Humor and Business !?

Humor usage by sellers and sales performance: The roles of the exploration relationship phase and types of humor

Renaud Lunardo, Laurent Bompar, Camille Saintives

Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), vol. 33, 2: pp. 5-23. , First Published February 19, 2018.

 This paper attempts to answer John S. Wagle's call for research on the connection between humor and business (1985). With a focus on the connection between use of humor and sales performance, this paper through two studies based on 322 interviewees asserts that "the effect of humor usage on trust depends on relationship phases, humor having no positive effect during the exploration phase but a negative effect" (18). In other words, "humor has a positive effect over the whole range of relationship phases [between business partners]" (19) and yet "this effect turns out to be negative during the exploration phase" (ibid).

Based on Jap & Ganesan (2000) and Kusari et al. (2013), the relationship phases in this paper refer to the following four phases: exploration (reducing uncertainty: assessing compatibility, performance, and potential benefits), build up, maturity (sharing information and investment, establishing relational norms), and decline (business-partner relationship beginning to deteriorate, purposes served or dissatisfaction experienced, disengagement).

According to Lunardo, Bompar, and Saintives, use of humor is not a good idea in the first phase--exploration--when business partners like the buyer and the seller are accessing each other's business potentials. In addition, when offensive humor is sensed in this phase, negative effects ensue.

Examples of constructive humor and offensive humor are included in this article as follows (16):

Jap, Sandy D., and Shankar Ganesan. “Control Mechanisms and the Relationship Life Cycle: Implications for Safeguarding Specific Investments and Developing Commitment.” Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 37, no. 2, 2000, pp. 227–245., https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.37.2.227.18735.

Kusari, Sanjukta, et al. “Trusting and Monitoring Business Partners throughout the Relationship Life Cycle.” Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, vol. 20, no. 3, 2013, pp. 119–138., https://doi.org/10.1080/1051712x.2012.757716.

Lunardo, Renaud, et al. “Humor Usage by Sellers and Sales Performance: The Roles of the Exploration Relationship Phase and Types of Humor.” Recherche Et Applications En Marketing (English Edition), vol. 33, no. 2, 2018, pp. 5–23., https://doi.org/10.1177/2051570718757905.

Wagle, John S. “Using Humor in the Industrial Selling Process.” Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 14, no. 4, 1985, pp. 221–226., https://doi.org/10.1016/0019-8501(85)90013-6.