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Sr. No. Title Page Number
1 Abstract 2
2 Introduction 3
3 Literature Review 10
4 Methodology 24
5 Discussion, Analysis and Interpretation of data 36
6 Study Limitations 39
7 Conclusion 40
8 Project Reflection 42
9 Questionnaire 49
10 Bibliography 53
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Chapter 1 Abstract:
Introduction: It focuses on the research conducted on Max New York Life Insurance across
town classes, SEC and geographies amongst both pension plan buyers and non-buyers a few
stark facts emerged. The research brought out facts about the youngsters of our country. It
brought out the fact they are too lazy to give time for acquiring pension plans, which is there
ultimate help during their old hood days. There is a lack of motivation among sales agents to
market pension policies in India.
Literature Review: It revolves around Indian insurance industry as a whole. There are light
thrown on different aspects of this industry. The focus is on the insurance agents who are
responsible for selling the insurance policies to the customers. There has been also a study of
customer-orientation behavior and level of motivation.
Methodology: The sample of the pilot study consists of 30 part time and full time agents doing
insurance from companies which do not participate. There will usage of mixed method approach
in our project.
Discussion, Analysis and Interpretation of data: These inventions have developed many
significant results. Previously, it has been seen that customer management behavior are different
according to their character. But the present study says that the value of customer based policy
by insurance agents is affected by the standard of managerial commitment and general influence.
Conclusion: Many aspects came into out purview which would be helpful in generating sales of
insurance policies which would there by increase sales. Many methods came out which would be
helpful in motivating the insurance agents to sell move policies and results also came out
pointing the drawbacks in the management of insurance companies.
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Chapter 2:- INTRODUCTION
Introduction:
Contact personnel play a pivotal role in the delivery of high contact services. The service
employee often represents the organisation in the eyes of the customer. Due to this, the role of
employee is both complex and multi-dimensional. Management must be aware of the difficulties
associated with this role and consequently the need for internal marketing, focusing on the area
of motivation, which is required for a successful service experience.
The paper outlined, will highlight the role of the service employee in the service process, the
challenges which this presents to the boundary spanning employee. The paper will then address
the manner in which, management can use internal marketing to motivate employee to provide
the best possible service to customers.
Internal marketing and the use of motivation in the service context, will lead to lower turnover
rates, improved performance, increased customer satisfaction and increased communication
levels within the organisation. The project discusses about motivating insurance agents to sell
insurance product like pension schemes which is still an underdeveloped concept in India.
It is the general perception among masses that life after post-retirement needs to be an idle phase,
where there is no work and life is only for enjoyment. They want to relive those days and
moments which they missed when they were working. This is their thinking but do we know
what the reality, does this ever happen? It is seen that the lives after retirement becomes struggle
some. Their regular income stops, which leads to a series a problems such cost cutting measures
and change in the lifestyle. Thing becomes worse if they have some dependents with them. Such
things can be avoided to a great extent if retirement is planned systematically. Planning for
retirement well before time is advisable because this gives some time in buffer and you can think
of the retirement in a relatively better manner.
If we are talking about Indians, then planning for systematic retirement needs sooner than others
countries because a majority of the Indias workforce (425 million) does not have any pension
cover. The problem does not end here as there is absence of social security in India and what
adds to the problem is ever increasing inflation. As a result of inflation, there has been an
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increase in the cost of healthcare, which cannot be borne by our senior citizens. With all these
problems the life rarely seems to be idyllic instead the complications keep rising with each
passing day. This is one of the reasons many people dread post retirement days and keep
avoiding as much as possible. However, there is always a ray of hope when all the things seem
bleak. For those people who are vying for retirement insurance plans come as a ray of hope and
this is one of the reasons why there has been a constant in such life insurance plans. In recent
times, many reputed names and brands have thrown in their hats in this field. However, it is
essential to consider as per the perspective of consumers and it is obvious that they do not have
proper information regarding the plans or in other words they are ignorant.
The following is the research performed by Max New York Life Insurance across different
towns, cities, geographies and SEC amongst people who buy insurance and individuals who
dont. The result was revelation of sorts.
1) Youngsters consider retirement as a distant subject and prefer avoiding it as much as
possible. They major concern is focusing on short term goals, where they can get faster
returns. Their investments include discretionary spending, automobiles etc. They just
dont want to even think of retirement.
2) When the eventuality sets in, they turn into late thirties or forties, and then they start
pondering about retirement. However, the time is lesser so its certain that things
complicate and they make a sound plan for their retirement.
3) The basic problem with consumers is that they dont have a proper scale or a criterion,
which helps them to measure the approximate amount of money required for maintaining
their present lifestyle post retirement. This is one of the basic reasons why pension plans
are making merry in the Indian markets.
4) Most of the consumers are aware that with the time the value of money would diminish
but they dont have any calculator, which assists them to calculate the inflation rate.
5) Over the years, pension plans were perceived to be taking care of just roti in the basic
three necessities for survival which are (roti, kapda aur makaan). Pension plans for past
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many years were never seen as the post retirement option instead they were meant to
fulfill daily requirements.
6) The most striking aspect of this research was that consumer was not willing to be
dependent on their children post retirement. It was awkward to find that consumers were
not willing to take any assistance from their children and did not want themselves to be
looked after their children post-retirement. Most of them referred to Baghban movie to
support their decision. The thoughts and trend of our society is changing to a great extent
and it is certain that it may have a huge impact on the rise in the demand of pension plans
in the coming future.
It is interesting to know that pension plans in most of the developed countries forms a
majority of capital in their countries. In the countries such as US, the pension plans
constitutes to a large section and also the source of financial capital. What amazes many is
that there are certain countries where the aggregate or total value of pension funds exceeds
the GDP (gross domestic of the country)
Over the years, the debate regarding the reforms of pension plans has been intensifying.
People are giving example of financial sector reforms, which has led to a significant progress
in different spheres such as banking, capital as we currency markets. Therefore, most of the
people second that there is need of reforms in the pension plans, which can revolutionize this
sector and give it a breather. There is need of a comprehensive policy, which helps in the
revamp of this sector and for past some time now people are demanding for the same.
It is seen that most of the major retirement schemes such as pensions and provident funds are
covering only workers from organized sector, which only constitutes to about 10 percent of the
overall workforce. It is to be believed that a majority of workers which amounts to
approximately 90% are into the unorganized sector and are not having any access to post-
retirement security. As stated earlier, they must be enlightened in order to avail these plans and
here, agents have to do their part.
It is seen that a majority of agents selling the pension plans lack that passion or killer instinct
required in marketing such plans because their commissions are way too low, they lack complete
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knowledge and lackadaisical approach shown by the consumers. It is important that these
schemes generate lesser commission for agents so there is motivating factor which can drive
them towards giving them their best. The best part of this report is that it focuses on the
generation of interest in agents, which is the most important aspect if they are the backbones of
this industry and completely responsible for the sales of plans. The pension scheme in India is
under developed and there are expectations that it would be growing up to 20% by 2015.
This project focuses on the creation of a plan useful for internal marketing, which may help in
developing the strategies useful for motivating the agents, which helps them in selling the plans
to the prospective consumers. This is highly beneficial for the entire India given the fact that
since agents will be motivated to sell the pension plans and they would ensure to sell some of
them, which would thereby result in secure and sound future of Indians post-retirement.
Limitations
Shortage of the time limit
GD i.e. Group discussion could not be focused properly.
An expert panel of at least 4 panels could not be drawn.
Sample
Sample would be random and heterogeneous
The gender would be neutral and the age limit would be 16 to 60.
