James S. Boles

  • Professor
  • Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality & Tourism, UNCG
  • jsboles@uncg.edu
  • 336-334-4413
  • 441 Bryan Building

James S. Boles is Professor of Marketing in the Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality & Tourism Department at The University of North Carolina Greensboro. He also is a co-founder and Director of the North Carolina Sales Institute (NCSI). Dr. Boles is a previous Editor of the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and in 2014, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sales Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles as well as other publications. His research focuses on salesperson performance/turnover, as well as the effect of work-family conflict on boundary-spanning employees, and has appeared in a variety of journals including: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and the Journal of Business Research.

There are 71 included publications by James S. Boles :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Bringing meaning to the sales job: The effect of ethical climate and customer demandingness 2013 1166 Top performing salespeople are attracted to organizations that provide opportunities to make full use of their abilities. Responses from 1450 sales directors from a leading direct selling organization were used to examine salesperson's experienced me...
Business relationships: an examination of the effects of buyer-salesperson relationships on customer retention and willingness to refer and recommend 1997 1143 Examines the effect of the quality of a salesperson’s relationship with a customer on the likelihood of retaining that customer’s business. Assesses the effects of high/low-quality buyer-salesperson relationships on obtaining referrals and recommenda...
Buyer reactions to ethical beliefs in the retail environment 2004 980 Research into the ethical conduct of marketers is an increasingly popular topic. At the same time, a substantial amount of recent patronage theory has been devoted toward developing a better knowledge of roles played by shopping emotions evoked by va...
Buyer’s Relational Desire and the Number of Suppliers Used: The Relationship Between Perceived Commitment and Continuance 2008 141 This paper examines the effect of perceived commitment in relation to a buyer's propensity to stay in a business-to-business relationship. The findings of this study support that buyer's perception of both the salesperson and selling firm's commitmen...
Buyer’s Trust of the Salesperson: An Item-Level Meta-Analysis 2008 250 The issue of trust is an important one in the marketing literature. To assess the nomological validity of trust-related measures, this research uses an item-level measurement meta-analysis based on correlations from 32 studies that measure trust-rela...
Communication Media Preferences in Business-to-Business Transactions: An Examination of the Purchase Process 2005 299 Although communication in marketing has been researched extensively, communication in buyer–seller exchanges during the sales process has received limited attention. This study examines the complexity of information interchange and buyers’ and seller...
Comparing Projective With Self-Rating Measurement Scales: An Application to Customer-Orientation Measures 1994 834 Within a sales context, measurement scales are often used to support both academic research and managerial decision making. Improvement in measurement scales should lead to the development of better theories as well as more effective managerial decis...
Consumer drivers of muscadine wine purchase decisions 2018 808 Muscadine wine, fresh muscadine grapes, and other derivatives have enjoyed a heritage niche for decades in the Southeast. Muscadine growers in North Carolina in the United States (US) have asked whether the purchase of muscadine wine is linked to con...
A cross-national model of job-related outcomes of work role and family role variables: A retail sales context 2004 1034 This article proposes a model of job-related outcomes of four role variables in a retail sales context: work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), work role conflict (RC), and work role ambiguity (RA). We tested the applicability of the ...
Development and Validation of Work-Family Conflict and Family-Work Conflict Scales 1996 2875 Researchers report on a 3-sample study that developed and validated short, self-report scales of work–family conflict (WFC) and family–work conflict (FWC). Using conceptualizations consistent with the current literature, the researchers offer content...
The Dimensionality of the Maslach Burnout Inventory across Small Business Owners and Educators 2000 1599 This study tested the dimensionality of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) by comparing three factor structures (i.e., a one-factor structure, a three-factor structure, and a higher order factor structure) in two diverse samples. The comparison of t...
Distributive and procedural justice in a sales force context: Scale development and validation 2004 160 Perceptions of managerial justice are essential to maintaining highly motivated, satisfied and committed salespeople. Even though there is extant research concerning justice in areas outside marketing, measurement of the distributive and procedural j...
