Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Industrial Marketing Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/indmarman

The roles of political skill and intrinsic motivation in performance prediction T

of adaptive selling
⁎
Takuma Kimuraa, , Belén Bandeb, Pilar Fernández-Ferrínc
a
Hosei University, 2-17-1, Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
b
University of Navarra, Facultad de Económicas, Campus Universitario, 31080 Pamplona, Spain
c
University of País Vasco (UPV/EHU), EU Estudios Empresariales, Comandante Izarduy, 23 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Previous studies have long recognized and examined adaptive selling as an effective behavior. Although some
Adaptive selling behavior studies have assumed and revealed moderating factors that impact the effectiveness of adaptive selling behavior,
Political skill few studies have examined an individual's skill as a moderator on this effect. This study focuses on political skill
Intrinsic motivation as a type of skill that has been recently found to have positive effects on sales performance. Furthermore, this
Sales performance
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 in-
traorganizational behavior, this study complements the traditional view found in the literature on selling be-
havior, which only focuses on customer-directed interaction.

1. Introduction examined how a salesperson's skill influences the effectiveness of their

Because of the growing diversification in customer demands, ef-
fective tailoring of sales approach for each customer is getting more and
more important as a key for a firm to achieve competitive advantage
(Agnihotri, Gabler, Itani, Jaramillo, & Krush, 2017; Tran & Park, 2016).
Marketing scholars have argued that salespeople can achieve such ef-
fective adjustment by engaging adaptive selling (Kaynak, Kara, Chow,
& Laukkanen, 2016).
The adaptive selling model developed by Weitz, Sujan, and Sujan
(1986) suggested that salespeople can achieve a high level of sales
performance by adapting to customers' needs and sales situations. Their
model also proposed that implementation of adaptive selling behavior
is not a sufficient condition for successful selling, suggesting the ex-
istence of moderating factors on the effectiveness of adaptive selling.
Although many of empirical studies supported the positive effect of
adaptive selling on sales performance, some studies did not show the
significant effect, suggesting the existence of moderators (Kaynak et al.,
2016). Therefore, improved understanding of the effectiveness of
adaptive selling requires a contingency perspective that includes the
moderators affecting the effect of adaptive selling.
As summarized in Table 1, scholars have empirically tested the
moderating effects of situational factors. However, only a few have
adaptive selling (Kidwell, Hardesty, Murtha, & Sheng, 2011; Plouffe,
Hulland, & Wachner, 2009). Therefore, identifying salespersons' skills
that contribute to the effective implementation of adaptive selling is an
important research agenda, especially from the viewpoint of sales
management and human resource development.
As a salesperson's skill, this study focuses on a skill related to in-
traorganizational behavior. While prior research on adaptive selling has
paid much attentions to salespersons' interactions with customers, it has
ignored their behavior within their organization. As suggested by
Steward, Walker, Hutt, and Kumar (2010), salespersons need to engage
in intraorganizational behavior in order to fully utilize within-firm
knowledge and expertise for tailoring their sales approach to meet
complicated customer demands (i.e., adaptive selling). Such in-
traorganizational behavior includes reputation building and net-
working (Steward et al., 2010; Üstüner & Iacobucci, 2012), which has
been regarded as a part of organizational politics in research in orga-
nizational behavior (e.g., Treadway, Breland, Adams, Duke, & Williams,
2010; Wu, Kwan, Wei, & Liu, 2013). However, previous studies have
not considered political elements in adaptive selling.
This study aims to address this research agenda by integrating lit-
erature on adaptive selling and that on organizational politics, and by
examining how political skill influences the relationship between

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ktakuma@hosei.ac.jp (T. Kimura), bbande@unav.es (B. Bande), pilar.fernandezf@ehu.es (P. Fernández-Ferrín).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.09.005
Received 4 December 2017; Received in revised form 5 July 2018; Accepted 24 September 2018
Available online 28 September 2018
0019-8501/ © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
T. Kimura et al.
Table 1
Empirical studies on moderators of the effect of adaptive selling behavior.
