Outline and Brief Summary of the Studies
Chapter 2 - Satisfaction and Loyalty to Suppliers within the Grocery Trade
The basic aim of this chapter is to investigate how some traditional marketing variables affect both perceived performance of the supplier, and the trade's intention of future cooperative behavior. The rationale for the study is the retailer concentration taking place in Norway as well as in most other Western countries, shifting power from suppliers to retailers. At the time of the study, eight retailing purchasing groups controlled 94% of the turnover within the Norwegian grocery trade, while in 1998 four groups controlled 99% of the sales through grocery outlets. The shift of power has severe consequences for suppliers (supplier in this context supplier means producer or importer, not wholesaler). First, access to the market is restricted and no longer unquestionably available to suppliers. For example, suppliers, notably the weaker ones, are exposed to the threat of being thrown out of retail chain outlets, meaning a loss of sales between 10% to 30% almost overnight (Dagens Næringsliv). Second, the introduction of the trade's private labels is increasing, exposing suppliers to competition from their distributors. On the other hand, the remaining suppliers are left an opportunity to capture volume, alone or in competition with private labels. Thus, relationships with the trade should matter to the supplier. Without a relationship, there will
profitability (price), and marketing support (promotion), affect the perceived performance of the supplier measured by satisfaction and thereby willingness to continue the relationship (loyalty). As such, the paper links the 4P tradition of marketing to relationship marketing by relating three marketing mix variables to relational performance, i.e. satisfaction and loyalty, in a channel (place) context. However, the independent variables in the research are studied in a power-dependence framework. While the original power-dependence framework built on the assumption of a dominant part, the "channel captain," usually the supplier, coordinating the channel activities by exercising coercive and non-coercive power in order to support the captain's strategy, the perspective of this study is somewhat different. Since the supplier no longer can be viewed as the more powerful party, the supplier's sources of power, operationalized through the marketing tools, can be applied also to act in the interests of the retailer. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 347 grocery retailers. The statistical results show that satisfaction is mainly affected by the salesforce through interpersonal relations, communication, co-operativeness and promotional activities in the outlets. While satisfaction is one determinant of loyalty, loyalty is also affected by determinants signaling dependency, sources of power, and stakes in the relationship.
Examples are quality products, a unique product line, product profitability, and a professional salesforce.
Chapter 3 - The Strategic Role of the Salesperson in Established Buyer-Seller Relationships
The second study focuses on the salesperson's relationship manager role in established buyer-seller relationships. Practising managers are questioning the necessity of the suppliers' salesforce both in marketing channels and industrial buyer-seller relationships (e.g. Dagens Næringsliv 21.8.98). The retailers' argument is based on the transaction cost perspective of increasing efficiency and control by integrating the suppliers' salesfunction rather than relying on external parties. In industrial buyer-seller relationships efficiency considerations also prevail when the ordering function is taken over by automated, administrative arrangements and sales are regulated by long-term contracts within single or dual sourcing arrangements. The results from the previous study, presented in chapter 2, do not indicate that the supplier's salesforce is obsolete, but that the selling role is in transition from that of
being a seller to that of being a consultant, indicating the significance of interpersonal relations, communication and cooperativeness. These factors are explored further in the second study presented in chapter 3 of the dissertation. The main premise is that the role of the salesperson in established buyer-seller relationships should be that of a manager of internal and external relationships rather than a seller. As such, the efforts of the salesperson should be directed towards managing the relational processes. In the study three issues related to the relationship manager role are examined: (1) appropriate measures of salesperson performance within an established relationship, (2) behaviors and skills affecting salesperson performance as a relationship manager, and (3) the effect of salesperson performance on the relationship. It is proposed that aspects of salesperson performance should be relationship maintenance and reinforcement. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that information exchange, personal relationship, conflict resolution, and customer knowledge will have a positive influence on salesperson performance, while the effect of aggressive sales influence will be negative. These hypotheses were tested on a sample of 279 industrial buyer-supplier relationships. The results suggested that the salesperson had a significant and substantial effect on relationship continuity. They also showed that the salesperson contributes to perceptions of the supplier's reliability and supplier services. The key attributes of an effective salesperson were ability to resolve conflicts, ability to develop a personal relationship with customers, and ability to facilitate exchange of information between the supplier and buyer firm. The hypothesized negative effect of aggressive sales influence on salesperson performance was not supported, but the statistical analyses suggested a direct, negative effect on continuity. Furthermore, the results suggested that the salesperson performance measure could be improved. Overall, the results indicated that the proposed behaviors and skills variables might affect the relationship, even ifthey were not mediated by the salesperson performance measure applied in the study.
As the marketing function in general, and the sales function in particular could be affected by the nature of the relationship (jackson 1985b), one direction proposed for further research is how dependency in the relationship would influence salesperson behavior (Bonoma 1976;
Weitz 1981). This direction is further explored in chapter 4.
Chapter 4 - Relational Selling Behavior and Skills in Long-term Industrial Buyer-Seller Relationships
The third study in the dissertation looks further into the relationship management behaviors and skills of the salesperson and how these behaviors and skills affect and are affected by the buyer-supplier relationship. Thus the study explores further one of the research directions pointed out in chapter 3. Incontrast with much of the literature on relationship formation and relationship marketing which apparently suggests that some behaviors and skills are universally positive or negative, the basic proposition of chapter 4 is that salesperson behaviors and skills would have different effects under different relational conditions. This assumption is inspired by the contingency framework for investigating the effectiveness of sales behaviors across sales interactions proposed by Weitz (1981). In Weitz' framework effectiveness of sales behaviors is posited to be moderated by (a) the salesperson's resources, (b) the nature of the customer's buying task, (c) the customer-salesperson relationship and interactions between (a), (b), and (c). To test the whole model in a single study would be too comprehensive. The behaviors and skills derived from the literature and qualitative research and used in the study were communication, conflict handling, personal similarity, sales aggressiveness, and control, while the moderating relational condition examined is degree of dependence on the supplier. The hypotheses were tested in a sample of 294 industrial buyer- supplier relationships. Four of the five hypothesized main effects were confirmed. The results also suggested that salesperson behaviors do have a significant and substantial effect on relationship continuity.
Communication, personal similarity, and conflict handling were all positive, while aggressive sales influence had the expected negative effect. However, only two of the five interaction effects were significant. First, as posited, personal similarity became less important as dependence on the supplier increased. Second, aggressiveness had a less negative effect as the degree of dependence increased, contrary to the initial expectation.