Do students and faculty understand recruiter criteria for front-line sales positions? 2019 802 Students who take university sales courses are expected to graduate with a better understanding of what contributes to a successful sales career. The current research identifies 33 factors recruiters use in evaluating sales candidates. The top 10 att...
The Effects of Perceived Co-Worker Involvement and Supervisor Support on Service Provider Role Stress, Performance and Job Satisfaction 1996 2983 Clearly, retail employees affect retail performance. Yet, organizational theory shows disproportionately little interest in retail employees. This research addresses key aspects of a retail employee's work environment, or ‘climate,’ and how these per...
Electronic mail appraisal: a buyer and seller survey 2003 148 The communication environment for buyer-seller interfaces is being transformed by a variety of new communication choices. The use of electronic mail in business today is especially prevalent. This investigation explores buyer and seller reactions to ...
An empirical test of trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships 2003 195 This study examines three trust-building processes and outcomes in sales manager-salesperson relationships. This study, based on a sample of more than 400 business-to-business salespeoples from a variety of industries, shows two trust-building proces...
Employee Behavior in a Service Providing Environment: An Overall Test of Potential Differences Among Men and Women 1998 283 The authors examine the attitudes and behaviors of employees who provide frontline service and address the extent to which relationships vary among male and female employees. The overall model predicts effects of role stress and work/nonwork conflict...
An escalation of commitment perspective on allocation-of-effort decisions in professional selling 2018 345 Salesforce compensation theory assumes that given proper design of the incentive structure, salespeople will rationally allocate effort to maximize returns to their firm and themselves. However, faced with large sunk investments over long selling cyc...
An examination of free elicitation and response scale measures of feelings and judgments evoked by television advertisements 1992 813 Recent research has examined the role of feelings and judgments evoked by television advertisements through the use of large batteries of rating scales. In this study, free elicitations of feelings and judgments about ads are compared to scale respon...
An Examination of the Relationships between Retail Work Environments, Salesperson Selling Orientation-Customer Orientation and Job Performance 2001 1220 This research examines the relationship between three organizational level constructs and salesperson’s selling orientation-customer orientation (SOCO) in an in-store retail setting. Respondents represent a wide variety of retail firms. A firm’s cust...
An examination of trust dimensions across high and low dependence situations 2010 985 Purpose: Relationship marketing literature has provided support of a multidimensional trust construct; however, there is little consensus on its structure. This article builds on existing theory to propose and empirically test a three-dimensional tru...
An Exploration of Choice Criteria Used in the Selection of a First Academic Position Among New Doctorates in Marketing 1989 719 The process used by a new marketing Ph.D. in selecting the first academic post is an area of great interest given the current academic job market. The present study was designed to identify the criteria which new Ph.D.s use in selecting their first a...
An Exploratory Study of the Relative Effectiveness of Different Types of Sales Force Mentors 2006 140 This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study investigating the effects of mentoring in a sales setting. Salespeople who had manager mentors inside the organization where they work had high performance and a low intention to leave. Those w...
Exploring the Influence of Workplace Relationships on Work-Related Attitudes and Behaviors in the Hospitality Work Environment 1994 1657 Food servers are an important resource in generating revenue and insuring customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Some important issues facing managers in the hospitality industry include role stress and its effects on performance and job ...
Factors Associated with Customer Willingness to Refer Leads to Salespeople 2003 919 This paper develops and tests a model that examines factors that may contribute to customers' willingness to provide referrals to their salespeople. Data were collected in a business-to-business setting. Responses were received from 406 decision-make...
Factors That Influence the Job Market Decision: The Role of Faculty as a Knowledge Broker 2014 206 This study examines the perceptions of students, recruiters, and faculty regarding the importance of various workplace attributes to students who are entering the job market. Furthermore, this study discusses the important role that faculty can play ...
