Megan C. Good and Michael R. Hyman
The purpose of this paper is to apply protection motivation theory (PMT) to brick-and-mortar salespeople's responses to customers' fear appeals.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply protection motivation theory (PMT) to brick-and-mortar salespeople's responses to customers' fear appeals.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is to develop a conceptual model for the effect of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople.
Findings
PMT relates to the influence of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople's behaviours. The salesperson's decision whether to follow a retail manager's suggestion about ways to mitigate a customer's fear appeal depends on believed threat severity, believed threat susceptibility, response efficacy, self-efficacy and response costs.
Research limitations/implications
PMT is applied to a new domain: brick-and-mortar salespeople. Although a powerful yet universal emotion, only limited research has examined fear within this group.
Practical implications
Understanding salespeople's fears will help retail managers identify strategies for encouraging adaptive behaviours and deterring maladaptive behaviours by salespeople.
Originality/value
A model relating customers' fear appeals to salespeople's behaviours is introduced.
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Darrell Goudge, Megan C. Good, Michael R. Hyman and Grant Aguirre
The purpose of this paper is to develop, test, and validate a model in a specialty retail environment to assess the influence of a salesperson’s sales- or customer-orientation and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop, test, and validate a model in a specialty retail environment to assess the influence of a salesperson’s sales- or customer-orientation and customer characteristics related to buy/no-buy decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
Backward stepwise discriminant analysis was used to identify variables that most differentiated buyers from non-buyers. The discriminant model was estimated with survey data provided by a judgment sample of consumers asked to recall details about a recent in-store purchase experience (n=240). One significant discriminant function emerged. The model correctly classified 87.5 percent of buy/no-buy decisions by consumers in a separate validation sample (n=40).
Findings
Customers who believe a salesperson is sales oriented (i.e. only interested in closing) are more likely to make a no-buy decision even when retailer-related attributes – such as positive prior experience with the retailer, susceptibility to normative interpersonal influence, and positive attitude toward retailing – suggest otherwise. Surprisingly, neither customer orientation nor susceptibility to interpersonal informational influence relates significantly to making a buy/no-buy decision.
Practical implications
Specialty retailers should avoid a sales-outcome-based orientation. To add value in a competitive marketplace where buyers can avoid salespeople, the focus of a sales interaction should be on identifying customer needs and characteristics.
Originality/value
Adaptations of sales people’s personas and selling efforts – fostered by new managerial training practices – and the need for specialty retailers to adopt behavior-based control systems are suggested. In addition, sales or customer orientation typically is reported by the salesperson. Here, customers’ belief – which is more germane to modeling buy/no-buy decisions – designates the salesperson’s orientation.
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Charles H. Schwepker and Megan C. Good
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between grit, unethical behavior and job stress among business-to-business salespeople.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between grit, unethical behavior and job stress among business-to-business salespeople.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical analysis includes 240 business-to-business salespeople. Structural equation modeling is used to test the study’s hypotheses.
Findings
Results suggest grit is directly related to less frequent unethical behavior and customer-directed deviance. Neutralization techniques positively moderate the relationship between salesperson grit and both unethical behavior and customer-directed deviance. Grit is indirectly related to job stress through the positive relationship between unethical behavior and job stress.
Research limitations/implications
Given research on grit in sales is relatively new several opportunities to pursue additional research in this area are presented.
Practical implications
Sales leaders may benefit from administering the salesperson grit scale as part of the screening process and developing grit among salespeople through training and coaching. Sales leaders should emphasize the negative impact of adopting neutralization techniques (excuses) in condoning unethical behaviors. The indirect effect of grit in reducing job stress through ethical behaviors underscores potential ways to mitigate costly and detrimental sales outcome losses.
Originality/value
This study develops a novel framework to explore the relationships between grit and unethical behaviors as moderated by neutralization techniques (excuses); examines an additional component of grit not previously considered in some studies of salespeople; and investigates whether these relationships increase a previously unexplored outcome – job stress.
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The purpose of this chapter is to explore the use of a web-based collaborative platform for virtual literacy coaching and how the technology influenced reflective practice.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the use of a web-based collaborative platform for virtual literacy coaching and how the technology influenced reflective practice.
Methodology/approach
This qualitative study explored the use of virtual literacy coaching by examining 18 coaching sessions between a university-based literacy coach and a first-grade reading interventionist using Adobe® Connect, a web-based collaborative tool. The application provided a virtual meeting space and through the use of video pods the teacher and coach had synchronous audio and video communication. Each coaching session lasted approximately one hour and included a pre-observation discussion, an observation of a 30-minute individualized lesson with a struggling reader, and a debriefing conversation. Data, including transcriptions of the coaching sessions, interviews with participants, field notes, and journal entries were analyzed using the constant-comparative method.
Findings
Findings showed the ability to link teachers and coaches in a virtual space creates new possibilities for engaging in reflective practice that certainly are not trouble-free, but do provide opportunities to think deeply about teaching and learning without being face-to-face.
Practical implications
As school districts continue to experience budgetary cuts, it is important to explore alternative ways to support teachers. The findings identified in this study underscore the differences between face-to-face and virtual coaching. Understanding and accepting the limitations of the technology and recognizing the importance of the teacher/coach relationship could provide a starting point for school districts interested in computer-mediated communication.
