Relationship between the salespersons ethical behavior customers satisfaction the case of mercedes benz vietnam

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SALESPERSON’S ETHICAL BEHAVIOR & CUSTOMER’S SATISFACTIONTHE CASE OF MERCEDES BENZ VIETNAM In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION In Marketing By Mrs: Ly Thien Huong ID: MBA03014 International University – Vietnam National University HCMC February 2013 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SALESPERSON’S ETHICAL BEHAVIOR & CUSTOMER’S SATISFACTIONTHE CASE OF MERCEDES BENZ VIETNAM In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION In Marketing By Mrs: Ly Thien Huong ID: MBA03014 International University – Vietnam National University HCMC February 2013 Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approved by all its members, this thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree. Approved: ____________________________ Chairperson _____________________________ Committee member ___________________________ Committee member _____________________________ Committee member _____________________________ Committee member _____________________________ Committee member Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank Dr. Pham Hong Hoa, for a strong support as well as comments on my research. Thanks to her instructions and reference materials, my thesis is more perfect. I also wish to thank my wonderful colleagues, boss and loyal customers of MBV for being willing to answer an in-depth interview in collecting valuable information and ideas. Last but not least, I wish to offer my special thanks to my parents and my husband for their encouragements during a long time to finish the thesis on time. i Plagiarism Statements I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions. I fully understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University – Vietnam National University Hochiminh City. ii Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. © Ly Thien Huong/ MBA03014/2011-2013 iii Table of contents Acknowledgments .....................................................................................................i Plagiarism Statements .............................................................................................. ii Copyright Statement ............................................................................................... iii List of Figures....................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ........................................................................................................... ix List of abbreviations ................................................................................................. x Abstract ................................................................................................................... xi Chapter One - Introduction.................................................................................... 1 1. Research Background ........................................................................................ 1 2. Problem Statement ............................................................................................. 2 3. Research Objectives ........................................................................................... 3 4. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................................... 4 5. Research questions............................................................................................. 4 6. Research methodology ....................................................................................... 4 7. Thesis structure.................................................................................................. 5 8. Mercedes-Benz Vietnam overview..................................................................... 6 9. Conclusion......................................................................................................... 8 Chapter two - Literature Review ........................................................................... 9 1. Customer satisfaction ......................................................................................... 9 1.1 Definition of customer satisfaction ..............................................................9 1.2 Customer Satisfaction on the Salesperson ................................................. 11 iv 1.3 2. 3. 4. Customer Satisfaction Index .....................................................................13 Sales Behavior ................................................................................................. 14 2.1 Ethical and Unethical Sales Behavior ........................................................ 14 2.2 Determinants of ethical sales behavior ...................................................... 17 2.3 Consequences of ethical sales behavior ..................................................... 20 Compensation .................................................................................................. 24 3.1 Definition of compensation ....................................................................... 24 3.2 Components of compensation ...................................................................25 3.3 Relationship between compensation and salesperson’s performance ......... 27 Case study development................................................................................... 28 4.1 Definition of the case study as a research strategy .....................................28 4.2 Case study types ....................................................................................... 31 4.3 Research design ........................................................................................ 31 4.4 Case study requirements ........................................................................... 32 Chapter three - Research Methodology ............................................................... 35 1. Justification of qualitative case study methodology .......................................... 36 2. Sampling procedure ......................................................................................... 38 3. Data collection ................................................................................................. 39 3.1 Pilot study.................................................................................................39 3.2 In-depth Interview .................................................................................... 41 3.2.1 Customer in-depth interview .............................................................. 42 3.2.2 Sales staff and sales management in-depth interview: ........................ 43 v 4. Data analysis.................................................................................................... 44 5. Concluding remarks ......................................................................................... 45 Chapter four - Data Analysis................................................................................ 47 1. 2. Within-case analysis ........................................................................................ 47 1.1 Customer in-depth interview .....................................................................47 1.2 Sales staff and sales management in-depth interview ................................ 58 Cross-case analysis .......................................................................................... 73 2.1 Cross-case analysis for research issue 1: What do the aspects of salespersons influence on customer satisfaction of Mercedes-Benz’s service? .....73 2.2 Cross-case analysis for research issue 2: How does the ethical sales behavior impact on salespersons’ job satisfaction, performance and role conflictintersender? ......................................................................................................... 78 2.3 Cross-case analysis for research issue 3: How would the compensation plan be designed to motivate the salesperson? ............................................................. 83 Chapter five - Conclusion and Implications ........................................................ 88 1. Conclusion about the three research issues and implications for theory ............ 89 1.1 Conclusion about the research issue 1: What do the aspects of salespersons effect on customer satisfaction of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam service?.................... 89 1.1.1 The literature ..................................................................................... 89 1.1.2 Findings ............................................................................................. 90 1.1.3 Conclusion and implication................................................................ 91 1.2 Conclusion about the research issue 2: How does the salesperson’s ethical behavior impact on salesperson’s job satisfaction, performance and role conflictintersender? ......................................................................................................... 92 1.2.1 The literature ..................................................................................... 92 1.2.2 Findings ............................................................................................. 95 1.2.3 Conclusion and implication................................................................ 96 vi 1.3 Conclusion about the research issue 3: How would the compensation be designed to motivation the salesperson? .............................................................. 97 1.3.1 The literature ..................................................................................... 97 1.3.2 Findings ............................................................................................. 99 1.3.3 Conclusion and implication.............................................................. 101 2. Research limitations ....................................................................................... 102 3. Suggested further research ............................................................................. 102 4. Conclusion..................................................................................................... 103 References ........................................................................................................... 104 Appendices .......................................................................................................... 108 1. Appendix 1- CSI questions ............................................................................ 108 2. Appendix 2- In-depth interview questions……………………………………110 3. 2.1 Questionnaire for customer survey ......................................................... 110 2.2 Questionnaire for sales staff & sales management survey ....................... 112 Appendix 3- Worksheet ................................................................................. 116 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1 Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles .........6 Figure 1.2 Customer satisfaction index from 2006 to 2011 ........................................7 Figure 2.1 Outline of chapter 2 ..................................................................................9 Figure 3.1 Outline of chapter 3................................................................................ 35 Figure 4.1 Outline of chapter 4................................................................................ 47 Figure 5.1 Outline of chapter 5................................................................................ 88 viii List of Tables Table 2.1 Relevant situations for different research strategies..................................29 Table 2.2 Case study tactics for four design tests..................................................... 32 Table 3.1 Research issues and associated interview questions .................................40 Table 4.1 Summary background of customer’s in-depth interview .......................... 48 Table 4.5 Customer’s assessment in term of sales behavior .....................................74 Table 4.6 Sales staff and sales management’s assessment in term of satisfaction .....78 Table 4.7 Sales staff and sales management’s assessment in term of motivation level ............................................................................................................................... 83 ix List of abbreviations CSI Customer satisfaction index MBV Mercedes-Benz Vietnam PC Passenger car CV Commercial vehicle x Abstract Salesperson’s ethical behavior plays a critical role in the formation and maintenance of long-term relationship (Gundlach and Murphy, 1993; Roman and Ruiz, 2005) and has a significant effect on customer satisfaction. Customer’s satisfaction has positive impact on business result and is understood as a long term experience In contrast, unethical behavior can even generate liability to problems for salespeople’s organizations through both intentional and inadvertent statements (Boedecker et at., 1991). Customer’s dissatisfaction may lead to customer base decline and therefore generate lower return. In light of the above, a review of the literature on ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction, the purpose of this study is based on conceptual model introduced by Roman and Ruiz in 2005; Sergio Roman and Jose Luis Munuere in 2005 to analyze and explore the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam. From the exploratory results, the study makes some suggestions for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Management in recruiting, motivating and training sales force in order to achieve high level of customer satisfaction. The case research methodology was adopted to answer the research issues. For preparation of data collection, the case study protocol and interview questions were developed. Then, the data were collected primarily through conducting in-depth interviews with customers, sales staff and sales management of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam as well as secondary data from Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Company. Finally, after analyzing the data in within-case and cross-case, conclusions and xi recommendations of the study for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Management were presented. Key words: customer satisfaction, ethical sales behavior, salesperson, compensation, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam. xii xiii Chapter One - Introduction 1. Research Background Customer satisfaction is fundamental to marketing success. It determines whether customers make additional purchases and recommend the product to others. Therefore, understanding the factors that affect customer satisfaction is critical to a company’s marketing plan (Oliver and Swan, 1989). While there has been extensive research on customer satisfaction with regard to products and services (see Singh 1988; Oliver and Swan 1989), both academics and practitioners recognize that there has been little research on the effects of salesperson ethical behavior on customer satisfaction. Salespersons are the primary source of communication for the customer in industrial, business and retail market situations and thus, a salesperson’s behavior affects customer’s satisfaction (Harmon and Coney 1982, Wilkie and Dickson, 1985; Olshavsky, 1973; Oliver and Swan, 1989). To understand the effect of salesperson’s ethical behavior on customer satisfaction, a conceptual framework for determinants and consequences of ethical sales behavior will be presented. As stated by Sergio and Jose Luis Munuere (2005), there are two factors influence on the salesperson’s ethical behavior such as personal factors (age and education) and organizational factors (reward system and control system). Further that this behavior, in turn, influences the salesperson’s job satisfaction, performance and role conflict –intersender. Consequently, to increase customer satisfaction, salesperson needs to understand customer’s expectations and occasionally shapes his/her day-to-day selling presentations towards ethical behaviors. 1 2. Problem Statement Dunlap et al., (1988) indicate that a salesperson to engage in behaviors that increase long-term customer satisfaction and avoid behavior leading to customer dissatisfaction. Consequently, salesperson’s ethical behavior plays a critical role in the formation and maintenance of long-term buyer-seller relationship (Gundlach and Murphy, 1993; Roman and Ruiz, 2005), it leads to keeping and growing customers and long-term profitability. In contrast, unethical behavior can even generate liability to problems for salespersons’ organizations through both intentional and inadvertent statements (Boedecker et at., 1991) and generate negative word-of-mouth promotion. Furthermore, salespersons are exposed to greater ethical pressures than individuals in many other jobs. They work in relatively unsupervised settings; they are primarily responsible for generating the firm’s revenues, which at times can be very stressful and they are often evaluated on the basis of short-term objectives (Dubinsky et at., 1986; Bellizzi and Hite, 1989; Wotruba, 1990). In such situations, salespersons need to have more explicit guidelines laid down in corporate policies regarding ethical actions. Sales management engages in efforts to shape the ethical climate for motivating ethical behavior and avoiding unethical behavior in selling activities. To motivate the salesperson’s ethical practices, compensation plan would be designed for salesperson to achieve both individual and organizational goal. This research aims to explore the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam. In addition, there has been little research on the effects of salesperson ethical behavior on customer satisfaction both 2 academics and practitioners. For these reasons, it is very important to point out the significant implication for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Management in controlling, recruiting, motivating and training salespersons in order to produce an excellence their performance and to reach high level of customer satisfaction. 3. Research Objectives A review of the literature on ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction, the purpose of this study is based on conceptual model introduced by Roman and Ruiz in 2005; Sergio Roman and Jose Luis Munuere in 2005 to analyze and explore the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam. From the exploratory results, the study makes some suggestions for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Management in recruiting, motivating and training sales force in order to achieve high level of customer satisfaction. In order to reach the basic goal as the above mention, the research objectives are focused on the thesis as follow:  To identify what aspects of salesperson influences on customer satisfaction of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam’s service.  To examine how does the ethical sales behavior impact on salespersons’ job satisfaction, performance and role conflict-intersender.  To investigate how the compensation would be designed to motivate the salespersons. 3 4. Theoretical Framework The researcher will adopt the conceptual model introduced by Roman and Ruiz (2005) as the theoretical framework for the study. This conceptual model presents the impact of ethical sales behavior on customer’s satisfaction. In addition, in order to identify what the aspects of salesperson influence on customer satisfaction, the conceptual model developed by Sergio Roman and Jose Luis Munuere (2005) is also adopted. According to this model, the determinants including personal factors (age and education) and organizational factors (reward system and control system); and consequences of ethical sales behavior consisting of job satisfaction, performance and role conflict –intersender will be presented. 5. Research questions The research will attempt to find answers to the following questions:  What do aspects of salesperson influence on customer satisfaction of MercedesBenz Vietnam’s service?  How does the ethical sales behavior impact on salespersons’ job satisfaction, performance and role conflict-intersender?  How would the compensation be designed to motivate the salesperson? 6. Research methodology This research follows the methodology of Yin (2003) to build analytical case study consisting of designing the case study, conducting the case study and analyzing data collected. First, the research starts to justify why qualitative approach will be applied in 4 this study. Second, it mentions what procedure is employed for choosing the sample size, how and why the sample size is selected. After developing of case study protocol, data collection will be conducted with ten cases interviews. Finally, data analysis procedures are presented. 7. Thesis structure There are five parts in the thesis’s structure as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction The introduction section indicates the reason why the research’s conducted. It shows for us the general background, problem statement, objectives, theoretical framework, research questions, research methodology. Chapter 2: Literature review The literature review section studies some theories which play a basis role for this research. It includes the concepts of customer satisfaction, ethical sales behavior, compensation of case study. Chapter 3: Research methodology The research method section will show clearly the research process. It includes justification of qualitative case study, sampling procedure, data collection and analysis. Chapter 4: Data Analysis 5 In-depth interview data will be collected and analyzed in within-cases and cross-case. It will explore the relationship between ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction. Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations The conclusions section will summarize of results and comments on the thesis. 8. Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Overview Mercedes-Benz Vietnam was established in 1995 as a member of DaimlerChrysler, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam (MBV) is one of the top auto makers in Vietnam. It supplies both passenger cars and commercial vehicles to the market. MBV tries to complete its vision to become No.1 in automotive business in Vietnam regarding Customer Satisfaction, Quality and Innovation. Figure 1.1 Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Passenger Cars and Commercial Vehicles 6 Mercedes-Benz Vietnam takes all endeavors to make customers satisfy and to exceed their expectations. These can only be achieved by skilled employees who can fulfill our high standards through regularly training activities of our company. We aim to delight our customers constantly with our high quality standards, with our innovative products and with our outstanding service anytime, resulting from the excellence of our processes and people. Therefore we are keen to create an atmosphere for motivated and team oriented workforce, especially focusing on salesperson in order to achieved high level of customer satisfaction. Figure 1.2 Customer satisfaction index from 2006 to 2011 Source: CRM Department 7 Highlighting the importance of customer satisfaction, the chart above shows that CSI performance is increased every year and it is reported as an index score based on 100point scale. (See the appendix 1- CSI questions) 9. Conclusion This chapter has developed the foundation of the research. It provides the background description, problem definition, research objectives. Then the conceptual models introduced by Roman and Ruiz (2005) and Sergio Roman and Jose Luis Munuere (2005) are explored in chapter 2. Further, in-depth interview of ten cases selected is presented in chapter 3. Chapter 2 continues to review the literature related to ethical sales behavior, customer satisfaction and compensation and to analyze them further in the research issues. 8 Chapter two - Literature Review This chapter introduces us some theories linked to customer satisfaction (section 1), sales behavior (section 2), compensation (section 3) and case study development (section 4). The structure of this chapter is showed in the below. Figure 2.1 Outline of chapter 2 1. Customer satisfaction 2. Sales behavior 3. Compensation 4. Case study development 1. Customer satisfaction 1.1 Definition of customer satisfaction The concept of satisfaction which was defined by Swan and Oliver (1989) is an affective or emotional response to a specific consumption experience, with increasing satisfaction reflecting more positive affect and dissatisfaction reflecting greater affect. Satisfaction includes emotional responses of the consumers as they relate to purchases (Mano and 9 Oliver, 1993; Oliver, 1993). These emotional influences may result from factors related to product performance and also from the process of acquiring and using a product. Customer satisfaction, from the perspective of both the retailer and manufacturer, is an important issue because it is related to several desirable outcomes. It affects future purchase intentions- satisfied customers are more likely to purchase the same product from the same source (Furse, Punj, and Stewart, 1984; Sambandam and Lord, 1995). Satisfied customers also can provide a steady flow of word-of-mouth promotion, thereby reducing the expense required to find new customers (Swan and Oliver, 1989). In addition, customer satisfaction reduces the size of the set of products and retailer considers and minimizes switching behavior among previous purchasers (Sambandam and Lord, 1995). Figure 2.2 Four types customer Repurchase behavior Repeat Switch High Satisfied Repeaters Satisfied Switchers Low Dissatisfied Repeaters Dissatisfied Switchers Customer satisfaction Source: Johnson 1996 10 The above table presented four types customer related to high and low satisfaction. Customer’s satisfaction has positive impact on business result and is understood as a long term experience. Dissatisfaction may lead to customer base decline and therefore generate lower return. The more satisfaction they have the more benefit we get. 1.2 Customer Satisfaction on the Salesperson One of the important determinants of overall customer satisfaction is product performance, but it is not the only one. For example, Westbrook (1981) indicates that salesperson influences overall customer satisfaction with a purchase. Thus, the importance of salesperson behavior as an antecedent of overall customer satisfaction should be concerned. Salesperson behavior should be considered under two elements as below: Firstly, salesperson’s top priority is to meet the customer’s needs. According to Sujan (1986) and Petty (1983) show that reactions of the salesperson when they make interactions with their customers will influence product’s process related to information which can be considered as a direct route of persuasion. Thank to knowledge of customer’s needs, salesperson are able to evaluate how well its current offerings serve customer’s needs. By helping a buyer obtain product information and providing guidelines about what should be expected during the acquisition process and use of a product, a salesperson may influence customer expectations concerning the product and thereby reduce the likelihood of negative disconfirmation with its accompanying dissatisfaction (Grewal and Sharma, 1991). Previous findings from Szymanski (1988); 11 Spiro and Weitz, (1990) indicate that successful salespeople often tailor their presentation to the needs of each customer so that not only product and service desires are addressed but also the consumer’s sales process needs. By being customer- oriented, a salesperson is more likely to identify customer needs and match his presentation to those requirements, increasing overall customer satisfaction (Dunlap, Dotson, and Chambers, 1998). Secondly, salesperson’s emotional reaction will also effect on customer retention. The emotional reactions to a sales interaction have a positive impact of consumer satisfaction with the purchase experience and future purchase intentions (Babin, Bole, and Darden, 1995). Following Westbrook (1981) suggests that non-product satisfaction offered by retailers may be just as significant as product- related satisfaction in determining customer patronage. This emotional response to a salesperson could be considered an indirect or peripheral persuasion route since it does not directly relate to the product. According to Oliver and Swan (1989), for retail purchases the quality of the customersalesperson communication appears to impact satisfaction with the product. While there has been very limited research associated with the linkage between satisfaction with the salesperson as an indicator of satisfaction with the product, it appears that perceptions of equity by the consumer influence customer satisfaction with the salesperson which leads to satisfaction with the retailer- affecting product satisfaction. 12 1.3 Customer Satisfaction Index According to J.D. Power Asia Pacific Study, an international association that conducts research and survey to help vehicle manufacturers improve their sales and services, Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) is supposed to measure the level of customer satisfaction with car usage during the first three years of the automobile use. The CSI is composed of variables, while each of them is measured by few questions. Based on results released for German market in 2005, the four variables explaining customer satisfaction are:  Quality and reliability of vehicle- covers problems with vehicle  Vehicle appeal-means satisfaction with the vehicle’s performance, design, function and styling.  Service satisfaction- is understood as customer satisfaction with salesperson, dealership and service.  Ownership costs- cover costs of car use, insurance and repairs. J.D. Power vehicle quality and satisfaction measurement studies are used widely among automobile industry organizations. They enable to evaluate satisfaction levels and benchmark them against competitors. 13 2. Sales Behavior 2.1 Ethical and Unethical Sales Behavior Salesperson behavior can have a significant effect on customer satisfaction. Chen and Mau (2009) state that the ethical and unethical behaviors are based on this fact that how much an activity is correct or wrong, good or bad, fair or unfair. In order to survive in competitive environment business, managers in organizations should always strive for ethical behavior. It may not be easy to always act in an ethical way, but as a leader, it is necessary to follow the corporate codes and to support the corporate code of ethics. Customer requires a,”… salesperson to engage in behaviors that increase long-term customer satisfaction and avoid behavior leading to customer dissatisfaction” (Dunlap et al., 1988). Furthermore, Saxe and Weitz (1982) indicate that the effect of salesperson behavior on customer satisfaction is more important when: (1) a salesperson can offer a range of alternatives and has the expertise to assist the customer; (2) it is a complex buying task; (3) a cooperative relationship exists between salesperson and customer; and, (4) referrals and repeat sales are an important source of business. An examination of top performing dealerships suggests that these factors are present in the current consumer market for automobiles (Eisman, 1991). Figure 2.3 Impact of ethical sales behavior on customer satisfaction- Roman and Ruiz (2005) Ethical sales Customer satisfaction on behavior the salesperson 14 Salesperson’s ethical behavior plays a critical role in the formation and maintenance of long-term buyer-seller relationship (Gundlach and Murphy, 1993; Roman and Ruiz, 2005). In contrast, unethical behavior can even generate liability to problems for salespeople’s organizations through both intentional and inadvertent statements (Boedecker et at., 1991). Salespeople are exposed to greater ethical pressures than individuals in many other jobs. They work in relatively unsupervised settings; they are primarily responsible for generating the firm’s revenues, which at times can be very stressful and they are often evaluated on the basis of short-term objectives (Dubinsky et at., 1986; Bellizzi and Hite, 1989; Wotruba, 1990). Besides that, salesperson may behave unethically, when interacting with different stakeholders such as customers, competitors and employers. In the hierarchy of stakeholder importance, it appears that salespeople regard ethical transgressions against customers as being less ethical than any controversial actions against competitors or their colleagues (Chonko and Burnett, 1983; Chonko and Hunt, 1985). In addition, ethical selling behavior is a highly elusive construct and is often situation specific (Lagace et at., 1991). Nevertheless, it can be argued that ethics requires an individual to behave according to the rules of a moral philosophy with an emphasis on the determination of right and wrong (Gundlach and Murphy, 1993). More specifically, ethical sales behavior is related to widely “recognized” societal norms such as fair play, honesty and full disclosure (Robertson and Anderson, 1993; Futrell, 2002. Consequently, in the context of this study, ethical sales behavior is defined as fair and 15 honest actions that enable the salesperson to foster long-term relationships with customers based on customer satisfaction and trust. Example providing true and full information about product (e.g. when comparing with the competitors’ products, or in term of its benefits or availability) and implementing low-pressure selling techniques (Chonko and Burnett, 1983; Dubinsky et at., 1991; Lagace et at., 1991; Reidenbach et at., 1991; Tansey et at., 1994; Verbeke et at., 1996; Singhapakdi et at., 1999). The next part will present some determinants and consequences of ethical sales behavior. Figure 2.4 Determinants and Consequences of ethical sales behavior Reward Role conflictControl Ethical sales Performance Age Job satisfaction Education 16 Source: Adapted from European Journal of Marketing- Sergio Roman and Jose Luis Munuere (2005) 2.2 Determinants of ethical sales behavior Sergio Roman and Jose Luis Munuere (2005) conclude that there are two factors effect on the salesperson’s ethical behavior such as organizational factors (reward system and control system) and personal factors (age and education).  Reward system and Control system. The organizational factors including reward system and control system have been found to be key managerial factors affect on salesperson’s actions. For instance, finding from Craven et at., (1993) and Oliver and Anderson (1994) show significant effects on customer-oriented selling, a behavior that is closely linked to ethical behavior (Howe et at., 1994). Moreover, the influence of the reward system and control system on ethical behavior deserves further attention. For example, findings from Honeycutt et at., (2001) indicate that the firm’s reward structure significantly influenced the ethical sales behavior. In addition, past research of Verbeke et at., (1996) concludes that the effect of a control system on a salesperson’s ethical decisionmaking. Chonko et at., (1996) defines that reward system includes a set of processes through which behavior are directed and motivated to achieve individual and organizational goals. Compensation plan emphasizing salary is recommended, when firm wants its salespeople to adopt a long-term orientation and invests time servicing accounts to 17 realize future sales. In contrast, compensation plan emphasizing incentives is advocated, when firm wants its salespeople to get immediate sales (John and Weitz, 1989; Howe et at., 1994). Other results from Victor and Cullen (1988) indicate that commission of sales organization develops instrumental ethical climates characterized by statements such as “in this company, people are mostly out for themselves” and people are expected to do anything to further the company’s interests, regardless of the consequences”. In this vein, commission pay systems create a conflict of interest for the salesperson. On the one hand, it rewards salespeople to act in the firm’s interest, as well as their own interest, but fails to similarly directly reward salespeople to act in the customer’s interest (Kurland, 1995; 1999). This is the case, when the salesperson may find in his best interest to act unethically (e.g. by withholding information from the client) in order to make the sale and earn the commission (Kurland, 1999). In order words, commissionbased compensation methods might motivate the salesperson to act in an unethical manner that will result in maximum sales. Such a motivation is likely to be absent in salary-based methods (Honeycutt et at., 2001). A salary-based compensation system is likely to encourage the salesperson to adopt a long-term perspective with his customers, since under this system the company assumes most of the risk of lost deals and the salesperson little, so he feels less pressure to get immediate deals, thereby reducing the changes of unethical practices being used (Robertson and Anderson, 1993). Anderson and Oliver (1987) define that control system is a set of procedures the firm has for monitoring, directing, evaluating and compensating its salespeople. Salespersons are 18 thought to behave differently depending on the control system they face. Results from Hunt and Vasquez-Parraga (1993) document that one of the advantages of behaviorbased control system is “the development and maintenance of an organizational culture that encourages ethical behavior and discourages unethical behavior”  Age and education. Among the personal antecedents, two clear empirical generalizations from the non-sales ethics literature are that, although the findings are not unanimous, older and more educated salesperson generally behave more ethically than younger and less educated ones (Browing and Zabriskie, 1983; Jones and Gautschi, 1988; Ruegger and King, 1992; Deshpande, 1997). There are many reasons to explain why the older salespeople to be more ethical than younger salespeople. Firstly, as age increases, subjects have displayed more conservative and strict ethical tendencies and hold less compromising interpretations of what is to be judged ethical (Sikula and Costa, 1994). Secondly, ethical decision-making and intended ethical behavior, in general, increases as individuals move from lower levels to higher levels of moral reasoning (Wotruba, 1990) and moral reasoning is directly linked to age (Rest, 1986). Thirdly, older salespeople have been exposed longer to ethical dilemmas in non- business contexts (Izzo, 2000), therefore they are more willing to accept and conform to ethical standards and behave accordingly (Serwinek, 1992). In addition, education to have a positive influence on a salesperson’s ethical behavior for several reasons as follows. First, it can be argued that the educational process is designed to foster critical thinking and the ability to view situations from multiple 19 perspectives (Levy and Sharma, 1994). In this sense, previous research has found that education is positively related to moral judgment (Rest and Thoma, 1985; Rest, 1986). Similarly, the effect of education on ethical behavior can be supported by Kohlberg’s (1986) typology. Therefore, education is believed to result in greater sensitivity to different points of view and to be linked to a salesperson’s stage of cognitive moral development (Singhapakdi et at., 1999) 2.3 Consequences of ethical sales behavior Further that this behavior mentioned above, in turn, influences the salesperson’s role conflict- intersender, performance and satisfaction.  Role conflict-intersender. Following Rizzo et at., (1970), role conflict can be defined by the dimensions of congruency-incongruency or compatibilityincompatibility in the requirements of the salespeople role, where congruency and compatibility is judged relative to a set of standards that affect role performance. This research focuses on the relationship between ethical behavior and role conflict-intersender. This type of role conflict occurs, when two or more role partners have simultaneous expectations, such that compliance with the expectation of one role partner makes it difficult or even impossible to fulfill the expectations of the other role partners (Michaels et at., 1987). For example, salespeople may perceive role conflict-intersender, when simultaneously trying to meet company expectations and customer demands. A customer may demand better credit terms or quicker delivery schedules, which may be unacceptable to 20 the management. Role conflict-intersender is likely to be the most pervasive and intensely felt conflict experienced by salespeople (Walker et at., 1975). Role conflict-intersender involves conflicting expectations from two or more role partners (Singh, 2000). Generally, the major sources of this type of role conflict are the company (employer) and the customers (Walker et at., 1975). The salesperson must try to satisfy the expectations of his company and his customers. One the one hand, recognizing the negative consequences of unethical sales behavior, a company will expect its salespeople to behave ethically. On the other hand, customer try to satisfy their own objectives and need a sales transaction are often unaware of the policies and constraints under which a salesperson is operating (Walker et at., 1975). Since, among other things, ethical selling behavior implies taking into account customers’ needs, when selling a product (e.g. by refraining from selling product that customer do not need) (Ingram et at., 2001), we propose that a salesperson’s ethical behavior will reduce role conflict-intersender, at least by the percentage that is attributable to the conflicting expectations of the company and the customers. In a similar fashion, following Kelman’s (1958) theory of identification, in order to maintain a satisfying ego-identify, which is also known as the self-concept or self-image, the salesperson must maintain positive relationships with others, such as their customers, who support that positive self-image (Kelman, 1961). In turn, interactions with customers who do not support this positive self-image are likely lead to feeling of embarrassment and cognitive discomfort (O’Shaughnessy, 1971). When salespeople behave unethically (e.g. implementing manipulative sales tactics or high-pressure selling techniques), they may be a fear of 21 personal refection by the buyer, because the use of such actions is not supportive of positive relationships (Boyle and Dwyer, 1995).  