Category of Moderator Author(s) Moderator(s)
Selling situation Porter et al. (2003) Buying task/selling situation
Giacobbe et al. (2006) Adaptive condition
Román and Juan Martín (2014) Hierarchical position of the buying person
Yurova et al. (2017) Product type
Abilities and Skills Plouffe et al. (2009) Interpersonal skill
Salesmanship skill
Technical skill
Kidwell et al. (2011) Perceiving emotion ability
Singh and Das (2013) Sales experience
Chakrabarty et al. (2014) Interpersonal mentalizing ability
Chen and Jaramillo (2014) Emotional Intelligence
a
The moderating effect is supported for interactive adaptive selling, but not for non-interactive adaptive selling.
adaptive selling and individual performance. Management studies have
traditionally recognized the political nature of organizational life
(Mintzberg, 1985; Tushman, 1977), and more recent studies have also
indicated the pervasiveness of organizational politics (Buchanan, 2008;
Landells & Albrecht, 2017). In addition, prior studies revealed that an
individual's performance could be improved by the utilization of poli-
tical skill, which is conceptualized as a skill necessary to cope with the
political realities of organizations (Ferris et al., 2007; Kimura, 2015).
Scholars have suggested that sales jobs also have political elements and
have demonstrated the contribution of political skill to the enhance-
ment of salespersons' performance (Blickle et al., 2012; Li, Sun, &
Cheng, 2017). However, they have not provided an understanding re-
garding political nature of sales behavior because they have not in-
vestigated the influence of political skill on the effectiveness of concrete
sales behavior. Some empirical studies have shown that political skill
explains more variance in individual performance compared to other
types of abilities and skills (Blickle et al., 2011; García-Chas, Neira-
Fontela, & Varela-Neira, 2015; Semadar, Robins, & Ferris, 2006), sug-
gesting the practical importance of political skill.
Besides, although several researchers have investigated the effect of
individuals' skills on adaptive selling, their focuses have been limited to
skills related to “customer-directed” interactions and have not suffi-
ciently addressed salespersons' “internal-directed” interactions inside
their own organization (Plouffe et al., 2009). Therefore, it is meaningful
to elucidate the influence of political skill on the effectiveness of
adaptive selling behavior.
Recent studies have also suggested that political skill does not ne-
cessarily have positive effects on the beholder's contribution to the
organization. Specifically, they have suggested that politically-skilled
employees do not use their skills or use them to enhance their own
career success without consideration for—and sometimes at the ex-
pense of—the goal of their organization when they are insufficiently
motivated toward work (Harris, Harris, & Brouer, 2009; Kapoutsis,
Papalexandris, Treadway, & Bentley, 2017; Yang, Bently, Treadway,
Brouer, & Wallace, 2018). Therefore, this study includes intrinsic mo-
tivation to work as another moderator.
Using an original dataset of supervisor–salesperson dyads in Spain,
this study examines how salespersons' political skill and intrinsic mo-
tivation influence the contribution of adaptive selling behavior to sales
performance. By examining the three-way interactions of the focal
variables, this study can provide novel insights through the integration
of two separate streams of research: (a) adaptive selling and (b) poli-
tical skill in sales contexts.
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Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208
Dependent variable(s) Results
Sales performance Supported
Sales performance Supported
Customer satisfaction with the salesperson Supported
Customer satisfaction with the supplier Supported
Customer loyalty to the supplier Supported
Purchase intention Partially supporteda
Sales performance Supported
Sales performance Supported
Sales performance Not supported
Sales performance Supported
Sales performance Supported
Sales performance Not supported
Salesperson owned loyalty Supported
2. Theoretical background and hypotheses
2.1. Adaptive selling
Weitz et al. (1986) conceptualized adaptive selling as the “altering
of sales behaviors during a customer interaction or across customer
interactions based on perceived information about the nature of the
selling situation” (p. 175). By using different sales approaches de-
pending on sales encounters and making fine tuning for each encounter,
salespersons who engage in adaptive selling tend to achieve high levels
of sales performance (Spiro & Weitz, 1990). Although Weitz et al.'s
(1986) original model proposes that the effectiveness of adaptive
selling is influenced by the characteristics of sales situations, empirical
studies have shown that adaptive selling enables a salesperson to
achieve high performance in a range of situations. A meta-analysis by
Frank and Park (2006) confirmed that adaptive selling behavior posi-
tively affects sales performance. It also showed that adaptive selling
predicts sales performance more greatly compared to customer-oriented
selling. Moreover, recent empirical studies have reported a positive
effect of adaptive selling on individual performance (Goad & Jaramillo,
2014; Singh & Das, 2013).