Strategical Internal marketing tools and techniques
Internal marketing is a process where the companys functional processes aligns and empowers
all the employees at all management levels to convey a satisfactory customer satisfaction.
Employees play a very important role in this internal marketing. The ultimate motto of this is
that you should extract the total resource in your employees by increasing the sales at its best.
You should tune them in such a ways they their behavior shall get totally changed and shall
devote for the welfare of the company.
The most important things behind this internal marketing are that it is a process of continuous
upgrading of skills and aligning them according to the organizations purpose. Employees must
realize the core values of the company. Thus it is important to motivate, reframe and empower
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them in all the ways. Management inside and outside must be efficient. On the whole, the
output must be positive customer satisfaction. Internal marketing concepts and communication
skills are very important to sustain as employee in this present day world. Most of the banks and
finance companies are following this internal marketing formula in which every staff member
will be assigned targets and they should build up their targets from every step in to the bank.
(Internal Marketing -Pervaiz K. Ahmed , Mohammed Rafiq)
The following are the various tools, steps and strategies of empowering employees through
Internal Marketing
1. Interaction between marketing department and employees
It is the responsibility of every employee to upkeep the hope of employer there by understanding
what you are doing, what you should do to increase the profits of the company, what are your
existing targets and what shall you do to compete with the toppers of the market. You should
visualize the target before your marketing department hints. Marketing department should
interact with the employees from time to time to enhance their skills. Communication with team
of employees gives realistic results.
(Relationship Marketing:-Ian H. Gordon)
2. Training sessions for staff development:
Training builds confidence in the employees and staff development can be possible. Effective
internal communication skills can be implemented and can be extracted through various training
sessions. Their knowledge about the understanding of customers will be enhanced through
multiple training sessions. Every person will have marketing skills. But extracting them is agreat art and one can achieve with multiple training sessions.
(The ASTD Training and Development Handbook -Robert Craig)
3. Leadership needs to "second" what marketing is doing
Firm management has to be vocal about supporting marketing, and the overhead expenses that
come with it. There are times when overhead is questioned in any architecture firm or
construction company, but it is leadership's responsibility to assure everyone that there is a
strong sense of purpose and that the expenses yield results in the long term. A well-crafted
marketing plan is always a good thing for leadership to point back to. The though and concept of
leadership should not come in ones thought. All are treated equally and all should work like
wheels of a vehicle. Successful Internal co-ordination leads to successful internal marketing.
( The Future of Leadership Development- By Jordi Canals)
4. Needs Project meetings at regular intervals
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Mobilization of all the employees at regular intervals is very important. Diversification of their
thoughts and answering their problems increases their efficiency. It may not seem like marketing
necessarily, but it is important. Sitting in on a few project meetings has several benefits. First, it
builds trust amongst the team. Doing it once won't work, but if it becomes a regular thing it will
improve communications. Second, you learn more about what the firm really does. Even for
more senior marketers that may understand the industry very well, there is much to be said for
learning a little bit about the specific projects and headaches that your coworkers face. Finally,
you may get some ideas about new ways to market the firm. You never know what problems
may pop up during a conversation that you can help solve through a new communications piece,
additional market research or even a blog post. Meeting leads to discussion and discussion gives
rise to new hopes and new thoughts. Thus, the relation between various department employees
must co-ordinate and should be helpful to work in friendly environment.
(The Manager's Guide to Effective Meetings by Barbara J. Streibel)
4. Marketing internally builds external customer relationships
No doubt to say that internal marketing helps to build strong outer customer relationships.
Break down those cubicle walls and begin a better dialog with your coworkers to help you
understand more about your clients. Train the employees to find out the nature of customers.
5. Managing the implementation of internal marketing
The empowerment of employees in internal marketing is possible by following the acronym
AOSTC which means better analysis, attaining objectives, following various strategies, inducing
various business tactics and control over their thoughts can surely extract the internal marketing
skills.
6. Set objectives for internal marketing is part and parcel of strategic internal marketing.'
Tactics would include an internal application of the marketing mix, and could include staff
forums, presentations, an intranet, away days, and videos, personal visits by company directors
or newsletters.
(Contemporary Marketing By Louis E. Boone, David L. Kurtz)
Evaluation would consider the take up of PRP against your objectives, attendees at away days,
visits to an intranet page, and so on.. Firstly we should identify our internal customers. As withyour external customers, they will have their own buyer behavior, or way of 'buying into' the
changes which you are charged to implement. The similarities in differing groups of internal
customers allows you to segment them, you can target three different segments namely
'supporters,' neutral,' and finally 'opposers.' Each group requires a slightly different internal
marketing mix in order that your internal marketing objectives can be achieved. Ignoring some
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customers who are opposing is highly suggestible. Most of the people are supporters and there
exists no problem with such people. Some people will be neutral in which they dont deal
anything and complete their work calmly. Very few people will be opposers in which you
should be calm enough to complete the transactions with them peacefully. Thus internal
marketing will be successful with strategic internal co-ordination of various employees
developing the commitment and co-operation in them to work out externally. Though time
taking, the strategies will surely work out.
The following are the various suggestions to implement internal marketing
Always make sure that you have thought through your approach before starting the
implementation. Make sure that you have created a cultural climate that is willing to accept
change. Appoint a change agent, or champion for change that will help to ease your changes
through. Audit the skills and capabilities of your team at regular intervals. Train and develop the
employees at your best. Your team must be built around you with the objective as the focus for
you all. The change must be correctly marketed to your target audience using an approach suchas Jobbers.' Decide what the change will be. Give it boundaries. Work out a realistic budget and
stick to it. Try to anticipate the arguments against change, and decide how to counteract them
positively. Function as a continual internal up-skilling process and align the organizations
purpose with employee co-operation. Balance the core values of the organization by all
employees.
The four important things which every employer should remember for effective internal
marketing are Motivation, Co-ordination, information and education which can give out sure
success. You should always maker sure about the knowledge of employee, his attitudes and
behavior. It is the duty of employer to make right selection, providing excellent training, givingmotivation and directing them to achieve the success of internal marketing. However, the
responsibility and accountability of employees empowers the internal marketing. Appreciation
boosts up the new energy levels in the employees. Thus very often, they should be appreciated
for all their achievements. Internal marketing integrates the business culture, customer
retention, human resource management in an efficient way. Internal marketing should develop
human potential by the companys best training and organizational goals shall be met through
achieving individual goals. Consistency in action and word is important at every level of
management for getting good success rate. By this internal marketing, every employees
service can be accessible at anytime, anywhere.
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Chapter 3:- Literature Review
In recent years, a growing number of companies have invested considerable resources into
programs for enhancing the customer-orientation of their customer contact employees (Stock &
Hoyer 2002). Salespeople are encouraged to implement customer orientation behavior in their
selling activities. Customer-orientation behavior focuses on the extent to which salespeople
practice the marketing concept by helping their customers make purchase decisions that will
satisfy their needs (Saxe & Weitz 1982). In many cases, customer contact employees, such as
insurance agents are the first and only representation of the company in the eyes of customers.
Thus, customers often base their evaluation of their satisfaction with a company largely on the
services provided by the customer contact employees (Stock & Hoyer 2002). Consequently,
there is an interest in determining factors which can lead to and increase the customer-orientationof these customer contact employees.
However, despite numerous studies undertaken with respect to salespeople customer-orientation
behavior, a complete understanding of its antecedents is presently lacking (Flaherty, Dahlstrom
& Skinner 1999; Martin & Bush 2003) and inconsistent across different selling environment
(Flaherty et al. 1999). Recognition of the need to bridge these gaps in knowledge regarding
customer orientation is apparent in many calls for further empirical research in this area
(Deshpande, Farley & Webster 1993; Kohli & Jaworski 1990; Saxe & Weitz 1982).