Performance. Performance is comprised of behaviors (the activities salespeople perform) and outcomes resulting from behavior; the former has been termed behavioral performance, whereas the latter is known as outcome performance (Behrman and Perrault, 1982; Grant and Cravens, 1996). According to anecdotal literature, successful salespeople focus on customers, earn the customer’s trust and respect and develop partnership relationships with them (Manager’s Magazine, 1995; Schiffman, 1998). Likewise, a salesperson’s ethical behavior is positively related to customer trust and satisfaction, thus enhancing relationship quality and the probability of future rewards to the salesperson (Lagace et at., 1991; Roman and Ruiz, 2005). More importantly, buyers tend to purchase from salespeople they trust (Ganesan, 1994). Focusing on customers, building relationships based on satisfaction and trust, and making sales are generally part of a salesperson’s job. Consequently, it is plausible to expect that more ethical salespeople are more likely to achieve such goals and subsequently improve their performance. According to Weeks and Nantel (1992), salespeople who understood their company’s ethical business policy were moderately successful in their jobs. Similarly, Honeycutt et at., (1995) find that high-performance salespeople showed high ethical behavior and Schwepker and Ingram (1996) have provided empirical evidence of salespeople’s moral judgments as being positively related to their job performance. And recently, results 22 from Turner and Valentine (2001) indicate that altruism and performance were positively correlated among salespeople.  Job satisfaction. Churchill et at., (1974) defines job satisfaction as: “all characteristics of the job itself and the work environment which salesmen find rewarding, fulfilling and satisfying or frustrating and unsatisfying”. In a nonsales context, Vitell and Davis (1990) found that management information systems professionals were less satisfied with their job when, unethical behavior was common within either their industry or company. Bellizzi and Hite(1989) show that the job satisfaction of salespeople can be weakened if they perceive their organization as rewarding the unethical behaviors of co-workers. Similarly, studies by Weeks and Nantel (1992) and Schwepker (2001) indicate that the code of ethics and the ethical climate respectively influenced a salesperson’s job satisfaction. Finally, the qualitative research of Beatty et at (1996) noted that salespeople’s ethical behavior (e.g. having customer’s best interests in mind and being honest to them) led to higher levels of job satisfaction. A salesperson’s ethical behavior will have a positive impact on his job satisfaction. On the one hand, it can be argued that because of the negative consequences of unethical sales behavior previously mentioned, a company will expect its salespeople to behave ethically. Thus, a salesperson who behaves ethically will comply with management expectations and will experience feelings of success, which in turn, will increase his job satisfaction (Brown et at., 1993). On the other hand, a salesperson is likely to be more satisfied with his work, most of which is carried out interacting with customers (Ingram 23 et at., 2001), if he behaves ethically, such as not lying to customers or not applying deceptive and manipulative techniques. Finally, following Kelman’s (1958), the practice of ethical sales behaviors supports a positive self-image and, consequently, is likely lead to feeling of satisfaction. 3. Compensation In order to motivate the salespeople to achieve individual and organizational goals, firms shall use the reward system. According to Chonko et at., (1996), reward system includes compensation plan focusing on salary. In contrast, John and Weitz, (1989) and Howe et at., (1994) indicate that compensation plan should emphasize bonuses. In this study, compensation plan will be explored as below. 3.1 Definition of compensation According to the American Compensation Association’s (1995), the concept of compensation can be defined “cash and non-cash remuneration provided by an employer or services rendered” (ACA, p.9). There are several ways to classify, sort, characterize and re-define of compensation. Previous studies have showed that compensation can be intrinsic or extrinsic, financial or non-financial, and/or direct or indirect (Clampitt and Potempa, 1994). Moreover, compensation is a form of rewards that flow to employees arising from their employment (Dessler, 1995). As Bernardin and Russell (1993) conclude that compensation has a bit influence in the recruitment of employees, motivation, productivity and employee turnover. Recently, Hafiza N.S., Shah S.S., Jamsheed H., Zaman K (2011) reveal that there is a positive relationship between extrinsic reward and employee motivation, but it has been observed that firm is not 24 offering right amount it into each situation, it should be learned more, because it will effect on salespeople’s performance. In the literature, expectancy theory and agency theory provide insights concerning motivation of the salespeople and designing the compensation plan. In the one hand, expectancy theory is often discussed in research on sales motivation and may also be beneficial in designing effective compensation systems (Brown et at., 2005; Flaherty and Pappas 2002). In the other hand, agency theory is particularly beneficial in building compensation plan for salespeople, because it addresses the necessity of having individuals influence in term of rewards, the need to balance rewards with risk, and the importance of performance that can be measured (Bartol, 1999). Results from Brown et at., 2005; Erevelles, Dutta, and Galantine (2004) indicate that salesperson is often multidimensional and may involve in supporting after-sale services as well as building good relationships with their customers, so it is essential to design an effective compensation emphasizing on different dimensions or tasks that comprise a salesperson’s effort (Brown et at., 2005; Erevelles, Dutta, and Galantine 2004). 3.2 Components of compensation Compensation can be divided into different types for several ways. Previous studies of Mondy and Noe (1993) document that compensation can be divided into two types, such as financial and non-financial compensation. First, the financial compensation includes of direct financial and indirect financial compensation. The direct financial compensation consists of salary, wages, bonuses and commissions. The indirect financial compensation is named benefits, which are all financial compensations not 25 covered by the direct compensation. Second, the non-financial compensation includes of employee satisfaction (e.g. responsibility, recognition, promotion prospect) or from psychological and physical environment in which the employee works (e.g. working environment, sound policies, a cafeteria, work sharing, compressed work week and the free time). In the same time, results from Michael and Harold (1993) have showed that compensation can be divided into three forms: material, social, and activity. The first one, material compensation, comprises the form of money (e.g. salary, bonus, commission), the form of physical reinforcement (e.g. parking facility, telephone and office space), and the form of benefit (e.g. pension, health insurance). The second one, social compensation, is closely linked to the need of interaction with others (e.g. status, recognition), the formation of groups of decision makers, as well as a special group of solving problems. The last one, activity compensation, provides employees an opportunity to work which is not related to the routine work. Later results from Dessler (1995) prove that compensation is divided into three kinds: (1) direct financial payment in form of wage, salary, incentive, commission and bonus; (2) indirect financial payment comprising of insurance and vacation; (3) non-financial reward consisting of challenging job, flexible working hours, prestigious offices. And recently, following Mathis and Jackson (2000), compensation is divided into two forms: direct compensation and indirect compensation. The direct compensation includes two types: (1) basis pay (e.g. wage and salary); (2) addition payment (bonus, 26 incentive, distribution of stock). The indirect compensation consists of allowances such as insurance, healthcare, paid time not worked, and retirement compensations. 3.3 Relationship between compensation and salesperson’s performance The performance is defined as the achieved results of operations with the capabilities of the salesperson who acts in certain situations. Salesperson’s performance, as stated by Byars (Suhartini, 1995), is a combined result of effort, ability, and perception of tasks. High performance is a step towards the achievement of common goals. Therefore, salespersons’ efforts are needed to improve their performance. According to Robbin (2001) documents that when salespeople feel their efforts are appreciated as well as the firm offers a fair system of compensation and it makes them satisfy, the firm has optimized sales motivation. Thus, there will be increased sales performance. Sales performance, of course, will focus on ethical behavior of salesperson. Following of Arik Prasetya and Masanori Kato (2011) conclude that compensation is one of the physical needs that influence motivation, and as a result, it is a major factor that affects to salespeople performance improvement. If salespeople recognize that all their contributions are appreciated and they are received an effective compensation plan by sales management, their motivation and enthusiasm will improve and hence they will produce a high level of performance. In addition, Patton (1999) shows that “if you heard that money does not provide the motivation to do better or if the compensation in form of money is ranked low, it is the result of a disability survey”, because money is 27 important element, as long as there is correlation with other elements that salesperson are expected to be more appreciated. For these reasons above, compensation and salespeople’s performance must have a relationship, as each reward has a certain value to salesperson. Reward consists of financial and non-financial compensation or anything else. 4. Case study development 4.1 Definition of the case study as a research strategy The case study research method is defined by Yin (1984: 23) “as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple source of evidence is used”. In other words, the case study method would be used when the researcher deliberately wants to cover contextual conditions- believing that they might be highly pertinent to the phenomenon of the study. The data can be of qualitative and collected through various sources like interviews, observations, or archives. According to Yin (2003), there are five major research strategies such as experiment, survey, archival analysis, history and case study. The use of the different research strategies is based on the following three conditions:  The form of the research question: “how” and “why” questions can be answered by case study research. 28  The control investigator has over actual behavioral events: case study analysis does not require control over the investigated behavioral element as for example experiments do.  The focus on contemporary instead of historical data: case study is predominantly used to investigate on contemporary phenomena. The table below displays three conditions and shows how each is related to the five major different research strategies being discussed: experiment, survey, archival analysis, history and case study. Table 2.1 Relevant situations for different research strategies Strategy Form of research Requires control Focuses on questions of behavioral contemporary events events Experiment How, Why? Yes Yes Survey Who, What, Where, No Yes No Yes/No How many, How much? Archival analysis Who, What, Where, How many, How 29 much? History How, Why? No No Case study How, Why? No Yes Source: Yin (2003) To summarize, Yin (2003) emphasized that the first and most important condition for differentiating among the various research strategies is to identify the type of research questions being asked. In general, “what” questions may either be exploratory (in which case any of the strategies could be used) or about prevalence (in which survey or the analysis of archival records would be favored). “How” and “why” questions are likely to favor the use of case study, experiment, and history. The case study relies on many as the same techniques as a history, but it adds two sources of evidence including direct observation of the events being studied interviews of persons involved in the events. The case study’s unique strength is its ability to deal with a full of variety of evidence- documents, artifacts, interviews and observations. The researcher should be able to identify some situations in which a specific strategy has a distinct advantage. For the case study, this is when a “how” or “why” question is being asked about contemporary set of events, over which the investigator has little or no control. 30 4.2 Case study types As noted by Yin (1984), there are three basic categories of case study, namely descriptive, exploratory and explanatory. They are employed in the following ways with different objectives. First, descriptive case study sets to describe a process or an event in its natural phenomena and to answer how, who and what questions (Yin, 2003). Second, exploratory case study sets to illustrate a research field with few theoretical knowledge (Siggelkow, 2007). Exploratory case is a means to develop a new theory in a field where “not much is known” (Eisenhardt, 1989). Third, explanatory case study examines the data closely both a surface and deep level. The main aim is to explain the phenomena in the data. 4.3 Research design A research design is a plan that guides the investigator in the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting observations (Nachmias and Nachmias, 1992). According to Yin (2003), for the case study, five components of a research design are very important:  Study questions: the case study strategy is most likely to be appropriate for “how” and “why” questions.  Study propositions: each proposition directs attention to something that should be examined within the scope of the study.  Units of analysis: this component is related to the way of defining the research questions and similar to the previous ones studied by others. 31  Linking data to propositions: several pieces of information the same case may be related to some theoretical propositions.  Criteria for interpreting the findings: data matched one pattern better than matched the other and the findings can be interpreted in term of comparing at least two rival propositions. 4.4 Case study requirements In order to be convincing and credible with case study, the researcher must follow certain requirements. As noted by Yin (2003), there are four criteria used for case study: construct validity, internal validity, external validity, and reliability. Table 2.2 Case study tactics for four design tests Tests Case study tactic Phase of research in which tactic occurs Construct validity *Use multiple sources of evidence Data collection *Establish a chain of evidence *Have key informants review draft Data collection case study report Composition Internal validity *Do pattern-matching Data analysis 32 External validity *Do explanation-building Data analysis *Address rival explanations Data analysis *Use logic models Data analysis *Use theory in single-case studies Research design *Use replication logic in multiplecase studies Research design Reliability *Use case study protocol Data collection *Develop case study database Data collection Source: Yin (2003)  Construct validity: establishing correct operational measures for the concepts being studied. It can be enhanced by using multiple sources of evidence, establishing a chain of evidence and having draft case study reviewed by key informants.  Internal validity: establishing a causal relationship between variables and results. It can be enhanced by using clear analytic techniques such as pattern matching, explanation building, addressing rival explanations, and using logic models. 33  External validity: establishing the domain to which a study’s findings can be generalized. It can be enhanced by using theory in single- case studies and replication logic in multiple-case studies.  Reliability: demonstrating that the operations of a study- such as the data collection procedures- can be repeated with the same results. It can be enhanced by using case study protocol and developing case study database. The next chapter will show clearly the research methodology. It includes justification of qualitative case study, sampling procedure, data collection and analysis. 34 Chapter three - Research Methodology The major part of this chapter is the presentation of the research methodology. First, the research adopted a qualitative case study research approach as justification of method mentioned in section 1. Second, the sample size of in-depth interview is described detail in sampling procedure (section 2). Then, a pilot study and an in-depth interview are discussed in data collection (section 3). Following it, within-case and cross-case analysis are included in data analysis (section 4). Finally, concluding remarks will be introduced (section 5). Figure 3.1 Outline of chapter 3 1. Justification of qualitative case study methodology 2. Sampling Procedure 3. Data Collection 4. Data Analysis 5. Concluding Remarks 35 1. Justification of qualitative case study methodology The qualitative research method is applied for this case study due to some reasons as follows. Firstly, qualitative research helps us to give reasons why the numbers and tell us what they do. The aim of qualitative research is to deepen the understanding about something. In qualitative, data is soft, rich and deep (depth vs. superficiality) (Corbetta, 2003). In this research, the nature of data needed is rich and deep to be able to accommodate the researcher’s aim. Qualitative methods is applied to uncover and understand what lies behind any phenomenon about which quite a bit already known (Strauss and Corbin, 1990:19). For this research, case study research methodology will be applied in order to explore the phenomenon existing in our company. Within a specific context, case study method enables to help researcher examine the data obtained as well as selects a small geographical area or a very limited number of individuals. It allows the exploration and understanding of complex issues. Secondly, as described by Napier, Hosley and Nguyen (2004), doing qualitative research in Vietnam, researcher may encounter some challenges of collecting data. Respondents selected often request face-to-face communication in responding of interviews. Hence, in order to gain valuable information in conducting research, researcher and respondents must have a strong relationship and have a profound knowledge in this fieldwork. Moreover, mail surveys often do not work because of the unreliable mail system, strong resistance from research subjects as Vietnamese do not like to do things for strangers particularly without payment; lack of sampling frames and lack of support for research 36 that does not directly respondents’ benefit in short-run; concept of survey is unfamiliar to most people. Thirdly, while there has been extensive research on customer satisfaction with products and services, B2B marketing toward ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction has been studying very little by academics as well as practitioners all over the world (Oliver and Swan 1989), and Vietnam B2B marketing is not an exception. Consequently, this research can contribute a timely new knowledge of ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Management. It can be employed effectively for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam’s sales force applicability in their day-to-day selling vehicles and conducted ethical business in order to achieve at a higher level of customer satisfaction. To summarize, for all reasons mentioned above, case study research methodology is applied for this research. As recognized by many researcher Eisenhardt (1989); Perry (1998); Dubois and Gadde (2002); Halinen and Tornroos (2005) the justification for use of this methodology to investigate contemporary phenomena in different areas including psychology, sociology, political science, history, anthropology, economics, management. The case study research is concerned with describing real phenomena rather than developing normative decision models. The case study approach with qualitative method is highly appropriate method for exploring the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam. 37 2. Sampling procedure In automobile industry, Mercedes Benz Vietnam (MBV) is famous with premium passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle. The researcher is interested in the business relationship between seller-buyer in MBV context and required to work in sales department in order to obtain rich information. Therefore, MBV’s customers as well as sales staff and sales management are used to identify potential candidates for the survey. Then, the researcher utilizes secondary data from company and other published information. There is no ideal number of cases. As suggested by Yin (1994), the more replications give the greater certainty get, but in some situations, fewer replications may be necessary. Furthermore, Eisenhardt (1989) concludes that between four and ten cases are desirable for theory building using cases study research. In this case, researcher uses the qualitative case study research to investigate issues relevant to sales ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in MBV context only. Because of limited time and budget, the sample number is ten cases including five cases of customer in-depth interview and five cases of sales staff and sales management in-depth interview. Respondent selection In order to get a good result of the study, identifying of qualified respondent is very essential. Here are some criteria for selecting: (1) Customer in-depth interview - We conduct a face-to-face interview with five customers who used to buy a Mercedes-Benz vehicle at least one time. Most are selfmade hardworking individuals and married with kids. The majority should be at least 30 38 years old and hold top positions in small, medium limited, private and joint-stock companies (commerce, manufacturing and construction, real estate industries mostly). Their education level is from university graduation upward. (2) Sales staff and sales management in-depth interview: The interview protocol will be sent to five colleagues selected who has at least five years working in automobile industry via email to invite them to anticipate an in-depth interview. Because of experience and profound knowledge requirement in this field, so their age also should be at least 30 year-old, regardless of gender and nationality. Their education level is also at least from university graduation upward. In order to understand the situation in its totality and deepness, we will interview employees at several levels. They are sales senior consultant, sales supervisor, sales manager, sales director and general director of MBV as well as they have a good performance in sales and services. Each level has some constructive ideas to make clear the ethical sales behavior and to improve customer’s satisfaction. 