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To present a cross-case analysis of two pre-service teachers who studied their own teaching using video within a teacher inquiry project (TIP) – a teacher education pedagogy we…
Abstract
Purpose
To present a cross-case analysis of two pre-service teachers who studied their own teaching using video within a teacher inquiry project (TIP) – a teacher education pedagogy we are calling video-mediated teacher inquiry.
Methodology/approach
Activity theory is used to examine how inquiry groups collaboratively used video to mediate shifts in goals and tool use for the two pre-service teachers presented in the study. This chapter addresses the question of how video-mediated teacher inquiry supports the appropriation of teaching tools (i.e., classroom discussion) in a teacher education program.
Findings
The findings indicate that shifts in goals and tool use made during the TIP suggest greater appropriation of the pedagogical tool of classroom discussion. We also consider how these shifts may be bound by the inquiry project.
Practical implications
The use of video cases of teachers’ own teaching is an emergent pedagogy that combines elements of both case study methods and practitioner inquiry. We argue that this pedagogy supports tool appropriation among pre-service teachers in ways that may help them develop as reflective practitioners.
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Rachael Bullingham and Rory Magrath
The 2019 FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) Women's World Cup in France saw unprecedented levels of success for women's football. FIFA estimates that, for…
Abstract
The 2019 FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) Women's World Cup in France saw unprecedented levels of success for women's football. FIFA estimates that, for the first time, total global viewership of the tournament reached 1bn. During the tournament, the eventual champions – the United States – saw their midfield veteran, Megan Rapinoe, win the golden boot (top goal scorer) and the golden ball award (most valuable player). In addition to her exploits on the pitch, Rapinoe, one of numerous ‘out’ lesbian athletes competing at the Women's World Cup, also received an unprecedented amount of media coverage. In this chapter, we analyse British print media coverage of Rapinoe during the one-month period of the Women's World Cup (7th June–7th July) and the week after the tournament concluded. Our findings indicate that although Rapinoe is a polarising character, media coverage of her throughout the tournament was generally positive. We show this through Rapinoe as a ‘personality’, Rapinoe as ‘outspoken’ and Rapinoe as a role model.
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James S. Damico, Alexandra Panos and Michelle Myers
Purpose – To consider the ways two pre-service teachers evaluated digital information sources about climate change in order to highlight the challenges and possibilities of an…
Abstract
Structured Abstract
Purpose – To consider the ways two pre-service teachers evaluated digital information sources about climate change in order to highlight the challenges and possibilities of an instructional approach aimed at cultivating digital literacies about climate change among pre-service teachers.
Design – The qualitative research design focuses on two pre-service teachers’ written reflections and participation during class discussions across two sessions in a content literacy course. The theoretical framework that guided the analysis was civic media literacy.
Findings – Findings of this study highlight conceptions of reliability that two participants held (reliability as relative or as evidentiary support) as they worked with web sources about climate change. These conceptions reflected a denialist orientation to climate change science.
Practical Implications – This study contributes to the literature that considers the ways pre-service teachers work with websites about socioscientific topics. It highlights how an instructional model can help promote digital literacy practices that center on evaluating the reliability of websites about climate change. It also includes a companion framework called fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry picking, and conspiracy theories (FLICC) that can be used to guide students to better understand techniques and practices of science denial.
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This paper aims to explore the outcomes experienced by young people leaving care in Ireland today through the theoretical lens of social capital.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the outcomes experienced by young people leaving care in Ireland today through the theoretical lens of social capital.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents selected qualitative data and its analysis that was gathered through a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with three key informants (care leavers). In gathering interview data, the Biographic-Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) was selected, as it allowed the research participants a great deal of autonomy in recounting significant events from their own lives.
Findings
In drawing upon the lived experience of these care leavers, this work will discuss how their in-care and post-care experiences shaped their exposure to and development of sources of social capital, which in turn proved to be a significant factor in shaping their in-care and post-care outcomes.
Social implications
Care leavers remain systemically disadvantaged in comparison to young people who have not been in care. Research has shown that children in care and care leavers are often disadvantaged educationally and experience higher rates of homelessness, unemployment and social isolation. This paper discusses the role of “social capital”, i.e. relationships that provide access to social and material resources and opportunities, in shaping care leavers exposure to and experience of these disadvantages.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this work is the first in the Irish context to draw on the concept of social capital to explore its role in shaping the in-care and post-care experiences of care leavers in Ireland.
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Carin Neitzel and Judith A. Chafel
Purpose – The study reported here analyzed the meanings that 8-year-old children of different demographic backgrounds constructed about poverty.Methodology/approach – Six children…
Abstract
Purpose – The study reported here analyzed the meanings that 8-year-old children of different demographic backgrounds constructed about poverty.
Methodology/approach – Six children with different demographic profiles were selected from a larger study for closer examination of their conceptions of poverty (Chafel & Neitzel, 2004, 2005). Content analysis was used to arrive at an in-depth interpretation of the children's ideas expressed in response to a story about poverty and interview questions.
Findings – The children communicated perspectives about poverty that appear to reflect their demographic profiles. Yet, they also shared a common ideology about the poor different from the dominant societal view.
Research implications – By selecting typical children, recognizing the interrelatedness of sources of influence, and considering the data holistically, it was possible to achieve an in-depth understanding of the children's conceptions.
Originality/value of paper – With insight into the more humane conceptions that children have about the poor, adults can take steps to nurture these ideas so that as they grow older children continue to oppose discrimination and challenge the status quo.