We focused on insurance agents because as been has noted in the 21st century, customers
expectations towards life insuranceproducts have changed with time. They no longer buy life
insurance productsblindly but will make comparison between various policies offered. Today,
they expect life insurance agents to analyze their personal and family needsbefore designing the
most suitable policies for them. Therefore, insurance sales agents must fully understand the
customers needs and requirements as well as build a trusting relationship between themselves
and their clientsto promote long-term mutually beneficial relationship (Crosby, Evans &Cowles1990). Furthermore, in marketing life insurance, insurance agents are often considered to be
marketing complex services (Nik Kamariah 1995).This is because insurance agents are involved
in long-term commitment anda continual stream of interaction between buyer and seller. After
the sale,agents provide follow-up service and help customers make policy changes inresponse
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to changing needs. This would justify the importance of continuous research to satisfy the
customers in this dynamic marketing industry. Given thecriteria above, it is readily apparent that
investigation of customer-orientationbehavior in life insurance industry is accentuated.
A review of work in the area of customer-orientation indicates numerous studies have examined
the antecedents of this selling approach. To date, this research has focused on situational and
organizational variables which have been shown to influence the development of a customer-
oriented approach. For example, organizational factors such as market-orientation of the firm,
leadership style, and incentive system, locus of decision making, supportive working
environment and top management emphasis are among the factors that positively relate to
customer-orientation behavior of salespeople (Boles, Babin, Brashear & Brooks 2001; Jaworski
& Kohli 1993; Widmier 2002). Unfortunately, practitioners in particular, do not yet have a clear
understanding of which, if any, individual factors that may influence customer-orientation
behavior among salespeople (OHara et al. 1991; Widmier 2002). This is an important issue
because identifying individual factors affecting customerorientation behavior can assist sales
managers in recruiting and training of salespeople. Furthermore, the need to examine individual
variables is important as researchers suggest that behind an individuals behavior lie a multitude
of personal factors that impact a given choice (OHara et al. 1991). Therefore, in light of this
research gap, the goal of this paper is to examine the impact of three individual related factors;
namely, organizational commitment, self-monitoring and intrinsic motivation on customer-
orientation behavior of salespeople selling insurance policies.
Apart from empirical studies that examined the influence of organizational situational factors as
antecedents of customer-orientation behavior, the other component of antecedent factors which
have been frequently included in many customer-orientation behavior studies is individual
factors. According to Brown and Peterson (1993), individual-related factors include both
demographic and dispositional variables related to individual salespeople. As customer-
orientation behaviour involves individual salespeople, there are a substantial number of studies
that examined the influence of demographic factors such as gender (Siguaw & Honeycutt 1995;
William 1998), job tenure (Levy & Sharma 1994; OHara et al. 1991; Shoemaker & Johlke
2002), level of education (Boles, Brashear, Ballenger & Barksdale 2000; Lamber, Marmorstein
& Sharma 1990; Levy & Sharma 1994), job satisfaction (Pettijohn & Pettijohn 2002; Stock &
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Hover 2002), motivational levels (Hoffman & Ingram 1992; Kelly 1992; Pullins, Haugtvedt,
Dickson, Fine & Lewicki 2000) and various types of personal dispositional factors (Brown,
Mowen, Donovan & Licata 2002; Giacobbe 1991; Hurley 1998; Widmier 2002) as antecedents
of customer-orientation behaviour. However, this study focuses on individual factors such as
organizational commitment, self-monitoring and intrinsic motivation as potential antecedents of
customer-orientation behaviour. Justifications for the selection of these factors are discussed in
detail in sub-sections that follow.
Organizational commitment is defined as an individual belief in and acceptance of the
organizations goals and values and his or her willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf
of the organization (Porter, Steers, Mowday & Boulin 1974). It is a global and stable in nature
(Hartenian, Hadaway & Badovick 1994) and is regarded as individual attitudinal component.
Considerable work has shown that commitment to ones organization is usually accompanied by
greater work motivation (Lee, 1971) and a desire to make the firm more effective and prosperous
(Lawless 1979), as well as to exert visible effort beyond what is traditionally expected in their
jobs (Mowday, Porter & Steers 1982). In particular, highly committed members of the
organization work harder to achieve goals (Angle & Perry 1981; DeCotiis & Summers 1987).
Consistent with company practices that actively encourage salespeople to focus on customer
service (Dubinsky & Staples 1981; Dunlap, Dotson & Chambers 1988), studies undertaken have
found that salespeople who identify with the organization provide greater effort to satisfy their
customers. For example, in a study among business-to-business salespeople, Siguaw, Brown and
Widing (1994) demonstrated that the degree of organizational commitment salespeople exhibit,
influence his/her orientation toward the customer. Similarly, OHara et al. (1991) found
increased level of organizational commitment among the salespeople working in industrial and
advertising setting led them to embrace customer orientation in their day-to-day dealings with
customers. They argued that salespeople who are committed to their employers would be more
likely to support the organizations goals regarding the development of customer satisfaction.
Kelly (1992) also demonstrated that committed employees in banking institutions are more likely
to support the organization as it attempts to build long-term customer relationship which is
reflected in the salespeoples willingness to engage in activities that may sacrifice a short-term
reward. This is similar to the finding of Pettijohn and Pettijohn (2002), who found that
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salespeople in retail setting who were committed with the company undertake greater efforts
required to provide customers with greater level of satisfaction. In general, the above studies
suggest that in retail setting, business-to business organization and banking institution, greater
efforts to engage in customer-orientation behavior are shown by salespeople who are committed
to the organization. One plausible reason is because those who value organizational membership
are willing to exert considerable effort, which in turn translates into high level of focus more on
meeting customers needs. Hence, based on the literature above, this study investigates further
the impact of organizational commitment as one of the predictor variables for salespeoples
customer-orientation behaviour by looking into the insurance industry environment, where the
salespeople are working on an autonomous or semi-autonomous basis. This is in response to
OHara et al. (1991) argument that the influence of antecedents of customer-orientation vary
across different selling environment.
Apart from organizational commitment, another personal-factor chosen as a variable in the
present study is the personality trait of self-monitoring. Despite a number of personality traits
found associated with customer orientation behavior, self-monitoring has been chosen as a
personality variable to be examined in the present study. One main reason is because self
monitoring has been found as a relevant personality trait in Indian insurance environment (Nik
Kamariah 1995). In Indian insurance industry, self-monitoring was found to be an appropriate
personality characteristic of insurance agents, where they need to make adjustment according to
different situations and customers needs (Nik Kamariah 1995). Working in a multicultural
society requires Indian insurance agents to adapt to different and distinct groups of customers.
Besides, working independently without overseers or peers requires the agent to monitor oneself
if he/she wants to be successful. Therefore, sales agents with self-monitoring trait are better at
dealing with various types of customers.
The appropriateness of self-monitoring is further supported by theory of self-monitoring which
suggests that those with high self-monitoring are sensitive and responsive to social and
interpersonal cues of situational appropriateness (Snyder & Gangestad 1986). High self-monitors
are attuned to role expectations, but the low self-monitors insist on being themselves despite
social expectations. Hence, people who are high in self-monitoring will demonstrate more cross-
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situational variability in behaviour than people who are low in self-monitoring (Spiro & Weitz
1990).
Furthermore, compared to other personality types, self-monitoring isself-managed behaviours
which could be enhanced in a person by training and self-control programs (Howell, Bellenger &
Wilcox 1987; Nik Kamariah 1995) and easy to measure through an established instrument
(Snyder & Gangestad 1986).