The Formation of Buyer’s Trust of the Seller in an Initial Sales Encounter 2008 381 This paper presents an empirical investigation of processes by which buyers form trustworthiness perceptions during an initial sales encounter. Verbal and nonverbal cues given off by a salesperson, as well as a business's physical appearance, are rel...
Geographic scope effects on buyer satisfaction and defection 2017 795 As organizations move away from their domestic borders and into international environments, selling firms should understand the role geographic scope plays for the buying organization in determining whether buyers want to continue purchasing a produc...
How Salespeople Build Quality Relationships: A Replication and Extension 2000 295 This study replicates and extends Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990) relationship quality model. It examines the antecedents and consequences of relationship quality between a salesperson and his or her customer using business customers rather than the...
The Impact of Realistic Job Previews and Perceptions of Training on Sales Force Performance and Continuance Commitment: A Longitudinal Test 2003 219 This study uses an adaptation of the Dubinsky et al. (1986) socialization framework to test the impact of realistic job previews and perceptions of training on sales force performance and continuance commitment. Seven hundred sixty-two insurance sale...
The Influence of Personal Variables on Salesperson Selling Orientation 1991 537 Customer oriented selling, defined as practicing the marketing concept at the level of the individual salesperson and customer (Saxe and Weitz 1982), is important in selling situations yet has received relatively little attention from marketers. As s...
The influence of salesperson selling behaviors on customer satisfaction with products 1997 776 Salesperson behavior with respect to selling orientation-customer orientation (SOCO) is shown to influence customer satisfaction with the salesperson, dealer, product and manufacturer in a national sample of new car purchasers. The influence of selli...
Inter-Domain Work-Family Conflict and Police Work Satisfaction 2004 902 This research investigates the relationship between inter-domain conflict in the form of work-family conflict and family-work conflict with various facets of employee job satisfaction. The study was conducted among police personnel (n = 119) in a lar...
Interfirm structure and buyer-salesperson behavior impact on relationship outcomes 2015 130 The individual level interaction between the buyer and salesperson can best be understood in the broader framework provided by the inter-firm relationship. Very little research has been conducted that examines both firm level and interpersonal level ...
Interrelationships of Role Conflict, Role Ambiguity, and Work–Family Conflict with Different Facets of Job Satisfaction and the Moderating Effects of Gender 2003 951 The effects of role conflict, role ambiguity, and work–family conflict on overall salesperson job satisfaction have been examined in previous studies across work settings. Less attention has been given to the interrelationships between role conflict,...
Investigating sales approaches and gender in customer relationships 2014 518 Purpose: The purpose of this research is an examination of three different types of sales approaches (product-, solution- and provocation-based) on relational outcomes. The type of sales approach influences buyer's assessments about the trustworthine...
An Investigation into the Antecedents of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in a Personal Selling Context 1997 880 The authors report the results of two studies that attempt to model antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviors in a personal selling context. They draw the antecedents from extant research and propose that the willingness to perform organiza...
Key account buying team members' emotional responses awarding multi-million dollar sales contracts 2018 244 Key account sales can have a profound impact on firm success. Our research investigates the decision process of members of key account buying teams during the buying decision process of awarding multi-million dollar sales contracts. Much extant key a...
Mentoring Characteristics and Functions: Mentoring Influence on Salespeople 2019 612 Purpose: This paper aims to examine a longitudinal study of mentoring functions and their effect on salesperson attitudes and intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The research is based on a multi-year study of salespeople beginning when the sales...
Negative emotions, value and relationships: Differences between women and men 2013 1093 Service experiences are characterized by emotions that help shape the value in use received by the customer. Negative emotion plays an important role in all of consumer psychology and all too often consumers experience some degree of negative emotion...
On the Front Lines: Stress, Conflict, and the Customer Service Provider 1996 991 Previous marketing research examines role stress (role conflict and role ambiguity) as an antecedent of job satisfaction across a range of professional marketing contexts. Recently, research has begun to address the impact of nonwork factors on emplo...
