) investigated how students’ perceptions about sales profession vary across the United States, Peru, and Guatemala. They concluded that U.S. students perceive career in sales more positively than do Peruvian or Guatemalan students. Karakaya and colleagues (Karakaya et al., 2011; Karakaya et al., 2014) conducted a survey to investigate students’ intentions to pursue a career in sales across three countries: United States, Switzerland, and Turkey. Intentions varied, with students from the United States and Switzerland more reluctant than Turkish ones to enter a career in sales. Yet these studies failed to examine why. There is still a need for investigating more countries about entering a career in sales but also a need to understand students’ feelings and beliefs about the image of salespeople and sales jobs across a global perspective. The third category of studies is related to the influence of students’ perceptions on career intentions and other similar variables. Cummins et al.’s (2013) review of more than 100 articles in the sales education literature determined that this category is fairly well studied for U.S. students. More than 20% of the articles reviewed fell into this category. For


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Fournier et al. example, Dubinsky (1981) conducted a study to compare salespeople’s (121 industrial salespeople) and students’ (n = 219) perceptions on 24 job attributes. Students had higher perceptions or expectations than salespeople on different positive attributes, such as the fact that a sales job will provide opportunities to interact with different people, to travel, and to advance more rapidly in the firm. At the same time, however, salespeople felt more strongly than students that a sales job will provide other positive benefits such as an opportunity to work for a firm with a good image, be independent, perform a wide variety of tasks, or make a contribution to society. The author concluded that “students have misconceptions about a sales job when compared with industrial salespeople,” but these misconceptions can either be favorable or unfavorable. Recently, Peltier, Cummins, Pomirleanu, Cross, and Simon (2014) identified four elements likely to predict an interest in pursuing a sales career. These four elements are the image of the sales profession relative to other professions, a greedy and selfish image of salespeople, the traditional lonely image of the sales profession not in line with new trends requiring more team work and use of technology, and the perception that sales activities are frequently perceived to be low in ethics. The degree to which a student subscribes to these images then predicts intentions to pursue or avoid a sales career. Perceptions regarding sales may be influenced by coursework. Bristow and colleagues conducted two studies (Bristow, Gulati, & Amyx, 2006; Bristow, Gulati, Amyx, & Slack, 2006) using the Marketing Lens Model to see how students in sales courses differed from students in other programs in their perceptions of professional selling and sales management careers. Students who had completed a course in sales, when compared with students who did not take such a course, had a more positive perception of a career in sales, held a more favorable impression of salespeople, and had stronger intentions of pursuing a career in sales or to hold a position in sales during their career; however, these findings may reflect a selection bias.

Hypotheses: The Influence of Culture The sales literature is consistent in calling for more research into cross-cultural differences, and the work on sales stereotypes is no different in that regard. Underlying this call is the question of how culture influences the sales profession. In this study, we take the World Values approach to understanding national culture. Although others may argue for other approaches, such as that put forward by Hofstede (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010), the availability of recent, standardized data makes the World Values Survey (WVS) project (www.wvsevsdb.com) useful here. The WVS approach is based on a solid theoretical framework about the evolution of human societies to adapt to the conditions of the

environment. Since social evolution proceeds at different speeds across cultures, differences of opportunities in life are observed, leading to a stronger emphasis on emancipative values and agency gain when these opportunities widen (Welzel & Inglehart, 2010). Furthermore, WVS researchers report that the evolution from sources of threats to sources of opportunities for people in a society has been empirically shown to be an important condition of out-group trust creation (Delhey & Welzel, 2012). Thus, WVS dimensions should be related to clear boundaries marked by stereotypes for out-groups in some countries but greater out-group trust and reduction in stereotyping in others. Moreover, the WVS is particularly useful because the dimensions used in that research are likely to be related to sales stereotypes in terms of career selection. These dimensions include the level of happiness (see Dubinski, 1981), the degree of feeling that people would take advantage of you (see Peltier et al., 2014; Weeks & Muehling, 1987), the first choice when looking for a job (see Honeycutt et al., 1999), the fact that most people can be trusted (see Peltier et al., 2014), and how much freedom there is in (purchase) choice and control (see Swenson et al., 1993). As is illustrated by these references, sales stereotype research has utilized similar dimensions in defining the image of the sales profession. This study extends Lee et al.’s (2007) work by examining perceptions across five countries, each representing a major region of the world, enabling the investigation of the specificity and nature of the salesperson’s image in various cultures. In addition to the image of salespeople and feelings in the presence of salespeople, we further extend research on students’ perception of the sales function as a complement to the findings of Muehling and Weeks (1988). The five countries selected for this study include Cameroon (not available in the WVS but closest to Burkina Faso, which is available), France, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. Using country as a proxy for cultural values and attitudes identified in the WVS, we see the following: •• Perceptions that people are fair are highest in France, Japan, and the United States. •• Job safety and security needs are greatest in France, Japan, and Mexico. •• Desire for control (as a consumer) is highest in Mexico and the United States. •• Americans and Japanese are more likely to be trusting of others. Furthermore, these countries have progressed at different rates in the extent to which sales is taught. As illustrated in Table 1, the United States has the most progressive sales education, with majors at some institutions and growing exposure in undergraduate business programs. Cameroon has the least coverage, but coverage is generally spotty in countries other than the United States.