Applying to customer-orientation behaviour, it seems that high selfmonitors have greater
tendency to practice customer-orientation behavior than low self-monitors. High self-monitors,
with more sensitivity and responsiveness to social and interpersonal cues are expected to display
higher customer-orientation behaviour in their selling activity to satisfy customers needs than
those with low self-monitors. This is consistent with the proposition made by Spiro and Weitz
(1990) and Verbeke (1994) that sales people with high self-monitoring trait have higher tendency
to develop relationship with customers than those with low on the trait. They discovered that
salespeople who scored high in self-monitoring measures seem to be able to tailor their
personality to any particular situation. This allows selfmonitors to provide appropriate
information to which the listeners respond and encouraging a positive feedback in the
conversation. Similarly, Eppler, Honeycutt, Ford and Markowski (1998) have shown that
salespeople with self-monitoring personality trait appear to alter their behaviour because of a
desire to be accepted by others. They further noted that this acceptance by others creates a
positive environment between the salespeople and the buyer; thus increasing the likelihood of
sales success.
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However, despite the positive relationship, the study by Widmier (2002) discovered no
significant impact of self-monitoring personality type on customer-orientation behaviour among
sales personnel working in industrial firms. He relates this with the level in which self-
monitoring operates. Although one dimension of self-monitoring which is the ability to perceive
social situation is conceptually similar to perspective-taking (the ability to understand and predict
anothers thought, feelings and actions) which he found to have significant impact on customer-
orientation behavior, self monitoring measures salespeoples ability to interact with multiple
people in a social situation while perspectivetaking is at one-on-one or individual level. This
seems contrary to previous studies (Eppler et al. 1998; Spiro & Weitz 1990; Verbeke 1994) who
generally found a positive linkage. Based on the findings about self-monitoring and customer-
orientation behavior relationship, most of the studies have shown that certain characteristics in
people with self-monitoring have a positive impact on customer-orientation behavior. However,
the impact of this personality trait on insurance agents is not empirically investigated although it
is found as a relevant personality trait in Indian insurance environment. Therefore, the potential
impact of this factor on Indian insurance agents merits further investigation.
Another individual factor which is the focus of this study is motivational orientation. Various
components of motivational orientation found to be predictive of human behavior. In the context
of customer-orientation behavior in particular, various dimensions of motivational orientation
such as arousal of effort, direction, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have been
examined with respect to customer-orientation behavior (Boles et al. 2000; Hoffman & Ingram
1992; Katerberg & Blau 1983; Kelly 1992; Weitz et al. 1986). Previous researchers found that
the arousal of direction and effort of employees are important facets of motivation (Weitz, Sujan
& Sujan 1986). Correspondingly, Kelly (1992) examined the impact of these dimensions on
customer-orientation behaviour of bank employees. Arousal of effort considers the amount of
effort an individual exerts during the performance of a task (Weitz et al. 1986) while
motivational direction focuses on the appropriateness of the particular activities into which effortis directed and maintained (Katerberg & Blau 1983). Kelly (1992) found that amongst bank
employees, only motivational direction was positively related to customer orientation, whereas
arousal of effort was not significant. Motivational direction of employees may have a greater
influence on behaviour in situations where a great deal of latitude is provided to employees
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(Sujan 1986; Weitz et al. 1986). In many cases, the financial services setting from which the
sample for his study was drawn provides this latitude to employees regarding the level of
customer-orientation they can display in the performance of their duties.
Another dimension of motivational orientation which sparked interest in the study of customer-
orientation behavior is the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as
the motivation to seek rewards derived directly from content of the task or job itself whereas
extrinsic motivation is the motivation to seek rewards derived from the environment surrounding
the task or work-associated with the context of the task or job (Spiro & Weitz 1990). In relation
to that, Deci and Ryan (1985) and Hodgins, Koestner and Duncan (1996) found that salespeople
with intrinsic motivational orientation promote open, non-defensive interaction and are satisfied
from being able to help others satisfy their needs. They also initiate and regulate job-related
activities autonomously (Keaveney 1995). Therefore, people with intrinsic motivational
orientation tends to select job tasks and strategies that are consistent with their own, personal
conceptions of how to do a job well rather than being controlled by outside forces (Condry &
Chambers 1978). Goolsby, Lagace and Boorom (1992) and Sujan (1986) found that industrial
salespeople with higher intrinsic motivational orientations toward their jobs tend to possess
greater technical knowledge and have highly developed knowledge about various selling
strategies. They also appear to be able to handle work situations that require interpreting
conflicting or ambiguous demands as challenging and stimulating aspects of their job
responsibilities (Grant, Cravens, Low & Moncrief 2001).
Similarly, Weitz et al. (1986) reported that retail salespeople with intrinsic motivation were more
likely to alter their sales behavior to match with the selling environment because they are driven
to be creative and to gain mastery over their job. Further, Spiro and Weitz (1990) demonstrated
that salespeople with intrinsic motivation are likely to engage in adaptive selling behavior and
provide informational feedback to their companies and in behaviors that control their selling
expenses. Additionally, Hoffman and Ingram (1992) found that intrinsic motivation are
positively correlated with customer-orientation of service providers, and that intrinsic motivation
plays a more significant role than do extrinsic motivation in developing customer orientation
behavior. Boles et al. (2000) discovered that intrinsically motivated insurance agents are more
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likely to express cooperative intention behavior to their customers. The positive association is
perhaps because they are more motivated in doing what they think the job requires.
The above discussions show that intrinsic motivation plays a significant role in enhancing
salespeoples customer-orientation behaviour. Apart from studies undertaken in business
relationships, studies relating to other types of relationships also reported the importance of
intrinsic motivation. For example, in student-parent relationships students higher in autonomy
orientation (intrinsically motivated personality) had more pleasant and more honest interactions
with their parents (Hodgins, Koestner & Duncan 1996). Similarly, Blais, Sabourin, Boucher and
Vallerand (1990) found high autonomy orientation relationship partners saw problems more as
challenges and handled them better. These partners are also more open, adaptive and happier
with the relationship. Hence, salespeople who are intrinsically motivated see selling as inherently
rewarding. Sujan (1986) further supports that intrinsic motivation is related to working smarter,
making better choices about the approach to use and be creative at work. Similarly, Keaveney
(1995) in her study among retail buyers found higher levels of intrinsic motivation toward jobs
influenced them to gather information for decision making from a greater number of different
sources. Furthermore, she found intrinsically motivated retail buyers maintained significantly
more positive boundary spanning relationships with vendors than did extrinsically motivated
buyers. From the discussion above, it appears that intrinsic motivation has generally produced
supportive evidence for the relationship with customer orientation behavior. However, since
most of these studies have been conducted in Western countries, the consistency of prior findings
in another country such as India is a relevant extension of knowledge (Grant et al. 2001). Thus,
motivational orientation is included as a potential antecedent of customer-orientation behavior in
this study. Given these findings, greater levels of intrinsic motivation can be expected to lead to
sales techniques emphasizing a greater customer orientation.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNAL MARKETING
Internal marketing was first proposed within the services literature in the 1970s as a solution to
the problem of delivering high quality service (Vary and Lewis, 1998). Internal marketing is a
concept aimed at developing customer conscious employees that will consistently deliver
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superior quality service to the external marketplace (Papasolomou-Doukais, 2003). Internal
marketing depends on a variety of individual activities throughout the organisations and it
attempts to inform and educate the employee regarding the organisations mission the benefits of
the product or service being sold, and the expectations of the organisations customers (Vary and
Lewis, 1998). Such a programme aimed at generating employee commitment is not new as it is
inherent in total quality management literature.