On the R&D/Marketing interface in knowledge intensive entrepreneurial firms 2017 806 In this paper we focus on the performance impact associated with whether R&D or marketing takes the lead in product innovations and/or product development. We examine empirically the performance of a sample of entrepreneurial firms across 10 European...
The outcome of company and account manager relationship quality on loyalty, relationship value and performance 2011 180 This study explores the effects of perceived relationship quality of the company and account managers with customers. It examines the effects of both types of relationship quality on relationship outcomes including: loyalty, relationship value, and p...
Publishing research in marketing journals using structural equations modeling 2008 1179 This paper takes an objective look at how papers using structural equation models are received in the review process of academic marketing research journals. The focus is examining whether or not papers with structural equation modeling (SEM) applica...
Reconceptualizing the measurement of multidimensional salesperson job satisfaction 2019 393 Job satisfaction is a key construct in many models examining salesperson attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Job satisfaction has often been conceptualized and measured as a multidimensional construct – often via the INDSALES scale. Yet many resear...
Reducing Emotional Exhaustion and Increasing Organizational Support 2011 1182 Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore stressors that may influence salespersons' emotional exhaustion and their perception of organizational support. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling is used to assess: the effects ...
Reducing Employee Turnover Through the Use of Preemployment Application Demographics: an Exploratory Study 1995 1029 Understanding and managing employee turnover are important dimensions of the hospitality manager's job objectives. One way to improve our understanding of this nagging managerial problem is to better understand how selection techniques can influence ...
The relationship of facets of salesperson job satisfaction with affective organizational commitment 2007 1594 Purpose: This paper aims to examines the relationships between various facets of salesperson job satisfaction as assessed by the INDSALES measure and salesperson organizational commitment. The paper also seeks to explore salesperson gender as a moder...
Relationship selling behaviors: antecedents and relationship with performance 2000 1456 Examines the effect of relationship selling activities on salesperson performance. It further explores the link between demographic selection criteria and the propensity of a salesperson to perform relationship selling behaviors. Relationship selling...
Representing the perceived ethical work climate among marketing employees 2000 590 This research develops and tests a measurement model representing the ethical work climate of marketing employees involved in sales and/or service-providing positions. A series of studies are used to identify potential items and validate four ethical...
Revisiting and Replicating the Dominant Logic on Salesperson Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Turnover 2019 263 This study addresses a significant gap in the sales and marketing literature, limited replication of key research phenomena. The present study uses a longitudinal design to replicate and extend the principle theoretical model in sales management rese...
Revitalizing Your National Account Program: The NAM Audit 1994 141 The decision to establish or retain a national account marketing program is one faced by many firms whose product or service is sold through a business-to-business salesforce. Unfortunately, it is often difficult to determine whether the benefits obt...
The role of self-regulatory mode on acquisition-retention ambidexterity 2019 408 Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical model that posits locomotion-assessment ambidextrous orientation as predictor of salesperson acquisition–retention ambidexterity, which as a consequence increases sales. The authors drawi...
The role of the seven dimensions of job satisfaction in salesperson's attitudes and behaviors 2009 3633 To date, the majority of studies on job satisfaction use either a global measure or the JDI measure. To extend current research, this study uses the seven dimensions of job satisfaction as described by Churchill et al. [Churchill, G.A., Ford, N.M., W...
The role of social capital and knowledge transfer in selling center performance 2011 1162 Purpose: This paper aims to understand how organizational and interpersonal relationships influence selling centers, and how to form an effective selling center to establish cooperation among the functional departments to satisfy customer needs. Desi...
Role Stress Revisited: One or Two Constructs? 1994 941 This paper extends previous efforts examining the construct validity of role stress. While some see it as comprised of separate role conflict and role ambiguity factors, others argue that it is a unidimensional construct. The authors use recent advan...