Comprehensively reviewing studies on relational selling, Arli,
Bauer, and Palmatier (2018) argued that adaptive selling is still a
fundamental approach since businesses continue to face constant
changes. Therefore, it is reasonable to infer that adaptive selling be-
havior is one of the key behaviors for a salesperson to be a high per-
former.
Hypothesis 1. Adaptive selling behavior positively affects salesperson's
performance.
2.2. Moderators
Although some studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of
adaptive selling behavior in various sales situations, we infer that ex-
ecution of adaptive selling behavior does not necessarily contribute to a
high level of individual sales performance. The reason for this is that
empirical findings have shown inconsistent results in the effect of
adaptive selling on individual performance. For example, using a
sample of automobile salespeople in Korea, Park and Holloway (2003)
found that the practice of adaptive selling is positively related to
salespersons' subjective performance and their actual sales data. How-
ever, other studies such as Keillor, Stephen Parker, and Pettijohn (2000)
showed the insignificant relationship between adaptive selling and
salespersons' annual sales dollars (see Giacobbe, Jackson Jr, Crosby, &
Bridges, 2006, for a review). Weitz et al.'s (1986) model proposes the
characteristics of the selling environment and the abilities (knowledge)
and skills (information collection) of the salesperson as moderators.
T. Kimura et al.
Although some studies have identified situational moderators on the
effectiveness of adaptive selling (Giacobbe et al., 2006; Porter, Wiener,
& Frankwick, 2003), we still have little understanding of the moder-
ating effects of salespersons' skills.
An empirical study by Plouffe et al. (2009) identified the moder-
ating effects of salesperson's skills on the effectiveness of adaptive
selling behavior. However, as the authors pointed out, their study
limited its focus to “customer-directed” perspectives of the sales role.
Plouffe et al. argued that salespersons' “internally-directed” interactions
with coworkers, selling peers, support staff, and management inside
their own firm also impact the effectiveness of their adaptive selling
behavior. Based on the argument by Plouffe and Barclay (2007), Plouffe
et al. (2009) claim that that literature on adaptive selling should take
into account the salesperson's skill related to their intraorganizational
roles.
However, few past studies on adaptive selling have examined the
moderating effect of salespersons' skills related to “internally-directed”
interactions. As one of the few exceptions, Kidwell, McFarland, and
Avila (2007) reported that the ability to perceive emotions strengthens
the effect of adaptive selling on performance. However, as per a recent
call by Kidwell et al. (2011), empirical studies in adaptive selling
should examine the role of social competence more broadly. A more
recent study, by Chakrabarty, Widing, and Brown (2014), examined the
moderating effect of interpersonal mentalizing ability, but no sig-
nificant effect was found. In sum, although previous studies on adaptive
selling have recognized the necessity to consider the effects of skills in
internally-directed interactions, only a few studies have dealt with this
issue. Moreover, although studies on political skill—a skill for intern-
ally-directed interactions—have highlighted its positive effects on sales
performance, they have not revealed the influence of political skill on
the effectiveness of specific sales behavior. Therefore, as a moderator,
we propose that political skill can enhance one's effectiveness in
adaptive selling.
2.2.1. Political skill
While traditional sales research has paid much attention to the
salesperson's externally-directed behavior (i.e., customer and prospect
interactions), Plouffe and Barclay (2007) emphasized the importance of
intraorganizational behavior. They argued that salespersons today have
to act like “intrapreneurs” in the organization to obtain socioemotional
and instrumental support, as well as other sales resources that they
need to make their sales behavior effective. As suggested by Steward
et al. (2010), with the customer needs becoming more and more com-
plicated, salespeople have to cooperate with a diverse set of organiza-
tional members to create customized solutions by coordinating intra-
firm knowledge and expertise. Such delivery of customized solutions is,
by definition, typically found in a situation of adaptive selling.
Adaptive selling requires salespersons to make effective adjustments
during encounters by using information regarding the customer and the
situation (Spiro & Weitz, 1990). Salespersons can collect such in-
formation not only from customers but also from members of their own
organization. Intrapreneurship, as proposed by Plouffe and Barclay,
may be required to obtain such informational support and resources,
and therefore to effectively implement adaptive selling. An empirical
study by Paparoidamis and Guenzi (2009) may partially endorse this
argument, showing that LMX quality—the degree to which an exchange
relationship between a leader and a member is characterized by trust,
interaction, support, and formal/informal rewards (Dienesch & Liden,
1986: 455)—positively relates to adaptive selling.