According to Ahmed and Rafiq (2002, p.1) internal marketing requires:
The acceptance of marketing techniques and philosophy within an organisation
Customer orientation and a market orientation
A participative approach to management
A strategic approach to human resources management
The coordination of all management activity to achieve customer or market orientation or
customer focused management.
Definition of internal marketing
Internal marketing is an ambiguous concept (Flipo, 2000). The term internal marketing is used
widely as a means of highlighting commitment to improving the effectiveness of the services
offered by an organisations resources (Gilmore, 2000). Internal marketing is not a departmental
function rather an organisational activity as the entire resources within the organisation must be
coordinated (Hogg and Carter, 2000).
The definitions reviewed within the literature highlight the ability possessed by internal
marketing to improve service quality through an organisational effort. The definitions
encountered within the literature can be categorised according to three perspectives, the internal
customer, the development of a customer orientation and the theory of internal marketing as an
implementation mechanism. For the purpose of this paper the group will focus on the customer
orientation perspective as it is relevant in the context of high contact service employees.
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Customer Orientation
Internal marketing has been defined as the approach employed by the organisation to advocate
the philosophies of customer and service orientation throughout the organisation through the
motivation of employees (Varey, 1994). In this context the organisation attempts to instil a set of
values related to achieving a superior service climate within the employees belief systems
(Varey, 1994).
Barnes (1998) approaches internal marketing in a similar manner by defining it as actions taken
by the organisation to ensure that customers receive the highest standard of service due to the
employees commitment to service quality. The organisation cultivates employee commitment
by encouraging the use of customer focused quality techniques (Ballantyne, 1991).
In the context of customer orientation internal marketing considers the attraction, retention and
motivation of service-minded employees. The motivation of employees is not enough in itself, as
the customer orientation, must be communicated into the external marketplace through employee
action (Rafiq and Ahmed, 2000).
George (1990) illustrated that relational exchanges between employees within an organisation
should be considered a prerequisite for successful exchanges with external markets. The
satisfaction of the internal customer is of critical importance as; satisfaction will ultimately effect
the satisfaction of the external market (Ballantyne, 1997). Internal marketing is a technique
implemented by the organisation in an attempt to ensure the provision of excellent service.
The Models of Internal Marketing
Gronroos (****) believes Internal marketing is concerned with ensuring employees are
consistently conscious of delivering service quality (Appendix 1). The model highlights how
internal marketing should be supported by management with information exchange, recruitment
and training and employee decision making (Rafiq and Ahmed, 2002). Employees realise the
importance of their position within the organisation and develop into satisfied individuals. The
model stresses the importance of interactive marketing in conjunction with internal marketing.
Interactive marketing is aproposed with how customer contact employees take care of customers
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during service encounters (Bitner and Evans, 1993). By improving the service encounter through
internal marketing customer satisfaction and employee motivation can be increased.
However, Gronroos (****) does not encapsulate all the elements of internal marketing (Rafiq
and Ahmed 2000). The elements of internal marketing identified by Rafiq and Ahmed (2000)
include:
Employee motivation and satisfaction
Customer orientation and customer satisfaction
Interventional co-ordination and integration
Marketing like approach to the above
Implementation of specific corporate and functional strategies
Rafiq and Ahmed developed a comprehensive model of internal marketing based on these
elements (Appendix 2). According to the model the use of a marketing like approach is
fundamental in internal marketing, as it incites the employee to become customer orientated
through motivation and coordination of functional departments (Rafiq and Ahmed, 2002). Job
satisfaction is incorporated due to the belief that if the internal customer is satisfied in the service
position this satisfaction will be transferred to the external customer (Rafiq and Ahmed 2000).
Empowerment is integrated into the model to highlight the importance of allowing the employee
flexibility in terms of decision-making during the service encounter (Rafiq and Ahmed, 2000).
This model focuses on the area of service quality so it is largely applicable in the service
industry.
The objectives of internal marketing
Internal marketing aims to improve customer consciousness by changing the beliefs of the front
line employees (Ahmed, Rafiq and Saad, 2003). Helman and Payne (1992) believe the objectives
of marketing depend on the reason it is being implemented. Internal marketing may be concerned
with improving employee routines through internal motivation. Internal marketing may be
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concerned with ensuring the entire organisation understands each departments function within
the organisation. The internal marketing function may be aimed at marketing the organisations
product or services to customers.
Internal marketing aims to improve the overall business process within an organisation to ensure
that resources to progress the organisations aspiration are made available to the internal customer
(Joesph, 1996).
MOTIVATING SERVICE EMPLOYEES:
As previously discussed, the service encounter and internal marketing include the use of
motivation, as a perquisite for their success in the marketing of services. Management need to be
aware of motivations exact connotation to comprehend its use to their business. Motivation can
be defined as the development of a desire within an employee to perform a task to his/her
greatest ability based on that individuals own initiative(Rudolf and Kleiner, 1989, p. 1). By
analysing the definition, one can ascertain, motivation to be the level at which an employee will
perform a specified activity for the company, an imperative function for success.
Motivation can also mean employees strive to reach peak performance every day, enjoy
the continual challenge of improving results, genuinely care about their peers and their company,
and will maintain positive results (Evenson, 2003, p.21), or as the willingness to exert highlevels of effort toward organisational goals, conditioned by the persons ability to satisfy some
individual need (Robbins, 1993 as cited in Lu, 1999, p. 63).
The definitions of motivation, lead an organisation to believe their employees will perform their
specified tasks better than the norm and will genuinely wish to do so, while this is important for
the business, motivation can also have other benefits.
Carlsen (2003) believes a motivated workforce is essential, as the complete participation of
employees will inevitably drive the profitability of the organisation. Another paramount concern
for management is, motivating their employees relates directly to the perceived increase in
performance the employees with deliver from managements participation in the exercising of
motivation techniques, therefore, there is a direct result between the levels of motivation and
managements participation. (Tyagi, 1982).
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Certain academics have linked motivation as being a key determinant of job performance and
how a poorly motivated force will be costly in terms of excessive staff turnover, higher expenses,
negative morale and increased use of managements time (Jobber, 1994). Therefore,
management need to know what exactly motivates their staff so resources are not misallocated
and dissatisfaction develops among employees (Jobber, 1994). While motivation is a key
determinant of performance, management must not neglect how motivation is the also concerned
with the educating of employees. Darmon (1974) believe motivation is the educating of
employees to channel their efforts towards organisational activities and thus increasing the
performance of the said boundary spanning roles.
If management neglect to educate and motivate their employees, they will inevitable become
dissatisfied or disenchanted with their job. Disenchantment in the workplace leads to
absenteeism, turnover, sick leave, strikes, grievances and even accidents. Denton (1991) believes
a motivated workforce would alleviate disenchantment felt by employees and improve these
factors. Denton (1991) also believes a motivated workforce will lead to greater understanding,
acceptance, commitment to implementation, understanding of objectives and decision making
between management and employees.
Finally, motivation can also be used as a tool to develop further, the high performers and ensure
they are satisfied with their work activities. Green (2000) envisages motivation to be proactivein the sense of; in dealing with employees who are high performers, motivation is essential,
otherwise their performance will decline or they will simply leave the job. In the area of dealing
with low performers, motivation is a prerequisite, otherwise these employees will drag results
down, lower productivity and certainly wont leave the organisation, as they will have nowhere
else to go.
