Student Preferences for Sales Careers Around the Pacific Rim

Student Preferences for Sales Careers Around the Pacific Rim Earl D. Honeycutt, Jr. John B. Ford Michael J. Swenson William R. Swinyard This study compares sales and marketing career perceptions and preferences of business students in the United States, New Zealand, and the Philippines. In all three countries students most preferred marketing management as a career path, while few, if any, selected industrial sales. In contrast to prior U.S. studies, grade-point average correlated in a mixed fashion with sales career preference. Students, in all three groups, utilized negative sales descriptors such as “stressful,” “boring,” and “pushy.” Based upon these findings, students do not appear to accurately understand the role played by industrial

Address correspondence to Dr. E. D. Honeycutt, Jr., Department of Marketing, School of Business, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0220.

Industrial Marketing Management 28, 27–36 (1999) © 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010

salespersons. Findings and implications for industrial marketers are presented. © 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.

INTRODUCTION Over the past four decades, marketing managers and researchers have studied U.S. students’ perceptions of and preferences for sales careers. Most studies conclude that U.S. college students, as a group, hold low opinions of sales careers [1–6]. It is believed that negative sales career images are reinforced through anecdotes, stories, and the mass media [7]. Student attitudes toward sales careers pose important implications for industrial marketers—particularly those engaging in global industrial marketing. The complex

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“Negative perceptions prevent talented individuals from entering the sales field.” and demanding global environment certainly affects personal selling, perhaps more so than any other area of the global enterprise [8]. While international business has expanded tremendously in recent decades, personal selling activities are conducted primarily on a national basis [9]. Thus, a concern for marketers and sales managers of international businesses is the pool of potential talent for salespeople in countries around the world. Although a number of studies have examined U.S. students’ perceptions of and preferences for sales careers, this inquiry is, to our knowledge, the first cross-cultural comparison conducted between three nations from disparate locations and economic developmental stages around the Pacific Rim. The purposes of this research are to determine: (1) how students feel about sales careers—especially industrial sales; (2) if perceptual attitudes previously documented in the United States hold true in other countries; (3) whether such variables as students’ gradepoint average (GPA), age, marketing classes completed, and work experience influence their perceptions of sales as a career path; and (4) the implications of these findings for industrial marketers. In the next section, we review the relevant literature in this area. We then present background information on the three Pacific-Rim countries represented in this study: New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United States. Research expectations about student preferences for sales careers are then developed. Using surveys of college stu-

EARL D. HONEYCUTT, JR. is Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. JOHN B. FORD is Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. MICHAEL J. SWENSON is Associate Professor of Marketing at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. WILLIAM R. SWINYARD is Professor and holder of the Fred G. Meyer Chair of Retailing at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

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dents from New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United States, we test the research expectations. Finally, we conclude with implications for industrial marketers. BACKGROUND LITERATURE For over 40 years now, myriad studies have been conducted regarding student attitudes and perceptions of sales careers. An early article [10] stated that college students possessed negative perceptions of sales careers and that these attitudes prevented talented individuals from entering the sales field. Subsequently an examination of student attitudes toward sales, as mitigated by major and personal values, concluded that regardless of college major students held low opinions of sales careers [4]. Additional investigations examined students’ accuracy of role perceptions and confirmed that, among college students, the stereotypical view of sales as a “door-to-door” activity remained prevalent [11]. In the industrial marketplace one study [1] found that, when compared to the view of industrial salespeople, students had misperceptions of sales careers. Specifically, students believed a sales job was less likely to possess such positive features as variety of task and security and more likely to possess opportunity for rapid advancement and considerable leisure time. There has been some improvement, according to at least two studies, in student attitudes toward sales careers. One investigation [12] found more positive student attitudes than expected, but selling was viewed as being less professional than most other careers. A second article [13] reported that students believed a sales position possessed important and desired job characteristics. The author concluded that students actually held a favorable image toward the sales job. It does appear that stereotypes diminish when students are exposed to greater numbers of marketing, personal selling, and sales management classes. This phenomenon may be attributable to an increase in role accuracy [14] or to the fact that the selection of marketing as a major indicates a predisposition toward selling as a career. Whatever the