3. Data collection The data obtained is principally of qualitative nature. This fact influences our choice of the data analysis method. 3.1 Pilot study A pilot study is conducted before major study and the respondents are not involved in the main study. Alwasilah (2002:99) states that in qualitative research, pilot study is useful because it help a researcher focus on the research’s objectives. Furthermore, Yin 39 (2003:79) suggests that a pilot study is done to refine data collection plans with respect to both the content of data and the procedure to be followed. The four first interviews of pilot study are carried out with customers and salespersons of Haxaco Autohaus (MBV‘s Dealer). After a careful review of the pilot study results, the research focus is modified. The modified questions consist of two parts: (1) customer’s assessment in term of sales ethical behavior; (2) sales staff and sales management’s assessment in term of sales behavior and compensation. Table 3.1 Research issues and associated interview questions Research issues Interview questions Research issues 1: Part A: Questions 1-4 (section 2.1) What do the aspects of salespersons influence on customer satisfaction of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam’s service? Research issue 2: Part B: Questions 1-4 (section 2.2) How do the ethical sales behaviors impact on salesperson’s job satisfaction, performance and role conflict intersender? 40 Research issues 3: Part B: Questions 5-7 (section 2.2) How would the compensation plan be designed to motivate the salesperson? (See appendix 2- In-depth interview questions) 3.2 In-depth Interview An in-depth interview with executives of an organization can be a particularly useful tool for discovering the ‘cause and effect maps of managers’ (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990). Depth interview research is usually directed towards answering the question why something occurred, and towards theory building rather than theory testing (Guba and Lincoln, 1994). In one study researchers conducted depth interview as a first step, but then followed up with a series of experiments (Morrin et at., 2002). In this case, our research is conducted by working experience, as well as observing and interviewing with many stakeholders, including MBV’s top management, staff, and customers. Of course, it must be followed up with the theories mentioned in chapter two. The main reason of choosing face-to-face interview is that we can adapt the questions as necessary, clarify doubts, and ensure that the responses are properly understood, by repeating or rephrasing the questions and issues mentioned will be made clear. In order to collect the good result for research, the required data need to be withdrawn from researcher’s working experience and deep knowledge in this field. Thus, primary data are collected from customers and employees in-depth interview, and secondary data 41 are obtained from available published records, the company’s web site and documents, its archives, and other sources. The purpose of using multiple data sources is to maximize the range of data that might contribute to the researcher’s understanding of the case (Knafl and Breitmayer, 1991). Multiple sources of evidence will provide opportunities for data comparison and between respondents as well as between different types of data sources (Stake, 1998). 3.2.1 Customer in-depth interview As stated by Anastas (1988), in case of sensitive subject matter, in-depth interview provides a far more effective tool and creates an environment where respondents would be likely to speak more openly and frankly. Moreover, several other advantages of indepth interview consist of encouragement of personal thought, respondent attentiveness to questions, and offering the ability of the interviewer to sense non-verbal feedback (Sokolow, 1985). In-depth interview is regarded as an effective alternative to observing a case study in action as it provides a method that permits direct observation of the people involved in the process and the ability to listen what people have to say (Taylor and Bogdan, 1998). Thus, respondents could be encouraged to identify real-life situations, concluding discussing and evaluating their specific experiences that they have been experienced. The suitable time is considered at weekend. They are invited to attend our weekly event at Mercedes-Benz Dealer as well as to receive some favorite promotions such as gift, voucher, free of car care service... We establish an atmosphere that encourages them respondent to relax and open up in order to provide valuable insights. In case if they 42 cannot come, we will make an appointment for home or office visit to attempt to uncover their innermost thoughts and behaviors. 3.2.2 Sales staff & sales management in-depth interview: Improving customer satisfaction is one of our company’s vision. We strongly believe that everyone is willing to share their opinion for this topic. All nine questions are openended and required face-to-face interviews. After initial contacts are arranged by using email/ phone and our personal relationships, the interview protocol is sent out to MBV’s customers and colleagues selected. Then, interviews are scheduled. Data collected from the interviews will be noted, generated and analyzed. The ten interviews are conducted during the period from November 10 th to December 10th, 2012. Here are the interview locations as follows:  Mercedes-Benz Vietnam- 13 Quang Trung, Ward 11, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City.  Vietnam Star Automobile Autohaus (MBV Dealer)- 2 Truong Chinh, Tay Thanh Ward, Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City and 811-813 Nguyen Van Linh, Tan Phong Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. Interview is done to ten respondents due to limited time and the availability of the respondents to gain more information about customer’s perception of sales behavior as well as sales staff and sales management’s perception of behavior and motivation. The data from interviews are transcribed, read, categorized, compared and interpreted to get the answer of research’s questions. 43 4. Data analysis As defined by Bogdam and Biklen (2003), qualitative data analysis as “working with the data, organizing them, breaking them into manageable units, coding them, synthesizing them and searching for patterns”. The main purpose of analysis qualitative data is to discover patterns, concepts, themes and meanings. Data analysis consists of examining, categorizing, tabulating, testing, or otherwise re-combining the evidence to address the initial propositions of a study (Yin, 2003). In the process, researcher concentrates on the whole data first, then attempt to take it apart and re-construct it again more meaningfully. As described by Miles and Huberman (1984), data analysis as consisting of three concurrent activities as follows:  Data reduction refers to the process of selecting, simplifying, abstracting and transforming the raw data.  Data display refers to the organized assembly of information to enable the drawing of conclusion. It includes narratives, matrices, graphs, tables, and various charts. Depend on the type of case study, the type of analysis will be engaged in. This case employed two different steps of analysis including within-case and cross- case analysis. First, within-case approach provides a rich understanding of the chronology of events and the settings both virtual and physical (Creswell, 1998). Thus, employing this approach helps researcher understand a whole data set. After the interviews are conducted, each of the ten cases is described. Based on the literature review, content of 44 ten cases will be utilized the topic’s following set as a framework for discussion such as customer satisfaction, sales ethical behavior and compensation for salesperson’s motivation. Second, cross-case pattern forces researcher to look beyond initial impressions and see evidence through multiple lenses (Eisenhardt, 1989). Data analysis is conducted by using carefully contrasted data categories comparison.  Conclusion drawing/ verification involves drawing meaning from data and building a logical chain of evidence. Data analysis relies on all the relevant evidence and focus on the most significant of the study based on theoretical knowledge mentioned in chapter two. Following analyzing this way, the first subject is perspective of customer satisfaction on salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer’s reaction with unethical sales behavior as well. The next one is sales staff and sales management’s perception on sales behavior and compensation. And the last one explores the relationship between sales behavior and customer satisfaction in MBV context. 5. Concluding remarks This chapter presented the justification of case study research methodology and qualitative descriptive approach adopted in this research to achieve its aim and objectives. Pilot study is done with four interviews prior to main study. Data are gained by in-depth interviews with ten cases and others sources (secondary data). The data are then noted, generated and analyzed by categorizing the information, sorting out similar 45 and different information. Researcher tries to make data as clear as possible to achieve valuable insights. Data analysis and discussion will be presented in the next chapter. 46 Chapter four - Data Analysis In this chapter, the information collected is analyzed and the results are presented in within-case and cross-case. First, ten cases selected including customer in-depth interview as well as sales staff and sales management in-depth interview will be showed in section 1. Next, three research issues will be analyzed in section 2. Structure of this chapter is illustrated in the below Figure 4.1. Figure 4.1 Outline of chapter 4 1. Within-case analysis Sales staff and sales management in-depth interview Customer in-depth interview 2. Cross-case analysis Research issue 1 Research issue 2 Research issue 3 1. Within-case analysis 1.1 Customer in-depth interview In this study, the five cases of customer in-depth interview are selected in order to achieve theoretical and literal replication. This section presents five-case descriptions of 47 research themes. Table 4.1 is a description of customer’s summary background regarding of name, age, position, Mercedes-Benz ownership, company’s name and business field. Table 4.1 Summary background of customer’s in-depth interview Case A Name Mr. Tran Age Thanh 41 Tung Position Mercedes Company & Ownership Business field General C200,E280, Pacific Director S300, GLK300 Technology Co. LTD B Mr. Nguyen Minh 38 Director E250 Tri C Ms. Co., Bui Thanh 38 Vice Director Vuong Nu D Mr. Nguyen Dinh 41 Chieu Hung Gia Textile Vice Director R500, Lotus Plastic Co., GLK300 Ltd E280,S300 Hong Anh Educational Equipment Co., Ltd. 48 E Ms. Nguyen Thi 37 Director E300 Kim and Kim Co. Kim Hanh Following the summary on table 4.1, the next section provides description of each case interviewed. In order to obtain the truthfulness of the research, all customers’ information is showed in detailed and accurate manner. Case A, Mr Tran Thanh Tung, who is a General Director of Pacific Technology Company Limited, used to buy four Mercedes-Benz cars for his own using purposes. When buying such a premium brand name vehicle, he makes the first contact with the salesperson in order to get more information of buying process. He indicates that salesperson behavior influences overall customer satisfaction with a purchase which already mentioned by Westbrook (1981). In other words, customer satisfaction at a high level, durable vehicle is influenced, at least indirectly, by his purchase experience with the salesperson. Firstly, professional salesperson attracts customers’ satisfaction through his/her performance by creating trust and confidence. These characteristics are built on salesperson knowledge and an obvious commitment to customer. They come from this salesperson’s performance and professional appearance not from talks. It means possessing and displaying a belief in salesperson’s attitude by showing a willingness to gain a full understanding of customer’s problems and needs. On the one hand, successful salespersons, through product presentation, convince customers to make a buyingdecision from the company with awareness and happiness at the present time and in 49 future. Salesperson must understand what customers expect from vehicle’s benefits and make sure that they meet or exceed customers’ expectations. On the other hand, he suggests that billions of dollars spent on vehicle development, advertising and promotion can be negated by the poor performance of salesperson and by dissatisfying customer interaction with the salesperson. If customers are satisfied, they will be encouraged to purchase in the future. If customers are not happy, they not only will not buy but also they will transfer their negative feeling to others. Secondly, he also mentions the age and education of the salesperson in B2B context. They are determinants of ethical sales behaviors, the older and more educated persons generally behave more ethically than younger and less educated ones as already stated by (Browing and Zabriskie, 1983; Jones and Gautschi, 1988; Ruegger and King, 1992; Deshpande, 1997). He said that ”as the age of salesperson increase, they become more conservative in their ethical behavior”. Age presents for sales experience of their career. A higher level of education has a direct impact on ethical behavior and can be more important determinant of ethical behavior (Izzo, 2000). The more ethical behavior salesperson possess, the higher level satisfaction customer get. Finally, ethical salespersons are more likely to develop and maintain long-term buyerseller relationship through creating trust and confidence (Hawes et at., 1989). In addition, ethical behavior leads to higher sales when they are dealing with their relational customers. Relational customers could reward the ethical behavior of the salesperson by continuing to place orders and introduce the retailer to their friends or relatives. 50 In summary, in case A, Mr Tran Thanh Tung emphasizes on salesperson’s characteristics by building trust and confidence in order to maintain a good buyer-seller relationships. This is the best way for generating more favorable word-of-mouth promotion. He also puts a stress on the importance of age and education of salesperson. These are very importance determinants of sales ethical behavior as he concludes that the older and more educated the salesperson, the more ethical the salesperson behavior. And finally, company should reward for outstanding service or extremely knowledgeable salesperson in order to meet the customer expectations. This means, firm may need to exert more control over other activities within the channel, such as salesperson behavior, to protect the customer’s interests as well as company’s interests. Case B, Mr Nguyen Minh Tri, who is a Director of Hung Gia Textile Company Limited, already buys one E250 Mercedes-Benz vehicle from Vietnam Star Automobile Autohaus (MBV’s Dealer). He states that customer satisfaction is directly related to consumer beliefs concerning not only in the product’s performance but also in salesperson’s performance, particularly as it relates to pre-purchase expectations which already mentioned on previous literature as Westbrook (1981) concludes that salesperson influences overall customer satisfaction with the purchase. Product performance is one of the important determinants of customer satisfaction, but it is not the only one. Firstly, professional salesperson attracts customers’ satisfaction through their performance by their honesty and enthusiasm when they make interactions with the customer. These characteristics are showed on providing full and clear information as 51 well as giving some pieces of honest advice, the right solution for customer’s needs and wants. In addition, salesperson never shows to get a deal at all costs and encourages consumers to buy the model that may not suitable for their purposes, because giving false or prejudiced information can destroy customers’ beliefs. Salespeople make a fair competitive comparison to convince buyer and not criticize competitor at all. They should adhere to “fair competition rules” by focusing on being honest about competitive products. Customer satisfaction will affect future purchase intention or in other words, they are more likely to purchase the same product from the same source (Furse, Punj, and Steward, 1984; Sambandam and Lord, 1995). Satisfied customers can provide a steady flow of worth-of-mouth to the others as mentioned by Swan and Oliver (1989). Secondly, he emphasizes the importance of salesperson’s age and education, particularly in automobile industry. Mercedes-Benz vehicle is considered a luxury brand name, so the requirement of front-line people, such as salesperson, is at a high level of experience and creativity. For example, the age of salesperson is around 30 to 40 year-old; and their education is at least university graduation upward. These requirements of salesperson lead to their behaviors, the older and more educated salesperson are, the more ethical behavior they will be. Finally, ethical sales behavior effect on customer satisfaction in the present and future intentions such as purchase, recommendations, or referrals. Buying a vehicle is often an emotional experience that a customer may look forward to with a mixture of anticipation and eagerness. Given these conflicting emotions, salespersons have to pay more 52 attention to conscious customer in order to achieve effective selling by being honest and enthusiastic in serving their valued customers. In summary, in cases B, Mr Nguyen Minh Tri emphasizes on salesperson’s characteristics by being honest and enthusiastic in order to obtain the belief of customer. Salesperson should explain clearly the quality, superiority and weakness of their brand comparing to competitors. As the same with case A, he is willing to recommend retailer to the others if that retailer’s behavior make him satisfy in this purchase experience, of course with durable vehicle. Besides that, he also pays much attention on the age and education of salesperson because these are crucial determinants of ethical sales behavior. And finally, company should establish sales training course to encourage the ethical behavior and to avoid the unethical behavior of salesperson in order to achieve at a high level of customer satisfaction. Case C, Ms. Bui Thanh Vuong Nu, who is a Vice Director of Lotus Plastic Company Limited, used to buy two Mercedes-Benz vehicles from our dealer. Customer satisfaction on the salesperson concentrating on the salesperson’s ethical behavior, as the result of seller-buyer interactions, has remarkable impacts on the sales and organization’s profitability (Saeed, Maryam, Mohammad, Seyed, 2012). In other words, ethical sales behavior has important influences on customer satisfaction. Firstly, one of the salesperson’s characteristic attracts customer satisfaction through their performance by handling problems. This characteristic is built on the ability of dealing flexibility with problems. Customers are expected to be kept fully information by phone/email, or to be contacted if any problem arises with their vehicles. They are also 