As a skill that enables a salesperson to effectively engage in such
intrapreneurship, we focus on political skill, which is defined as the
ability to effectively understand others and to use this understanding to
influence others (Ferris et al., 2005). Many empirical studies have
found that it contributes to obtaining support and resources within the
organization. For example, Wei, Liu, Chen, and Wu (2010) showed that
political skill contributes to developing personal networks. In addition,
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Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208
Wei, Chiang, and Wu (2012) revealed that politically-skilled individuals
can effective use personal network to achieve higher work outcome (see
Kimura, 2015 for a review).
Political skill is a skill related to intraorganizational behavior and
has been found to positively affect salespersons' performance. For in-
stance, Blickle et al. (2012) showed the positive effect of political skill
on sales performance. More recent studies reported that political skill
can improve sales performance through realizing a favorable network
position (Bolander, Satornino, Hughes, & Ferris, 2015) and obtaining
access to resources (Li et al., 2017). Although these studies provide us
with some insights on how political skill enhances salespeople's per-
formance, we have not sufficient understanding on this issue because
the interaction of political skill and specific sales behavior has not been
explored. By examining the interaction effects of adaptive selling be-
havior and political skill, this study addresses this research gap.
Political skill is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct:
social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and ap-
parent sincerity (Ferris et al., 2007). Based on social cognitive theory,
social capital theory, and social exchange theory, we can infer that each
of these dimensions allows a salesperson to implement adaptive selling
behavior effectively. As proposed by Weitz (1978), adaptive selling
includes “customer-directed behavior” such as impression formation of
customers, appropriate choose of influence tactics, observing customers'
reactions, and making adjustments in sales approach based on the ob-
servation. Besides, as suggested by the argument of salespersons' “in-
trapreneurship” (Plouffe & Barclay, 2007; Steward et al., 2010), adap-
tive selling may also include intraorganizational behavior like
networking and use of interpersonal network within the firm. Here, we
propose that political skill will enhance the effectiveness of both cate-
gories of behaviors. In the following, we develop the rationale of the
effect by linking these behaviors with the three theories we noted above
(i.e., social cognitive theory, social capital theory, and social exchange
theory).
Social cognitive theory suggests that individuals regulate their be-
havior by using information and cues from self, others, and environ-
ments (Bandura, 1991). Political skill promotes such regulation. Social
astuteness enables a salesperson to understand both himself/herself and
others keenly and to calibrate, as well as adjust his/her sales approach
to different and changing sales situations. A salesperson high in inter-
personal influence can appropriately adapt and adjust his/her selling
approach to each sales encounters to elicit favorable responses from
customers.
Social capital theory suggests that social capital in the form of high
levels of trust work as a resource for individuals (Nahapiet & Ghoshal,
1998). A salesperson with a high level of networking ability can de-
velop trusting relationships with customers. Such trusting relationships
provide him/her with deeper understandings of each customer, which
contributes to adaptive selling.
As suggested by social capital theory and social exchange theory
(Blau, 1964), interpersonal relationship within the organization can
work as a resource that enables salespersons to acquire information and
resources that can be used for effective implementation of adaptive
selling (Paparoidamis & Guenzi, 2009). Owing to their apparent sin-
cerity, politically-skilled salespersons can implement adaptive selling
behavior without being perceived as tactical or deceitful. In addition,
these four dimensions of political skill contribute to building high-
quality relationships with supervisors and colleagues (Epitropaki et al.,
2016; Wei et al., 2010; Wei et al., 2012). Therefore, we state the fol-
lowing hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2. Political skill strengthens the positive effect of adaptive
selling on salesperson's performance.
2.2.2. Intrinsic motivation
The argument in the previous section argues that politically-skilled
salespersons use this skill to develop foundational resources that are
T. Kimura et al.
Political
skill
Intrinsic
motivation
Adaptive
Selling
Information provided by the supervisor
Fig. 1. Proposed model.
useful for adaptive selling and to tactfully implement adaptive selling
behavior. However, having a high level of political skill may not be a
sufficient condition for a salesperson to be effective in adaptive selling.
Political behavior is discretionary social influence attempts (Mayes &
Allen, 1977; Porter, Allen, & Angle, 1981), and therefore, politically-
skilled individuals do not necessarily engage in political behavior. An
individual does not engage in political behavior if he/she does not have
political will (Mintzberg, 1983).