“Commerce is increasing significantly in the Pacific Rim.” explanation, students who complete more than one marketing class are more predisposed to sales careers [5]. In an earlier, yet related, empirical study [15] industrial sales positions were found to be least desired by marketing students. One possible explanation for this finding is that students have little knowledge of industrial sales practices versus brand management or retail management emphasized in most marketing classes and texts [15]. This stream of sales career research has expanded, with mixed results, to include gender differences. That is, female students were determined to be significantly more reluctant to enter sales-related fields than were their male counterparts [16]. Conversely, a subsequent investigation reported that females were more favorably predisposed to personal selling than males [17]. Other studies have documented that African-American students hold lower preference for sales careers than Caucasian students but that these attitudes improve when a sales course has been completed. Similar to the findings of other studies conducted in the United States, a career in industrial sales was selected by relatively few respondents—regardless of race [3]. COUNTRY INFORMATION In the Pacific Rim, the level of commerce is increasing significantly [18]. Given the growing importance of Pacific-Rim countries—exemplified by such countries as New Zealand and the Philippines—to U.S. trade, it is imperative that highly competent people select sales careers. Otherwise the efficiency and effectiveness of the global sales force and ultimately the entire marketplace may be diminished. To reduce the likelihood of this happening, industrial marketers may need to adopt strategies that insure potential job candidates accurately understand career opportunities in industrial marketing. United States The United States is the largest economy in the world and is a major trading partner of both New Zealand and

the Philippines. U.S. exports in 1996 were $835 billion, which is approximately 13.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [18]. In 1996 imports were $900 billion, roughly 14.7% of GDP [18]. In terms of world competitiveness, the United States was ranked first in 1995 [19]. From 1993 information presented by Trade Compass [20] in Washington, D.C., the United States was the Philippines’ largest export partner (39% of exports) and the third largest export partner for New Zealand (12.5%). In terms of 1993 imports, almost 18% of Philippine imports came from the United States (second largest partner after Japan), while imports from the United States represented 19.6% of the total (second only to Australia) for New Zealand. It is clear from these figures that a significant economic relationship exists between the United States and these two trading partners. New Zealand According to the World Bank [18], New Zealand’s exports in 1996 were US$14.6 billion which represents a 12.2% growth from 1995 figures. Its exports were 31.7% of GDP for 1996. Total imports for 1996 were US$16.4 billion, which represents a 14% growth from the previous year [18]. New Zealand is rated by Institute for Management Development as one of the 48 most competitive economies in the world [19]. New Zealand is a small, but developed, country which is quite isolated from other economic activity centers. Its closest major business partner, Australia, is approximately three hours away by commercial airline. Because of this geographic location, business persons in New Zealand are more accustomed to traveling to conduct business than perhaps those found in the United States or the Philippines [21]. The Philippines The Philippines is a developing nation of approximately 7,100 islands located in Southeast Asia. According to the World Bank [18], the Philippines’ exports in 1996 were US$20.5 billion which represents a 24.7% growth over 1995 figures. Its exports were 35.7% of 29

“It is evident that industrial sales and consumer product sales are not preferred career paths.” GDP. In terms of imports, total volume was US$23 billion for 1996, up 26.1% from 1995 [18]. Like New Zealand, the Philippines was also rated among the top 48 competitive economies in the world in 1995 [19]. In the Philippines, personal selling is often equated to door-todoor sales and college graduates view personal selling as an occupation performed by high school graduates [22]. Since the Philippines is a developing nation there is less need for industrial sales associates. Another notable point is that Philippine students typically enter college at the age of 16 and graduate as early as 20. This practice results in a younger college student population with little practical experience (see Table 1). RESEARCH EXPECTATIONS Previous research findings in the United States influence the expectations for this study. Much of the empirical research suggests that students hold low opinions of sales careers [1, 3, 4, 11, 15]. Despite the abundance of research in the United States about students’ perceptions of and preferences for sales careers, there is a paucity of information about this topic in other countries. This leads us to our first set of expectations. Student preference for sales positions are expected to be lower than for other marketing-related careers. Also, selection of a career in industrial marketing is anticipated to occur at an even lower rate than for other sales career areas. Given the necessity of Pacific-Rim nations to engage in global business, we expect that students from island nations such as New Zealand and the Philippines may possess higher preferences for global sales careers. Second, we expect to find lower preferences for sales careers among students with higher GPAs. This expectation does not imply that only inferior students enter sales or that GPA is linearly correlated with future career success. Part of our rationale is that, when previously queried, students with higher GPAs have been found to pre30