53 expected to receive vehicle’s benefits, customized training, or other support services. The salespeople should know that how to deal with problems is very important to establish a seller-buyer relationship. Therefore, a responsible salesperson should be fully aware of customer’s needs and expectations in order to meet their requirements. As a result, she affirms that handling problems is an important skill that every salesperson needs to possess. Secondly, regarding the effect of age and education on a salesperson’s ethical behavior, she agrees that ethical decision-making will be strongly affected by age and education. The older people have been exposed longer to ethical dilemmas in non-business contexts (Izzo, 2000), therefore they are more willing to accept and conform to ethical standards and behave accordingly (Serwinek, 1992). Similarly, education is positively related to moral judgment (Rest and Thoma, 1985; Rest, 1986). Finally, salesperson’s ethical behavior could increase the sale, build up brand name’s reputation and strengthen the future relationship. Ethical behavior transfers positive feelings to customers. As a result, they show the willingness of recommendation a retailer to others. In summary, in case C, Ms. Bui Thanh Vuong Nu emphasizes on salesperson’s characteristics by handling problems in order to establish a good buyer-seller relationships. It leads to repeat deals in the future, as well as long-term profitability. In addition, she also mentions the salesperson’s age and education linked to their moral judgments. An finally, company should apply the control system in order to monitoring, directing, evaluating and compensating its salespeople as stated by Parrage (1993) that 54 one of the advantages of behavior-based control system is “the development and maintenance of an organizational culture that encourages ethical behavior and discourages unethical behavior”. Case D, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Chieu, who is a Vice Director of Hong Anh Educational Equipment Company Limited, used to buy two units of Mercedes-Benz vehicle. In his opinion, customer satisfaction will be partly influence by product’s service. In this case, researcher focuses on the salesperson behavior, the front-line personal, which is related to make customer satisfy or not. Customer satisfaction includes emotional responses of the consumers as they relate to vehicle purchases as mentioned by Mano and Oliver (1993) and Oliver (1993). Firstly, salespeople attract customers’ satisfaction through their performance by following the rules. These rules are established by creating a corporate culture of ethical selling, demonstrating loyalty to the organization and association, avoiding sales conflicts and cheating each others. In this environment, salespeople will show good performance to serve customers as they do making sales in a proper manner (e.g. never get short-term success at all costs). Salesperson behaviors will influence product’s process related to information which can be considered as a direct route of persuasion (Sujan, 1986; Petty, 1983). Successful salespeople often tailor their presentations to the needs of each customer and match the presentations to those requirements. As a result, it leads to increasing overall customer satisfaction. Secondly, salesperson’s age and education are the personal factors linked to ethical behavior in the personal selling context. As stated by Hogness (1986) and Howard 55 (1989), the core of education itself is virtue or right conduct. As age increases, subjects have displayed more conservative and strict ethical tendencies and hold less compromising interpretations of what is to be judged ethical (Sikula and Costa, 1994). Finally, ethical sales behavior requires an individual to behave according to the rules of a moral philosophy with an emphasis on the determination of right and wrong (Gundlach and Murphy, 1993). By this way, ethical behavior enables to foster long-term relationships with customers. In contrast, unethical behavior can even generate liability problems for salespeople’s organization through both intentional and inadvertent statements (Boedecker et at., 1991). In summary, in case D, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Chieu addresses to salesperson’s characteristic by following the rules in order to establish a good relationship between seller and buyer. It will lead to positive word-of-mouth and increase the sales in now and future. In addition, he also agrees the impact of salesperson’s age and education on ethical behavior. And finally, he suggests that company should exert the ethics code for salespeople to follow and focus on ethics sales training in order to achieve their target and to demonstrate the loyalty to company and associates. Case E, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Hanh, who is a Director of Kim and Kim Company Limited, used to buy one unit E300 Mercedes-Benz vehicle from our dealer. According to her, customer satisfaction is depended on salesperson behavior that she has experienced with a vehicle purchase. In other words, satisfied customer has an emotional response to a specific consumption experience, with increasing satisfaction reflecting 56 more positive affect and dissatisfaction reflecting greater affect by Swan and Oliver (1989). Firstly, salespeople attract customers’ satisfaction through their performance by taking responsibility. This characteristic is built on carrying salesperson’s share at work and responsibility with one hundred percent effort. Salesperson pays close attention to follow-up commitments and follow-up after sales to maintain customer satisfaction. She adds “A responsible salesperson take full ownership of any problems that the customer may face with. They don’t point fingers; they simply jump in and get the problem fixed, no matter what it is or who is to blame for it”. A salesperson should always do the best for the customer, because people just like to do business with anyone they trust, and those who give them best advice, services, products and always keep promise. She addresses that being a responsible salesperson is the most important trait. Secondly, regarding of the salesperson’s age and education, she is forced to concede that education has a significant impact on a salesperson’s ethical perception, whereas age has no significant effect. Based on her experience vehicle purchase, she says that “Education level represents for salesperson’s knowledge and attitude toward a good behavior”. The more educated the salesperson, the more ethical the salesperson’s behavior. For the age, she adds “If the salesperson achieves a good background product knowledge and positive working attitude, he will have a good manner in his behavior regardless of his age. So, it can be concluded that age is not important determinant of ethical behavior based on her point of view. 57 Finally, ethical behavior has positive effects on the business and attracting the present and potential customers. Thanks to applying skillful the long-term procedures and basics, improving personal skills and ethical sales behavior performance result in forming the successful business from now and in the future. In summary, in case E, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Hanh emphasizes on salesperson’s characteristics by taking responsibility in order to establish a good relationship with customers. Satisfied customers show the willingness and a positive word-of-mouth to the others, as mentioned by Swan an Oliver (1989), thereby reducing the expense required to find new customers. She also concentrates on the education and age of salespeople. Education has a significant impact on ethical sales perception whereas age has no significant effect as stated by Lui and Comer (2007) “the input of salespeople has been found to be very important to the making of information source and promotion, capacity, or distribution decision. Salespeople are front-line personnel; they are in advantage position to feel the pulse of the market” And finally, she suggests that company should have a commission and control policies in order to avoid the conflict between salespeople and to serve customer after- sales services better. 1.2 Sales staff and sales management in-depth interview In this section, the five cases of sales staff and sales management in-depth interview are selected in order to achieve theoretical and literal replication. The five cases will be presented for research themes. Table 4.2 is a description of sales staff and sales management’s summary background regarding of name, age, position, company 58 working. To get the validity of the research, all sales staff and sales management’s information is showed in detailed and accurate manner with their permission. Table 4.2 Summary background of sales staff and sales management in-depth interview Case Name Age Position Company working F Ms. Nguyen Thi Loc 35 Senior Sales Consultant Mercedes-Benz G Mr. Huynh Tan Thuyen 40 Sales Supervisor BMW, Mercedes-Benz H Ms. Pham Mai Duc Hanh 43 Sales Manager Ford, Mercedes-Benz I Mr. Paul Nguyen 43 Sales Director Toyota, Mercedes- Benz J Mr. Marcus Kleine 45 General Director Mercedes-Benz Following the summary on table 4.2, the next section provides description of each case interviewed. In order to obtain the validity of the research, all sales staff and sales management’s information is showed in detailed and accurate manner. Case F- The first case is Ms. Nguyen Thi Loc. She is a senior sales consultant with more than ten-year working experience in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam. She belongs to an active 59 person and really loves interaction with many different customers. Each has a style of specific personality that she is able to learn so much. She addresses her extremely feelings of satisfaction on the current job (e.g. reward scheme). Job satisfaction of salespeople can be weakened if they perceive their organization as rewarding the unethical behavior of co-workers as previous mentioned by Bellizzi and Hite (1989). For example, salesperson rewarding is not only based on her sales volume target but also her personal commitments toward conducting ethical business (i.e. never taking the deal at all cost regardless of company’s profit contribution or conflicting with the co-worker). Such unethical behaviors can engender role conflict-inter sender between the salespeople and their manager which will lead to reducing the salesperson’s job satisfaction. As a result, salesperson’s unethical behavior is believed to increase customer dissatisfaction and unfavorable word-of-mouth promotion for the firm. In the contrary, ethical sales behavior (e.g. having customers’ best interests in mind and being honest to them) leads to higher levels of job satisfaction (Beatty et at., 1996) and customer retention. Furthermore, given the fact that salespeople tend to work apart from each other experience little daily interaction with supervisors, subordinates, customers and competitors, it often produce role stress which increases their perception of ethical dilemmas and the likelihood that they may have performance in an unethical manner. Also, ethic role conflict leads to a negative effect on the salespeople’s performance (Chonko and Burnett, 1983). If salespeople are unable to resolve ethical dilemmas- often due to, in part, a lack of direction from sales management-and conduct themselves in an unethical manner, they will often encounter increased job-related tension, frustration, 60 and anxiety. These facts result in decreasing salespeople’s performance and in increasing customer dissatisfaction. In order to avoid the role conflict-inter sender, unethical behavior or unexpected situations from co-worker and customer interactions, salespeople want to have more explicit guidelines laid down in corporate policies regarding ethical situations. Salespeople need to know that management is taking serious actions to ensure that the code is followed as Ferrell and Gresham (1985) posited “Professional codes of ethics will influence ethical/unethical sales behavior. Ethics related corporate policy will influence ethical/unethical sales behavior”. As suggested by Churchill, Ford and Walker (1981), salespeople’s performance is affected not only by factors specific to the salesperson such as skill and aptitude, but also by the reward system used by a company. This reward system is believed to have a direct affect on performance (e.g. productivity of ethical behavior) by providing the desired compensation plan for salespeople to work harder and more effectively, as well as an indirect effect to job satisfaction. In her opinion, “an effective compensation plan will produce high performance of salesperson, otherwise, it will discourage their efforts”. This statement is similar to Sujan, Weitz, and Sujan (1988), salespersons are more focused on the outcomes of their work rather than content of the work. If rewards are perceived as control mechanisms, they tend to dampen an individual’s desire for exploration and learning; however, if they are perceived as an incentive for excellence performance, then rewards encourage for exploration and learning. The younger salesperson (under 30 year-old) might prefer non-financial reward as they might be seeking to settle occupation and to express learning desire. The older salesperson (e.g. above 30 year-old) might prefer financial reward, because they are driven for their 61 family needs. At this age, salesperson may even dream of promotion prospect into higher position in their career. As she says “Promotion prospect means trust, recognition of abilities and skill of the salesperson from sales management. Consequently, they make an effort for work performance and increase their productivity”. Finally, she concludes that the basic salary of sales force is very low (e.g. only around two million Vietnam dong per month), so she prefers to receive higher commission per unit and bonuses if they reach their target (i.e. target includes the number of vehicles sold and customer satisfaction index). Also, she suggests that it would be better to increase the basis salary and to establish the training program for sales staff as noted by Honeycutt and Ford (1993) “unethical behavior in the automobile market is frequent and the level of ethics training is low”. Financial reward is highly appreciated to motivate sales force in order to achieve both individual and organization goals. Case G- The second case is Mr. Huynh Tan Thuyen, a sales supervisor. He is very interested in a challenging job. That is the reason why he especially chooses to be a sales executive as his career. With more than eight years working experience in automobile industry (three- year for BMW and over five-year for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam), he affirms that the more ethical behavior, the greater satisfaction of salesperson as stated by Weeks and Nantel (1992); Schwepker (2001) “the code of ethics and the ethical climate respectively influenced a salesperson’s job satisfaction”. When salespeople work in such an environment, they are less likely to suffer from the problems and to reduce the role conflict-inter sender between company’s expectations and customer’s needs. In his point of view, a climate in which salespersons perceive their job conducted in ethical 62 standards, they are expected to behave ethically during carrying out interaction with customers. When faced with an ethical dilemma, salesperson may choose the short-term benefits rather than take a long-term perspective based on organizational standards and customer satisfaction. Salesperson, in the one hand, could attract customers by making effective presentations and expressing ethical performance. In the other hand, they might leave them to our competitors due to lack of cooperation team work. In addition, according to Verbeke et at., (1996), increased communication sensitizes salespeople to the sales team members’ needs and goals, allowing salespeople to develop an awareness of others members’ requirements. Also, since salesperson work- in- team often possess important information regarding competitors and customers, work-in-team can potentially exchange of information and improve their performance. As a result, increased communication between members is likely reduce misunderstandings each other, build trust within members, encourage the development of sales performance and avoid the sales conflict. Greater communication may also enhance moral development and moral reasoning, and facilitate in developing high ethical judgments. It also helps to reduce the gap between sales staff and manager become shorter and shorter. In short, working under ethical climate and working in team building, salesperson are likely encouraged ethical behaviors and reduced unethical actions. As mentioned in the literature, compensation is one of the physical needs that influence motivation which in turn will affect the ethical sales behavior. In his point of view, when salespersons are motivated by an effective reward scheme, it is possible to achieve strategic goals for the organization. Compensation structure is based on positions, 63 outcomes or skills that are relevant to the position, the company has a greater chance to attract, motivate, and retain salespeople to stay loyalty in long-term. He emphasizes on the importance of financial compensation including fix salary, commission and bonus toward motivating and influencing salespeople‘s behavior and performance. These factors also affect the satisfaction and retention of salespeople. They are believed to be the most effective motivators in a selling high technology product. Case H- The next case is Ms. Pham Mai Duc Hanh, a sales manager, started her career as a sales executive in several foreign companies such as Ford automobile in two- year, and MBV over eight years. She said that “As a manager, she should always strive for ethical behavior. It may not be easy to always act in an ethical way, but it is necessary to do business in ethics path“. Her opinion is similar with the conclusion of I.van de Poel and L.Royalkkers (2007) that company has a chance for immense ethical opportunities in the future. Compliance with ethics codes and an overall attitude that ethics matter will enhance their culture and vision. Salesperson performance will be influenced by sales manager practices which are related to control system as defined by Anderson an Oliver (1987) “Control system are the measures organizations put in place for monitoring, directing, appraising, and compensating their employees”. Monitoring is about observing sales performance, reviewing daily report, and watching salesperson day-to-day activities. Directing is associated largely with helping salespeople develop their potential, coaching and training. Appraising is more associated with evaluating salesperson in professional development and effective sales presentations, as well as judging sales results. 