Relations between Variables

In this thesis, the two independent variables, gender and risk tolerance, have impact on dependent variable: SHB; and the two independent variables also interact.

In other words, both gender and risk have relations with Sales Helping Behavior. In this study, I will investigate the salespeople’s attitude towards new product promotion

by questionnaire. Then, I will determine which gender will have more risk tolerance and engage in more Sales Helping Behavior.

Harris and Bays (1973) found that both the gender of the person in need and the gender of the helper effect how much assistance is given. Some studies found that men are generally more helpful (Borofsky et al., 1971), while others indicate that women are more supportive (Wilson, 1975; Switzer et al., 1999). In these studies, men are generally more helpful in spontaneous situations that involve personal risk.

Women, on the other hand, tend to assist more in long-term and close relationships.

Eagly and Crowley (1986) point out that there are many ways in which one can help another. These include emotional support, action based help, and giving advice.

Many of the previous studies overlooked this fact and chose to focus on one kind of helping behavior, which is not commonly exhibited by both sexes. Eagly and Crowley (1986) also contend that women are generally more empathic and sympathetic than men and are more likely to help others. Eisenberg et al. (1988) found that girls exhibited more facial sympathy and reported more distress than boys. Women report themselves to be more empathic than men do (Piliavan and Charng, 1990). Aries et al.

(1983) also hold the same argument: women report providing their friends with more personal favors, emotional supports, and counseling about personal problems than men do (Piliavin and Charng, 1990).

By The relationship between sex differences and helping behavior of college students (McCabe), the researchers conclude that men and women are equally helpful when gender-bias is eliminated. While sex alone does not appear to affect how much help a person gives, one may wonder if gender plays any role in helping behavior?

According to Eagly and Crowley (1986), most previous studies used situations that were biased towards the helping behavior of one of the sexes. The results of each study incorrectly claimed that one sex is more helpful than the other.

Previous studies about gender differences and performances resulted in different concern for customers. That is women have more 「communal goals」such as affiliation and fostering harmonious relationships, whereas males have 「agentic goals」, which stress goal orientation, self-assertion, and mastery (McColl-Kennedy, Daus, & Sparks, 2003). Furthermore, a related study (Sparks and Callan, 1997) found that women prefer an accommodating communication style more so than men. Part of accommodating involves listening to and understanding the customer, which can be considered as showing concern for the customer.

H1: Female salespeople tend to engage in more Sales Helping Behavior than male salespeople do

In addition to measuring the correlation between risk tolerance and Sales Helping Behavior, I would also like to find out the relation of risk tolerance and gender. In other words, are males more risk tolerant than females or vise versa? The risk here is pointed towards new products promotion. In general, salespeople consider that new products are more risky than established ones; customers are more aware of established products, and good established products are promoted through word-of-mouth. The leverage of a strong brand name can substantially reduce the risk of introducing a product on a new market by providing consumers the familiarity of, and knowledge about, an established brand (Aaker, Keller, 1990). General customers will choose to buy from them. Therefore, salespeople find it more difficult to promote new products to ordinary consumers.

Although salespeople have difficulty promoting new products, they are motivated to do so because new products have some advantages: first, these products are produced to satisfy someone who is in need. Next, these products will have added

more function or value to compete with the ordinary ones. Furthermore, a new product offers several advantages to the salesperson. It could open up new market and customer opportunities, and it offers new selling experiences that could enhance his/her skill base, earnings, and mobility. Furthermore, success at selling new products could enhance the personal value and reputation of the salesperson in the organization (Kwaku, 1997). These advantages will drive the risk-tolerant salespeople to promote new products.

H2: Salespeople with higher risk tolerance engage in more Sales Helping Behavior

Gender is extensively used as a moderator variable in marketing. In this thesis, I will try to find out what is the difference between H2 and H3 with gender being a moderator variable in H3. In financial decision making among gender difference, some previous studies suggest that women are more cautions, less confident, less aggressive, easier to persuade, and have inferior leadership and problem solving abilities when making decisions under risk compared to men. But recent studies argue against this conclusion. According to the paper written by Powell and Ansic (1997), they suggest males and females are found to be equally capable of performing in terms of achieving desired outcomes from decision-making under risk, equally effective in leadership roles, and equally capable of processing and reacting to information.

The strategy differences could be linked to risk preference through motivational theory (Schneider and Lopes, 1986). Females would have a lower risk preference if they have a greater desire for security, and males have a higher risk preference if they have a greater desire for returns. According to this model, males engage in more Sales

Helping Behavior under risk compared to females. The risk here is about lunching new product risk, perceived risk and so on.

H3: Males tend to engage in more Sales Helping Behavior under a risky condition than females do

Fig. 2.3 Research Concept H3

H2 H1

H4

Gender

Risk Tolerance

Sales Helping Behavior

Fig. 2.4 Risk Tolerance as a Mediator Variable

H4: Risk tolerance mediates between Gender and Sales Helping Behavior.

The level of significance between Gender and Sales Helping Behavior should, therefore, be reduced.

Gender

Risk Tolerance

Sales Helping Behavior H1

H4