Initial Impressions in the Organizational Buyer-Seller Dyad: Sales Management Implications

The purpose of this research effort is to investigate the phenomenon of initial impressions as related to the organizational buyer/seller dyad. A sample of organizational buyer members of the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM) representing a variety of industries participated in the study. The stimulus manipulations consisted of professionally rendered artist sketches which differentiated the nature of the initial impression stimulus only by salesperson race and sex. Immediate affect formation was evaluated based upon responses to these two variables. The dependent variables consisted of factor scores representing the factor structures of competence/trust, power, and likability (derived from Wilding and Bauer 1968). Results indicated different first impressions were formed as a function of race and gender “match-up” between buyer and seller, thus lending support for immediate affect generation theory.