64 Compensating is related to providing regular feedbacks and reward (non-financial) linked with salespeople outcomes. In some unexpected situations, salesperson may be engaged in unethical actions in the process of achieving exceptional outcomes. In this case, sales manager should not ignore the unethical sales behavior, she should make an efforts to shape the ethical climate of the sales force. This is also the best way to avoid the role conflict-inter sender between company’s interest and customer’s interest. In essence, this kind of control system can punish the sales manager for fostering higher ethical behavior. Optimal usage of control system, the role of sales manager is to engage in efforts to develop high ethical behavior and to avoid unethical behavior in the salespeople. As a result, customer satisfaction index will be improved at higher level. Table 4.3 Sales incentive trip 2012- July result (* )Peer A: Ha Noi & HCM (* )Peer B: Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho No C200, C250, C300 = 1 point GLK, E250, E300 = 1.5 points E200, All CBUs = 2 points Name 1 Tang Thi Tuyet Nga Nguyen Duc Viet Pham Ngoc Canh Bui Xuan Binh Nguyen Trung Kien 6 Dao Trung Van Le Xuan Hiep 8 Huynh Tan Thuyen Nguyen Van Quy Nguyen Thi Loc 11 Nguyen Van Tho 2 3 4 Region Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer A Peer B Dealer HCM - VNS HN - ANDU HN - ANDU HCM - HAX HCM - VNS HCM - HAX HCM - VNS HCM - VNS HCM - VNS HCM - VNS HP - ANDU Month Avarage Final P.K sales score score s 3.00 7.2 3.00 2.00 2.50 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 1.00 5.6 5.2 4.8 4.8 4.4 4.4 4 4 4 2.8 June Sales score 9 7 6.5 6 6 5.5 5.5 5 5 5 3.5 1 1.5 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 3 1 2 1 1 July 2 1 1 1.5 1 2 1 4 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 July Top 10:  Peer A: Rank from No.1 to No.6 and Rank no.8 (one out of 3 – same score)  Peer B: Rank no.11 65  Sales manager: Mr. Nguyen The Vinh-Vietnam Star Ho Chi Minh (accompanying the top performer) Source: MBV – Sales Department In order to motivate the salesperson ethical practices, in her point of view, one of the important forms of sales motivation is the form of money (i.e. including salary, commission and bonus), but it is not enough. She mentions the role of two-way communication. According to Verbeke et at. (1996), increased communication sensitizes salespeople to other sales team members’ needs and goals, allowing salespeople to develop an awareness of others’ unique situations and requirements. The two-way communication between managers and sales staffs should be close and developed to create a best result in motivation. Thus, the trust and credibility among sales people can be established. Communication allows manager to better control behavior or the way salespeople do their selling. They are focusing on mutual respect and efforts to achieve understanding each other. Sales managers use the two-way communication to avoid and to solve sales conflicts. Thanks to it, we are looking for a sustainable solution. In short, two-way communication is the best way to create a win-win situation. It has ability to make an impact on the organization with far greater resources. Case I- The fourth case is Mr. Paul Nguyen. He has ten- year working experience in Toyota Canada as a Business Manager and over three-year in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam as a Sales Director. As a member of management, he is generally quite satisfied with the selling performance of his sales staff. He points out that “Customer satisfaction is associated with sales force behavior from their day-to-day sales presentations”. Come 66 back to the theory, his statement is the same conclusion of Dulap et at., (1988), customer requires a salesperson to engage in behaviors that increase long-term customer satisfaction and avoid behavior leading to customer dissatisfaction. As a result, salesperson’s ethical behavior will reduce role conflict-inter sender, at least by the percentage that is attributable to the conflicting between organization’s benefits and customer’s benefits. Thus, the role conflict inter sender will be avoided if salespeople work under ethical climate and clear instructions of sales management. In order to increase the customer satisfaction, on the one hand, by exerting explicit guidelines for sales force toward conducting ethical business, on the other hand, by improving CSI score. The level of customer satisfaction will be measured by CSI due to providing comprehensive picture of customer satisfaction in term of sales service quality. According to him, in order to get high score of CSI, motivation plan should be applied to encourage salesperson because the more motivation, the higher performance of them. “We set high expectations for sales staff, provide them the tools and incentives to achieve those expectations”, he added. The below package option target for salesperson not only focuses on sales volume but also on other values. 67 Table 4.4 Package option target for Passenger Car sales staffs in 2011 Effective from January 1st to December 31st, 2011 Model Incentive package for PC salesperson Commission Annual bonus Annual bonus Dealer C-Sales in % for specific qualification target USD/unit option for 1(USD) option 2 (USD) 18 units/year 24 units/year Target CKD 15% 10 C200 80 110 C250 90 120 100 GLK 120 160 200 E200 120 160 68 10 CBU SLK 120 180 200 R300L 180 220 100 GL450 200 300 300 To get a bonus payment, the sales staffs have to fulfill the following details:  Volume target achievement is the basis for an annual bonus payment (Target will be reviewed in September)  Individual CSI result which is measured over 90 points: plus 15% additional payment of annual bonus. Top 3-salesperson will be rewarded with USD 20 and a souvenir for monthly highest customer satisfaction performance (CSI)  Data quality of daily sales reports, the customer data in CRM system, follow-up reports in time, lost sales report: 50% Award: 3 best sales PC in 2011- International incentive trip Basic commission is calculated based on the net contribution. (Source: MBV- Sales Department) 69 Bonus scheme is used by management in order to make sure that all respective salespeople are devoted to achieve the best possible score in both areas “numbers and values” (i.e. number of vehicle sold and benefits of customer). Commission, one of the forms of compensation plan, will be used to trigger salesperson’s motivation in term of conducting sales activities in an ethical manner. In some unexpected situations, commission-based compensation methods might motivate the salesperson to act in an unethical behavior of achieving the exceptional target regardless of harm to customer’s interests which is reported in the literature by Kurland (1999). For example, salesperson does not provide full and clear information of vehicle production year because of individual and organization’s interests. Ethical sales actions always lead to positive result and unethical activities always result in some form of harm to others (e.g. to customers, co-workers). Thus, a salesperson who behaves ethically will comply with management expectations and will express feelings of success, which in turn, will increase his job satisfaction. And job satisfaction will produce an excellence performance of salesperson. Based on his point of view, financial compensation (e.g. bonus, commission) is important, but not enough, to retain skillful salespersons. Consequently, he suggests that “non-financial compensation promotion prospect and working condition play the same role as financial compensation do. For instance, successful salespeople at the age of 30s40s, on the one hand, express a desire to be promoted to the managerial position with potential earnings. On the other hand, they expect to receive a high appreciation from 70 the management and colleagues. In addition, working condition will provide the tools for sales force to achieve the outcomes. In summary, salesperson ethical behavior is positively associated with customer satisfaction with the salespeople, therefore, that more ethical salespeople are more successful. On the contrary, unethical judgment negatively impacts on the firm’s profitability. In order to trigger salesperson’s motivation, sales management should skillfully exert compensation plan including financial and non-financial form such as bonus, commission, promotion prospect and working condition. Case J- The last one is Mr. Marcus Klein, a General Director of MBV with nearly twenty years working for Mercedes-Benz in different countries. As a top leader of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam, he addressed that” Making customer satisfaction focus throughout on developing and fostering customer relationships by optimal skills usage of effective sales force in our organization”. In order to achieve this goal, the first one, Sales service quality customer satisfaction index (CSI) is used for better knowledge about customer satisfaction with the process of vehicle purchase such as purchase situation process, quality of sales force, time of vehicle delivery, willingness for recommendation, vehicle reception by the customer and general satisfaction with the service provided by salesperson. The CSI is really linked to the level of customer satisfaction with the dealer facility and salesperson performance. The sales-force will be examined in the recruitment, training, and development of effective sales force in order to produce excellence performance, satisfaction and obtain the long-term profitability. Based on CSI report, an effective action plan for customer 71 satisfaction improvement will be adjusted and designed by the management for the next year. The second one, compensation plan is used to motivate sales force as concluded by Bernardin and Russell (1993),”compensation has a bit influence in the recruitment of employees, motivation, productivities and employee turnover “. The “people” decisions are critically concerned with compensation strategy. For the short-term achievement, he focuses on the financial compensation (e.g. commission, bonuses). Commission and bonus scheme is likely to be encouraged sales force’s performance. The package option target has established for salespeople based on annual achievement target. It is not only based on sales volume (getting 50% of their salary as a bonus) but also on other detailed factors such as data quality of daily sales reports, customer data in CRM system, follow up reports in time (getting 25%), discipline and attendance of Sales and Marketing activities (getting 25%), and individual customer satisfaction index result (measurement score over 90, plus 10% additional payment of annual bonus). Besides that, the special international incentive trips are awarded for three best salespeople in each quarter. Commission will be calculated based on net profit contribution (getting 15%). For the long-term achievement, he focuses on non-financial compensation (e.g. training program, team building). In any organization, the talented, skilled and experienced individuals are only at their best when everyone works toward the same direction and the same goal. Sales training will have to emphasize team building, conflict resolutions, interpersonal skills and other capabilities (e.g. sales presentation and technical knowledge) relevant to the underlying drivers of salespeople’s behavior performance, 72 and to develop the needed success characteristics of salesperson in term of ethical behavior (e.g. creating trust and confidence, being honest and enthusiasm, taking responsible, handling problems, following the rules). The practice of ethical behavior supports a positive self-image and, consequently, is likely lead to feeling of satisfaction (Kelman’s, 1958). Team building activities help every member of the team understand what their colleagues contribute to the overall success of the company-as well as the part they themselves play. In addition, frequent informal team building can include anything from the weekly meeting to discuss current activities, to learn experiences from win deals and lose deals such as handling customer problems, providing customer services and responding customer complains. The sales strategy is to maintain long-term customer relationships through adaptability in selling, teamwork, sales planning and sales support activities. Good teamwork is linked to winning sales and building longterm partnering relationships. In summary, he emphasizes on importance of CSI score; the bonus and commission for reaching short-term achievement as well as training program and team building for obtaining long-term achievement by optimal skills usage of the sales force to create the top performance. 2. Cross-case analysis 2.1 Cross-case analysis for research issue 1: What do the aspects of salespersons influence on customer satisfaction of Mercedes-Benz’s service? In resolving the research issue 1 and identifying what the aspects of salespersons influence on customer satisfaction of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam’s service, this research 73 presents a visual format by cross-case data display in matrices, which essentially involves the crossing of two or more main dimensions or variables to see how they interact (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Data entries are condensed data in texts from field data collection in case interviews. The object here is to gain an insight and understanding from five cases of customer in-depth interview. The table below shows customer’s assessment in term of sales behavior. Table 4.5 Customer’s assessment in term of sales behavior Criteria Case A Case B Case C Case D Case E Creating trust and HI HI I HI HI HI HI I HI I HI I HI HI HI Handling problems HI I HI I HI Following the rules I HI I HI I confidence Being honesty and enthusiasm Taking responsibility 74 Age Yes Yes Yes Yes No Education Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Recommendation Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Suggestion Reward &control Training Control Ethics Commission code &control ðics policies training As show in table above, depending on each situation and vehicle purchase experiences which customers might face with, they value the level of characteristic importance. During the interview process, all of the respondents strongly agreed that five characteristics are totally needed for the salesperson to achieve customer satisfaction. In five cases, the two characteristics of sales ethical behavior regarding of salesperson’s performance including creating trust and confidence as well as taking responsibility are dominant of high importance (nearly 80% of respondents) based on customers’ view. These characteristics are built on salesperson knowledge and an obvious commitment to customers. Salespersons pay close attention to follow-up commitment and follow-up after sales to maintain good relations with customers. Their opinions are similar the conclusion of Hawes et at. (1989) as reported in the literature: “Ethical salespersons are more likely to develop and maintain long-term buyer-seller relationship through 75 creating trust and confidence”. Ethical behavior leads to higher sales when salespersons are dealing with their relational customers. Relational customers could reward the ethical of the salesperson by continuing to place orders and introduce the retailer to their friends or relatives. In other words, customer satisfaction is the best way for generating more favorable word-of-mouth promotion. Although 20% of remain respondents who do not value the two characteristics of trust and confidence as well as responsibility as high important factors, they are still important factors to be needed for salesperson in order to make customer satisfaction. For the two characteristics of honesty and enthusiasm, and problem handle are also dominant of high important level (nearly 60% of respondents). These characteristics are showed on providing full and clear information as well as giving honest advice, focusing on being honest about competitive products, offering the right solution for customer’s expectations because giving false or prejudiced information can destroy customer’s beliefs and dealing flexibility with problems. Customers are expected to be kept fully information by phone/email, or to be contacted if any problem arises with their vehicles. They are also expected to receive vehicle’s benefits, customized training, or other support services. These requirements mentioned above lead to customer retention as stated by Furse, Punj, and Steward (1984); Sambandam and Lord (1995) that customer satisfaction will affect future purchase intention or in other words, they are more likely to purchase the same product from the same source. The rest 40% of respondents do not value the characteristics of handling problems, being honesty and enthusiasm as not high important factors, but they are still important factors to be possessed for salesperson’s performance. 76 The characteristic of following the rules is considered as an important factor with 60% of respondents and a high important factor with 40% of respondents. According to interviewees, salespersons are required to demonstrate loyalty to the organization and association, but in some situation, salespersons need to be more flexible in their job performance in order to meet customer’s expectations. For example, customers might face with their vehicle’s spare-part problems, if salespersons just follow company policies, it may lead to take more time of waiting. Thus, the characteristic of following the rules is valued as dominant of important level. For the factor of age, most of them (80% of respondents) approve that it is a determinant of ethical sales behavior, because their age increase, people become more conservative in their actions as affirmed by Izzo (2000) that the older people have been exposed longer to ethical dilemmas in non-business context, therefore they are more willing to accept an conform to ethical standards and behave accordingly (Serwinek, 1992). Only 20% of respondent confirmed that age has no significant effect the ethical behavior, because if the salespersons have a good background and positive working attitude, they will have a good manner in their behaviors regardless of age. For the factor education, all of them strongly agree that it is determinant of ethical sales behavior as stated by Izzo (2000) that a high level of education has a direct impact on ethical behavior and can be more important determinant of ethical behavior. Especially, Mercedes-Benz vehicle is considered a premium brand name and high technology product, so the requirement of salesperson education needs to be at a certain level (e.g. at least university graduation upward). Education level presents for salesperson 77 knowledge and attitude toward a good behavior, “knowledge is virtue”…. Moreover, education is positive related to moral judgment (Rest and Thomas, 1985; Rest, 1986). In conclusion, satisfaction is a prerequisite for customer retention. In other words, if customers are satisfied with the salesperson and product, it is probable that they will be trustful to the company and that the belief will be translated into repeated purchases. Repeated purchases are in turn prerequisite to increase financial results for the company, what implies that customer retention is profitable to the organization. Going further, the benefits from retaining the customers are larger than those from acquiring the new one and the costs associated with current customers are lower and declining as compared to new customers. All of cases, customers also give some recommendations (e.g. reward system and control system) to motivate the sales force toward of ethical behavior. The content of motivation will be explored in the next section. 2.2 Cross-case analysis for research issue 2: How does the ethical sales behavior impact on salespersons’ job satisfaction, performance and role conflictintersender? In resolving the research issue 2 and identifying the ethical sales behavior impacts on salesperson’s job satisfaction, performance, and role conflict-intersender, this research continues analyzing cross-case data displayed in matrices to see how main variables of ethical sales behavior interact. The degree to which the cases adhered to the conceptual of ethical sales behavior is discussed as below. Table 4.6 Sales staff and sales management’s assessment in term of satisfaction 78 Criterion Sales Staff Case F Sales Management Case G Case H Case I Case J Job Yes, satisfied Yes, satisfied Yes, satisfied Yes, satisfied Yes, satisfaction by by by by engaging satisfied organization’s organization’s organization’s in ethical optimal reward, ethics reward code, ethical code, climate. ethics reward ethical striving climate teamwork. by and behavior and skills usage for avoiding of effective unethical sales force in behavior, judgment, term ethical creating recruitment, climate ethical training and climate for development and ethical sales force of under ethical climate Role Avoided Conflict- applying conducting shaping inter sender reward ethical ethical management’s control scheme standards climate instruction toward by Avoided by Avoided by Avoided the giving by Avoided by sales exerting system and reward 79 conducting system ethical business Performance High High productivity by High productivity by productivity sales building team by High High productivity productivity using by setting by fostering management’s and increasing control high customer directions and communication system expectations, relationship guidelines of providing the and regarding member team tools, designing ethical incentive to action plan situations achieve those for customer expectations satisfaction and improvement improving CSI score For the job satisfaction, all five cases interviewed are found to adhere to the ethical sales behavior. As shown in the table 4.2, most of the sales staff and sales management express their feelings of satisfaction on the current job (e.g. organization’s reward, work environment). For the sales staff, they are encouraged to behave ethically by sales 80 management when conducting their presentations. For the sales management, they are striving for ethical judgments, creating ethical climate and concentrating on recruitment, training, development the sales force. Salespersons ethical behavior will have a positive impact on their job satisfaction. Thus, salespersons who behave ethically will comply with sales management expectations and will experience feelings of success, which in turn, will increase their job satisfaction (Brown et at., 1993). In other words, if salespersons behave ethically (e.g. not cheating on customers or not applying deceptive and attractive techniques to take the deals at all costs), they are likely to be more satisfied with their work, most of which is carried out interactions with customers. As a result, these practices of ethical sales behavior are led to customer satisfaction. For the role conflict-intersender, it can be avoided by applying an effective reward scheme toward conducting ethical business as suggested by sales staff, as well as by shaping the ethical climate, giving explicit sales management’s instructions, and exerting control system and reward system as sales management’s suggestions. According to Walker et at., (1975), major sources of this role conflict are the company and the customers. For example, salespeople must try their best to meet customer’s and company’s expectations. On the one hand, sales management will expect its sales staff to behave ethically due to recognizing the negative consequences of unethical behavior (e.g. decrease in customer satisfaction and trust, possible litigation). On the other hand, customers also try to satisfy their demands regardless of company policies and the demands may be unacceptable to the sales management. Thus, in order to avoid this role conflict applied in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam context, among other things, ethical selling behavior should imply taking into account customer’s expectations when selling the 81 vehicles (e.g. making clearly and writing down on the worksheet of vehicle model, production year, price, promotion, term of payment, car delivery schedule, insurance) (See the appendix 3- Worksheet). For the performance, the performance of each interviewee is different based on the level of position and is likely to be more complicated from lower level to higher level. The high performance of sales staff, in term of ethical behavior, can be produced under sales management’s instructions and teamwork. They want to have more explicit guidelines from the management and more increased communication between members in team. This is the best way for them to reduce misunderstandings each others, building trust between members, and development ethical judgments. Besides that, the performance of sales management, by using control system and reward system, setting high expectations for sales force, designing an action plan for customer satisfaction improvement, will be guided the sales force to achieve their exceptional targets regarding ethical situations. Moreover, customers tend to purchase the vehicle from salespeople they trust. Thus, salespeople ethical presentations are linked to customer trust and potential repeat the purchase in the future. Therefore, building relationship based on satisfaction and trust, focusing on customers, and making sales presentations are generally part of their job. As a result, their moral actions are led to obtain the outstanding achievements and improve their performance as proved by Ingram (1996) that salespeople’s moral judgments are positively related to their job performance and high performance salespeople show high ethical behavior (Honeycutt et at., 1995). 