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Table 1. Comparison of International Educational Environments. Cameroon Sales course(s) taught

Mainly offered within 2 years and 3 years of higher education

Sales course trends

Slowly increasing number of programs

France At all levels of higher education: 2 years (BTS or IUT), 3 years (Licence Professionnelle), 4 years, and graduate (Master) Can be stand-alone programs or within business/marketing degrees Increasing in frequency, offered at all levels

Slowly increasing number of multiple sales course tracks

Increasing number of program at master level in public universities Very few universities offer sales management programs/courses

Sales management courses

Very few universities offer sales management programs/courses

Sales management trends

No or very few sales management programs

Stable in offerings

But strong demand for lifelong studies

But strong demand for lifelong studies

Greater exposure in the United States should yield a more positive perspective on sales among business students. Additionally, given that American and Japanese people are more trusting and believe that people are fair per the WVS data, we expect these cultural perspectives to result in a more positive perception of sales. Therefore, overlaying local educational characteristics (laid out in Table 1) with these cultural differences with the positive and negative factors identified by Lee et al. (2007) as dependent variables, we hypothesize the following: Hypothesis 1: Students from Mexico and the United States are likely to perceive salespeople and the sales profession more positively in terms of Main Associated Characteristics (Lee et al., 2007) than are subjects from Cameroon, France, and Japan. Furthermore, in terms of career perceptions, we consider that sales careers would be less preferred in France, Japan, and Mexico in terms of safety and security, but higher in the United States as it relates to control over one’s earnings and professional destiny. Using those dimensions identified by Weeks and Muehling (1987), we hypothesize the following:

Japan In general, not offered as a specific course in business programs of public and private universities

Covered as part of marketing courses offered at university undergraduate and MBA levels Mostly offered by specialized vocational schools, private consultants and within company training

Mostly offered within marketing courses of business programs at undergraduate and MBA levels. Sometimes packaged with a course on sales promotion at graduate level No distinct sales and sales management courses offered at Japanese universities Sometimes offered as a module within Western MBA programs offered in Japan

Mexico

United States

At 4 year universities and in graduate programs

At all levels of higher education (2 year, 4 year, and graduate)

Primarily within business, marketing or international business

Primarily within business degree, within marketing

Increasing in frequency, offered at all levels

Increasing in frequency offered at all levels

Slowly increasing, number of multiple sales course tracks

Increasing number of multiple sales course tracks

No degree or certificate programs

Increasing number of degree or certificate programs

Generally is part of the curricula in marketing and management. Very few universities offer sales as a program

Sales is increasing while sales management is stagnant or falling; Sales management more likely in graduate programs; increasing number of programs offering degrees or certificates

Stable in offerings

Decreasing in total number of courses offered. In favor of sales course when no certificate or degree offered More commonly offered over sales course in MBA

More commonly offered in MBA programs

Hypothesis 2: Subjects from France, Japan, and Mexico perceive sales jobs to offer less job security than do subjects from Cameroon and the United States. Hypothesis 3: Subjects from the United States perceive sales jobs to offer greater control than do subjects from the other countries.

Method Sample The data were collected among 852 university students in five countries: Cameroon, France, Japan, Mexico, and the United States. The sample substructure (by country) in Table 2 shows the distribution of observations by gender and geographical locations for each country. In cross-cultural research, comparing more homogeneous samples across country (at the expense of representative samples within each country) reduces the risk of detecting differences resulting from systematic external differences (e.g., variations in income level, demographic structure, etc.) in variables not related to perceptions of salespeople. Using a more homogeneous sampling frame of business students in


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Fournier et al. Table 2. Distribution of Gender and Geographical Locations of the Student Sample. Locations Gender

United States Mexico Japan France Cameroon Total

Men Women Total

93 73 166

123 57 180

51 82 133

53 97 150

102 122 224

422 431 853

our study allows us to be more confident when differences are found to be statistically significant.

