While marketing and management research suggests that managers’ individual characteristics influence pricing decisions, the influence of personality traits in this context remains…
Abstract
Purpose
While marketing and management research suggests that managers’ individual characteristics influence pricing decisions, the influence of personality traits in this context remains unclear. This study aims to explore the relationship between the five basic personality traits of the five-factor model (extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness and neuroticism) and three basic pricing practices (value-, competition- and cost-informed).
Design/methodology/approach
On the basis of a non-experimental decision-making scenario, the analysis examines the pricing decisions of 57 managers in relation to a new business service.
Findings
The results suggest that managers’ conscientiousness and openness to experience are positively related to preference for value-informed pricing. Similarly, managers’ agreeableness is positively related to preference for competition-informed pricing and managers’ openness to experience and agreeableness are positively related to preference for cost-informed pricing.
Research limitations/implications
The cross-sectional study design does not support causal inference, and the modest sample size may limit the external validity of the findings.
Practical implications
By increasing awareness of the influence of personality on pricing preferences, the findings are of relevance to managers who are directly involved in pricing decisions. Additionally, the findings are informative for managers who must assign responsibility for pricing authority within firms.
Originality/value
This empirical exploration of the relationship between certain personality traits and specific pricing practices contributes to the literature on psychological aspects of pricing theory by showing how managerial personality influences pricing preferences under uncertainty.
Details
Keywords
Mario Kienzler, Daniel Kindström and Thomas Brashear-Alejandro
This paper aims to investigate factors that affect the use of value-based selling and the subsequent influences on salespeople’s sales performance.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate factors that affect the use of value-based selling and the subsequent influences on salespeople’s sales performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Industrial salespeople from five steel manufacturers were surveyed. Scales measure three components of value-based selling: comprehension, crafting and confirmation. Partial least squares path analysis tested the conceptual model.
Findings
Salespeople’s learning orientation has the greatest impact on the use of value-based selling. Managerial support exerts a positive effect on crafting. Salespeople’s experience has a positive impact on comprehension and confirmation. The implementation of value-based selling has a positive effect on sales performance.
Research limitations/implications
The research is cross-sectional, with a small sample size (n = 60). The data were collected from a single source (i.e. salespeople).
Practical implications
The results suggest that value-based selling is a multi-component sales process that requires balancing managerial actions among individual and organizational factors.
Originality/value
This paper presents a broad evaluation of measures and assessments of value-based selling in business-to-business sales settings. The findings provide new elaborations on the theoretical and practical implications of value-based selling and reveal which individual and organizational factors affect the usage of value-based selling.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to focus on collaborative consumption, that is, the peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange of goods and services facilitated by online platforms. Anchored in the access…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on collaborative consumption, that is, the peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange of goods and services facilitated by online platforms. Anchored in the access paradigm, collaborative consumption (e.g. accommodation rental and ridesharing services) differs from commercial services offered by firms (e.g. business-to-customer [B2C] carsharing). The aim of this study is to examine the nuanced styles of collaborative consumption in relation to market-mediated access practices and socially mediated sharing practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the general research trend on mobility services, the context of long-distance ridesharing is chosen. Data collection was conducted using participant observation as peer service provider, 11 ethnographic interviews of consumers and a netnographic study of digital artifacts.
Findings
Using practice theory, ten ridesharing activities were identified. These activities and the nuances in the procedures, understandings and engagements in the ridesharing practice led to the distinction of three styles of collaborative consumption: communal collaborative consumption, which is when participants seek pro-social relationships in belonging to a community; consumerist collaborative consumption, performed by participants who seek status and convenience in the access lifestyle; and opportunistic collaborative consumption, when participants seek to achieve monetary gain or personal benefits from abusive activities.
Originality/value
By taking a phenomenological approach on collaborative consumption, this study adds to the understanding of the sharing economy as embedded in both a utilitarian/commercial economic system and a non-market/communal social system. The three styles of collaborative consumption propose a framework for future studies differentiating P2P exchanges from other practices (i.e. B2C access-based services and sharing).