Accents: How the Voice can Trigger Implicit Stereotypes During International Sales Transactions: A Study About how the National Prejudices Among Different Geographical Clusters can Arise From Listening to Different Speaking Styles

Abstract

This paper aims to answer the research question: “How accent of sales professionals impacts the consumer purchasing intention during international sales transactions?”. A research model has been developed, after a preliminary review of the existing literature about the concept of accent from a technical and a sociological perspective added to an in-depth study of sales stereotypes and customer attitude. The authors have tried to establish the relationship between the Stereotype content model (a framework constituted by the dimensions of warmth and competence) - independent variable - and the client purchasing intention – dependent variable – mediated by the customer attitude and moderated by the accent of the sales expert. To verify the validity of the model, a web based self-administered survey has been submitted to a sample 179 Italians. After a series of questions about their perception of a general sales figure, the respondents have been exposed to a file audio. In the voice recording, a German woman/man or an Argentinian woman/man was interpreting a bank advisor entertaining a phone conversation with a potential client about a loan subscription. Except for the study run with the German male employee, the results of the questionnaire have confirmed the mediating relationship, but the moderator effect of accent needs further consolidation. Ground for future research has been analysed as well.