Survey The survey was composed of three parts. The first part included items related to salesperson stereotypes and was a strict replication of Lee et al.’s (2007) investigation. In the second part of the questionnaire, 10 items were used to measure perceptions of sales as a career. The 10 items used in this research were taken from the 11 items proposed by Muehling and Weeks’ (1988) investigation dealing with the “selling function” (see Table 6). The item “Selling is nothing but a go-go rat race” was dropped in this study because it did not translate well into French (there was no comparable idiom). The third part of the survey included descriptive questions (gender, nationality, age, occupation, enrollment in an undergraduate or a graduate program, major field of study, fulltime prior work experience in sales or not, expectations that the first job after university would be as a salesperson, and expected time left before entering full-time work). The survey questionnaire was administered online in English in the United States, Japan, and Mexico, and in French in Cameroon and France. The English version was deemed appropriate in Japan and in Mexico since the data were collected among students studying in courses entirely given in English, including written and oral work. A careful process for the translation and back-translation was implemented to ensure equivalence of the survey instrument in both its English and French versions. Since in Cameroon and France the risk of misunderstanding an English version was expected to be higher than the risk linked to the translation of the instrument, it was decided to translate the survey questionnaire into French.

Results Means for agreement on 24 stereotypical descriptions of salespeople for each of the five countries are shown in Table 3. Degrees of agreement to each item in rows of Table 3 are shown in decreasing order of the overall mean and for countries (columns) in decreasing order of overall agreement

from the left to the right of the table. Thus, taking all countries together, respondents tend to agree most with the stereotype that salespeople are “persistent” (4.01), “sales oriented” (3.89), “pushy” (3.86), and so on. Overall, the image of salespeople is not so negative when investigating a business student sample. With respect to countries, the overall degree of agreement with a negative view of sales is highest for the United States (3.24), followed by Mexico (3.22) and Japan (3.16), in direct opposition to Hypothesis 1. Before considering univariate differences between countries, a multivariate analysis to account for multicollinearity was conducted to test for an overall statistical difference with gender included as a covariate. Taking into account simultaneously all 24 statements (Table 3), with gender as a covariate, the multivariate test was statistically significant for countries (Wilks’s Λ = .317, F = 10.16, p = .000, Partial η2 = .25) and marginally significant for gender (Wilks’s Λ = .95, F = 1.56, p = .044, Partial η2 = .049). Turning to univariate results and statistical significance, significant differences were found across countries for 20 of the 24 items. When a statistical difference was detected, a series of paired multiple comparisons tests were conducted to identify specific differences. Thus, “persistence” was perceived similarly in the United States, Mexico, and France, but lower in Japan. In addition, students in Cameroon were not seeing “persistence” different from the four other groups. For each item, the highest degree of agreement across country is also underlined in Table 3. Some interesting combinations can be observed; for example, Japanese students report the strongest agreement for “professional,” “friendly,” and “wearing a cheap suit.” Correspondence analysis simplifies and visually summarizes the analysis. The relative locations of the 20 statistically significant items (shown by asterisks) and five countries (shown by dots) in the two-dimensional space of Figure 1 show the extent of difference in relation to items. Thus, France is close to “overpowering,” the United States and Mexico are close to “fast-talking” and “annoying,” Cameroon is close to “false and liars,” and so on. The overall meaning of the horizontal dimension (capturing 75% of variance) seems to group France and Cameroon (French speaking) on the right-hand side, and Japan, Mexico, and the United States (with the survey administered in English) on the left-hand side. The vertical dimension appears less discriminating (capturing 17% of variance) and more difficult to explain, but it seems to show Japan and Cameroon at the top of Figure 1, connected with more “friendly” aspects of salespeople, and the United States and France at the bottom, in connection with irritating and aggressive aspects of salespeople. Summarizing results country by country in Table 4, items measuring salesperson’s image are shown in decreasing order of degree of agreement. In most countries, there is in fact a mix of both negative and positive items associated


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Table 3. Mean Degree of Agreement With Image of Salespeople Attributes by Country. Mean* Attribute 1. Persistent^ 2. Sales-oriented 3. Pushy 4. Knowledgeable about products 5. Professional 6. Friendly 7. Helpful 8. Good Looking 9. Customer-oriented 10. Fast-talking 11. Well-educated 12. Overpowering 13. Young 14. Annoying 15. False and Liars 16. Conniving 17. A Nuisance 18. Wearing an expensive Suit 19. Arrogant 20. Wearing a cheap suit 21. Unknowledgeable about products 22. Rude 23. Overweight 24. Balding (and then old and out-offashion) Overall mean

Mexico France Cameroon Overall mea US (n = 165) (n = 180) Japan (n = 132) (n = 151) (n = 224) (N = 852)

Univ. F

Sig.

