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Empathy and the salesperson: A multidimensional perspective
Author(s) -
McBane Donald A.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
psychology and marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.035
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1520-6793
pISSN - 0742-6046
DOI - 10.1002/mar.4220120409
Subject(s) - empathy , psychology , perspective (graphical) , conceptualization , perspective taking , social psychology , emotional contagion , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , computer science
Prior studies of empathy have yielded conflicting findings regarding the effectiveness of empathy in improving salesperson performance. This article integrates a multidimensional conceptualization of empathy from the psychology literature with existing theory from marketing literature to suggest that perspective taking, empathic concern, emotional contagion, and controlling behaviors will differentially effect salesperson performance. Responses from a survey of business‐to‐business salespeople indicate that empathy has both positive and negative effects. Implications of the findings are explored. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.