Roger P. McIntyre

Empirical relationships between need for cognition and cognitive style : implications for consumer psychology

Earlier research by Cacioppo and Petty has shown need for cognition scores to be related to the early conceptualization of cognitive style of Witkin, Dyk, Faterson, Goodenough, and Karp. For a sample of 69 female and 98 male undergraduate business students, the present study investigated relationships between need for cognition and cognitive style as measured by the sensing-intuiting and thinking-feeling components of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Need for cognition scores were statistically related to cognitive style. As hypothesized, subjects high on Intuiting-Thinking scored highest, and those scoring high on Intuiting-Feeling and Sensing-Thinking had intermediate scores. Subjects scoring high on Sensing-Feeling scored lowest. Five of six paired contrasts of need for cognition scores were significant. Market applications and implications for consumer psychology are discussed.

Cognitive Style as an Antecedent to Adaptiveness, Customer Orientation, and Self-Perceived Selling Performance

Data from 396 real estate salespeople offer structural model evidence of the antecedence of salesperson cognitive style (Jung, 1971) to adaptive selling behavior, and to sales orientation-customer orientation and self-perceived selling performance. Four hypotheses were supported: Salespeople who prefer information intake by intuiting (rather than sensing) and information processing/decision-making by thinking (rather than feeling) were found to be more likely to practice adaptive selling; the more adaptive selling was practiced, the greater customer orientation became; and the greater the customer orientation, the better the self-perceived selling performance. Implications exist for salesperson training, management, and motivation research.

A cognitive style perspective on ethical questions

Previous research has shown that cognitive style impacts several areas of human behavior of interest to marketers. This article reports the results of an exploratory study testing the proposition that cognitive style can influence ones perceptions of what is and is not a matter of ethics. The findings indicate that cognitive style can play a role in ones perceptions of ethics, and may help further our understanding of the factors that bear on ethical points of view.

Cognitive style and customer orientation

Cognitive style, the ways in which we take in information from the environment and process that information, has been shown to influence interactions in various behavioral fields. This paper investigates whether cognitive style would impact an individuals orientation toward the customer or toward the sale, as measured by the SOCO scale. The results suggest that cognitive style can influence ones orientation. This knowledge should prove useful to sales managers in designing training programs for new sales personnel, as well as in assigning sales personnel to specific selling tasks.

Buyers’ Perceptions of Salesperson Tactical Approaches

At the strategic level, the role of the industrial salesperson has been described as managing a portfolio of different buyer– seller relationships. This study identifies specific sales tactics (i.e., customer-focused, competitor-focused, or productfocused) that support the development of these strategic relationships. Data gathered from a national sample of industrial buyers was used to examine the differential effects of three sets of selling techniques. These differences tend to be contingent on the buyers’ position within that firm. When a buyer occupies a higher level of authority within his or her firm, customer-focused approaches tend to garner higher responsiveness ratings.

Salespersons' weight and ratings of characteristics related to effectiveness of selling.

A study was conducted to examine the effects of a salespersons weight and the interaction of weight with sex on a variety of positive personal characteristics which have been previously established. 243 purchasing agents provided data on 410 male and female salespeople who were then divided into two groups by weight. Analyses of variance were conducted using weight and sex as the independent variables and a variety of personal characteristics as dependent variables. The analysis suggested that the weight and sex of a salesperson are related to several personal characteristics.

ASSERTIVENESS AND AGGRESSIVENESS AS POTENTIAL MODERATORS OF CONSUMERS' VERBAL BEHAVIOR FOLLOWING A FAILURE OF SERVICE '

49 men and 37 women participated in a study of the relationships among assertiveness, aggressiveness, and verbal intentions. Findings suggest that as a persons social network extends out from family to others, Nonassertive and Aggressive persons are less likely to discuss a problem with service and their response. However, more assertive consumers are significantly more likely to discuss these same circumstances with acquaintances and others. The nature of intended verbal communications was positive for Assertive relative to Nonassertive consumers. Sex of the subject did not appear to be of importance.

EXPLORATORY RELATIONSHIPS AMONG COGNITIVE STYLE, VALUES, AND SELECTED CONSUMPTION BEHAVIORS

This study presents an exploratory structural model of relationships among dimensions of cognitive style, List of Values factors, and consumption activity factors. Analysis was based on questionnaire responses from 416 alumni of a major southwestern university The findings provide insight into how measurement of values may be modified to include individual personality differences; how values may relate to consumption behavior; and how personality differences may relate to both values and consumption behavior.

Birth Order and Need for Cognition in Marketing Entrepreneurship

Many researchers have profiled the typical entrepreneur as being firstborn. The present study investigated possible relationships between birth order and need for cognition scores as one reason for over-representation of firstborns among entrepreneurs. “Birth order” is rank by age among ones brothers and sisters. “Need for cognition” is the tendency to enjoy thinking and engage in it. Analysis of variance of responses from 33 female and 45 male university students indicated no statistically significant association between birth order and need for cognition scores. Implications for research and marketing to entrepreneurs are discussed.

Cognitive Style and Consumer Ethnocentricism

The greater availability to consumers of foreign goods resulting from the recent globalization of business has increased the need for measures to assess consumer attitudes and preferences for domestic and foreign products. Consumer ethnocentricism was proposed as a construct that may partially explain why consumers evaluate domestic products more favorably than foreign products. The CETSCALE was developed to measure the ethnocentricism construct and has been shown to be valid and reliable. However, its developers pointed out a need to determine whether consumer ethnocentric tendencies operate uniformly across all consumers or whether certain population segments reveal greater ethnocentric tendencies than others. The present study tested whether ethnocentricism varied across cognitive styles.