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For the past several decades women have been moving into the United States workforce in greater numbers and they have been gaining access to the types of jobs that were, traditionally, performed exclusively by men. Despite this progress, they are still having difficulty penetrating the so‐called “glass ceiling” into upper management positions (Alimo‐Metcalfe 1993; Tavakolian 1993). Many reasons have been advanced, but the most compelling of these concerns the “glass walls” that support the “glass ceiling”. The “glass walls” refer to those invisible barriers that limit the ability of women and minorities to gain access to the type of job that would place them in a position to break through the “glass ceiling” (Townsend 1996). If women are to gain parity with men in the workforce, they need to succeed in the positions that lie inside the “glass walls” that will enable them to rise through the “glass ceiling” to upper management.

Women Sales Managers Volume 11 Number 2 of The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing includes an article by Alan J. Dubinsky, Lucette B. Comer, Marvin A. Jolson and Francis J. Yammarino entitled “How should women sales managers lead their sales personnel?”

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of salesperson empathy, both cognitive and affective, on business-to-business buyer-salesperson relational outcomes. Specifically, the direct impact of empathy is examined in relation to both the salesperson’s communication ability and customer-oriented behavior. The impact of empathy is then examined as a direct and indirect influencer of satisfaction with the salesperson and commitment to the salesperson.

To attain the objective of this research, an empirical study was conducted using 248 business-to-business purchasing agents.

The study found that cognitive empathy and affective empathy had a positive relationship with customer-oriented behaviors, information communication ability and commitment to the salesperson. However, only cognitive empathy was found to have a positive relationship with customer’s satisfaction with the salesperson.

Although empathy has found to have a positive effect on sales, sales research has yet to provide conclusive evidence on whether cognitive empathy and affective empathy would have a similar effect on a salesperson-customer relationship. This study provides evidence that not all facets of empathy influence relational outcomes the same way and differ in magnitude. This provides strong support for the importance of studying the impact of empathy from a faceted viewpoint rather than a uni-dimensional perspective when examining the influence on buyer-seller relational outcomes.

Charts the rise of women into sales manager positions in the US and looks at the general traits which help females in such roles. Cites that women have more trouble being accepted in sales roles when selling to other countries. Focuses upon the People’s Republic of China and presents the finding of a study of 266 field sales personnel across the republic. Suggests that there are still a number of difficulties for businesses, but provides some ideas for consideration.

In this study, active empathetic listening is purposed as being an antecedent to a salesperson's communication skill, ability to maintain quality relationships and build trust. The study proposes that communication skill, relationship quality and trust all moderate the relationship between AEL and sales performance.

Survey research using salespersons was conducted; structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses of the model.

The findings confirmed that AEL was positively related to salespersons' communication skills, relationship quality and trust. The proposed moderators of communication and trust received support when predicting sales performance.

This was the first empirical study to examine the role of AEL in a relationship selling model. AEL was found to directly affect levels of trust, relationship quality and overall communication skills of salespeople. More research on the role of AEL in the relationship selling process should be investigated.

Managers that focus on long-term relationships in a dyadic buyer-seller relationship may benefit most from this study. A scale that can be used to measure existing levels of AEL in the sales force is included. AEL may better enable salespeople to develop long-term relationships with their customers.

This study examines a form of listening (AEL) that is proposed to be superior to other forms of listening within the personal selling context. Presently little research on the importance of listening and its impact on relationship building exists. This is the first study to test AEL as an antecedent to relationship skills of salespeople.

The research questions are whether there is a difference in how men and women respond to unfair prices and, if so, whether this gender difference extends across national cultures. Is the difference due to nature or to nurture? This paper aims to answer these questions.

The study uses scenarios to conduct a survey‐based analysis of the effects of gender and country on responses to personally and socially unfair prices.

The results indicate that the response to price unfairness is due more to nurture than to nature. Although American females tend to be more sensitive than men to price unfairness, there is little or no difference between men and women in Germany and South Korea: both sexes there react negatively to an unfair price, particularly when the seller has acted unjustly.

In the USA, the gender difference in response to unfair prices suggests that different pricing tactics should be used for men than for women. However, since males in South Korea and Germany are just as sensitive as females to unfair prices, pricing tactics acceptable to American men may not work in other countries.

This paper takes a look at the manner in which a price increase for a frequently purchased but essential product is viewed as unfair. The paper examines the issue in three contrasting countries – Germany, South Korea and the USA – to determine if any observed differences are universal or culture‐specific.

Explores the universality of Belk’s concept of situational variables in their relationship with consumer purchase within two different cultures. Considers the relationship of five empirical dimensions with two measures of consumer purchase behaviour. The five empirical manifestations of the situational variables were included in surveys conducted in India and the USA. The empirical dimensions of the situational variables (frequency of shopping visit; the usual time of day for shopping; travel time; time spent; and number of companions) were all statistically significant when comparing India and the USA with respect to shopping behaviour (purchase of food or beverage and purchase of other products). Includes examples of how marketers might influence consumer situations within the Belkian framework in order to modify purchase behaviour.

This paper compares the shopping behavior of Chilean consumers with those in China. Both Chinese and Chilean mall visits are driven, first and foremost, by purchase; however, consumers in Chile tend to be less single minded than their Chinese counterparts. Differences also exist between the two populations in their way of selecting the mall, shopping characteristics, and purchase patterns. Most importantly, Chinese shoppers relied more on their mall visits than Chileans in searching for information and finalizing their purchase decisions; at the same time, they were much more cautious in committing themselves to a purchase.

The purpose of this paper is to isolate the effects of personal fairness (the consumer's evauation of the magnitude of the price) and the social fairness (the acceptability of the price given the social norms of the society).

This research adapted the scenarios used in the pivotal fair pricing study conducted by Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler. To demonstrate the difference between their results and the results when personal and social fairness were separated, the analysis replicated that of Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler.

The paper finds that an individual's self‐serving concern for a personally fair price is moderated by their other‐serving concern for a socially fair price.

This research demonstrates that there is a significant difference in the personal and social fairness of price, whether it is a price for goods, wages or rents.

Sellers, employers and realtors can benefit from the knowledge that providing a socially acceptable reason for the increase of a product or rental price or the decrease of a wage can increase the likelihood that the recipients will judge the price increase as being fair.

Prior research into price fairness has confused the two aspects of a fair price. By isolating the two separate components, we clarify how individuals perceive price fairness in the personal sense and how that perception is altered by a concern for fairness in the social sense.