Personal selling constructs and measures: emic versus etic approaches to cross‐national research

Abstract

Argues that salesforce research has typically been conducted in the USA, and that US researchers have developed the theories, designed the research, and interpreted the results. Notes that the majority of subjects and respondents in studies designed to test the US theories have been sales personnel in the USA. Assesses the appropriateness of administering personal selling measures to sales personnel outside the country/culture where the measures were developed. Investigates two paradigms of measurement transport: emic (culture specific) and etic (global). Evaluates the psychometric properties of two popular personal selling measures, SOCO and ADAPTS, in a cross‐national context, revealing mixed support for the etic approach.