We suppose that intrinsically-motivated individuals are likely to use
their political skill to internal politics that contribute to effective im-
plementation of adaptive selling. Political behavior is volitional and
necessitates substantial attention to political issues. That is, individuals
do not take the trouble of pouring efforts into internal politics if they do
not think it is worth doing. Individuals high in intrinsic motivation are
motivated in the task content and are dedicated to working (Salanova &
Schaufeli, 2008). Thus, they devote much of their attention to their job,
and therefore, are likely to go beyond their formal work activities and
engage in informal activities like internal politics. Relying on self-de-
termination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), Treadway, Hochwarter,
Kacmar, and Ferris (2005) argued and found that since political beha-
vior is a self-determination activity, intrinsically motivated individuals
are likely to have political will and thus engage in political behavior.
Self-determination theory suggests that by working on the need for
competence, a high level of intrinsic motivation facilitates individuals'
use of adaptive capabilities. Therefore, individuals high in intrinsic
motivation are likely to go so far as to put much effort in discretionary
work activities such as political behavior.
In addition, politically-skilled individuals may not use their political
skill for improving their job performance if they are not intrinsically
motivated. Rather, they may use it for promoting self-interest regardless
of, or, at the expense of the organizational goals. Empirical studies have
indicated that when the current work environment is not personally
attractive, a politically-skilled individual does not devote his/her poli-
tical skill to achieving a high level of task performance. For example,
Yang et al. (2018) found that the negative effect of work-family conflict
on affective commitment was greater in employees who were high in
political skill than in those who were low in political skill. A more
concrete example for the argument here was provided by Harris et al.
(2009): their study showed that in a low-LMX situation, politically-
skilled employees are more likely to seek employment elsewhere
compared to those that are not politically skilled.
Accordingly, we can suppose that when salespeople are intrinsically
motivated in the current work, they are likely to utilize their political
skill to enhance the effectiveness of their selling activities. On the
contrary, when they are not intrinsically motivated, they tend to use
their political skill not for selling activities, but for other activities, such
as ingratiation toward supervisors and external networking (Fang, Chi,
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Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208
Salesperson’s Performance
Task Proficiency
Task Adaptivity
Task Proactivity
Information provided by the salesperson
Chen, & Baron, 2015; Tocher, Oswald, Shook, & Adams, 2012;
Treadway, Ferris, Duke, Adams, & Thatcher, 2007). Consistent with
these arguments, the results of the recent empirical studies in man-
agement and other fields have indicated that individuals' skills lead to
their high performance only when their intrinsic motivation is high
(Hill, Foster, Sofko, Elliott, & Shelton, 2016; Logan, Medford, & Hughes,
2011). Therefore, we propose:
Hypothesis 3. Political skill and intrinsic motivation interact to affect
the positive effect of adaptive selling behavior on a salesperson's
performance. Specifically:
(i) when both political skill and intrinsic motivation are high, the
positive effect of adaptive selling behavior on salesperson's per-
formance is stronger;
(ii) when both political skill and intrinsic motivation are low, the
positive effect of adaptive selling behavior on salesperson's per-
formance is weaker; and
(iii) when either political skill or intrinsic motivation is high, and the
other is low, the effect of adaptive selling behavior is moderate.
We summarize our model in Fig. 1.
3. Method
3.1. Sample and procedure
We obtained the data from salespeople and their supervisors
working for 145 enterprises located in Spain. We contacted these firms
through a research agency. We selected firm from various industries.
Besides, to focus on well-established firms, we limited the subject to
firms with more than ten years of experience. In addition and as far as
sales positions are concerned, our objective was to target those com-
panies that had industrial salespeople who carried out most of the sales
activities that the literature considers as common in this type of posi-
tions (Marshall, Moncrief, and Lassk (1999).
The final sample covered a variety of industries, including manu-
facturing, financial services, technology, construction, insurance,
wholesale, and retail. Of the 163 contacted companies, 145 agreed to
participate in the study. Once the enterprises confirmed their disposi-
tion to collaborate, one supervisor and from one to three salespeople
were randomly selected in each company with the help of the human
resources manager or sales director, when appropriate. To collect the
data, we used a paper-and-pencil questionnaire on a face-to-face basis.
