Protection motivation theory and brick-and-mortar salespeople

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply protection motivation theory (PMT) to brick-and-mortar salespeople's responses to customers' fear appeals.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach is to develop a conceptual model for the effect of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople.

Findings

PMT relates to the influence of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople's behaviours. The salesperson's decision whether to follow a retail manager's suggestion about ways to mitigate a customer's fear appeal depends on believed threat severity, believed threat susceptibility, response efficacy, self-efficacy and response costs.

Research limitations/implications

PMT is applied to a new domain: brick-and-mortar salespeople. Although a powerful yet universal emotion, only limited research has examined fear within this group.

Practical implications

Understanding salespeople's fears will help retail managers identify strategies for encouraging adaptive behaviours and deterring maladaptive behaviours by salespeople.

Originality/value

A model relating customers' fear appeals to salespeople's behaviours is introduced.

Citation

Good, M.C. and Hyman, M.R. (2020), "Protection motivation theory and brick-and-mortar salespeople", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 48 No. 8, pp. 865-879. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-05-2019-0155