The Role of Manufacturers' Salespeople in Inducing Brand Advocacy by Retail Sales Associates

As retail sales associates play a critical role in influencing in-store customer decisions by providing brand recommendations, manufacturers attempt to use a variety of strategies to induce brand advocacy of their respective brands. Toward this end, manufacturers have traditionally deployed their salespeople to cultivate and maintain brand-centric relationships with retail sales associates. However, little is known on how manufacturers' salespeople build such relationships and induce brand advocacy by retail sales associates, especially in retail environments where commissions and incentives are prohibited. This study develops and tests a theoretical model of the antecedents of relationships between manufacturers' salespeople and retail sales associates and the subsequent impact of such relationships on brand advocacy by retail sales associates.