Discussion Board post response

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For any manager who notices a trend, there are necessary steps they need to take to study this trend, in order to determine if it can be taken as truth. If a manager has noticed that their female sales representatives have lower customer defections than their male counterparts, the manager would want to further study this phenomenon so that they could explain it. In order to understand the theory and study it properly, concepts and constructs will need to be developed so that the phenomenon can be properly considered and answered.

Propose the Concepts and Constructs You Might Use to Study this Phenomenon

Cooper and Schindler define a concept as “a generally accepted collection of meanings or characteristics associated with certain events, objects, conditions, situations, and behaviors” (2014, p.50). When studying the phenomenon of females sales representatives having lower customer defections than males the concepts that should be used for the study are experience, knowledge of the product, social skills, and demographic of the customer base. These concepts will be present in every instance of the phenomenon and are easily identified.

A phenomenon such as this cannot simply be a coincidence, there must be an explanation and that explanation most likely lies in the experience, knowledge, or social skills of the sales person or the demographic of the customer to which they are selling. If the females sales people are simply more experienced, know more about the product, or have significantly stronger charisma and social skills, this phenomenon could be attributed to these concepts. However, research shows that all else held equal consumer tend to prefer male salespeople (Prendergast, Li, & Li, 2014). Therefore, it is even more important to understand these concepts, because this makes it even more unlikely that females would be outselling their male counterparts.

A construct is “an image or abstract idea specifically invented for a given research and/or theory-building purpose” (Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 52). The above outlined concepts can be summarized into two constructs: salesperson qualities and customer qualities. In general, these are the two most important constructs to look at when attempting to explain this phenomenon, because these are the two things that do not change. The products that are being sold are the same products and the same price, no matter who is selling and who is buying. Therefore, it is important to understand how different salespeople and customers respond to one another, based solely on how the appear, act, and communicate.

How Might Any of These Concepts and/or Constructs be Related to Explanatory Hypotheses

These concepts and construct can have very strong relationship to an explanatory hypothesis. An explanatory hypothesis means that “there is an implication that the existence of or a change in one variable causes or leads to a change in the other variable” (Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 58). If the researchers could change either the salesperson’s qualities, through their experience, knowledge, or social skills, there would be an impact on the results of this research. These characteristics are some of the most important to a salesperson and if that salesperson were strong in these areas, it is likely that customer retention would increase, regardless of salesperson gender.

Additionally, if researchers could change the presupposed effects of a given consumer’s demographic characteristics the results would alter the findings. Meaning that if the researchers could make any consumer view a salesperson the same way, regardless of how either party looked, customer retention would equal out between the male and female salespeople. If it did not even out due to this change, the manager would at least be able to determine that the difference in customer retention is due to a salesperson quality and not a customer quality. This research has significant Biblical support, as the book of James says “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9, English Standard Version). Therefore, it is incredibly important that the manager consider these concepts and constructs to explain this phenomenon.

References

Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2014). Business research methods (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 9780073521503.

Prendergast, G. P., Li, S. S., & Li, C. (2014). Consumer perceptions of salesperson gender and credibility: An evolutionary explanation. The Journal of Consumer Marketing, 31(3), 200-211. Retrieved November 8, 2016, from http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/docview/1678629400?accountid=12085