The roles of political skill and intrinsic motivation in performance prediction of adaptive selling

• Published in: Industrial marketing management Vol. 77; pp. 198 - 208
• Main Authors: Kimura, Takuma, Bande, Belén, Fernández-Ferrín, Pilar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-02-2019
• Subjects: Adaptive selling behavior; Intrinsic motivation; Political skill; Sales performance; Intrinsic motivation; Sales performance; Adaptive selling behavior; Political skill
• ISSN: 0019-8501; 1873-2062
• DOI: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.09.005

Previous studies have long recognized and examined adaptive selling as an effective behavior. Although some studies have assumed and revealed moderating factors that impact the effectiveness of adaptive selling behavior, few studies have examined an individual's skill as a moderator on this effect. This study focuses on political skill as a type of skill that has been recently found to have positive effects on sales performance. Furthermore, this study includes intrinsic motivation as an additional moderator that enables political skill to be invested in effective selling behavior. Our analysis of 249 salespeople and 145 supervisors in a matching sample largely supports our hypotheses that the positive effects of adaptive selling behavior on sales performance are highest when both political skill and intrinsic motivation are high. As political skill represents a skill related to intraorganizational behavior, this study complements the traditional view found in the literature on selling behavior, which only focuses on customer-directed interaction.