fer careers in other functional areas of business [4]. One goal of this study is to see if similar logic holds true for students in such diverse Pacific-Rim cultures as New Zealand and the Philippines. METHOD This study utilized a variant of a questionnaire that was previously developed and refined [5, 15]. In the survey, students indicated their appeal for each of 17 possible career areas that included three sales categories: consumer product sales, industrial sales, and international sales. A five-point semantic differential scale, with descriptor anchors of “very unappealing” (1) and “very appealing” (5), was employed to measure student interest in selected career positions. Each respondent was also asked to indicate the one career area they most preferred and to describe sales as a career in their own words. Students from three geographical locales participated in this study. The U.S. sample was gathered in the midAtlantic region of the country and consisted of 171 undergraduate students. All but eight respondents were in their junior (60%) or senior (37%) year of study. The New Zealand sample consisted of 163 business students, primarily occupied in their third year (68%) of study, who attended a major urban university on the North IsTABLE 1 Profile of Respondents Country of Residence

Characteristics Age (mean) Grade-point average (mean) Grade-point average (range) No prior sales experience (%) No prior managerial experience (%) Sales classes taken (%)

United States

Philippines

New Zealand

21.3 B2 A–C 39 74 36

19.5 B A–C 88 95 34

21.8 B A–C 54 72 21

“Work experience and age elevate the appeal of an industrial sales career.” land of the country. The third group, consisting of 169 business students who were pursuing a general business degree from the University of the Philippines-Diliman campus, cooperated in this study. The Philippine sample ranged across second- (23%), third- (33%), and fourthyear (43%) students. Information about the sample participants’ age, grade-point, business experience, and marketing sales classes completed are listed in Table 1. Since business students represent a primary pool from which companies select industrial salespeople, they were deemed to be appropriate participants for this survey. RESULTS Overall, the students’ preferred career paths are presented in Table 2. When comparing the results across the three sample populations, it is evident that industrial sales and consumer product sales are not preferred career paths for surveyed undergraduate business students. There were only three respondents (0.6%), out of a total of 503 participants, who chose industrial sales and 13 (2.6%) who selected consumer product sales as a preferred career path. It is interesting that consumer product sales is viewed as being more acceptable by American and Philippine respondents than for New Zealand business students. However, industrial sales was only selected as a preferred career path by two of the American students and one of the Philippine students, while no New Zealanders felt that industrial sales was a preferred career path. The other sales career path investigated was international sales, which was the second highest preferred career path named by 59 of the respondents (11.7%). The greatest interest in career paths was generated by 119 (23.7%) respondents who selected marketing management as their preferred career path. The low choices for non-business careers (e.g., engineering and government service) should not be surprising since the sample respondents were business students. The results suggest, however, that there is a potential problem for recruitment

