Gilbert A. Churchill

A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs.

A critical element in the evolution of a fundamental body of knowledge in marketing, as well as for improved marketing practice, is the development of better measures of the variables with which ma...

An investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction.

The authors investigate whether it is necessary to include disconfirmation as an intervening variable affecting satisfaction as is commonly argued, or whether the effect of disconfirmation is adequ...

The Determinants of Salesperson Performance: A Meta-Analysis

The authors use meta-analysis techniques to investigate the evidence that has been gathered on the determinants of salespeoples performance. A search of the published and unpublished literature un...

The Impact of Physically Attractive Models on Advertising Evaluations

A considerable amount of social science research suggests an individuals initial perception of and reaction to another individual are affected by the physical attractiveness of the other person. T...

Research Design Effects on the Reliability of Rating Scales: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis investigates the effects of research design on the reliability of rating scale measures used in marketing research. Three sets of independent variables—sampling characteristics, ...

Motivation and performance in industrial selling: Present knowledge and needed research.

This position paper argues that current knowledge of the determinants of motivation and performance in industrial selling is woefully inadequate. As a first step toward improving this situation, th...

Caution in the Use of Difference Scores in Consumer Research

This article illustrates the common use of difference scores in consumer research and discusses a number of potential problems with using them. Difference scores often have problems in the areas of reliability, discus validity, spurious correlations, and variance restriction. The article concludes that difference scores should generally not be used in consumer research and offers alternatives that overcome their limitations. Copyright 1993 by the University of Chicago.

Organizational Determinants of the Industrial Salesman's Role Conflict and Ambiguity

T HE IMPORTANCE of the field salesman in the successful marketing of industrial goods has long been appreciated. Only recently, however, has attention been given to the fact that the nature of the field salesmans job can produce some perplexing problems for marketing and sales managers, as well as for salesmen themselves. Specifically, several characteristics of the industrial salesmans job make him particularly susceptible to role conflict and role ambiguity.1 Role conflict occurs when the salesman faces two or more incompatible job demands from his organizational superiors, customers, family members, or other role partners. The salesman experiences role ambiguity when he is uncertain about how he is expected to perform his job. The high potential for role conflict poses a problem for the individual salesman because of the negative psychological reactions people often experience in conflict situations. A wide variety of empirical studies have found positive relationships between high levels of perceived role conflict and high levels of job-related tension and anxiety, on the one hand, and low levels of job satisfaction, on the other.2 There is also evidence that prolonged exposure to high levels of role conflict can have physical consequences, such as an increased incidence of coronary disease.3 Similarly, when an individual experiences a great deal of uncertainty about how he is expected to perform his job (role ambiguity), he may experience more mental anxiety and tension and less job satisfaction.4 The potential for high levels of perceived role conflict and ambiguity among field salesmen also presents some major problems for sales and marketing managers. To the extent that conflict and ambiguity reduce the job satisfaction of salesmen, for example, they are likely to produce higher levels of turnover within the sales force and accompanying recruitment and training costs.5 The amount of conflict and ambiguity the salesman experiences may also affect his job performance, although the relationships between conflict, am-

Relationships among Research Design Choices and Psychometric Properties of Rating Scales: A Meta-Analysis

The purpose of the article is to propose and empirically test a model of the relationships among research design variables and the psychometric criteria of reliability, convergent validity, discrim...

Recognition Versus Recall as Measures of Television Commercial Forgetting

The authors report the second in a series of experiments on recognition as a dependent variable in the study of learning and forgetting of television commercials. They investigate the impact of time since exposure, commercial length, and commercial repetition on recognition and unaided recall scores. The results indicate that recognition scores are not indiscriminately high, as commonly is argued, and that they do decline with time, contrary to what often is assumed. The data, in fact, show that recognition scores are more sensitive and more discriminating than, and covary with, unaided recall scores. The evidence indicates they warrant more consideration by advertisers.