4.25a# 4.45a 3.83 3.88 3.77 3.77a 3.57 3.16a 3.35 3.67ab 3.23ab 3.34ab 3.19ab 3.62a 2.72a 3.04ab 3.34a 2.84 2.86a 2.58abc 2.44ab 2.59ab 2.41a 2.24a

4.12a 4.01b 3.67 3.72 3.64 3.58ab 3.64 3.13a 3.42 3.76a 3.33ab 3.31ab 3.08b 3.33ab 2.95a 3.30a 3.19a 2.79 2.69a 2.68ab 2.72a 2.76a 2.58a 2.41a

3.60b 3.75b 3.59 3.82 3.77 3.80a 3.49 3.15a 3.36 3.38bc 3.20ab 3.14b 3.24ab 3.23b 2.79a 2.98ab 3.23a 2.76 2.63a 2.75a 2.32bc 2.31bc 2.50a 2.35a

4.07a 4.05b 4.05 3.64 3.76 3.46b 3.43 3.88b 3.25 3.09cd 3.13b 3.58a 3.26a 3.17b 3.36b 3.16ab 2.32b 2.88 2.88a 2.35bc 2.28bc 2.17c 1.67b 1.64b

3.92ab 3.36c 4.05 3.78 3.63 3.78a 3.41 3.67b 3.48 2.81d 3.45a 3.06b 3.41a 2.69c 3.38b 2.89b 2.40b 2.58 2.14b 2.38c 1.95c 1.78 1.84b 1.50b

4.01 3.89 3.86 3.77 3.70 3.68 3.51 3.42 3.38 3.32 3.29 3.27 3.24 3.17 3.07 3.07 2.87 2.76 2.60 2.53 2.32 2.30 2.18 1.99

9.58 27.26 8.48 1.62 0.97 5.24 1.91 26.52 1.10 27.61 3.80 6.39 3.50 19.28 14.50 4.89 40.37 3.25 16.07 5.73 12.58 29.92 31.67 39.38

.000 .000 .000 .168 .424 .000 .107 .000 .357 .000 .005 .000 .008 .000 .000 .001 .000 .012 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

3.24

3.22

3.16

3.10

2.98

3.13

20.35

0.00

*Likert-type scale: 1 to 5 (1 = Totally Disagree; 2 = Partially Disagree; 3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree; 4 = Partially Agree; 5 = Totally Agree). ^A statement is underlined if there is an overall significant difference across the five countries. # The mean is underlined when it is the highest among the five countries on each statement. & The same letter is used when a pair of means for one statement is not statistically different according to both the Scheffé and the Bonferroni multiple paired comparison tests.

with a high degree of agreement (e.g., sales oriented, persistent, knowledgeable about products, and pushy). To improve understanding, we selected the top 12 significant attributes in Table 3 (selecting only those with overall average degree of agreement of 3 and above on the scale of 1 to 5) and ran a correspondence analysis on images of salespeople on 12 attributes in five countries followed by a sequence of hierarchical clustering using the Ward method. As shown in Figure 2, a sudden jump in the distance index suggests a two-group structure with the United States, Mexico, and Japan on one side and France and Cameroon on the other. Table 5 shows mean agreement on nine statements related to how respondents feel in the presence of salespeople for each of the five countries. Table 5 also shows the highest overall degree of agreement (3.44) for the statement “Forced into purchase.” Taking all feeling statements together,

Mexico is showing the highest degree of agreement (3.07) followed by Japan (2.95). To control for multicollinearity, a multivariate analysis was conducted to test for an overall statistical difference with gender included as a covariate. Taking into account simultaneously all nine statements included in Table 5, the multivariate test was statistically significant for countries (Wilks’s Λ = .715, F = 7.77, p = .000, Partial η2 = .08) and not significant for gender (Wilks’s Λ = .987, F = 1.135, p = .34, Partial η2 = .013). Looking at univariate results and statistical significance shown in the last two columns of Table 5, one can see that significant differences were found across countries for all the nine items. Hence, a series of paired multiple comparisons tests were conducted to identify specific differences. Results for the statement “forced into purchase” indicates that even though there is a multivariate statistical difference at level


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Fournier et al.

