Abstract

MARTIN-CASTEJON, Pedro Juan; ESPANA, Murcia,  and  GOMEZ-MARTINEZ, Alberto. INFLUENCE OF ETHICAL SALES ON THE RELATIONAL VARIABLES OF THE INDUSTRIAL CUSTOMER AMID COVID-19. Innovar [online]. 2022, vol.32, n.86, pp.151-166.  Epub Mar 31, 2023. ISSN 0121-5051.  https://doi.org/10.15446/innovar.v32n86.104667.

This research seeks to provide an updated view of personal sales in a business-to-business (B2B) environment through the study of ethical sales and their relationship with customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty to the selling company in an environment where face-to-face contact has been minimized and even annulled, on many occasions due to the new commercial scenario caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is based on an empirical study using a convenience sample comprised of customers (sMEs) of six supplies and industrial sales distributors. One hundred customers were randomly chosen per distributor, resulting in a sample of 600 industrial clients, from which 248 valid questionnaires were received in March 2021. Subsequently, they were analyzed through structural equations. The results show that ethical sales have a positive and direct impact on satisfaction and trust and an indirect effect on loyalty. The study results reveal sellers' critical role in the industrial market and encourage academic and business interest in the efficient sales force management from an ethical perspective.

Keywords : Loyalty; industrial sME; customer satisfaction; ethical selling; relationship selling.

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