Gap Model:-
The Gaps Model provides an integrated framework for managing service quality and customer-
driven service innovation. In the years since the models introduction, service quality, service
innovation, and customer focus have all become increasing important as competitive strategies
for organizationsthus foundational, integrative frameworks have more relevance across more
industries than ever.
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Theory of the Gap Model:-
Perceived service quality can be defined as, according to the model, the difference between
consumers expectation and perceptions which eventually depends on the size and the direction
of the four gaps concerning the delivery of service quality on the companys side.
Customer gap = f (Gap 1, Gap 2, Gap 3, Gap 4).
The magnitude and the direction of the each gap will affect the service quality. For instance gap
3 will be favourable if the delivery of a service exceeds the standards of service required by the
organization, and it will be unfavorable when the specifications of the service delivered are not
met.
The centerpiece of the model is the Customer Gap the gap between customer expectations and
perceptions of the service as it is actually delivered. The ultimate goal is to close this gap by
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meeting or exceeding customer expectations. The other four gaps in the model are known as the
provider gaps and each represents a potential cause behind a firms failure to meet customer
expectations: not listening to customers (Gap 1); failing to design services that meet expectations
(Gap 2); performance and service delivery failures (Gap 3); and not communicating service
promises accurately (Gap 4). At its most basic level, the logic of the model suggests that the
Customer Gap is a function of any one or all of four provider gaps.
Strategies to increase the market share in Pension Policies:-
To stay competitive and to increase market share insurance companies must practice the modern
marketing concept. This is even more important for a compulsory pension product like Max New
York, as the only way to increase market share is to have superior service quality, leading to a
superior product thus causing potential customers to switch companies. Successful companies
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today practice the modern marketing concept (this can be reviewed in any standard marketing
text) which views the customer as the focal point of all marketing activities. There are four
premises to the marketing concept: (1) there is a customer orientation that argues that a firm can
be more successful if it first considers the customers needs and wants. This sounds simple in
theory but in actual practice is difficult to implement as the company often is driven by its own
needs and wants, which can differ vastly from those of the customer. (2) To correctly identify the
customers needs and wants requires a continuous program of market research. It is important to
ask the customers what they need and want too often companies and management merely
assumes they know what the customers need and want. Why a continuous market research
program? Customers, competitors and companies micro and macro environments change. (3) All
activities within the firm need to be integrated so that all departments function like a team
working towards the same goals and objectives.
Each department must see themselves as an integral part of the team that is in the business of
delivering a service to a set of customers. Departments within a company often have their own
goals and objectives, and if they are not well integrated can leave individual departments
functioning at odds with the goal of delivering the service so that it best fulfills the needs and
wants of the customer, thus losing customers to the competition. (4) If a firm operates as if it
were a team, carries out continuous market research, has the customer as its focal point and
delivers the service to best fulfill the customers needs and wants--this provides a quality service,
which leads to customer satisfaction, which in turn will lead to loyal customers, repeat business,
growing market share and greater revenue.
The marketing mix is the elements, an organization can control to communicate with customers
and to satisfy customers needs and wants. Traditionally the marketing mix has four elements:
Product, Place, Price and Promotion. The traditional theory for these four elements was
developed for goods and cannot be directly applied to service products; they must be applied
using a services marketing perspective (Zeithaml & Bitner, 1996 for a good review of services
marketing principles). In services marketing there are three more elements that must be
considered: People this includes customers as well as employees, Physical Evidence this
includes the environment in which the service is delivered and includes all the tangible parts that
facilitate the delivery of the service or communicate to the customer about the service, and
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Process this includes all the procedures, mechanisms, and operating systems by which the
service is delivered. These seven elements or 7 Ps are central to a companys marketing decision
making and marketing strategy, especially the last three Ps for services marketing. The 7 Ps
have an impact on the customers decision making process to purchase as well as influencing
their levels of customer satisfaction and repurchase decisions.
The services marketing triangle (see below, Kotler, 1994, p. 470) illustrates that there is not just
one type of marketing but three types of marketing that must be carried out for an insurance
company to succeed. Our central premise is to the customer, it is making a promise about how
the service will be delivered and the type of quality that can be expected.
On the left side of the triangle, we have internal marketing. This involves the marketing efforts a
company must perform with its employees. This includes how the company attracts the right
employees, their hiring practices, the training procedures, and motivation and employee rewards.
The employees must be able and willing to deliver the promise as made by the company to the
customer. The primary assumption underlying internal marketing is that employee satisfaction
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and customer satisfaction is inextricably linked. Thus, creating employee satisfaction is as
important as creating customer satisfaction.
On the right side of the triangle, we have external marketing. This includes all the activities and
marketing mix elements a company uses to communicate to the customer before the service is
actually delivered. This is how the company tells their customers what they are promising to
deliver. External marketing plays a vital role in the formation of customer expectations of the
service they hope to receive.
These three types of marketing are inextricably linked, without one a total marketing effort
cannot be supported. Each side of the triangle represents significant challenges for the insurance
marketing manager. Insurance marketing managers need to consider the 7 Ps of the services
marketing mix, the unique challenges and questions facing services marketing managers, and
they need to address the issues highlighted by the services marketing triangle.
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Chapter 4:- Research Methodology
How organizational commitment can be a forecaster variable for salespeoples customer
orientation behavior for selling pension schemes, that what the study looks in to basing on the
discussion above. Basing on the argument, it can be theorized that
1: There is an optimistic relation between organizational commitment and customer orientation
behavior.
2: one can be pretty much optimistic about self-monitoring when customer orientation behavior
is the topic of consideration.
3: when it is all about customer orientation behavior then intrinsic motivation can be an
optimistic relation.
Before plunging in to deciding the different tools to be used for the study, a pilot study was
conducted. The sample of the pilot study consists of 30 part time and full time agents doing
insurance from companies which do not participate. The study was conducted with researchers
and respondents. Researchers did questionnaire to sort out difficulties in wording and to answer
respondents questions. The smoothness with which the questionnaire completes that was the
main aim of the researchers. The pilot study data was used in the reliability test of each tool or
instrument.
The study population consisted of full-time insurance agents working in Max New York Life
Company in different branches in Mumbai. An important characteristic of the sample was to
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select the sales agents who work on full-time basis and have worked with the organization for
more than a year. Only full-time life insurance agents were included in this study to eliminate
differences between full-time and part-time agents (Leong, Randall & Cote, 1994). The
requirement to select only those with more than a year experience was necessary to ensure that
all respondents have some knowledge and experience in sales jobs, so that they were able to
answer the questionnaire accurately. Furthermore, with more than a year experience, they were
able to determine their performance, in terms of annual income and target achievement.
Therefore, in the present study these two characteristics were controlled.
Demographic Profile of Respondents:
Consistent with a male-dominated industry under investigation, majority (71.9%) of the
respondents are males. This is common in the insurance industry as reported in Update (2003),
male agents continue to dominate the profession of life insurance selling. As the profession of
life insurance agents demands hectic travel schedules, it is more suitable to the young and as
expected, 76 percent of them are considered young (below the age of 40 years old). This is
consistent with the industry standard where Update (2003) reported that the majority of agents in
the industry are less than 40 years old. In terms of academic qualifications, the minimum
education requirement to be an agent is the completion of SPM/MCE or 11 years of formal
education. It is not surprising that majority (60.7%) of the respondents in the present study had
indicated SPM/STPM as their highest academic qualifications. This is consistent with the
industry trend whereby agents with SPM/STPM qualifications continue to form the majority
group (Update, 2003). Since Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) membership includes only the
extremely successful agents in the life insurance industry, it was found that only 4.7% of the
respondents are MDRT members. This generally reflects the industry hierarchy where about 10
percent are at the highest level of the profession (Update 2003).