of top candidates for industrial marketing sales positions in all three countries. Respondents also rated the entire list of career paths, presented in Table 3, using the same five-point scale. In the overall scheme of occupations, a more favorable image was shown for consumer product sales and industrial sales relative to other non-marketing career paths. However, there were clear differences of opinion across the three samples when scoring the three sales-related career paths. The highest scores were found for international and consumer product sales, trailed at the bottom by industrial sales. For industrial sales, the American and New Zealand students were significantly lower in their ratings than were the Philippine students. For consumer product sales, the results were slightly better with the American respondents being less positive than their Philippine counterparts. Finally, American students rated international sales significantly lower than either their Philippine or New Zealand counterparts. MOST PREFERRED CAREER To shed more light on these responses the reactions of students were tracked through a series of open-ended questions that described, in their own words, their preferred career path and sales as a career path. All three populations described their preferred career path in terms of positive descriptors. The most-often mentioned descriptors were challenging, interesting, fun, exciting, allowing for travel, dynamic, prestigious, and fulfilling. The New Zealanders did not utilize negative words to describe their preferred careers, while the Philippine students offered a few negatives (1.3%) like tedious and demanding. The descriptors used for sales as a career path also had some positive responses across all of the sample populations (e.g., money/commission, fun/interesting/exciting, people, rewarding), but quite a few negative descriptors were employed (e.g., hard work, boring, pushy, stressful/ pressure). The results are presented in Table 4. It is evi31

TABLE 2 Preferred Career Paths Country of Residence United States Description Accounting Public relations Marketing research Law International sales Management consulting Finance Marketing management Consumer product sales Retailing Real estate Teaching Product management Engineering Personnel/human resources Industrial sales Government

Philippines

New Zealand

Frequency

%

Frequency

%

Frequency

%

25 24 17 17 14 13 11 9 7 7 6 5 5 3 2 2 0

14.6 14.0 9.9 9.9 8.2 7.6 6.4 5.3 4.1 4.1 3.5 3.0 3.0 1.8 1.2 1.2 0

18 11 4 20 8 19 13 37 5 4 2 14 7 1 5 1 2

10.9 6.5 2.4 11.9 4.8 11.3 7.7 22.0 3.0 2.4 1.2 8.3 4.2 0.6 3.0 0.6 1.2

3 5 4 2 37 19 2 73 1 3 0 0 6 1 4 0 1

1.8 3.1 2.5 1.2 22.7 11.7 1.2 44.8 0.6 1.8 0.0 0.0 3.7 0.6 2.5 0.0 0.6

dent from a close examination of the responses that there are numerous negative perceptions of sales as a career. The New Zealand and American responses were quite similar in the descriptors used, while the Philippine stu-

dents responded in their language by saying “it would make my throat sore” (perhaps from talking), “it would involve pulling people’s legs” (using flattery), and “you should have a thick face” (be able to swallow your pride)

TABLE 3 Appeal of Various Career Paths* Country of Residence

Description Marketing management Management consulting Public relations Product management International sales Law Consumer product sales Marketing research Teaching Personnel/human resources Retailing Real estate Finance Government Industrial sales Accounting Engineering

United States Mean Responses

Philippines Mean Responses

New Zealand Mean Responses

ANOVA p-Value

3.75‡ 3.70‡ 3.55 3.50† 3.39‡ 3.36† 3.24† 3.19 3.17 3.17‡ 3.06† 3.06† 3.02† 2.83 2.79† 2.76† 2.29†

4.44 4.25 3.54 4.14 4.01 3.70 3.68 3.43 3.15 3.72 3.65 3.47 3.66 2.70 3.31 3.29 2.98

4.58 4.00 3.37 3.63† 4.19 2.80‡ 3.39 3.37 2.54‡ 3.48 3.12† 2.48‡ 2.44‡ 2.43† 2.61† 2.33‡ 1.98†

.0000 .0000 N.S. .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 N.S. .0001 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000 .0000

*Responses were based on anchors: 1 5 very unappealing and 5 5 very appealing. Significantly different from the highest mean using Tukey’s Honestly Significant Differences Range test (at 0.05 level). ‡ Significantly different from the second highest mean using Tukey’s Honestly Significant Differences Range Test (at 0.05 level). N.S. 5 Not significant. †

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TABLE 4 Descriptions of Sales as a Career Path by Country of Residence for Respondents United States Descriptions Positive Money/commissions Fun/interesting/exciting Working with people/public Rewarding Travel Challenging Independent/autonomy Communication/talk Public relations Innovative Product oriented Dedication/discipline Competitive Dynamic Skillful Extroverts Salesman Keep alert Negative Hard/hard work Boring Pushy/uses persuasion Stressful/pressure Repetitive/tedious/frustrating Lying/deception Time consuming Limited Quotas Exhausting Patience Risk Taxing Unappealing No response Other responses (all 1) Totals

