The effect of salesperson behavior and the influence of attributional thinking on customer reactions to an "open architecture" product offering

The past decade has seen the emergence of a particular sales and distribution model in which companies that manufacture products and sell them directly through proprietary distribution channels open these channels to third parties and often even to competitor products. One of the industries to pioneer this model has been financial services, where the approach is referred to as an “open architecture” offering. The author’s research investigates if and how customer reactions are affected when a company sells third-party products next to its in-house ones. Specifically, the study examines how customer reactions to an open architecture are influenced by salesperson behavior and attributional thinking. Following the development of a conceptual model, a qualitative pre-study and two experiments confirm the work’s central hypotheses. The research has important implications for services and sales literature and it expands our understanding of the interaction among behavioral cues and customer attributions. Moreover, a number of managerially relevant propositions are forwarded on how to ensure that an open-architecture offering can be successfully delivered to customers.