This dissertation studies empowered consumer (EC) driven changes to B2C sales interactions. ECs are characterized as having
high levels of information, awareness, and power for specific purchase interactions (Labrecque et al. 2013). Despite popular acceptance
that salespeople must develop new sales approaches to be effective with ECs, limited conceptual (e.g., Jones, Sundaram, and Chin 2005;
Rapp et al. 2014) and empirical (e.g., Leigh et al. 2014; Verbeke, Dietz, Verwaal 2011) research explores this area. Therefore, despite
the importance of this topic, the marketing literature does not yet offer much insight for either management practice or theory
development. To address this need for research, Essay 1 "starts at the beginning" and empirically tests the effectiveness of traditional
sales influence tactics with ECs. Then, Essay 2 empirically tests how knowledge brokers effectively communicate attribute-specific
information and scarce knowledge to ECs. Essay 1 introduces the construct of "informedness" to measure a consumer's empowerment as he or
she enters a sales interaction. Informedness is defined by the essay as "the consumer's perceived information level for a specific
purchase decision prior to the given purchase event." The results of Essay 1 indicate two overarching findings salient to the interaction
of ECs and salespeople. First, the EC (high informedness) enters a sales interaction willing to buy (β = .57, p < .001, R2 =.33), yet
the relationship with purchase is non-significant (i.e., no purchase). Essay 1 employs the theory of dual routes of persuasion (Petty 198)
to classify salesperson influence tactics and hypothesize how ECs will respond based on their elaborative nature. The results provide the
second, and arguably most interesting, finding of Essay 1. Elaboration inducing influence tactics, expected to improve a salesperson's
likelihood of "closing a sale" with an EC, are not supported (i.e., the salesperson's attempts to increase purchase are not effective),
while elaboration inhibiting influence tactics are supported (i.e., salespeople can have a negative effect on purchase). In short, the
findings suggest that for ECs, who initially intend to purchase, salesperson use of traditional influence tactics is not effective, or
worse is detrimental. However, post-hoc analysis does reveal that the influence tactics perform as expected for non-ECs (low
informedness), which indicate that this approach still holds merit for less informed consumers. Essay 2 pursues an answer to the "if
traditional sales influence tactics don't work, what does work with ECs?" question suggested by the results of Essay 1. Thus, the concept
of the salesperson as knowledge broker is examined. Knowledge brokers are salespeople who take a holistic view of the consumer's
situation, assess it, and add scarce (missing) knowledge to recommend an optimal solution (Rapp et al. 2014). Specifically, Essay 2
focuses on new ways, unique to ECs, for salespeople to exchange information and to make recommendations to ECs, which is required of a
knowledge broker. The results provide support for all but one of Essay 2's hypotheses and make three important empirical contributions to
the empowered consumer and knowledge broker literatures. The first theoretical contribution is to apply regulatory focus theory to ECs.
Hypothesis 1 finds that EC perceived informedness levels have a positive and significant relationship with a prevention regulatory focus.
The second contribution is that salespeople can be effective as knowledge brokers through use of the underlying mechanisms of regulatory
focus theory. Hypothesis 2 adds empirical support for the mechanism of item-specific, or EC attribute-specific, information as an
effective means of value creation with ECs. The third contribution is explicating the conceptual idea of scarce knowledge with results
that indicate the interaction of attribute-specific information and "challenge" scarce knowledge lead ECs to greater acceptance of
salesperson recommendations than other approaches. In addition to scholarly contributions, sales managers should be very interested in the
findings of this research. The findings of Essay 1 indicate that for ECS, traditional application of influence tactics is not effective.
Essay 2 offers managers a starting point to realize why their salespeople are failing with ECs who are prevention focused. The findings of
Essay 2 suggest that, to be effective with ECs, salespeople should change their traditional needs analysis approach to a "determinant
attributes" analysis approach with a focus on exchanging attribute-specific information. Finally, Essay 2 offers evidence that challenging
ECs to "fix" information and application errors will lead to greater acceptance of salesperson recommendations. Overall, managers should
find the results of this research useful as they strive to understand what a knowledge broker is and how their salespeople can act in this
new sales role with ECs. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Marketing in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of
Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / March 31, 2016. / Elaboration Likelihood Model, Empowered Consumer, Influence Tactics, Knowledge Broker, Regulatory Focus,
Sales / Includes bibliographical references. / Ronald E. Goldsmith, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Daekwan Kim, Professor Co-Directing
Dissertation; Bruce Lamont, University Representative; Willy Bolander, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_360371 |
| Contributors | Hochstein, Bryan William (authoraut), Goldsmith, Ronald Earl (professor co-directing dissertation), Kim, Daekwan (professor co-directing dissertation), Lamont, Bruce T. (university representative), Bolander, William C. (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Business (degree granting college), Department of Marketing (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (140 pages), computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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