Philippines

Frequency

%

New Zealand

Frequency

%

Frequency

%

32 29 22 20 19 17 14 11 10 8 8 7 5 1 1 1 0 0

6.9 6.2 4.7 4.3 4.1 3.6 3.0 2.4 2.1 1.7 1.7 1.5 1.1 0.2 0.2 0.2 0 0

20 22 21 9 7 32 0 4 17 0 0 0 11 5 0 0 0 2

6.3 7.0 6.6 2.8 2.2 10.1 0 1.3 5.4 0 0 0 3.5 1.6 0 0 0 0.6

0 6 17 0 4 20 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 5 3 3 0

0 3.7 10.4 0 2.5 12.3 0 0 0 1.8 0 0 0 0 3.1 1.8 1.8 0

46 33 24 19 15 10 10 7 6 4 3 1 0 0 25 59

9.9 7.1 5.1 4.1 3.2 2.1 2.1 1.5 1.3 0.9 0.6 0.2 0 0 5.4 12.6

20 20 4 11 0 0 6 0 0 3 7 6 7 0 0 82

6.3 6.3 1.3 3.5 0 0 1.9 0 0 1.0 2.2 1.9 2.2 0 0 26.1

2 10 7 6 6 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 32 21

1.2 6.1 4.3 3.7 3.7 0 1.2 1.8 0 0 0 0 0 1.8 19.6 12.9

467*

100.0

316*

100.0

163

100.0

*Each respondent was allowed up to five descriptive terms for sales as a career path.

[22]. The American students responded with 38.1% negative descriptors for sales as a career path as compared to 26.6% for the Philippine students and 24.5% for the New Zealand students. This indicates a potentially serious image problem for sales as a career in all three nations.

APPEAL OF PERSONAL SELLING CAREER AND DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES Another step in the data analysis involved examination of correlations between the appeal of careers in consumer

product sales, international sales, and industrial sales, and the following demographic variables: age, year of study in program, number of completed coursework hours, grade-point average, and amount of sales experience. For U.S. students, significant correlations were found for having completed a sales course and the appeal of a career in consumer product sales (0.373) and international sales (0.273). Sales experience was positively correlated with the appeal of industrial sales (0.344) and international sales (0.235). GPA was negatively correlated with the appeal of consumer product sales (20.187). These results suggest that exposure to information about 33

“A stronger selling job must be performed to make industrial sales career paths more attractive.” sales positions raised the level of attractiveness of these careers either through participating in a sales course or having work experience. The results for industrial sales were less encouraging, however. There was no significant correlation between completing a sales course and the appeal of a career in industrial sales. This may indicate that industrial sales receives little, if any, realistic coverage in the sales class, which does nothing to increase student interest in pursuing a career in industrial sales. Work experience, however, does elevate the appeal of a career in industrial selling. Clearly, exposure to information about industrial sales can improve student perceptions. It also appears that the “best and brightest” students, that is higher GPAs, are not attracted to sales careers. This should be of concern to industrial marketers looking to American universities as a pool for top candidates. For the Philippine students there was only one significant correlation—the appeal for industrial sales and the age of the respondent (0.212, p , 0.01). This indicates that other respondents rated industrial sales as being more appealing. Furthermore, the lack of information about sales careers is borne out by the fact that only 12% of the Philippine students possessed sales experience, only 5% had previous managerial experience, and only 34% had ever had a lecture on sales (see Table 1). For the New Zealand students, there were no significant correlations. Surprisingly, no relationships were found between career choice, age, experience, GPA, or having completed classes in sales. These findings, even more so than with the Philippine results, may signal a general lack of knowledge about sales as a career path and little, if any, exposure to information about sales. DISCUSSION It is clear from this comparative analysis that students from all three nations have perceptual problems about sales careers. For the American student respondents, 34