Role Stress, Work-Family Conflict and Emotional Exhaustion: Inter-Relationships and Effects on some Work-Related Consequences 1997 1591 Recent research demonstrates that attitudes toward the workplace are influenced by both work and non-work domains. This study examines the inter-relationships of role conflict, role ambiguity, work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion, job satisfact...
Sales Force Turnover and Retention: A Research Agenda 2012 2479 Identifying, acquiring, and retaining top sales talent remains a priority in many sales organizations because salesperson turnover remains such an intractable management problem. This paper seeks to encourage and enrich continued research on sales tu...
Salesperson Evaluation Using Relative Performance Efficiency: The Application of Data Envelopment Analysis 1995 1338 A recurring, but unresolved, issue in salesforce research is the choice of salesperson performance evaluation methodology. Salesforce compensation is typically based on some form of evaluation, and hence the assessment method used is critical. The au...
Salesperson stereotypes, consumer emotions, and their impact on information processing 1995 827 This study examines salesperson stereotypes and their effect on the selling environment. After reviewing relevant literature, the authors advance a hierarchical structure of salesperson stereotype categories. Experimental results suggest that stereot...
The Selection and Organization of National Accounts: A North American Perspective 1999 1465 Examines possible reasons behind the current rapid growth of national accounts. In particular, it examines how relationship marketing/selling has increased the need for national account programs. The article first provides a review of the national ac...
Self-Efficacy, Competitiveness, and Effort as Antecedents of Salesperson Performance 2002 601 This paper posits and tests a model of the individual characteristics of self-efficacy, competitiveness, and effort as potential antecedents of salesperson performance. Based on two studies in different selling contexts, it is observed that whereas e...
Single Source Supply Versus Multiple Source Supply: A Study into the Relationship Between Satisfaction and Propensity to Stay Within a Service Setting 2006 160 The relationship between buyer satisfaction and the propensity of a buyer to stay in a relationship may be more complex than earlier research suggests. Building on prior research, two facets of satisfaction are examined. Our findings suggest that sat...
The Strategic Role of the Salesperson in Reducing Customer Defection in Business Relationships 2001 217 This paper examines the effect of the customer's relationship with the salesperson on defection intentions in a business-to-business setting. Responses were received from 844 decision-makers. Findings indicate that the buyer's perception of equity in...
Understanding effects of salesperson locus of control 2014 558 Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of external locus of control on different job characteristic variables – i.e. role conflict, role ambiguity and emotional exhaustion, in addition to the outcome variable, job satisfaction –...
Visitor spending at wine festivals: Perspectives on stakeholder benefits 2021 824 Economic benefit is a motivator for communities and wineries to participate in events (Byrd et al., 2016; Kim et al., 2008). Two primary stakeholders have a vested interest in the success of wine festivals: participating wineries and host communities...
What National Account Decision Makers Would Tell Salespeople About Building Relationships 1996 865 Examines the responses of national account decision makers to open-ended questions asking for their views on what salespeople need to do to build relationships, and categorizes the results. Eight categories of responses were found. These categories a...
Why are you really losing sales opportunities? A buyers' perspective on the determinants of key account sales failures 2014 274 Key account sales are important for business organizations. Understanding why some of these sales proposals fail from the buyer's perspective has organization-wide implications for improving firm performance. Extant literature lacks a clear understan...
Why do salespeople fail? 1989 309 The article discusses the reasons for the failure of salespeople in selling product, concept or services and also emphasizes on the method of selection criteria so as to match the need of the organization with that of individual's skill. According to...
Wine tourist valuation of information sources: the role of prior travel 2017 855 Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine winery visitors’ use of information sources in making decisions regarding the choice of wineries to visit. Enrichment theory is used as a framework for determining how previous experience influences th...
Workplace Stressors, Job Attitude, and Job Behaviors: Is Interpersonal Conflict the Missing Link? 2011 2792 This research examines a model focused on two acute workplace stressors—interpersonal conflict and work overload—and their interrelationships with role stress, emotional exhaustion, job attitude, working smart, job performance, and turnover intention...