Grounded theory in sales research: an investigation of salespeoples' client relationships

In this paper, grounded theory as an inductive method of theory generation in
business research is presented and critically evaluated. The historical and epistemological
backgrounds of the method are discussed, its research procedures are briefly outlined, and
its suitability for sales research assessed. To illustrate the principles of the method, a
study of the nature of business-to-business sales relationships is introduced. The results of
this study show clearly that grounded theory can yield highly significant findings in areas
that deal with phenomena as complex as human relationships, where the construction of
theoretical frameworks cannot be achieved at the cost of conceptual density.