0.10

0.10

Component 2 (17% )

0.05

Friendly Well-educated Cameroon Young False and Liars Pushy Conniving Expensive suit Good Looking Persistent

Cheap suit A Nuisance Balding Japan

0.00

-0.05

Mexico Fast-talking US Unknowledgeable Rude Annoying Sales-oriented

Overpowering

France

Arrogant

an France

0.05

Component 2 (17% )

Overweight

Overpowering

Good Looking kin a Liars False and

Persistent Conniving

Pushy y

US Annoying

0.00

a Cameroon

Mexico Japan

Young

Fast-talking

Well-educated Friendly

-0.05

-0.10

Sales-oriented

-0.15 -0.15

-0.10

-0.05

0.00

0.05

-0.10

0.10

-0.10

Component 1 (75% )

Sales-oriented

Persistent

Persistent Sales-oriented Knowledgeable Fast talking about products Pushy Knowledgeable about products Professional Helpful Friendly Professional

Japan

0.05

0.10

Figure 2. Image of salespeople by country (top 12 significant attributes).

Table 4. Most Important Element of Salesperson’s Image per Country. Mexico

0.00

Component 1 (73% )

Figure 1. Image of salespeople by country.

United States

-0.05

France

Cameroon

Knowledgeable Persistent about products Friendly Sales-oriented Professional Pushy

Pushy

Sales-oriented

Good looking

Pushy Helpful

Professional Knowledgeable about products

Knowledgeable about products Good looking Professional

Persistent Friendly

.042, all paired differences are not statistically different. This can be expected when the multivariate difference is marginally significant with more degrees of freedom than for each paired tests. Thus, for feeling “forced into purchase” in the presence of salespeople, respondents are all equally in agreement. For all other items, some paired differences turn out significant. For example, for feeling “annoyed,” the average U.S. response is statistically higher (3.50) than in Mexico (3.21). For Japan (3.22) or France (3.14) and for Cameroon responses are statistically lower than for all other four countries (2.57). The main important elements about how respondents feel in the presence of salespeople are shown in Table 6 and contribute to complete the salesperson’s image as perceived by business students. The conclusion is that there is a mix, in

Mexico and Cameroon, of both positive and negative statements. However, in the United States and France, the main important feelings are negative. Globally, we did not always find that salesperson’s stereotypes are all negative in contradiction with Lee et al. (2007) results, who did find that most cited characteristics were negative. To visualize the data of Table 6, correspondence analysis was used and is shown in Figure 3. The relative locations of items (shown by asterisks) and countries (shown by dots) in Figure 3 illustrate the extent of difference across countries. Thus, France is close to “irritated,” and the United States is next to “cornered” and “annoyed.” Cameroon appears close to “content” and “satisfied.” Mexico is closer to “helpless” and “powerless.” Interestingly, Japan in the middle shows no strongly contrasted feelings as compared with other countries. The overall meaning of the horizontal dimension capturing 56% of variance appears to separate Cameroon, with rather positive feelings on the left from the United States with the feelings of being “annoyed” and “cornered” on the right. This dimension could be tentatively labeled as a “decreasing degree of comfort” (from left to right) in the presence of salespeople. The vertical dimension capturing 30% of variance is showing France at the top with feelings somewhat similar to the United States, and Mexico at the bottom of Figure 3 with a sense of helplessness in the presence of salespeople. This second dimension may be labeled “increasing resentment over loss of control” (from the bottom to the top) of the selling process. A final series of 10 statements related to perceptions of a sales career are shown in Table 7 (Hypotheses 2 and 3). Data


8


Table 5. Mean Degree of Agreement With “Make Me Feel” Statements by Country. Mean* Statement

Mexico

1. Forced into purchase^ 2. Irritated 3. Annoyed 4. Satisfied 5. Content 6. Cornered 7. Happy 8. Helpless 9. Powerless Overall Mean

Japan

3.38a& 3.08ac 3.21a 3.19bc 3.04ac 3.14a 2.96bc 2.89b 2.74c 3.07c

United States

3.53a 3.06a 3.22a 3.05a 2.88a 2.99a 2.86a 2.43a 2.43a 2.95ac

3.33a 3.40ab 3.50ac 2.79a 2.75ab 3.18a 2.58b 2.32a 2.39ac 2.91ac

France 3.65#a 3.08a 3.14a 3.03ac 3.12a 3.18a 2.38b 2.29a 2.18a 2.89a

Cameroon

Overall mean

Univ. F

Sig.

