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Can salespersons help firms overcome brand image crisis? Role of facial appearance

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Saurabh BhattacharyaORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

Facial appearances bias human decisions. This study’s objective, leveraging facial impression bias, is to explore the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions under which baby-faced salespersons, in comparison to mature-faced salespersons, influence consumers’ decisions to reconcile with the brand after an organizational crisis. We test mediation and moderated mediation models in the UK context using experimental designs. Our findings suggest that consumers determine a salesperson’s morality by their appearance, perceiving baby-faced agents as having higher moral character than mature-faced agents. This phenomenon, in turn, influences consumers’ decision to reconcile with a brand. Our findings have implications for sales representatives’ roles in brand reconciliation.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Agnihotri A, Bhattacharya S, Vrontis D

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Business Research

Year: 2024

Volume: 176

Print publication date: 01/04/2024

Online publication date: 06/03/2024

Acceptance date: 27/02/2024

Date deposited: 06/04/2024

ISSN (print): 0148-2963

ISSN (electronic): 1873-7978

Publisher: Elsevier

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114612

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114612

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/7g7m-gz17

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