In general, the working experience in the present company and in the life insurance industryamong respondents is short. Majority (75.1%) of the respondents have less than five years
working experience in the present company and 60.2% in the insurance industry. This is in line
with the age structure where most of the respondents are young (below 40 years) and consistent
with industry trend, where the majority of the agency forces comprised of agents who have less
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than two years of experience in the industry (Update 2003). To conclude, the above discussions
indicate that the sample of this study does not deviate significantly from the general population
of insurance agents and the sample is therefore deemed representative of the population of
interest.
Internal consistency of scales with Cronbachs alpha reliability coefficient was one criterion for
choosing past tools. Table 1 shows the consequences on measure for pilot study. For research
purpose the range used is 0.62 to 0.78 for reliability estimates. The range used for research
purpose is called Nunnally 1978. The scale used for research purpose can be a regarded as the
reliable range. The pilot test finds many problems like questionnaire content, understanding of
items and time taken. Many false sentences were traced and rectified accordingly.
The hypothesis was derived on the basis of data collected during the survey. Multi stage
probability sampling was used as a procedure of sampling. Many insurance industries like Howe,
Hoffman & Hardigree 1994, Nik kamariah 1995 in which similar studies were conducted.
Branch managers were not agreeing to detail about the exact number of agents in the beginning
of the survey. The main reason behind this was that the banks were maintaining secrecy over the
fact. The reason at times was that the bank managers were unsure about the number of active and
inactive agents in the company. For making a good survey proportionate sampling is needed. The
proportionate sampling can be done with the proportionate data. Since, the data availability was a
big impediment so; equal numbers of agents were divided in to two groups of twenty five each.
The number of agents required for survey was very small, so all the companies were agreed to
this.
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NON-RESPONSE BIAS
Non respondents were treated at par with the late respondents according to Armstrong and
Overton (1977). This procedure is all about making partition in the responses which are early
responses and late responses and then comes the t-test basing on the key variables of the study.
Early response is a response which is received within a month of distribution and that to before
any follow-ups and late response is the response which returns after a month of distribution and
after follow-ups. The number of early respondents was 133 and the number of late respondents
was 312. The result of non response test is displayed in the table 2. P less than 0.05 are
considered as the significant level. The p value analyses did not show any difference between the
two groups. Non response bias did not have any crucial influence on the generalizations of the
results of the study, which can pretty well be concluded. The analysis was done with 445
responses.
MEASURES
Using multiple item measures the constructs were measured. The scale used was a 5 point one.
The 5 point indicated strongly agree and the point 1 indicated strongly disagree. One can refer to
the appendix for the viewing sample of measurement items. A small version of Saxe and Weitz
(1982) SOCO scale modified by Thomas, soutar and Ryan (2001) was used to measure customer
orientation behavior which consists of 10 items.
Owing to avoid response tiredness the smaller version was used. The study should be made a big
one with the use of multiple item scales which was why the smaller version was used.
Respondents were asked about their selling intension in relation to the customers needs and
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satisfaction. The biggest question was that whether they were concerned about the customers
needs and satisfaction or not. For the purpose of matching the domain with the local agents the
wording of the scale was modified for the purpose of present day study. In the year 2001 Thomas
et al. found the range between 0.7 and 0.91 as the reliability of the measurement. This range was
found to be the perfect range for the researchers. Cronbachs alpha was found in the present day
study to be 0.86 as from the table 3. This indicated its reliability for the study of organizational
commitment using nine item measures from porter et al. (1974). Agreeing with the possible
feelings with which an individual works with a company or organization is required by the
respondents to be indicated. It is rife in the sales and insurance setting. The famous sales and
insurance setting are Johnston, Parasuraman, Futrell & black 1990; Low et al. 2001; siguaw et al.
1994. The reliability scale was 0.80 to 0.90 in general. 0.90 was reported by Low et al. (2001) as
internal consistency. The reliability coefficient for this was 0.77.
Now comes self monitoring and its relation with customer behavior. The measurement of self
monitoring was done with a tool made by Snyder in the year 1979 and the tool underwent
rectifications in the year of 1986 by Snyder and Gangestad. The items in the tool were made with
18 statements. Modifying self presentation and the sensitivity to aver characters to others through
ones potential and wish was what the self monitoring tool lingered around. Alpha which is the
reliability coefficient lies in the range of 0.70 to 0.81 in the past studies done by Browne &
Kaldenberg in the year 1997 and Verbeke in the year 1994 and 0.87 in the present day study.
Intrinsic motivation was measured using a four item scale which was developed by Anderson
and Oliver in the year 1987. This scale was used by Craven, Ingram, Laforge, and young in the
year 1993, low et al. in the year 200 and Oliver and Anderson in the year 1994. The motivation
of salespeople towards job is measured by the above four item scale. The motivation is all about
personal satisfaction which one feels towards the job. Awards are given to encourage people or
employees in order to work well and which work as a motivation towards work. The four item
scale measures the degree of motivation of the people towards job when they get rewards for
their work. Low et al. in the year 2001 showed that the reliability coefficient can be 0.77 of this
instrument. But the alpha from the present day study is found to be 0.87. In the year of 1978
stated 0.70 as the cut off range. Since the values of alpha were in between 0.77 and 0.86 and well
above the cut off level of 0.70, the constructs were termed as reliable. Table 3 depicts the
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standard deviation and reliabilities of the scale. To form composite scores the items for each
measure were averaged for further analysis.
Mixed Method Approach
Mixed method research is the only way to reach at the destination, in this particular research. The
aim of the mixed method approach is to give the freedom to the research conduction fellow at the
time of giving answers to the various research questions, rather than confiding him or her. Rather
than a limiting form of research, the mixed methods research is a creative and expansive form of
research. Neither the qualitative nor the quantitative method is fully capable alone to capture thedetails and trend of a particular situation; that is why mixing is inevitable. But as both the
qualitative and quantitative method is complimentary to each other, so they produce great result,
when employed along with each other. When employed simultaneously, they help the researcher
to delve more into the topic and that to without facing much trouble. A word of caution, though
these two methods produce great results, when employed together but there are some constraints
are there, to employ these two methods together. However, a research conducting person can get
the better understanding of the phenomenon by applying these two methods at one go. Going for
the two methods simultaneously also helps the researcher to draw samples easily from a
population to conduct the research.
Many steps are required to chalk out a mixed methods research but most of the steps are more or
less similar to that of the traditional research methods. Some of the steps are research questions,
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to decide the aim and purpose of the work or study, and which types of data should be collected.
This also includes making a decision, whether to use explicit theoretical lens at the time of
integration procedures, data analysis identification, and data collection procedures or not.
The below mentioned methods are getting used combining, in order to achieve meet the
objective of this particular study.
Field-based research
Desk-based research
Case study research
Field Based Research
In this way of doing research, the primary data will be collected by conduction semi-structured
or structured interviews of the top management level executives of various retail firms.
Thereafter, this primary data will be processed to find out answers for the question related to
strategies of sales promotion online. This method of research mostly takes the help of close
ended questions to muster defined answers. However, this method also employs both close ended
and open ended questions to address some complex issues. The process of interviews is more or
less flexible and the only aim of the interviews is to understand and explain the patterns, events,and forms of behavior.
Desk-based Research
Desk-based research technique is used to obtain a clear idea about the subject under study.
Secondary data collected and processed with the help of desk based research. The secondary data
can be survey based data, documentary data, or multiple sources data. It is easy for the
researchers to find secondary data as that can be easily found in libraries and even in the web
space. The easy availability of secondary data makes the desk based research comparatively
easier than the other research methods.