3.44 3.10 3.09 3.00 2.98 2.97 2.72 2.43 2.34 2.89

2.50 4.84 22.58 4.69 5.55 14.03 9.88 11.39 12.65 15.38

.042 .001 .000 .001 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

3.35a 2.94ac 2.57b 2.94ac 3.08ac 2.51b 2.79bc 2.25a 2.01b 2.70b


Table 6. Most Important Element of Feelings in the Presence of Salespeople per Country. Mexico Forced into purchase Annoyed Satisfied Irritated

Japan

United States

France

Cameroon

Forced into purchase Annoyed Irritated Satisfied

Annoyed Irritated Forced into purchase Cornered

Forced into purchase Cornered Annoyed Irritated

Forced into purchase Content Irritated Satisfied

Content

France

0.05

Component 2 (30% )

Cameroon

Irritated Satisfied

Cornered

US

0.00

Japan

Happy

Annoyed

Helpless -0.05

Mexico

Powerless

-0.10 -0.10

-0.05

0.00

0.05

Component 1 (56% )

Figure 3. Feelings in the presence of salespeople by country.

results are ordered as in the previous tables, showing the highest overall degree of agreement (3.04) for the statement

“There is very little security in sales” followed by the “The interpersonal relation involved in sales is repulsive” or the fact that “sales is a job and not a career.” Taking all items together, Japan is highest in agreement (2.63) followed by Mexico and the United States (both at 2.41). Before looking at univariate differences, a multivariate analysis was conducted to test for an overall difference with gender included as a covariate. The multivariate test was statistically significant for countries (Wilks’s Λ = .73, F = 6.64, p = .000, Partial η2 = .076) and not significant for gender (Wilks’s Λ = .986 F = 1.12, p = .344, Partial η2 = .014). Looking at univariate results and statistical significance shown in the last two columns of Table 7, one can see that significant differences were found across countries for 8 items out of 10. When an overall statistical difference was found, a series of paired multiple comparisons tests were conducted to identify specific differences. For example, the perception that “Sales is not a job for a person with talent and brain” (Item 10) is associated with the highest F value (14.76), and the paired comparison tests show that Japan is most in agreement, but it is not different from Mexico. Mexico is in turn not different from the United States and France, and Cameroon is statistically the least in agreement. Based on the results of Table 8, we can conclude that there is a strong agreement on the image of the sales function


9

Fournier et al. across country. A sales career is regarded as providing little security, is perceived as not providing a career, and is seen as routine and monotonous. These findings fail to support Hypotheses 2 and 3. To visualize the data of Table 8, correspondence analysis was used again to derive a simultaneous, graphical representation of items and countries in the two-dimensional reduced space shown in Figure 4. With respect to sales career perceptions, the horizontal dimension of the reduced space is capturing 88% of variance and the second one only 9%. Thus, less clear discrimination among countries is appearing in Figure 4 than in Figures 1, 2, and 3. The horizontal dimension seems to separate Mexico (left) from the four other countries (right). On a multivariate basis, Mexico appears to be the least in agreement with “Selling is a job not a career.” The vertical dimension, although much less discriminating, seems to be separating France and Cameroon (surveyed in French) at the bottom from Japan and the United States at the top. As regards the items, they seem more related to relations involved in sales perceived as repulsive and bringing no intellectual challenges in France and Cameroon, and more perceived as a waste of education and not spiritually rewarding in the United States and Japan.

Discussion With respondents from one Asian nation, a Latin American country (Mexico), and a developing country in Africa (Cameroon), this investigation is a significant response to the different calls expressed in the sales education literature (Cummins et al., 2013; Gray et al., 2012) and in the sales literature (e.g., Lee et al., 2007). In addition to implications for recruiters, this research study suggests several interesting implications for teaching sales and sales management to future business and salespeople as well as implications for future research. First, in terms of the relative value of the overall means, students’ perceptions of salespeople are not terribly negative but at the same time students’ perceptions of sales careers are not particularly positive. Moreover, overall stereotypes seem to provide little value in understanding the image of salespeople. When the individual ‘most associated characteristics’ (MACs) are considered, however, useful differences across countries emerge. Differences exist, though not perhaps as expected. Although Hypothesis 1 may not have been supported in the overall mean of positive or negative image, WVS characteristics do seem to be related to students’ perceptions, which do tend toward the negative for those characteristics related to WVS values. These lingering negative perceptions of sales as a career support the assertion that further professionalization of the sales career across international boundaries is still needed to positively position sales positions—not just as a career but as a function. Whether students choose to engage in a sales or

