IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v111y2020icp91-101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who do I look at? Mutual gaze in triadic sales encounters

Author

Listed:
  • Arndt, Aaron D.
  • Khoshghadam, Leila
  • Evans, Kenneth

Abstract

Mutual gaze (i.e., eye contact) is linked to both positive outcomes such as trust and liking, and negative outcomes such as dominance and hostility. When selling to multiple people, salespeople must decide how to divide mutual gaze between customers. Too much or little time spent looking at a particular customer could reduce rapport. This research addresses two research questions: (1) Are salespeople more inclined to share mutual gaze with certain customers? And (2) What is the effect of mutual gaze focused primarily on one particular customer compared to sharing mutual gaze with both customers more equitably? Real sales encounters were analyzed and two follow-up experimental studies were conducted. The results show that salespeople tend to share mutual gaze with customers who are similar when first meeting, and those who speak more. Sharing mutual gaze equitably between customers when first meeting is typically more beneficial than focusing on a particular customer.

Suggested Citation

  • Arndt, Aaron D. & Khoshghadam, Leila & Evans, Kenneth, 2020. "Who do I look at? Mutual gaze in triadic sales encounters," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 91-101.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:111:y:2020:i:c:p:91-101
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319301134
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davis, Harry L, 1976. "Decision Making within the Household," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 2(4), pages 241-260, March.
    2. Cross, Samantha N.N. & Gilly, Mary C., 2014. "Consumption compromises: Negotiation and unification within contemporary families," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 449-456.
    3. Arndt, Aaron D. & Karande, Kiran & Glassman, Myron, 2016. "How context interferes with similarity-attraction between customers and service providers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 294-303.
    4. Haridimos Tsoukas, 2009. "A Dialogical Approach to the Creation of New Knowledge in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(6), pages 941-957, December.
    5. Gremler, Dwayne D. & Gwinner, Kevin P., 2008. "Rapport-Building Behaviors Used by Retail Employees," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 308-324.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cambra-Fierro, Jesús & Polo-Redondo, Yolanda & Trifu, Andreea, 2021. "Short-term and long-term effects of touchpoints on customer perceptions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. Amin, Mohammad Sakif & Arndt, Aaron D. & Tanner, Emily C., 2023. "Impact of stereotype threat on sales anxiety," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Chihling & Keeling, Debbie Isobel & Hogg, Margaret K., 2016. "Strategy narratives and wellbeing challenges: The role of everyday self-presentation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 234-243.
    2. Anders Melander & Tomas Mullern & David Anderssson & Fredrik Elgh & Malin Löfving, 2022. "Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Collaborative Research—in Dialogues We Trust," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 35(5), pages 655-677, October.
    3. Guangfan Sun & Xin Lin & Junyi Chen & Nuo Xu & Ping Xiong & Hanqi Li, 2023. "Cultural inclusion and corporate sustainability: evidence from food culture and corporate total factor productivity in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, December.
    4. Lorino, Philippe & Mourey, Damien & Schmidt, Géraldine, 2017. "Goffman's theory of frames and situated meaning-making in performance reviews. The case of a category management approach in the French retail sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 32-49.
    5. Hervé Dumez & Etienne Minvielle, 2020. "Le système hospitalier français dans la crise Covid-19," Working Papers hal-03053359, HAL.
    6. Dant, Rajiv P. & Brown, James R., 2008. "Bridging the B2C and B2B Research Divide: The Domain of Retailing Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(4), pages 371-397.
    7. Lien, Nguyen Huong & Westberg, Kate & Stavros, Constantino & Robinson, Linda J., 2018. "Family decision-making in an emerging market: Tensions with tradition," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 479-489.
    8. Shasha Liu & Toshiyuki Yamamoto & Enjian Yao, 2023. "Joint modeling of mode choice and travel distance with intra-household interactions," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 1527-1552, October.
    9. Brunswicker, Sabine & Bilgram, Volker & Fueller, Johann, 2017. "Taming wicked civic challenges with an innovative crowd," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 167-177.
    10. Kreiner, Kristian & Jacobsen, Peter Holm & Jensen, Daniel Toft, 2011. "Dialogues and the problems of knowing: Reinventing the architectural competition," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 160-166, March.
    11. Armisen, Albert & Majchrzak, Ann, 2015. "Tapping the innovative business potential of innovation contests," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 389-399.
    12. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "Does female empowerment promote economic development?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 309-343, December.
    13. Anna Jonsson & Maria Grafström & Mikael Klintman, 2022. "Unboxing knowledge in collaboration between academia and society: A story about conceptions and epistemic uncertainty [De-essentializing the Knowledge Intensive Firm: Reflections on Skeptical Resea," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 583-597.
    14. Ximena Garcia-Rada & Lalin Anik & Dan Ariely, 2019. "Consuming together (versus separately) makes the heart grow fonder," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 27-43, March.
    15. Lina Mao & Chongluan Lu & Guangfan Sun & Chunyan Zhang & Changwei Guo, 2024. "Regional culture and corporate finance: a literature review," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    16. Karen Bell & Eldin Fahmy & David Gordon, 2016. "Quantitative conversations: the importance of developing rapport in standardised interviewing," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 193-212, January.
    17. Elena Tavella & L. Alberto Franco, 2015. "Dynamics of Group Knowledge Production in Facilitated Modelling Workshops: An Exploratory Study," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 451-475, May.
    18. Paola Perez-Aleman, 2011. "Collective Learning in Global Diffusion: Spreading Quality Standards in a Developing Country Cluster," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 173-189, February.
    19. Lee, Na Young & Noble, Stephanie M. & Zablah, Alex R., 2020. "So distant, yet useful: The impact of distal stories on customers’ service expectations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 230-242.
    20. Mortimer, Gary & Weeks, Clinton S., 2019. "How unit price awareness and usage encourages grocery brand switching and expenditure," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 346-356.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:111:y:2020:i:c:p:91-101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.