An investigation of salespeople's nonverbal behaviors and their effect on charismatic appearance and favorable consumer responses

Author(s)
Sandra Pauser, Udo Wagner, Claus Ebster
Abstract

The concept of charisma has gained considerable interest among social scientists in multiple disciplines. Nevertheless, research on charisma in the marketing field is scarce, and little is known about which specific nonverbal behaviors predict perceived charisma and lead to positive consumer responses. Therefore, the aim of this article is to identify nonverbal behaviors that lead to a salesperson’s perceived charisma in a personal selling context by means of high-precision, time-locked coding. This research explores aspects of body language that differentiate salespeople from each other and investigates whether such differences are antecedents of perceived charisma. The findings indicate that certain arm actions, arm postures, and action functions have a significant effect on charismatic appearance and can in turn produce favorable attitudes toward the salesperson.

Organisation(s)
Department of Accounting, Innovation and Strategy
Journal
Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management
Volume
38
Pages
344-369
No. of pages
26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2018.1480383
Publication date
2018
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502019 Marketing
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Marketing, Business and International Management
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/343575f0-5380-4e43-8ef6-0b9d88b998d7