IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v33y2022i3d10.1007_s11002-021-09599-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“A little competition goes a long way”: Substitutive effects of emotional intelligence and workplace competition on salesperson creative selling

Author

Listed:
  • Ashish Kalra

    (University of Dayton)

  • Riley Dugan

    (University of Dayton)

  • Raj Agnihotri

    (Ivy College of Business, Iowa State University)

Abstract

Despite receiving significant attention in the popular press, the topic of creative selling remains underexamined in the sales literature. The current research helps to correct this notable omission by exploring the antecedents—and consequences—of salesperson creative selling. Drawing on the componential theory of creativity, we demonstrate that both individual difference (emotional intelligence; EI) and workplace environment (competition inspired by co-workers; CIC) variables drive salesperson creative selling, and that salesperson creative selling behaviors have positive, downstream consequences for performance. However, the interaction of EI and CIC reveals an attenuating effect of emotional intelligence, such that the effect of emotional intelligence on workplace creative selling is stronger at lower—rather than higher—levels of internal competition. In so doing, we take the counterintuitive position that a competitive, rather than collaborative, internal workplace environment might be best suited for sparking creative selling within the salesforce. We conclude our study by providing implications and offering suggested avenues for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Ashish Kalra & Riley Dugan & Raj Agnihotri, 2022. "“A little competition goes a long way”: Substitutive effects of emotional intelligence and workplace competition on salesperson creative selling," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 399-413, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:33:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11002-021-09599-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-021-09599-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-021-09599-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-021-09599-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Delpechitre, Duleeep & Beeler-Connelly, Lisa L. & Chaker, Nawar N., 2018. "Customer value co-creation behavior: A dyadic exploration of the influence of salesperson emotional intelligence on customer participation and citizenship behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 9-24.
    2. Patterson, Paul & Yu, Ting & Kimpakorn, Narumon, 2014. "Killing two birds with one stone: Cross-selling during service delivery," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1944-1952.
    3. Wang, Guangping & Netemeyer, Richard G., 2004. "Salesperson creative performance: conceptualization, measurement, and nomological validity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(8), pages 805-812, August.
    4. Groza, Mark D. & Locander, David A. & Howlett, Charles H., 2016. "Linking thinking styles to sales performance: The importance of creativity and subjective knowledge," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4185-4193.
    5. Maria Rouziou, 2019. "The contingent value of pay inequalities in sales organizations: integrating literatures in economics, management, and psychology," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 9(3), pages 184-204, December.
    6. Wynne W. Chin & Barbara L. Marcolin & Peter R. Newsted, 2003. "A Partial Least Squares Latent Variable Modeling Approach for Measuring Interaction Effects: Results from a Monte Carlo Simulation Study and an Electronic-Mail Emotion/Adoption Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 189-217, June.
    7. Guilhem Bascle, 2008. "Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research," Post-Print hal-00576795, HAL.
    8. Jordan, Peter J & Lawrence, Sandra A, 2009. "Emotional intelligence in teams: Development and initial validation of the short version of the Workgroup Emotional Intelligence Profile (WEIP-S)," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 452-469, September.
    9. Miao, C. Fred & Wang, Guangping, 2016. "The differential effects of functional vis-à-vis relational customer orientation on salesperson creativity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 6021-6030.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Edwards, John & Miles, Morgan P. & D'Alessandro, Steven & Frost, Mark, 2022. "Linking B2B sales performance to entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial selling actions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 585-593.
    2. Edwards, John & Miles, Morgan P. & D'Alessandro, Steven & Frost, Mark, 2023. "Entrepreneurial strategy-making, corporate entrepreneurship preparedness and entrepreneurial sales actions: Improving B2B sales performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Rostami, Amin & Gabler, Colin & Agnihotri, Raj, 2019. "Under pressure: The pros and cons of putting time pressure on your salesforce," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 153-162.
    4. Locander, David A. & Darrat, Mahmoud A. & Babin, Barry J., 2023. "Examining the impact of salesperson orientation on creative selling, passive deviance, and organizational outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    5. Das, Kallol & Patel, Jayesh D. & Sharma, Anuj & Shukla, Yupal, 2023. "Creativity in marketing: Examining the intellectual structure using scientometric analysis and topic modeling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    6. Leonidas C. Leonidou & Bilge Aykol & Jorma Larimo & Lida Kyrgidou & Paul Christodoulides, 2021. "Enhancing International Buyer-Seller Relationship Quality and Long-Term Orientation Using Emotional Intelligence: The Moderating Role of Foreign Culture," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 365-402, June.
    7. Sahadev, Sunil & Chang, Kirk & Malhotra, Neeru & Kim, Ji-Hee & Ahmed, Tanveer & Kitchen, Philip, 2024. "Psychological empowerment and creative performance: Mediating role of thriving and moderating role of competitive psychological climate," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    8. Park, Hyewon & Hur, Won-Moo & Kang, Seongho, 2023. "Contribution of sales control in salespeople’s creative selling: Work engagement as a mediator," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Lyngdoh, Teidorlang & Liu, Annie H. & Sridhar, Guda, 2018. "Applying positive psychology to selling behaviors: A moderated–mediation analysis integrating subjective well-being, coping and organizational identity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 142-153.
    10. Lifang Shu & Haiying Wei & Leiqing Peng, 2019. "Making the Customer Orientation of Salespeople Unsustainable—The Moderating Effect of Emotional Exhaustion," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Sandra Castro-González & Belén Bande & Pilar Fernández-Ferrín, 2019. "Responsible Leadership and Salespeople’s Creativity: The Mediating Effects of CSR Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Itani, Omar S. & Jaramillo, Fernando & Paesbrugghe, Bert, 2020. "Between a rock and a hard place: Seizing the opportunity of demanding customers by means of frontline service behaviors," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    13. Pundziene, Asta & Sermontyte-Baniule, Rima & Rialp-Criado, Josep & Chesbrough, Henry, 2023. "Indirect effect of open innovation on clinical and economic value creation in digital healthcare: A comparative study of European countries," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    14. Liu, Yongmei & Hochstein, Bryan & Bolander, Willy & Bradford, Kevin & Weitz, Barton A., 2020. "Internal selling: Antecedents and the importance of networking ability in converting internal selling behavior into salesperson performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 176-188.
    15. Locander, David A. & Locander, Jennifer A. & Weinberg, Frankie J., 2020. "How salesperson traits and intuitive judgments influence adaptive selling: A sensemaking perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 452-462.
    16. Liu, Qian & Shao, Zhen & Fan, Weiguo, 2018. "The impact of users’ sense of belonging on social media habit formation: Empirical evidence from social networking and microblogging websites in China," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 209-223.
    17. Morricone, Serena & Munari, Federico & Oriani, Raffaele & de Rassenfosse, Gaetan, 2017. "Commercialization Strategy and IPO Underpricing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1133-1141.
    18. Ashish Arora & Michelle Gittelman & Sarah Kaplan & John Lynch & Will Mitchell & Nicolaj Siggelkow & Aaron K. Chatterji & Michael Findley & Nathan M. Jensen & Stephan Meier & Daniel Nielson, 2016. "Field experiments in strategy research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 116-132, January.
    19. Li, Linjie & Liu, Xiaming & Yuan, Dong & Yu, Miaojie, 2017. "Does outward FDI generate higher productivity for emerging economy MNEs? – Micro-level evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 839-854.
    20. Hazem Ali & Ting Chen & Yunhong Hao, 2021. "Sustainable Manufacturing Practices, Competitive Capabilities, and Sustainable Performance: Moderating Role of Environmental Regulations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:33:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11002-021-09599-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.