marketing career or some other area of business, they will come in contact with salespeople. If negative perceptions interfere with effective business dealings, promote distrust, and create other challenges, individuals, business, and economies suffer. Buyers may buy less optimal products and services, to the detriment of their career and their company. Therefore, appropriate exposure to the sales profession is needed as part of a complete business education. Furthermore, as universities participate in the professionalization of sales, interactions with salespeople should improve. This circular challenge of improving perceptions to attract better candidates will improve perceptions, attracting even better candidates as perceptions improve. Without presenting a better view of what selling really is, attracting students to selling programs will prove difficult. Most of the negative points underlined by the students are no longer true (e.g., “Sales is an occupation and not a career”). Consequently, there is a strong need for communicating and promoting a sale career. Widmier, Terry, and Selden (2007) mention the fact that one limitation of the sales profession is the lack of a strong representative professional association. When and if such associations do exist, they should promote the sales function and focus the message on critical negative points. For example, the French association Directeurs Commerciaux de France and the Sales Education Foundation in the United States must promote not only their program but also a career in sales, strengthening perceptions that sales provides an “interesting job with challenges,” “provides a career and opportunities for advancement,” and so forth. Furthermore, university sales programs can leverage these associations where they exist and perhaps promote the creation of associations where they do not. Business schools in the United States and United Kingdom are viewed by sales organizations as a good resource for recruiting salespeople (Amin et al., 1995). Swenson et al. (1993) believe that the main reason for the low levels of preference is that students are not properly informed of the ways in which the sales profession might fulfill their “personal goals” (p. 63), consistent with Weilbaker and Merritt’s (1992) findings that recruiters and students held different perceptions. Our results, though, suggest that how sales is perceived to be done (both in terms of MACs and in terms of how students feel in the presence of salespeople) varies across countries in important ways, similar to Weilbaker and Merritt’s findings of differences across student groups, and what will influence the selection of a position in sales may also vary across countries. Thus, what may be needed to professionalize sales in one country may be different in another, an important opportunity in which sales educators could play a significant role. For sales educators, professionalization within the curriculum can be emphasized in a number of ways. For example, careful consideration should be given to the methods of selling taught to students. Professional approaches based on


10


Table 7. Mean Degree of Agreement With Statements on a Sales Career by Country. Mean* Statement

Japan

Mexico United States

France

1. There is very little security in sales^ 2. The interpersonal relation involved in sales is repulsive 3. Sales is a job not a career 4. A sales career brings very few chances for advancement 5. Sales careers are dull, routine, and monotonous 6. Working in sales is not spiritually rewarding 7. Going into sales would be a waste of university education 8. Working in sales brings no intellectual challenges 9. A salesperson must be arrogant and overbearing to succeed 10. Sales is not a job for a person with talent and brain Overall Mean

3.07 2.90a&

2.91 2.20b

3.05 2.39b

3.01 2.93a

2.79a 2.62

2.80a 2.62

2.58ab 2.39

2.71

2.63

2.73a

Cameroon

Overall mean

Univ. F

Sig.

3.14# 2.81a

3.04 2.64

1.01 14.26

.403 .000

2.28b 2.33

2.48ab 2.61

2.58 2.52

4.64 2.37

.000 .051

2.63

2.35

2.35

2.52

3.43

.009

2.46ab

2.57ab

2.30bc

2.02c

2.38

10.32

.000

2.53a

2.43ab

2.39ab

2.07bc

1.92c

2.24

9.02

.000

2.24a

2.08a

2.09a

2.37a

2.00b

2.14

3.05

.017

2.47a

1.96b

2.10ab

2.27ab

1.97b

2.13

5.94

.000

2.39a

2.12ab

1.99b

1.98b

1.55c

1.96

14.76

.000

2.63

2.41

2.41

2.38

2.27

2.41

4.15

.002


Table 8. Most Important Element of Sales Career Image per Country. Japan

Mexico

United States

France

Cameroon

Little security Sales is repulsive Is not a career

Little security Is not a career Routine and monotonous

Little security Routine and monotonous Is not a career

Little security Sales is repulsive No intellectual challenge

Not spiritually rewarding

Few chances for advancement

Not spiritually rewarded

Few chances for advancement

Little security Sales is repulsive Few chances for advancement Is not a career

sound research such as those found in modern texts (e.g., Castleberry & Tanner, 2014) should help, as would exposure to professional salespeople from major corporations who have completed high-quality sales training programs. Furthermore, professional buyers who value and benefit from professionalism in salespeople could also help shift students’ perceptions about the nature of the sales profession. These approaches should be used to contrast what is being taught with what students have experienced with less professional salespeople. Choices have to also be made regarding what would be considered valid internship experiences and what are desirable post–graduation jobs. Sales faculty have to recognize their gatekeeper role and consider the position they are trying