82 2.3 Cross-case analysis for research issue 3: How would the compensation plan be designed to motivate the salesperson? In resolving the research issue 3 and identifying how the compensation plan would be designed to motivate the sales force, this research continues analyzing cross-case data displayed in matrices to understand more on the structure and the forms of compensation. The compensation plan will be discussed as below. Table 4.7 Sales staff and sales management’s assessment in term of motivation level Criterion Financial- Sales Staff Sales Management Case F Case G Case H Case I Case J Salary HI HI HI I I Bonus HI HI HI HI HI Commission HI HI HI HI HI Promotion HI I I HI I I I HI HI I compensation Non-financial prospect Compensation Two-way communication 83 Working I I I HI HI I HI I HI HI HI I HI HI HI condition Team building Training program As show in table above, depending on position and working experiences of respondents, they value which form of compensation as an important or high important level. First, financial compensation including basic salary, bonus and commission are dominant of high importance (nearly 87% of respondents) based on sales staff and sales management’s view. All of the interviewees confirmed that two main factors in financial compensation including bonus and commission are applied to motivate as well as encourage sales force to achieve the short-term targets. Three cases strongly agreed that salary is high important factor, which effect to sales force of working harder and more effectively as well as direct effect to job satisfaction. It is easy to understand that Mercedes-Benz Vietnam salespeople’s basis salary is very low (e.g. only two billion Vietnam dong), so they desire to increase it as much as possible. Although 40% of respondents (two cases) who do not value salary as a high important factor, it is still important factor which play role in sales force performance as Mr. Paul’s opinion “Basis salary is relevant to the position, outcomes and skills. Salary is set at a low income in 84 order to push salespeople to work harder”. In conclusion, financial compensation has a direct affect on sales force performance, motivation and retention. It can be used to attract the new salesperson and retain the top salesperson to stay loyalty in long-term. Second, non-financial compensation including promotion prospect, two-way communication, working condition, team building, training program also is dominant of high importance (nearly 52% of respondents) based on interviewees’ opinion. Most of them assumed that financial compensation is the most important thing when compensation plan mentioned, but it does not mean that non-financial compensation reward is not important. For training program including ethics training and soft skill training, four cases strongly believed that it is very necessary for sales force toward conducting ethical business and providing product knowledge as well as soft skill of close deals. Especially, training program is more important to new salespersons as they start to join in a new environment. Only one cases considered training program is still important factor to motivate salespeople. For team building, three of five cases valued that team building is necessary to be established in a company. Team building activities help every member of team mutual assistance and understand what their co-workers contribute to the overall success of the company. In addition, through teamwork, team member can learn experiences from win deals and lose deals such as handling problems, providing customer services and responding customer complains. Good teamwork is linked to wining sales and building 85 long-term partnering relationships. Although two cases remain do not value team building as high important factor, it is still important level based on their choice. For promotion prospect, two-way communication, working condition, 40% of respondents agreed that they are high important factor to motivate sales force. According to them, besides money, being promotion to high position is essential factor that management should apply to keep the best sellers stay loyalty in the company and produce a high performance of sales force. They said “Two-way communication between manager and sales staff is being close and developed to create a best result in motivation”. In other words, it allows manager to better control sales behavior or the way they do in their selling vehicles. They also confirmed that working condition is considered as “tools” provided by sales management in order to support for achieving outcomes. And 60% of respondent valued three factors as a important level to encourage salespeople excellence performance. Making comparison between financial compensation and non- financial compensation, it is easy to realize that financial compensation is valued as a higher importance compared with non-financial compensation by both sales staff and sales management. Most of them (nearly 87% of respondent) agreed that financial compensation is priority compared with other rewards and has a direct effect on sales force performance, motivation and retention. Furthermore, financial compensation can be used to attract the new salesperson and retain the top salesperson to stay loyalty in company. For the nonfinancial compensation, although most of cases interviewed admit to motivating the salesperson as the form of money, it is not enough. Non- financial compensation can 86 play an important role as financial compensation does. It can provide the “tools” for individual and organization’s goal achievement. More specially, non- financial compensation gives particular challenges in the working environment and advantages to motivate an excellent salesperson’s performance. In conclusion, compensation is one of the physical needs that influence motivation, and as a result, it is a major factor that affects to salespeople performance improvement as well as job satisfaction. Thus, it is essential for management to understand how compensation work in order to design an effective reward structure emphasizing on different dimensions or tasks that comprise of salespeople’s effort as proved by Erevelles, Dutta, Galantine, (2004) and Brown et at., (2005). The last chapter will summarize of results and comment on the thesis. 87 Chapter five - Conclusion and Implications This final chapter provides conclusions and implications of the research. Structure of this chapter is illustrated in the below Figure 5.1. Figure 5.1 Outline of chapter 5 1. Conclusions and implications of three research issues 2. Research limitations 3. Suggested further research 4. Conclusion First, the conclusions and implications of three research issues are presented in detail in section 1. Then, the research limitations are outlined in section 2. Next, further research suggestions in this field are mentioned in section 3. Finally, the thesis is concluded in section 4. 88 1. Conclusion about the three research issues and implications for theory 1.1 Conclusion about the research issue 1: What do the aspects of salespersons effect on customer satisfaction of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam service? 1.1.1 The literature As introduced by Swan and Oliver (1989), satisfaction is an affective or emotional response to a specific consumption experience, with increasing satisfaction reflecting more positive affect and dissatisfaction reflecting greater affect. Satisfaction includes emotional responses of the consumers as they relate to purchases (Mano and Oliver, 1993; Oliver, 1993). These emotional influences may result from factors related to product performance and also from the process of acquiring and using a product. As specified by Furse, Punj, and Stewart (1984); Sambandam and Lord (1995), customer satisfaction is an important issue because it is related to several desirable outcomes. It affects future purchase intentions- satisfied customers are more likely to purchase the same product from the same source. Satisfied customers also can provide a steady flow of word-of-mouth promotion, thereby reducing the expense required to find new customers (Swan and Oliver, 1989). Product performance is one of the important determinants of overall customer satisfaction, but it is not the only one. For example, Westbrook (1981) indicates that salesperson influences overall customer satisfaction with a purchase. Thus, the importance of salesperson ethical behavior as an antecedent of overall customer satisfaction should be concerned. For instance, salesperson’s performance would be showed in ethical behavior toward creating trust and confidence, being honesty and 89 enthusiasm, taking responsibility, handling problem as well as following the rules in order to meet the customer’s expectation and effect on customer retention, 1.1.2 Findings All cases studied were found to adhere to the customer satisfaction throughout the ethical sales behavior. First, the characteristics of sales ethical behavior including creating trust and confidence as well as taking responsibility are dominant of high importance (80% of respondents), being honesty and enthusiasm is also dominant of high importance (60% of respondents), in turn, following the rules is dominant of high important factor with 40% of respondents. During the interview process, all of the respondents strongly agreed that five characteristics are totally needed for the salesperson to achieve customer satisfaction. Second, the education factor is strongly believed as determinant of ethical sales behavior as proved by Izzo (2000) that a high level of education has a direct impact on ethical behavior and can be more important determinant of ethical behavior. For the age factor, most of them (80% of respondents) approved that it is a determinant of ethical sales behavior, because their age increase, people become more conservative in their actions as affirmed by Izzo (2000) that the older people have been exposed longer to ethical dilemmas in non-business context, therefore they are more willing to accept an conform to ethical standards and behave accordingly (Serwinek, 1992). Only 20% of respondent confirmed that age has no significant effect the ethical behavior as stated by Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Hanh (cased E) “if the salespersons have a good background and positive working attitude, they will have a good manner in their behaviors regardless of age”. 90 Third, most of the cases showed that they are willing for recommendation salesperson to their relatives or friends. Satisfied customers shall talk to two persons about his positive purchase experience. However, dissatisfied customers will talk to and discourage ten persons or more from potential cooperation with the company. In other words, customer’s dissatisfaction has not only direct effect on organization business measured as lost potential sales, but may also have indirect effect on the business in the form of negative word of mouth. 1.1.3 Conclusion and implication In conclusion, satisfaction is a prerequisite for customer retention and customer satisfaction is more likely related to ethical sales behavior. One of the factors that is recognized as having an influence on salespeople’s performance is the characteristics of ethical sales behavior such as creating trust and confidence, being honesty and enthusiasm, taking responsibility, handling problem as well as following the rules. Salesperson’s ethical behavior, as concluded by Sergio and Jose Luis Munuere (2005), will be effected by organizational factors (reward system and control system) and personal factor (age and education). These findings mentioned above are very important to point out the significant implications about the approach used by the sales management in some areas as follows:  Recruiting, selecting (e.g. focusing on personal factors such as age and education), 91  Incentive and training including ethics training as well sales training the sales force (e.g. exerting reward system).  Monitoring and directing sales force day-to-day presentations toward conducting ethical business (e.g. applying control system) 1.2 Conclusion about the research issue 2: How does the salesperson’s ethical behavior impact on salesperson’s job satisfaction, performance and role conflict- intersender? 1.2.1 The literature 1.2.1.1 Ethical sales behavior Ethical sales behavior is defined as fair and honest actions that enable the salesperson to foster long-term relationships with customers based on customer satisfaction and trust. Robertson and Anderson, (1993); Futrell, (2002) descried that ethical sales behavior is related to widely “recognized” societal norms such as fair play, honesty and full disclosure. In contrast, unethical behavior can even generate liability to problems for salespeople’s organizations through both intentional and inadvertent statements (Boedecker et at., 1991). Moreover, customer requires a salesperson to engage in behaviors that increase long-term customer satisfaction and avoid behavior leading to customer dissatisfaction”(Dunlap et al., 1988). 1.2.1.2 Job satisfaction Job satisfaction is defined as all characteristics of the job itself and the work environment which salesmen find rewarding, fulfilling and satisfying or frustrating and unsatisfying. As shown by Bellizzi and Hite (1989), salespeople’s job satisfaction can be 92 weakened if they perceive their organization as rewarding the unethical behaviors of coworkers. Similarly, studies by Weeks and Nantel (1992) and Schwepker (2001) indicate that the code of ethics and the ethical climate respectively influenced a salesperson’s job satisfaction. Finally, the qualitative research of Beatty et at (1996) note that salespeople’s ethical behavior (e.g. having customer’s best interests in mind and being honest to them) led to higher levels of job satisfaction. 1.2.1.3 Role conflict-inter sender Role conflict can be defined by the dimensions of congruency-in congruency or compatibility- incompatibility in the requirements of the salespeople’s role, where congruency and compatibility is judged relative to a set of standards that affect role performance. (Rizzo et at.,1970). Generally, the major sources of this type of role conflict are the company (employer) and the customers (Walker et at., 1975). The salesperson must try to satisfy the expectations of his company and his customers. One the one hand, recognizing the negative consequences of unethical sales behavior, a company will expect its salespeople to behave ethically. On the other hand, customer try to satisfy their own objectives and need a sales transaction are often unaware of the policies and constraints under which a salesperson is operating (Walker et at., 1975). Since, among other things, ethical selling behavior implies taking into account customers’ needs, when selling a product (e.g. by refraining from selling product that customer do not need) (Ingram et at., 2001), consequently, a salesperson’s ethical behavior will reduce role conflict-inter sender, at least by the percentage that is attributable to the conflicting expectations of the company and the customers. When salespeople behave unethically (e.g. implementing manipulative sales tactics or high93 pressure selling techniques), they may be a fear of personal refection by the buyer, because the use of such actions is not supportive of positive relationships (Boyle and Dwyer, 1995). 1.2.1.4 Performance Performance is comprised of behaviors (the activities salespeople perform) and outcomes resulting from behavior; the former has been termed behavioral performance, whereas the latter is known as outcome performance (Behrman and Perrault, 1982; Grant and Cravens, 1996). According to Manager’s Magazine, (1995); Schiffman, (1998), successful salespeople focus on customers, earn the customer’s trust and respect and develop partnership relationships with them. Likewise, a salesperson’s ethical behavior is positively related to customer trust and satisfaction, thus enhancing relationship quality and the probability of future rewards to the salesperson (Lagace et at., 1991; Roman and Ruiz, 2005). More importantly, buyers tend to purchase from salespeople they trust (Ganesan, 1994). Consequently, it is plausible to expect that more ethical salespeople are more likely to achieve such goals and subsequently improve their performance. Similarly, Honeycutt et at., (1995) find that high-performance salespeople showed high ethical behavior and Schwepker and Ingram (1996) have provided empirical evidence of salespeople’s moral judgments as being positively related to their job performance. 94 1.2.2 Findings All sales staff and sales management interviewed provided information of interactions between ethical/unethical and customer satisfaction influence on salespeople’s job satisfaction, performance and role conflict-intersender. For the job satisfaction, most of the sales staff and sales management express their feelings of satisfaction on the current job (e.g. organization’s reward, work environment). For the sales staff, they are encouraged to behave ethically by sales management when conducting their presentations. For the sales management, they are striving for ethical judgments, creating ethical climate and concentrating on recruitment, training, development the sales force. Salespersons ethical behavior will have a positive impact on their job satisfaction. Thus, salespersons who behave ethically will comply with sales management expectations and will experience feelings of success, which in turn, will increase their job satisfaction (Brown et at., 1993). For the performance, the high performance of sales staff, in term of ethical behavior, can be produced under sales management’s instructions and teamwork. They want to have more explicit guidelines from the management and more increased communication between members in team. This is the best way for them to reduce misunderstandings each others, building trust between members, and development ethical judgments. Besides that, the performance of sales management, by using control system and reward system, setting high expectations for sales force, designing an action plan for customer satisfaction improvement, will be guided the sales force to achieve their exceptional targets regarding ethical situations. Salespeople’s moral actions are led to obtain the 95 outstanding achievements and improve their performance as proved by Ingram (1996) that salespeople’s moral judgments are positively related to their job performance and high performance salespeople show high ethical behavior (Honeycutt et at., 1995). For the role conflict-intersender, it can be avoided by applying an effective reward scheme toward conducting ethical business as suggested by sales staff, as well as by shaping the ethical climate, giving explicit sales management’s instructions, and exerting control system and reward system as sales management’s suggestions. The major sources of this type conflict are the company’s expectation and customer’s needs and salesperson must try to satisfy the expectations of both his company and customers. Thus, ethical sales behavior will reduce the role conflict- intersender and increase the job satisfaction and performance. 