Abstract
The objectives of the study were to determine the degree of importance that retail buyers (N = 86), retail managers (N = 73), and students studying merchandising (N = 252) place on certain competencies and to determine which competencies were most often listed as most important by each of the three groups. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The rating of buying competencies among the three groups was facilitated by using Kruskal-Wallis tests. Twenty-one of the 35 competencies had significant differences in the mean scores between at least two groups. Managers and students placed greater importance on most of the competencies than did retail buyers. The competency ranked most often as important by buyers was the ability to negotiate effectively with sales representatives while both students and managers selected the ability to understand customers' needs. The findings have implications for retailers as well as for educators.
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