sales does not appear to be a desired career path. Although the vast majority of entry-level positions are in sales-related areas of marketing, it is clear that students must be given more information about possible careers in sales. International sales probably carries with it the glamour of international travel, and it fared far better than either consumer product sales or industrial sales. Industrial sales was only selected by two U.S. students as a preferred career path, which should be of great concern to industrial marketers who might be looking for top candidates in U.S. business schools. The results were similar for New Zealand. International sales, when comparing the three sales-related career paths, fared better than consumer product sales and industrial sales. Apparently New Zealanders feel that these two careers are unglamorous and repetitive, while international sales is seen as exciting, challenging, and offering travel opportunities. This ability to travel to other nations appears to be quite important to New Zealand business students. No business student in the sample selected industrial sales as the preferred career path, which suggests a perceptual problem that must be addressed if industrial marketers are to attract the “best and brightest” from New Zealand business schools. These findings are also mirrored in the Philippine results. International sales is viewed by many Philippine students as an appropriate career path that is exciting, challenging, and offering travel opportunities. Consumer product sales and industrial sales on the other hand, are perceived as being less appropriate or appealing career paths. They seem to be perceived much the same way that extant U.S. studies have shown them: as unglamorous and repetitious. It is also interesting that only five Philippine respondents rated consumer product sales as a desired career path, while only one respondent selected industrial sales as a preferred career. It is noteworthy that students indicated they are not being exposed to sales in their classes, which can enhance

sales career misperceptions. From Table 1 it is clear that the majority of students have never had any sales experience, have not had a course in personal selling or sales management, and have never had a lecture dealing with sales. There is little wonder that sales, and in particular industrial sales, is not perceived as a desired career path. This is further evidenced by the large number of negative descriptors used by all three groups of respondents to describe a career in sales. Except for the relationship between industrial sales and age, the perceptions indicated by the respondents relative to specific sales paths were not related to age, grade-point average, number of courses completed, or amount of sales experience. This finding contrasts with U.S. studies which consistently show sales career appeal is inversely related to grade-point average. Some of the differences identified in this study may be explainable by the nature of the countries represented. First, the Philippines is a small, developing country which is isolated from major economic activity centers. Its closest major neighbor, Japan, is three hours away by commercial airline. New Zealand is also an isolated island nation which is three hours from its largest neighbor, Australia. Why is marketing management the preferred career path? It would seem that all of these graduates expect to start in a management position. Sales positions are often viewed as jobs not held by college graduates [22]. IMPLICATIONS FOR INDUSTRIAL MARKETERS From these results it appears that corporations will have to do a stronger “selling job” to make industrial sales career paths attractive to students from prestigious American, Philippine, and New Zealand business schools. With little or no exposure to industrial sales positions and their opportunities, students are left with their own limited perceptions of sales, which seem to be quite negative. Obviously the more demands placed upon the business schools by global corporations that hire their graduates, the more that curricular changes can be facilitated. If business schools in these countries do not bring a greater awareness and understanding into the classroom about the viability of careers in sales, the best students will not be motivated to consider industrial sales careers, and global marketers will be forced to hire less-attractive students, thus bypassing a potentially qualified workforce. It should also be noted that positions in marketing management are not readily available to newly graduated

