Relationship building in small businesses - the case of linking personal selling with collectivism

Abstract

This paper examines the link between personal selling and collectivism found in small clothing and shoe retailers in New Zealand, Portugal and Hungary. The study uses three culturally similar, predominately Anglophone nations, as most prior research with a cultural factor is conducted in culturally dissimilar nations and the results are hard to generalise across culturally similar countries. The results of the study show a strong link between choice of personal selling as a promotional tool and the collectivist orientation on the part of the retailers. The main conclusion of this paper therefore, is that where there is a definitive link between personal selling and collectivism in small clothing and shoe retailers, there also needs to be an understanding on the part of these retailers of how to most effectively use personal selling in their business.