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Empathy, Nonverbal Immediacy, And Salesperson Performance: The Mediating Role Of Adaptive Selling Behavior, Yam Limbu, C Jayachandran, Barry J. Babin, Robin T. Peterson
Empathy, Nonverbal Immediacy, And Salesperson Performance: The Mediating Role Of Adaptive Selling Behavior, Yam Limbu, C Jayachandran, Barry J. Babin, Robin T. Peterson
Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
Purpose: Previous studies that examined the role of empathy and nonverbal immediacy on business-to-business (B2B) salesperson performance is limited in scope and yielded inconclusive evidence. Grounded in Plank and Greene’s (1996) framework of salesperson effectiveness, this paper aims to empirically investigate the mediating role of adaptive selling behavior through which empathy and nonverbal immediacy influence sales force performance and the form of empathy (cognitive or affective) that has the most beneficial role in improving relationship (versus outcome) salesperson performance. Design/methodology/approach: Using cross-sectional data that were collected from 422 pharmaceutical sales representatives, this study used structural equation modeling to test the …