Protection motivation theory and brick-and-mortar salespeople

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to apply protection motivation theory (PMT) to brick-and-mortar salespeople's responses to customers' fear appeals.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is to develop a conceptual model for the effect of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople.FindingsPMT 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/implicationsPMT 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 implicationsUnderstanding salespeople's fears will help retail managers identify strategies for encouraging adaptive behaviours and deterring maladaptive behaviours by salespeople.Originality/valueA model relating customers' fear appeals to salespeople's behaviours is introduced.