While looking out for a sampling method I was perplexed given the fact that there were
innumerable methods, which deteriorated my case rather than helped me. I had to go through
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each method intensively and then finally try making out which one is better for me. However, I
was happy to have acquired plethora of information on this front. Following are sampling
methods I went through and their description:
Different Types of Sampling
A sample can be made in various styles. However, samples can be broadly grouped divided into
two categories; those are probability and non-probability samples
( Okechukwu Ukaga & Chris Maser, 2004)
Probability Samples
This particular type of samples is created by random selection. Each of the samples comes from
a population of interest. Let us discuss the four most important categories of probability samples.
.
( Earl R. Babbie, 2006)
Simple Random Sampling
Simple random sample is the most common and widely known type of the random sample. In
case of the simple random sample or SRS the probability of the selection remains exactly same
for each and every case in the population. In SRS n numbers of sample is collected from a
population of size N; so that there is a chance of each and every sample size getting drawn. .
(Sergey Dorofeev, Peter Grant, 2010)
Only an example could explain the above mentioned fact properly. There are 100 eligible voters
are there in a place and you have to carry out a survey by including 10 voters. Then, just do one
thing; write down the name of the all voters in a plain paper. Then, cut the name piece of the
whole paper into 100 pieces with name of one voter in every piece of paper. Then, put all those
papers in a box, shake that well, and pick one of them. Then, again shake the box and choose any
one of them. Repeat this procedure for 10 times, you will end up with selecting 10 names of the
voters. In this procedure, there is chance of every name getting selected. The probability of every
name getting selected is equal.
This method is a good method to choose samples, as the probability of getting selected is equal
for all but it is not possible to implement this method, in real life. It is a cumbersome job to write
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names of a millions of voters and then make slips and then choose thousand from them. There
are many other reasons for which you should not choose simple random sampling. Let us discuss
those reasons.
Example 1
Suppose, you have a task in your hand to compare the incomes of Hindus and Muslims in a
population, where both of them are present in almost equal number. Let the size of the
population is 1000 and you have to pick only 100 of them and out of 100, 50 should be Hindus
and rest Muslims, so you can make a fair comparison. In this case, if you choose the random
sampling method to draw 100 samples out of 1000, then there is no guarantee that out of 100
samples, you will find 50 Muslims and 50 Hindus. So, it is better to take any alternative way
than the simple random sampling. It is better to divide the population into Hindus and Muslims
first and then adopt the simple random sampling method.
Example 2
Let us think that your frame of sampling is the telephone directory of a particular city, which has
more 2 millions of entries. In this case SRS would not be very effective and would be very time
taking. First of all, here you have to assign every name with a phone number and that is beyond
the scope of SRS and the size of the sampling is also huge; so better is to go for systematic
sampling.
Example 3
For instance, the task in your hand is to pick 100 samples of the employees of bars of London.
However, you dont have any list of bars of employees. Then, there is no data available in front
of you to carry out the SRS. Even if, you collect the name of all bars of London for the sampling,
that is not also enough, as you have to take employees of the bars as samples. If you go ahead
and find out the names of the employees of each bar and carry out a SRS, then there is a chance
that employees of some bars will not be drawn at all, and that is against the requirement.
In all the above discussed examples, we finds out that SRS could not be effective in most of the
cases. You have to take any alternative way than SRS. No one can deny that SRS is the easiest
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and most secular way to select samples; however, one can adopt that method only in very limited
occasions. In other situations, you have to follow any different way to draw the samples of your
requirement.
Stratified Random Sampling
In case of this method of sampling, the whole population is first of all divided into minimum two
or more exclusive groups, by factoring in any criteria of interest. After dividing the whole
population into smaller exclusive groups, then the simple random sampling method is applied to
obtain the samples for final requirement.
(Frederick J. Gravetter, Lori-Ann B. Forzano, 2004)
This method could be applied in the example 1. The best way to take samples in example 1 is to
divide the mixed population into Hindus and Muslims and carry out the simple random
sampling. There are many benefits of this method and there are some cases, where sampling
could be done, by adopting this method only.
The first benefit of this method is, this divides a large pool into small exclusive pools; so it
makes the condition favorable for the simple random sampling. Simple random sampling is
easier to carry out in smaller pools than larger pools. The second reason is, it helps the sample
takers to achieve at their objective. In case of the example one, one could not achieve at the
objective of getting 50 Hindus and 50 Muslims as the end samples, if he or she carries out the
simple random sampling. Simple random sampling applied on the mixed population never
resulted in 100 samples, out of which 50 are Hindus and 50 are Muslims. In case of taking
samples of a population, where there is a mix of people from different races, stratified random
sampling is the one and only way to go to get the result.
Stratification is a widely used technique, as far as sampling is concerned. This technique finds
utility in most of the cases for below mentioned reasons.
It is required to divide a large population into smaller sub-populations at the time of taking
samples. After dividing into sub-population, each and every sub-population is considered as a
population and studied, accordingly.
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In some cases, stratification technique is used for administrative convenience. For
example, if the company, which is taking the survey has branches at different locations, then
each branch studies a particular population and the parent company stitch the data comes from
different branches to arrive at the final conclusion.
In case of some sub-population, the sampling problem could be inherent like people
residing in institutions like hospitals, hotels or prisons.
In case of heterogeneous population, the stratification is the only way to carry out the
sampling. Stratification makes the heterogeneous population into many homogeneous
populations. Sampling done in every homogeneous population and finally stitched together for
the ultimate report.
Stratification method of sampling also has some statistical advantages. Almost in all cases
the stratified random sample varies only a bit from the statistical parameters like estimated mean
and others.
Systematic Sampling
This method of taking samples varies greatly from the simple random sampling. However, it can
be called as a variant of simple random sampling. In this method, the whole population is listed
down first and every nth element of list is taken as the sample. . Look at the example 2
mentioned above. One has to pick 2000 entries from a list of 20,00,000 people, who have
telephone connection; if the person applies the systematic sampling method, then he or she
would consider the name of the people appearing at n=1000, n=2000, n= 3000 so on.
( Earl R. Babbie, 2006)
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Chapter 5:- Presentation of data
MEASURES
Using multiple item measures the constructs were measured. The scale used was a 5 point one.
The 5 point indicated strongly agree and the point 1 indicated strongly disagree. One can refer to
the appendix for the viewing sample of measurement items. A small version of Saxe and Weitz
(1982) SOCO scale modified by Thomas, soutar and Ryan (2001) was used to measure customer
orientation behavior which consists of 10 items.
Owing to avoid response tiredness the smaller version was used. The study should be made a big
one with the use of multiple item scales which was why the smaller version was used.
Respondents were asked about their selling intension in relation to the customers needs and
satisfaction. The biggest question was that whether they were concerned about the customers
needs and satisfaction or not. For the purpose of matching the domain with the local agents the
wording of the scale was modified for the purpose of present day study. In the year 2001 Thomas
et al. found the range between 0.7 and 0.91 as the reliability of the measurement. This range was
found to be the perfect range for the researchers. Cronbachs alpha was found in the present day
study to be 0.86 as from the table 3. This indicated its reliability for the study of organizational
commitment using nine item measures from porter et al. (1974). Agreeing with the possible
feelings with which an individual works with a company or organization is required by therespondents to be indicated. It is rife in the sales and insurance setting. The famous sales and
insurance setting are Johnston, Parasuraman, Futrell & black 1990; Low et al. 2001; siguaw et al.
1994. The reliability scale was 0.80 to 0.90 in general. 0.90 was reported by Low et al.