J BUSN RES 1991:22:1-2

Introduction to Special SMA Section

1

Ron Taylor Mississippi State University

As a past president of the Southern Marketing Association (SMA) I am pleased to recognize the continued working relationship between the SMA and the Journal of Business Research. For several years the Journal of Business Research has main- tained the policy of publishing some of the top papers from the annual SMA meeting. This issue features four award-winning papers from the 1987 convention.

For years the popular press has featured articles dealing with the power of sex as a persuasive tool in advertising. These articles have often suggested that the public considers these advertising tools to be unethical, manipulative, and objec- tionable. Most of the articles in the popular press on sex in advertising have been based on nonscientific research. In fact, there is much work that should be done in this area. The Widing, Hoverstad, Coulter and Brown article is focused on scales to measure attitudes toward and perceptions about the use of advertisements con- taining sexual embeds. Six different scales, each containing three items, were de- veloped and subsequently tested for both reliability and validity. All six of the scales were found to be reliable. Validity tests were less conclusive, only four of the scales exhibiting convergent validity. Despite the shortcoming of two of the scales relative to validity tests, this work represents a decisive step forward in an area that has received much pubic attention, while being the subject of compar- atively little academic research.

The Goldsmith and Desborde article also deals with the validation of a scale. In this case the scale is a modified version of the King and Summers Opinion Leadership Scale (OLS). Goldsmith and Desborde produced findings that support the claim that the OLS possesses criterion-related validity as well as evidence that suggests the nomological relationship of opinion leadership with global innova- tiveness. The nomological relationship between opinion leadership and both self- esteem and information seeking was deemed to be weak. Goldsmith and Desborde correctly point out that validity coefficients should be small, since measures for self-esteem and information seeking are global, and the OLS measures opinion leadership for a specific category of products. The theory base associated with opinion leadership could be both clarified and expanded if future researchers would heed the advice of Goldsmith and Desborde and develop product-specific measures of self-esteem and information seeking.

The McGee and Spiro article measures the effect of salespersons’ ethnicity and

Address correspondence to Ron Taylor, Department of Marketing, Quantitative Analysis and Business Law. College of Business and Industry, Mississippi State University, Drawer N, Mississippi State, MS 39762-6022.

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2 J BUSN RES 1!?91:22:1-2

Ron Taylor

a product’s country of origin on buyers’ evaluations of the salesperson, sales pre- sentation, product, company, and intentions to purchase. While country of origin of a product has been studied in regard to these effects by several researchers, this article is unique in attempting to determine the impact of salesperson ethnicity in the purchasing process. The findings from this study suggest that stereotypical attitudes about both race and a product’s country of origin bias purchasing decisions. Racial bias was most evidenced relative to the attitudes held by buyers about the salesperson, the presentation, the product, and the company. Thus, sales managers need to be aware of how product risk and national stereotypes moderate the effectiveness of salespeople and to plan accordingly in regard to assigning territories and accounts.

The Fields and Swayne article is a thought-provoking essay on the productivity of southern authors in major marketing publications. This article lists the most prolific authors with degrees from southern institutions, the most productive authors employed by southern institutions, and the institutions with the most authorships in marketing publications. While the Fields and Swayne article tends to support the popularly held belief that the South is behind the rest of the country in respect to educational quality, there is also evidence to suggest that the southern institutions of higher education are gaining on institutions from the rest of the nation. In short, graduates from doctorate granting institutions in the South are more productive now than 20 years ago and southern institutions are hiring more productive faculty. This trend toward greater research productivity from southern authors is likely to continue as long as the economic conditions of the South continue to improve. The past two decades have been marked by an inmigration of both people and cor- porations to southern states, a trend that demographers suggest is likely to continue. Educational funding in southern states has been fueled by the improved economies. As southern institutions of higher learning have received more funding, they have been able to compete successfully for the more capable marketing researchers. Thus this article bears witness to the improved economies of many southern states.