The Role of Accent on the Credibility and Effectiveness ofthe International Business Person: The Case of Guatemala

Assesses the effect of an international business person′s accent on Guatemalan subjects′ perception of the business person′s effectiveness, credibility, competence, friendliness, as well as the Guatemalan subject′s intentions to buy. Graduate students at a Guatemalan university listened to tape recordings of three presenters speaking Guatemalan Spanish and three presenters speaking Spanish with a foreign accent. The findings suggest that, for the Guatemalan audience, a sales pitch in Guatemalan Spanish evoked more favourable judgements on all measured dimensions than the same sales pitch in foreign accented Spanish. Females, however, evaluated the Guatemalan Spanish presenters more positively and evaluated the foreign accented presenters more negatively than their male counterparts.