students; therefore, students must be made aware of career choices with greater viability. The negative perceptions of these business students may be fueled by cultures where sales is equated to retailing and door-to-door selling, and it may take a long, slow re-education of the culture to see the merits and attractiveness of sales as a career path. If industrial marketers provide internships for students and set up relationships with business schools in which they openly discuss their needs for certain types of graduate skills, they can enhance the image of industrial sales and attract more highly qualified students. CONCLUSIONS During the past 40 years, a rich literature base has developed on the appeal of personal selling as a career for U.S. students [5]. However, very little attention has been focused on students outside the United States. In this study we attempt to extend the research, of student perception of and preference for sales careers, to PacificRim countries. Although preliminary in nature, our study’s findings suggest that marketing professors, recruiters, and sales managers are faced with the challenge of better educating students about professional selling positions and careers. As the global economy expands, personal selling will continue to achieve greater importance as a key element of the promotional mix. Today, more than ever, sales organizations need bright, motivated, capable people who can contribute in a demanding and even perverse environment. To attract such capable applicants to industrial sales positions will require increased attention from educators and practitioners alike. REFERENCES 1. Dubinsky, Alan J.: Perceptions of the Sales Job: How Students Compare With Industrial Salespeople. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 9, 352–367 (1981). 2. Dubinsky, Alan J., and O’Connor, P.J.: A Multidimensional Analysis of Preferences of Sales Positions. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 3, 31–41 (1983). 3. Honeycutt, Earl D. Jr., Micken, Kathleen S., Guy, Natalie, and Eppler, Dianne B.: How Appealing Are Sales Careers?: A Comparison of AfricanAmerican and Caucasian Student Perceptions, AMS Multicultural Marketing Conference Proceedings, pp 68–72, 1996. 4. Paul, Gordon W., and Worthing, Parker: A Student Assessment of Selling. Southern Journal of Business 5, 57–65 (1970). 5. Swenson, Michael J., Swinyard, William R., Langrehr, Frederick W., and Smith, Scott M: The Appeal of Personal Selling As A Career: A Decade Later. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 13:1, 51–64 (1993).

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6. Swinyard, William R.: On Campus Selling is Still a Tough Sale. Sales and Marketing Management August 16, 58–59 (1982). 7. Thompson, Donald L.: Stereotype of the Salesman. Harvard Business Review 50, 20–22 (1972). 8. Herche, Joel, Swenson, Michael J., and Verbeke, Willem: Personal Selling Constructs and Measures: Emic Versus Etic Approaches to Cross-National Research. European Journal of Marketing 30(7), 83–97 (1996). 9. Terpstra, V.: International Marketing. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, NY, 1987. 10. Anonymous: What College Students Think of Selling as a Career. The American Salesman (February), 48–61 (1958). 11. Weeks, William A., and Muehling, Darrel D.: Students’ Perceptions of Personal Selling. Industrial Marketing Mangement 16, 145–151 (1987). 12. Bellenger, Danny N., Bernhardt, Kenneth L., and Wayman, Wilbur S., Jr.: Student Attitudes Toward Selling As a Career: Implications for Marketing Education, in 1974 Combined Proceedings, Chicago, IL, AMA, 1974. 13. Dubinsky, Alan J.: Recruiting College Students for the Sales Force. Industrial Marketing Management 9, 37–45 (1980). 14. Churchill, Gilbert, A., Jr., Ford, Neil M., and Walker, Orville C., Jr.: Sales Force Management. 5th edition, Irwin, Chicago, IL, 1997. 15. Swinyard, William R.: The Appeal of Retailing As A Career. Journal of Retailing 57, 86–97 (1981).

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16. Cook, Robert W., and Hartman, Timothy: Female College Student Interest in a Sales Career: A Comparison. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 6, 29–34 (1986). 17. Muehling, Darrel D., and Weeks, William A.: Women’s Perceptions of Personal Selling: Some Positive Results. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 8, 11–20 (1988). 18. World Bank: World Development Indicators. IEC Information Center, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1997. 19. Institute for Management Development: The World Competitiveness Report 1995. Institute for Management Development, Geneva, Switzerland, 1995. 20. Trade Compass: Trade Compass—World Trade Statistical Database. Trade Compass, Washington, D.C., 1977. 21. Ford, John B., Honeycutt, Earl D., Jr., and Joseph, Mathew: New Zealand Students’ Preferences for Careers in Sales: Implications for Marketing Educators. Developments in Marketing Science 18, 312–316 (1995). 22. Honeycutt, Earl D., Jr., Ford, John B., Zamora, Elvira A., and D’Auria Stanton, Angela: Philippine Students’ Preferences for Careers in Sales: Implications for Global Marketers, Marketing: Moving Toward The 21st Century: Proceedings of the Southern Marketing Association Conference. New Orleans, LA 1996, pp 334–337.