Trained interviewers from a research institute—not authors—adminis-
tered the questionnaire personally to the respondents (both the super-
visor and the salesperson). The interviewers recorded answers on paper
questionnaires. The authors received the written questionnaires from
T. Kimura et al.
the research institute, and then conducted the analysis.
All the participants were provided with a letter describing the
study's objective and ensuring the confidentiality of their response.
Additionally, participating firms were offered survey feedback upon
request. The final sample consisted of 249 matched super-
visor–salesperson dyads, which included 249 salespersons and 145 su-
pervisors. Of the 249 salespersons, 71.9% were male, the average age
was 39.1 years, and the average sales experience was 11.7 years. Of the
supervisors, 83.4 were male, their average age was 45.3 years, and their
average managerial experience was 13.5 years.
Regarding non-response bias and as far as the participating firms are
concerned, we followed the convention of comparing early and late
respondents on scale measures (Armstrong & Overton, 1977) in order to
find out if nonresponse bias was an important concern in our sample. As
data was collected in two waves, 14 companies (approximately 10% of
the sample) which did not participate in the first wave finally agreed to
participate after the follow-up procedures on the second wave. Thus, we
used these 14 companies as a proxy of non-respondents, and we com-
pared this group of late respondents to the group of early respondents
(top 14 companies). The t-results showed that all measured variables
were not significantly different between early and late respondents,
with the exception of salesperson age (F = 8.730; p < .05) suggesting
that non-response bias is unlikely to be a relevant concern in the pre-
sent research.
3.2. Measures
The salesperson survey contained measures of adaptive selling be-
havior, political skill, intrinsic motivation, sales experience, and de-
mographic questions. The supervisor provided information regarding
the salesperson's performance. The items of the questionnaire were
initially written in English and then translated into Spanish utilizing the
back-translation procedure (Brislin, 1980). We measured all variables
by seven-point Likert-type scales (1 = “strongly disagree” to
7 = “strongly agree”).
To assess the respondents' adaptive selling behavior, we used
Robinson Jr et al., 2002, Marshall et al. (1999) five-item scale. The
respondents evaluated the degree of their adaptive selling behavior.
The Cronbach's α was 0.79. Political skill was measured by an 18-item
scale of the Political Skill Inventory (Ferris et al., 2005). The reliability
of this measure was sufficient (α = 0.91). We measured intrinsic mo-
tivation by a three-item scale developed by Evans, Landry, Li, and Zou
(2007). The reliability of this measure was sufficient (α = 0.87).
Griffin, Neal, and Parker (2007) developed a three-dimensional
measure of individual-level performance. They are: (a) individual task
proficiency, (b) individual task adaptivity, and (c) individual task
proactivity. These dimensions can be an integrative framework of in-
dividual performance since they cover performance in formalized, as
well as emergent roles, thereby reflecting the situation of work contexts
that involve uncertainty.
These dimensions can serve as a measure of the effectiveness of
adaptive selling. Task proficiency has been the main focus of traditional
performance management systems, and can thus be regarded as a
measure of salesperson's performance, including the result of adaptive
selling. Task adaptivity reflects a worker's effectiveness in dealing with
uncertain situations. Task proactivity is required in work where in-
dividuals need to identify improved ways of work, without relying on
directions from supervisors. In short, task adaptivity and task proac-
tivity reflect effectiveness in work that requires flexible and proactive
behavior. Therefore, both task adaptivity and task proactivity can be a
performance measure of adaptive selling behavior.
Thus, we measured salesperson's performance by Griffin et al.'s
(2007) scale based on the supervisor survey data. This scale consists of
three items for individual task proficiency (α = 0.86), three items for
individual task adaptivity (α = 0.87), and three items for individual
task proactivity (α = 0.85), respectively.
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Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208
3.2.1. Control variables
Since previous studies have shown a significant relationship be-
tween a salesperson's age and sales performance (Kidwell et al., 2011),
we controlled age in the regression analysis. Although most studies
have not shown a difference pertaining to gender in sales performance,
some studies have reported a significant difference in this regard (e.g.,
Sitser, van der Linden, & Born, 2013). Thus, we also included gender as
a control variable. In addition, past studies have found the positive
effect of sales experience on sales performance (Jaramillo & Grisaffe,
2009; Rapp, Agnihotri, & Forbes, 2008). Moreover, using a sample of
engineers, Garcia-Chas, Neira-Fontela, and Varela-Neira (2015) showed
a positive relationship between professional experience and Griffin
et al.' (2007) three dimensions of individual performance. Therefore,
we controlled sales experience in the analysis. We coded gender with
men as 1 and women as 0. Age and sales experience were measured in
years.
