Enabling Comparability of Responses in International Sales Force Surveys: Evidence from a Cross-National Survey of Salespeople and Sales Managers.

This article addresses the challenge of systematic differences in how respondents from different countries interpret survey response categories in cross-national studies of salespeople and sales managers, which can lead to misleading comparisons of construct means. It introduces anchoring vignettes—brief descriptions of hypothetical individuals with varying levels of a construct—as a method to detect and correct for these intergroup incomparabilities, enabling more valid cross-country comparisons. Using data from a multinational pharmaceutical firm involving 1,051 salespeople and 163 sales managers across Brazil, Japan, and the United Kingdom, the authors demonstrate that applying anchoring vignettes to measures of sales managers' drive alters the ranking of countries and improves the alignment of survey responses with objective indicators like hours worked. The article further provides practical guidance for designing, implementing, and validating anchoring vignettes, emphasizing their utility for researchers and practitioners aiming to compare trait and competency levels across diverse cultural contexts while accounting for measurement invariance issues.