1.2.3 Conclusion and implication In conclusion, creating ethical climates is related to ethical sales behavior. Furthermore, it appears that the salespeople are employed in such an environment also can be profiled as being relatively high in job satisfaction and receiving equally high in performance. Besides that, more guidelines provided by sales management are requested for salespeople to deal with unethical behavior. This is consistent with the fact that ethical behavior is led to increased job satisfaction, performance of the salespeople and decreased role conflict between company’s interests and customer’s interests as proved by Dubinsky et at., (2004) that ethical actions always lead to positive results and that unethical activity always results in some forms of harm to others. 96 As mentioned in conclusion of the research issue 1 and 2, it is critical for sales management to fully understand and develop the long-term relationship between seller and buyer. Sales management need to foster a salesperson’s ethical behavior not only because of positive consequences to the salesperson in term of higher job satisfaction, performance and lower role conflict- intersender, but also because unethical sales behavior can cause disputes with customers, possibly even resulting in litigation. Sales management tries to create an ethical environment, explicit guidelines, team building, training program where the potential for unethical behavior is quite low. For example, they should take time to communicate with the sales force, assisting and guiding salespeople from their sales activities toward an ethical perspective. Reward structure is not only based on sales volume, but also on customer satisfaction index (CSI) achieved. 1.3 Conclusion about the research issue 3: How would the compensation be designed to motivation the salesperson? 1.3.1 The literature Compensation can be defined “cash and non-cash remuneration provided by an employer or services rendered” (American Compensation Association’s (1995) or compensation can be intrinsic or extrinsic, financial or non-financial, and/or direct or indirect (Clampitt and Potempa, 1994). Moreover, compensation is a form of rewards that flow to employees arising from their employment (Dessler, 1995). As Bernardin and Russell (1993) conclude that compensation has a bit influence in the recruitment of employees, motivation, productivity and employee turnover. 97 Compensation can be divided into financial and non-financial compensation. In this study, financial compensation consists of salary, bonus, and commission. Non-financial compensation includes of promotion, two-way communication, working condition, team building, and training program.  Salary is a fix sum of money paid at regular interval (Churchill, Ford and Walker, 2006). Company will base on salesperson’s experience, competence, and time on job, as well as the sales manager’s judgment about the quality of the individual’s performance to evaluate this salesperson.  Bonus is a payment made at the discretion of management for achieving or surpassing some set level performance (Churchill, Ford and Walker, 2006). Bonus directs effort toward straregy objectives, provide addition rewards for top performers, and encourage sales success.  Commission is a payment based on short-term results (e.g. sales volume). Commission payment is useful for motivating a high level of selling effort.  Promotion prospect is being recognized and promoted by senior management as it motivates salespeople to perform their tasks better and stay loyal to the company in long-term.  Two-way communication is a relationship of salespeople with their peers, superiors and subordinates. The relationship should be appropriate and acceptable because of no conflict or humiliation element presented. 98  Working condition is related to environment that provided the “tools” for salespeople’s objectives achievement. Salespeople cannot be motivated to create; instead, they can only be encouraged and enable through the development of the environment in which they work.  Team building is a group of salespeople work together and get a result in maximum motivation. Good team is linked to winning sales and building longterm partnering relationships.  Training program includes of ethics training and soft skill training that lead to changes in salesperson knowledge, skills, attitude and behavior as providing advantages to improve salespeople’s performance. 1.3.2 Findings Financial compensation including basic salary, bonus and commission are dominant of high importance (nearly 87% of respondents) based on sales staff and sales management’s view. All of the interviewees confirmed that two main factors in financial compensation including bonus and commission are applied to motivate as well as encourage sales force to achieve the short-term targets. Three cases strongly agreed that salary is high important factor, which effect to sales force of working harder and more effectively as well as direct effect to job satisfaction. It is easy to understand that Mercedes-Benz Vietnam salespeople’s basis salary is very low, so they desire to increase it as much as possible. Although 40% of respondents who do not value salary as 99 a high important factor, it is still important factor which play role in sales force performance. Non-financial compensation including promotion prospect, two-way communication, working condition, team building, training program also is dominant of high importance (nearly 52% of respondents) based on interviewees’ opinion. Most of them assumed that financial compensation is the most important thing when compensation plan mentioned, but it does not mean that non-financial compensation reward is not important. Making comparison between financial compensation and non- financial compensation, it is easy to realize that financial compensation is valued as a higher importance compared with non-financial compensation by both sales staff and sales management. Most of them (nearly 87% of respondent) agreed that financial compensation is priority compared with other rewards and has a direct effect on sales force performance, motivation and retention. Furthermore, financial compensation can be used to attract the new salesperson and retain the top salesperson to stay loyalty in company. For the nonfinancial compensation, although most of cases interviewed admit to motivating the salesperson as the form of money, it is not enough. Non- financial compensation can play an important role as financial compensation does. It can provide the “tools” for individual and organization’s goal achievement. More specially, non- financial compensation gives particular challenges in the working environment and advantages to motivate an excellent salesperson’s performance. 100 1.3.3 Conclusion and implication Compensation plan, including salary, bonus, commission, promotion prospect, two-way communication, working condition, team building, and training program, is a key method of motivating and influencing salespeople’s behavior and performance, satisfaction and retention. Mercedes-Benz Vietnam management has been applied the compensation plan for motivating salespeople to achieve both individual and organizational goal. Sales management should better understand the salespeople’s expectations for adaptation the compensation structure in order to sustain high level of motivation. Furthermore, salespeople tend to do what they receive rewards for doing (Fester et at., 1988; Liu and Comer, 2007). Therefore, sales management’s implementation for successful motivation is very important and should emphasize on every aspect of motivation issue. First, financial compensation not only based on salespeople’s exceptional achievements in such areas as sales volume, order size but also based on the level of customer satisfaction with MBV’s service (CSI). Second, training program including knowledge, skills, attitude and behavior should be focused as it is considered the main route for improving job performance, job satisfaction which leads to long-term organizational success. Third, salespeople should receive the information associated with company policies/procedures, explicit guidelines from management through twoway communication or team building (e.g. if salespeople don’t receive clear instructions from manager, they are likely to be confused about responsibilities). 101 2. Research limitations First, this research explores only ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam context. Consequently, the findings are quite different from ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction of other automobile companies. Second, due to limited time and budget, most of the respondents are living in Ho Chi Minh City (South of Viet Nam), so their perceptions may be different from others areas (e.g. North or Middle of Viet Nam). Third, customers interviewed belong to passenger car’s customers only (instead of including both passenger car and commercial car’s ones) due to MBV’s commercial vehicle production assembly line will be stop at beginning of year 2013, so we just concentrate on customer’s passenger vehicle only. 3. Suggested further research There are some suggestions for further research. Firstly, the objective of qualitative research is to explore the theories based on researcher’s working experience. Therefore, further quantitative researches should be conducted or combined qualitative and quantitative methods to test the theories mentioned in the literature, probably in the questionnaire survey form. Secondly, most the interviewees of cases studied in this research is located in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding Southern provinces. Proposed future researches should be conducted in Northern and other provinces for testing further applicability of exploratory results for the whole Vietnam automobile market. 102 4. Conclusion Meanwhile there has been extensive research on customer satisfaction with products and services, studies of B2B marketing toward the effect of ethical sales behavior on customer satisfaction have been very little by academics as well as practitioners all over the world (Oliver and Swan, 1989). Vietnam B2B marketing is not an exception. Hopefully, the results of this research can contribute a timely new knowledge of ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction for Mercedes-Benz Vietnam Management. It can be employed effectively for MBV’s sales force applicability in their day-to-day selling vehicles and conducted ethical business in order to achieve at a higher level of customer satisfaction. 103 References 1. Arik P. and Masanori K. (2011). The effect of financial and non-financial compensation to the employee performance. The 2nd International Research Symposium in Service Management, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 2. Ali A., Akam M.N. (2012). Impact of financial rewards on employee’s motivation and satisfaction in Pharmaceutical Industry, Pakistan. Global journal management. 3. Brent G. G., James S. B., Danny N. B., Carrie S.(1997). The influence of salesperson selling behaviors on customer satisfaction with products. Journal of Retailing, 73, 171-183. 4. Boutellier R. and Gassmann O.,(2008). 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Appendix 1- CSI questions Customer satisfaction index (CSI) questions are subjective to tastes and preferences. 1.Overall satisfaction towards purchase How satisfied were you with your recent experience buying experience at your retailer? 2.Showroom How satisfied were you with the following: *Showroom appearance *The way you were welcome at the showroom *Availability of product information in the showroom *Service on the phone 3.Salesperson How satisfied were you with the following: *Appearance and behavior of salesperson *Salesperson’s efforts to understand your needs 108 *Salesperson’s knowledge and competence 4.Vehicle handover How satisfied were you with the following: *Overall handover experience *Demonstration of features and controls *Atmosphere during handover procedure 5.Sales follow-up *Were you contacted by the dealer/ salesperson within 3-day after car delivery? *If yes, how satisfied were you with the customer care by salesperson since your new vehicle’s handover? 6.Recommendation *How likely would you recommend your retailer to a relative or friend? *How would you buy your next vehicle from the same retailer again? 109 2. Appendix 2- In-depth interview questions 2.1 Questionnaire for customer survey Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, My name is Ly Thien Huong, a student of MBA, International University, Vietnam National University. I am conducting a thesis about “Relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer’s satisfaction- The case of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam”. We would like to identify which characteristic of salesperson’s ethical behavior is important based on customer’s assessment. Please kindly spend your time to answer these following questions in order to help me fulfill my research as well as to achieve the highest customer satisfaction level for our company. Many thanks, 1. How satisfied are you with the appearance of salesperson? More specifically, do you satisfy with the knowledge and competence of salesperson? Does salesperson make efforts to understand and meet your needs? 2. What is your opinion of how the salesperson’s age and education affect their sales behavior? 3. A. There are some criteria of sales ethical behavior regarding of salesperson’s performance such as creating trust and confidence, being honest and enthusiastic, taking responsibility, handling problem, following the rules. In your opinion, 110 which criterion is the most important of salesperson in term of sales ethical behavior? Why? B. Please indicate your choice with each criterion in the table as per your perspectives: No. Criterion Important High How important these important criteria are in your opinion? Please give examples from your experiences. 1 Creating trust & confidence (fulfilling having commitment, product/service knowledge, appearance) 2 Being honest (giving honest advice, treating other fairly, conducting yourself in the proper manner) 3 Taking responsibility 111 (carrying your share at work & responsibility with 100% effort, following-up after sales) 4 Handling problems (dealing flexibility with problems) 5 Following (demonstrating the rules loyalty to company & associates) (I-Important, HI-High Important) 4. Could you share with us about your perception in this field and contribute your ideas that you have experienced on this purchase? How likely would you recommend your retailer to a relative or friend? 2.2 Questionnaire for sales staff & sales management survey Dear Colleagues, We are conducting a research on “Relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer’s satisfaction- The case of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam”. We would like to examine on your perception of ethical sales behavior and how important it is in our business. In addition, to design an effective compensation plan for motivating sales staff 112 to meet the customer insights and expectations, and how you satisfy with it at the present time and in future. Please kindly spend your time to anticipate the face-to-face interview on this Friday after we finish our weekly meeting or please let me know when is convenient for you. Thank you for your co-operation, 1. How satisfied are you with your current job? How long have you been working in automobile industry in general and in Mercedes-Benz Vietnam in particular? Why do you have a long time to work as a sales executive? 2. How would you describe the importance of ethical sales behavior in your business? 3. In your point of view, what should be done to avoid the role conflict-inter sender between salesperson and customer? 4. What should we do to improve your sales team in term of sales behavior to make the customer satisfaction? 5. A. There are some components of compensation plan such as financial compensation including basis salary, commission, bonuses/incentives and nonfinancial compensation plan including promotion prospect, two-way communication, working condition, team building, training program. In your opinion, which criterion is the most important in term of motivation sales-force? Why? 113 B. Please indicate your choice with each criterion in the table as per your perspectives: No. Criterion Important High How important these criteria are in your Important opinion? Please give example from your experiences. 1 Basis salary 2 Commission 3 Bonuses/ Incentives 4 Promotion prospect 5 Two-way communication (relationship between manager & sales staff) 6 Working condition & team building 114 7 Training program (I-Important, HI-High important) 6. How could you reach your target? How satisfied are you with the incentive program? 7. More specifically, would you have any comment to contribute for the compensation plan in order to motivate the sales staff? Thank you! 115 3. Appendix 3- Worksheet 116 [...]... cross -case It will explore the relationship between ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations The conclusions section will summarize of results and comments on the thesis 8 Mercedes- Benz Vietnam Overview Mercedes- Benz Vietnam was established in 1995 as a member of DaimlerChrysler, Mercedes- Benz Vietnam (MBV) is one of the top auto makers in Vietnam It supplies... staff and sales management of Mercedes- Benz Vietnam as well as secondary data from Mercedes- Benz Vietnam Company Finally, after analyzing the data in within -case and cross -case, conclusions and xi recommendations of the study for Mercedes- Benz Vietnam Management were presented Key words: customer satisfaction, ethical sales behavior, salesperson, compensation, Mercedes- Benz Vietnam xii xiii Chapter One... light of the above, a review of the literature on ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction, the purpose of this study is based on conceptual model introduced by Roman and Ruiz in 2005; Sergio Roman and Jose Luis Munuere in 2005 to analyze and explore the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes- Benz Vietnam From the exploratory results, the study... customer satisfaction of MercedesBenz Vietnam s service?  How does the ethical sales behavior impact on salespersons job satisfaction, performance and role conflict-intersender?  How would the compensation be designed to motivate the salesperson? 6 Research methodology This research follows the methodology of Yin (2003) to build analytical case study consisting of designing the case study, conducting the. .. analyze and explore the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes- Benz Vietnam From the exploratory results, the study makes some suggestions for Mercedes- Benz Vietnam Management in recruiting, motivating and training sales force in order to achieve high level of customer satisfaction In order to reach the basic goal as the above mention, the research objectives... focused on the thesis as follow:  To identify what aspects of salesperson influences on customer satisfaction of Mercedes- Benz Vietnam s service  To examine how does the ethical sales behavior impact on salespersons job satisfaction, performance and role conflict-intersender  To investigate how the compensation would be designed to motivate the salespersons 3 4 Theoretical Framework The researcher... To motivate the salesperson’s ethical practices, compensation plan would be designed for salesperson to achieve both individual and organizational goal This research aims to explore the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes- Benz Vietnam In addition, there has been little research on the effects of salesperson ethical behavior on customer satisfaction. .. some theories linked to customer satisfaction (section 1), sales behavior (section 2), compensation (section 3) and case study development (section 4) The structure of this chapter is showed in the below Figure 2.1 Outline of chapter 2 1 Customer satisfaction 2 Sales behavior 3 Compensation 4 Case study development 1 Customer satisfaction 1.1 Definition of customer satisfaction The concept of satisfaction. .. directly relate to the product According to Oliver and Swan (1989), for retail purchases the quality of the customersalesperson communication appears to impact satisfaction with the product While there has been very limited research associated with the linkage between satisfaction with the salesperson as an indicator of satisfaction with the product, it appears that perceptions of equity by the consumer... For these reasons, it is very important to point out the significant implication for Mercedes- Benz Vietnam Management in controlling, recruiting, motivating and training salespersons in order to produce an excellence their performance and to reach high level of customer satisfaction 3 Research Objectives A review of the literature on ethical sales behavior and customer satisfaction, the purpose of this .. .RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SALESPERSON’S ETHICAL BEHAVIOR & CUSTOMER’S SATISFACTIONTHE CASE OF MERCEDES BENZ VIETNAM In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS... summarize of results and comments on the thesis Mercedes- Benz Vietnam Overview Mercedes- Benz Vietnam was established in 1995 as a member of DaimlerChrysler, Mercedes- Benz Vietnam (MBV) is one of the. .. explore the relationship between salesperson’s ethical behavior and customer satisfaction in Mercedes- Benz Vietnam In addition, there has been little research on the effects of salesperson ethical behavior