Confirmatory factor analysis with a maximum likelihood estimation
demonstrated good fit of the data to a six-factor correlated model
(χ2 = 909.73; df = 532; χ2/df = 1.71; p < .001; RMSEA = 0.05;
TLI = 0.90; CFI = 0.91; IFI = 0.91) (Factors: Adaptive selling, political
skill, intrinsic motivation, task proficiency, task adaptivity, and task
proactivity). All factor loadings were significant. Then, we compared
relative fit between this six-factor model and alternate models including
five factors and four factors. On every occasion, the fit of the six-factor
model was significantly better than that of any alternative model.
We employed Anderson and Gerbing's (1988) approach to assess
discriminant validity. We calculated the confidence intervals for the
correlation between pairs of variables. As none of the intervals included
the value 1, we could assume discriminant validity between the con-
structs. In addition, following Voorhees, Brady, Calantone, and
Ramirez's (2016) recommendation for testing discriminant validity with
multiple item measures, we used Heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio
(Henseler, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2015) for all constructs in our model. All
the HTMT ratios (from 0.166 to 0.813) were below the conservative
criterion of 0.85 (Kline, 2011), thus providing support for the dis-
criminant validity of our measures. Additionally, to further assess dis-
criminant validity on the indicator level, we referred to the cross-
loadings. Each indicator loading with its associated construct exceeded
its loading with each of the other constructs (Henseler et al., 2015), and
the loading differences were > 0.1 in all cases (Gefen & Straub, 2005),
providing support for discriminant validity.
Additionally, we tested for the presence of endogeneity bias using
Hausman test (Hausman, 1978). Results of this test (Task proficiency →
X2(1) = 0.0803; p = .776; Task adaptivity → X2(1) = 0.584; p = .444;
Task proactivity → X2(1) = 0.028; p = .8667) showed that endogeneity
is not a serious problem in our model. Moreover, considering that the
independent variables are significantly correlated, we used variance
inflation factor (VIF), defined as VIF = 1/(1-R 2 i), to test for multi-
collinearity. The variance inflation factors range from 1.05 to 2.54,
providing evidence that there is not a problem related to multi-
collinearity (Hair, Black, Babin, & Anderson, 2010).
4. Results
4.1. Descriptive statistics
Table 2 presents the descriptive statistics of all variables. Regarding
the control variables, gender was found to correlate negatively with
individual task proficiency (r = −0.17, p < .01) and individual task
proactivity (r = −0.15, p < .05), suggesting that in our sample, fe-
male salespeople were higher in these performance dimensions com-
pared to male salespeople. Neither age nor sales experience shows
significant correlations with each of three individual performance di-
mensions. Adaptive selling, political skill, and intrinsic motivation
significantly and positively correlated with all individual performance
dimensions.
T. Kimura et al. Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208

Table 2
Descriptive statistics and correlations.
M S.D. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1. Age 39.1 8.0

2. Gender 0.7 0.5 .20⁎⁎
3. Sales experience 11.7 7.9 .77⁎⁎ .11
4. Adaptive selling 5.8 0.8 .05 −.01 .13⁎
5. Political skill 5.4 0.8 .19⁎⁎ .13 .12 .37⁎⁎
6. Intrinsic motivation 5.6 0.9 .26⁎⁎ .10 .24⁎ .28⁎⁎ .47⁎⁎
7. Task proficiency 5.8 1.0 −.01 −.17⁎⁎ .12 .19⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎ .22⁎⁎
8. Task adaptivity 5.6 1.1 −.02 −.07 .05 .19⁎⁎ .19⁎⁎ .18⁎⁎ .70⁎⁎
9. Task proactivity 5.4 1.2 −.04 −.15⁎⁎ .06 .23⁎⁎ .14⁎ .19⁎⁎ .55⁎⁎ .56⁎⁎

⁎⁎
p < .01.
⁎
p < .05.

4.2. Hypothesis testing
We tested our hypotheses using the PROCESS Macro (Model 1 and
3; Hayes, 2013).