to create in students’ minds regarding the nature of the sales profession, particularly in countries where the profession is still developing. Since alumni are likely to continue to network back to students, carefully placing graduating students into the right types of positions should reinforce positive images of sales as a potential career. Another possibility is to also address cultural values as part of the sales education process. Other literature develops methods for teaching cross-cultural sensitivity and intelligence (e.g., (Earley & Ang, 2003, as cited in Eisenberg et al., 2013). What we are suggesting is that sales educators use cultural values such as found in WVS to explore why unprofessional salespeople create the negative images held in their respective countries. Furthermore, contrasting the images


11

Fournier et al.

0.4 0.3

Component 2 (9% )

0.2 0.1 0.0

Waste Univ. Educ. Not for Talent and Brain Mexico Dull Routine

US

Job not Career

Not Spirit Rewarding

Japan France Cameroon

Arrogant for Success No Intel. Challenge

-0.1

Relations Repulsive

-0.2 -0.3 -0.4 -0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Component 1 (88% )

Figure 4. Perception of a sales career by country.

identified in this study with locally held values will not only help students recognize the origins of their own (mis-)perceptions of salespeople but also help sensitize them to what they may face should they find themselves selling in another culture. These recommendations presuppose that faculty have experience with professional selling such that they can adequately address misperceptions. In addition to propositions such as those made by Orpen (2003) for cross-cultural experiences for faculty, externships for faculty within sales organizations either within or outside of their country should also prove valuable. These types of experiences will create longlasting in-class examples based on a deeper and personal shared experience of what students truly face in the field when obtaining sales positions. Just as cross-cultural experiences expose local students to foreign instructors and allow local instructors, after staying abroad, to share their foreign and cross-cultural experiences with local students, instructors with real-world professional experience will be able to provide richer experiences for their own students. Financial and staff support may be needed to develop an extensive external, as well as international network, providing several opportunities for inbound and outbound students and faculty.

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research Although this research provides important new cross-cultural knowledge about student stereotypes related to sales and the sales profession, this study has some limitations in

suggesting potential future research directions. We have retained all items used by Lee et al. (2007) to measure sales stereotype that were applicable to perceptions of sales stereotype found in the United Kingdom and the United States. To strictly replicate their study, we did not change the items. But we found that in some countries some items were not relevant descriptions of salespeople. For example, in France, the fact that “salespeople are bald” may not be perceived as meaningful. In the future, qualitative studies and depth interviews in each country to obtain a more detailed view of sales stereotypes should be done. However, such adaptations to the measuring instrument will make comparisons across cultures more difficult. Answering the questionnaire in French in Cameroon and France, while being more locally meaningful, may have created a potential bias in our cross-cultural comparison. The issue of structural data equivalence should be more thoroughly examined in future investigations (He, Merz, & Alden, 2008; Van Herk, Poortinga, & Verhallen, 2005) to validate equivalence of survey data. Since our primary goal was a cross-cultural comparison, we gave priority to an etic approach, using a common survey instrument for this research study. Following Usunier and Lee’s (2005) proposition, another promising way of investigation would be to set the debate in the context of cross-cultural business negotiation and to measure how each nationality perceives others. The results could provide useful information to reach a better fit during negotiation steps and would help understanding among parties involved in the business dealings. In this study, we used WVS data to categorize countries in order to hypothesize differences. Future research should directly apply the WVS or a similar approach, such as Hofstede’s (Hofstede et al., 2010). In this fashion, a more direct relationship between the dimensions of culture and differences across countries could be identified. Furthermore, although we have investigated countries from five geographical areas, there remains great diversity within each of the major regions. Thus, there is opportunity to develop finer grained studies of each of the major world areas.

Conclusion The objective of this research was to propose an answer to different calls for more international research studies in the selling area and especially in the specific topic of salesperson’s image as perceived by students. A cross-cultural perspective dealing with five countries across four continents contributed to a stronger understanding of students’ sales stereotypes leading to future in-depth investigations. Based on these results, we have provided several teaching recommendations to make students and faculty more familiar with the root of these stereotypes, as well as strategies for changing them.


12


Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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