AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF CUE UTILIZATION IN THE BUYER-SELLER DYA

This study investigated the buyer-seller dyadic relationship, examining the salesman's referent and expert power bases, communication skills, and communication message in conjunction with a customer's base of prior knowledge to ascertain the effect of each cue in determining a buyer's message specific attitude, evaluation of the salesman's personal characteristics, assessment of the salesman's skills, behavioral intentions, and trust.;Building upon French and Raven's Social Power Theory (1959) and the marketing work of Woodside and Davenport (1974) and Busch and Wilson (1976), this study sought to examine a more complex dyadic interaction in a five-factor, two-level experimental design.;It was anticipated that the referent power cue would influence customer's trust and overall evaluation of the salesman. Referent power had no significant impact on any dependent variable.;The expert power cue was expected to influence the customer's assessment of the salesman's skills. Expert power evidenced a significant main effect on the customer's assessment of the salesman's skills. In addition, the expert power base had impact on a customer's attitudes and behavioral intentions.;The salesman's communication skill cue was expected to impact a customer's message specific attitude and possibly additional dependent variables. In this experimental context, the communication skill cue was paramount, influencing a customer's attitudes, behavioral intentions, trust, and evaluation of the salesman's skills, and personal characteristics.;It was anticipated that a customer's prior knowledge base would impact his perceptions of the salesman. The prior knowledge base had significant main effects on the customer's message specific attitude and assessment of the salesman's skills. Additionally, near significant main effects were present for the customer's trust, behavioral intentions, and evaluation of the salesman's personal characteristics.;The impact of two different message types could not be a priori predicted. Neither had significant main effects on any dependent variable. Consistent message type by communication skill interactions were found which indicated a preference for the informative message delivered by a skilled communicator and a preference for the hard sell message delivered by a less skilled communicator.