Moral Judgment and its Impact on Business-to-Business Sales Performance and Customer Relationships

Schwepker, Charles H.; Good, David J.

doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0641-8

Cited by 50 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…195). Although scores on two of three ethical judgments scales "were found to be positively related to deliberative reasoning (Table VIII) Schwepker and Ingram (1996) determined that salespeople who interpreted the ethically questionable activities described in three sales vignettes (only one of which was actually described) as inappropriate on six MES items tended also to score highly on self-rated performance (similar results appeared in Schwepker and Good, 2011). This relationship was strongest among men, unmarried respondents, persons over the age of 40, and those with a college education.…”

Section: Moral Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 67%

Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?

Mudrack

Mason

2012

J Bus Ethics

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Section: Moral Reasoningmentioning

confidence: 67%

Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?

Mudrack

Mason

2012

J Bus Ethics

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“…Certainly this pressure and the resulting temptation to cut corners, misrepresent facts, and outright lie have contributed to salespeople's longstanding reputation of being willing to use any means necessary to ''get the sale'' (Port 2008). Of course, we also know that true long-term success and higher quality customer relationships depend upon buyerseller interactions where salespeople build trust with customers by engaging in highly ethical behaviors (Hawes et al 1989;Lagace et al 1991;Schwepker and Good 2011;Schwepker 2013;Schwepker and Ingram 1996). It is interesting to note that the selling behaviors we know to be effective (i.e., ethical, trust-building behaviors) are sometimes at odds with various aspects of the sales job that feed into this unyielding pressure to meet one's sales goals (e.g., reward systems, performance evaluation, etc.).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing New Salespeople’s Ethical Behaviors during Repetitive Failures: When Trying to Help Actually Hurts

et al. 2015

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Despite acknowledgment that performance failure among new salespeople is a prevalent issue for organizations, researchers do not fully understand the consequences of repetitive periods of failure on new salespeople's unethical selling behaviors. Further, little is known about how a sales force's reward structure and managerial attempts to intervene following failure affect new salespeople's behavior. Combining an experiment with longitudinal growth models, we show that repetitive periods of failure increase unethical behaviors, and interventions intended to remind the salesperson to behave in the customer's best interests attenuate this effect under a non-contingent reward structure. However, counter to managerial assumptions, under a contingent reward structure these customer-oriented interventions actually backfire by amplifying the original relationship between repetitive failure and unethical behaviors. The results have potentially important managerial implications for those who manage new salespeople learning how to sell or during other failure-prone periods.

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“…Saxe and Weitz (1982, p. 344) explain that customer-oriented salespeople try "to help their customers make purchase decisions that will satisfy customer needs." In addition, customer-oriented salespeople will not use manipulative or high-pressure selling tactics and will not try to deceive their customers (Schwepker and Good 2011). Given this line of reasoning, we offer the following hypothesis:…”

Section: H2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Levels of Ethical Influences on Selling Behavior and Performance: Synergies and Tensions

et al. 2017

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In general, the business ethics literature has treated the conceptual domains and outcomes of macro-level (industrial), meso-level (organizational), and micro-level (individual) ethical influence separately. However, this singular treatment ignores the synergies and tensions that can arise across these different types of ethical influence. Using sales as a research context, the current study argues that all three ethical frames of references are important in shaping employee behavior and performance and, as such, should be examined simultaneously. The findings show that industrial ethical climate and salesperson moral equity are positively associated with salesperson customer orientation. In addition, industrial and organizational ethical norms have a stronger joint effect on customer orientation than either ethical climate alone. More specifically, a more ethical organizational climate enhances the positive effects of the industrial ethical climate on customer orientation. Furthermore, whereas salesperson moral equity is significantly associated with salesperson customer orientation, strong moral equity beliefs in situations requiring adaptive selling result in weaker sales outcomes. This study concludes with a set of theoretical and actionable implications, as well as a discussion of future research avenues.2

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Moral Judgment and its Impact on Business-to-Business Sales Performance and Customer Relationships

Abstract: moral judgment, sales performance, customer relationship, customer-oriented selling, business-to-business salespeople,

Cited by 50 publications

References 77 publications

Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?

Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?

Managing New Salespeople’s Ethical Behaviors during Repetitive Failures: When Trying to Help Actually Hurts

Three Levels of Ethical Influences on Selling Behavior and Performance: Synergies and Tensions

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