Managing Culturally Diverse Buyer-Seller Relationships: The Role of Intercultural Disposition and Adaptive Selling in Developing Intercultural Communication Competence

Abstract

Given the increase in cultural diversity within marketing organizations as well as within current and potential customer bases, possessing the appropriate communication skills becomes crucial to success in managing culturally diverse relationships. Although marketing researchers have recognized the importance of adaptive selling behavior for successful buyer-seller relationships, the exploration of the intercultural aspects of these relationships has only recently begun. This article examines how adaptive selling behaviors and intercultural dispositions of marketing executives contribute to their perceived intercultural communication competence. Results show that in addition to being adaptive, the intercultural disposition of a marketer is of key importance in developing intercultural communication competence. Theoretical and practical implications for incorporating intercultural communication into the development of successful buyer-seller relationships are discussed.

The evolution of university–industry linkages—A framework

“…Frequent communication, and thus the development of common knowledge platforms and an understanding of each other's aims (Thune, 2011), creates the foundation for successful UILs (Mora-Valentín et al, 2004). In turn, these relational success factors depend strongly on the individual actors within UILs (Bush et al, 2001;Cunningham and Turnbull, 1982;Santoro and Chakrabarti, 2002), whose ongoing personal interactions can help overcome the complexities of the research and the implied need to explain results (Hoppe, 2001). …”

Intercultural Disposition and Communication Competence of Future Pharmacists

“…Based on the conceptual framework, the following hypotheses and propositions were tested: assessed by Bush et al 21,25 Gudykunst et al's framework for intercultural disposition includes (1) the ability to empathize with people from other cultures, (2) being astute noncritical observers of their own and other people's behavior, (3) being less ethnocentric, and (4) being accurate in perceiving differences and similarities between the sojourner's own culture and the host culture. 21 Bush et al used 4 subscales to measure intercultural disposition based on this operational definition, which will be used in this study.…”

“…21 Bush et al used 4 subscales to measure intercultural disposition based on this operational definition, which will be used in this study. 25 Some of the wordings of the items within the scales were changed and some items were discarded in the present study to make them relevant to subjects across cultures and not specific to the American culture. 25 For example, the item, "America may not be perfect, but the American way has brought us about as close as human beings can get to a perfect society," was discarded since it was specific to Americans.…”

“…21 Intercultural disposition has been shown to be positively correlated with intercultural communication competence. 25 Although no empirical evidence was found in the pharmacy literature, pharmacy students with different intercultural dispositions may benefit differently from the training provided in cultural communication. Thus, it is important to first determine what type of training or intervention may have the potential to improve students' intercultural communication competence.…”

“…Intercultural disposition consists of 4 factors: ethnocentrism, the feeling that one's culture is superior to others 25 ; empathy, the ability to empathize with people from other cultures 25 ; world-mindedness, being accurate in perceiving differences and similarities between one's own culture and the patient's culture 25 ; and attributional complexity, the tendency to attribute complex causes to other people's behaviors. 25 …”