E. Stephen Grant

Exploring the Distinctive Nature of Work Commitments: Their Relationships with Personal Characteristics, Job Performance, and Propensity to Leave

This study explores personal characteristics as antecedents to three types of work commitment: job, organizational, and career. Also, the relationships between these work commitments and key sales outcomes (performance and propensity to leave the organization) are assessed. We demonstrate the distinctive nature of these three work commitments while reducing the concept redundancy found between them and other forms of work commitment. The results indicate that each form of work commitment is uniquely related to a set of personal characteristics and sales outcomes. We also provide suggestions for future research and implications for sales managers.

Student Ethnocentrism: Its Relevance to the Globalization of Marketing Education

The authors examine the influence of student ethnocentrism on attitudes toward the importance of and propensity to enroll in international business, foreign language, and business ethics courses. Ethnocentrism is found to be related negatively to student attitudes on each of these topic areas. The relevance of these findings to marketing educators is discussed.

The Potential Impact of Recreational Shoppers on Mall Intercept Interviewing: An Exploratory Study

Major changes are expected for shopping centers in the next several years as many highly competitive non-mall retailers are successfully targeting value-conscious and convenience-oriented consumers. This trend suggests that shopping centers may be loosing certain types of shoppers to these non-mall retailers. Given these changes, marketing researchers must begin to explore the implications this trend holds for users of mall intercept interviews. The authors discuss this trend and the current state of mall intercept interviewing, and report the [mdings of a study designed to investigate the types of shoppers who are interviewed in a shopping mall. Three hundred and three regional shopping center customers were selected and surveyed to test the study’s research questions. The results demonstrate the potential of mall intercept samples with an over-representation of recreational-type shoppers and surface several trade-offs associated with mall intercept interviewing. The authors provide suggestions for futur...

Attitudinal, personal, and job-related predictors of salesperson turnover

Purpose – To contribute to the understanding of how to manage turnover, the purpose of this paper is to determine if sales managers have the ability to predict high levels of propensity to leave (PL) from variables readily available in personnel records, and on commonly used employee surveys. Design/methodology/approach – The data used for the analysis of the study variables were collected from the sales forces of a total of ten firms across a variety of consumer and industrial product categories, resulting in a sample of 604 respondents. Data were analyzed via multiple discriminant analysis. Findings – The analysis and test results demonstrate that discriminant sets of attitudinal variables, personal characteristics, and aspects of the job can be identified and used to establish meaningful classifications of a salespersons PL. Organizational commitment, satisfaction with pay, family status, job involvement, level of education, and compensation plan were all found to be significant. Analysis fails to sup...

Developing and Assessing University Entrepreneurial Programs: The Case of a New Program in Atlantic Canada

Abstract This paper discusses the setup of a new entrepreneurship program at a university in Atlantic Canada as well as the intended method of program assessment. An important dimension of the paper is to showcase the challenges and opportunities of setting up an applied program of entrepreneurship study in a region lacking in infrastructure support for entrepreneurs compazed with other regions of Canada. The authors azgue that the development of new entrepreneurship programs will only advance the field if it is accompanied with proper assessment of program effectiveness.

Third-Party Payer Exchanges: The Case for an Enhanced Model of Service Quality for Nonprofit Organizations

This paper explores service quality in the seldom investigated context of nonprofit organizations dependent on third-party payments for services. Building on Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berrys (1985) conceptual model of service quality and the theory of exchange, a qualitative study, using a Canadian sample, provides support for an enhanced conceptual model of service quality applicable to the nonprofit sector. This model holds insight into strategic marketing decisions faced by nonprofit managers, and it provides a foundation for a research agenda to gain further insights into issues of service quality.

The Strategic Application of TQM Principles to Salesforce Management: A Human Resource Perspective

Total quality management (TQM) is becoming an important paradigm for business; however, the application of this paradigm has received very limited attention in sales management literature. This paper highlights the role of sales mangers in a qualityoriented environment via a human resource perspective. Sales management issues in TQM are identified and implications of TQM on specific salesforce management activities are explored. Implications for salesforce managers are provided.

THE INFORMAL ECONOMY: DEFINING AND CONCEPTUALIZING

ABSTRACT This article is based entirely on secondary information gathered from previous research works. The article considers two major issues: first, the definition of the informal economy; and second, conceptualizing the informal economy based on some important management functions.