Salespeople's age, gender, and sales experience were included as
controls in these analyses. The results of the analysis using Ordinary
Least Squares (OLS) show that adaptive selling has a positive and sig-
nificant effect on salespeople's individual task proficiency (B = 0.24,
SE = 0.08, p < .01), individual task adaptivity (B = 0.29, SE = 0.09,
p < .01), and individual task proactivity (B = 0.17, SE = 0.10,
p < .05), thus confirming hypothesis 1.
Regarding Hypothesis 2, results show that the positive relationship
between adaptive selling and individual task adaptivity and individual
task proactivity is contingent on salesperson political skill, as evidenced
by the statistically significant effect of the interaction between adaptive
selling and political skill on task adaptivity (B = 0.30, p < .01) and on
task proactivity (B = 0.38, p < .01). As for individual task proactivity,
the moderating effect of political skill resulted nonsignificant
(a3 = 0.12, p = .29). Thus, Hypothesis 2 was partially supported.
The three-way interaction of adaptive selling behavior, political
skill, and intrinsic motivation significantly predicted task proficiency
(B = 0.33, p < .01), thus confirming Hypothesis 3. Adding the three-
way interaction provided an incremental increase in R2 of 0.03
(p < .01). We used the technique for probing the calculation of regions
of significance by the Johnson–Neyman technique (Appendix. B.).
Among employees reporting intrinsic motivation below 3.72 (3.6%
of participants), political skill reduced the positive effect of adaptive
selling behavior on individual task proficiency. For those with intrinsic
motivation scores above 6.13 (21.4%), political skill increased the po-
sitive effect of adaptive selling on task proficiency. For those sales-
people with intrinsic motivation scores above 3.72 and below 6.13,
political skill did not affect the influence of adaptive selling on task
proficiency. Thus, the effect of political skill on the influence of adap-
tive selling on individual task proficiency is, in itself, dependent on the
salesperson's intrinsic motivation.
Regarding individual task adaptivity, the three-way interaction term
was not significant (B = 0.14, p = .16). Specifically, political skill in-
fluenced the strength of the relationship between adaptive selling and
individual task adaptivity regardless of the salesperson's intrinsic mo-
tivation.
The three-way interaction of adaptive selling behavior, political
skill, and intrinsic motivation also had a significant effect on task
proactivity (B = 0.44, p ≤.001). Adding the three-way interaction
provided an incremental increase in R2 of 0.05 (p < .001). According
to the Johnson–Neyman regions of significance (Appendix. C.), among
salespeople reporting intrinsic motivation below 3.90 (3.6% of parti-
cipants), the interaction of political skill and adaptive selling was ne-
gatively related to individual task proactivity so that political skill re-
duced the positive effect of adaptive selling on individual task
proactivity.
For those with intrinsic motivation scores above 5.65 (54.0%), po-
litical skill strengthened the positive effect of adaptive selling behavior
on task proactivity. For those salespeople with intrinsic motivation
scores above 3.90 and below 5.65, political skill did not affect the re-
lationship between adaptive selling behavior and task proactivity. Thus,
we can conclude that the moderating effect of political skill on the re-
lationship between adaptive selling behavior and individual task
proactivity is contingent on the salesperson's level of intrinsic motiva-
tion.
Plots for the two significant three-way interactions (task proficiency
and task proactivity) are displayed in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. The effect of
adaptive selling behavior on task proficiency is larger for politically-
unskilled salespeople who also have low levels of intrinsic motivation
(Fig. 2, slope 4). This effect is greatest for employees high in political
skill and intrinsic motivation (slope 1).
The slope difference test (Dawson & Richter, 2006) shows a sig-
nificant slope difference between slope 1 and slope 2 (t = 1.98; p = .04)
confirming that for politically-skilled salespeople, intrinsic motivation
strengthens the effect of adaptive selling behavior on individual task
proficiency. In addition, there is a significant slope difference between

7.0
(1) High Political skill,
High Intrinsic motivation
6.5
(2) High Political skill,
Individual Task Low Intrinsic motivation
Proficiency 6.0
(3) Low Political skill,
High Intrinsic motivation
5.5
(4) Low Political skill,
Low Intrinsic motivation
5.0
Low Adaptive selling High Adaptive selling

Fig. 2. Three-way interaction effects on individual task proficiency (ITP).

203
T. Kimura et al. Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208

7.0
(1) High Political skill,
High Motivation
6.5
(2) High Political skill,
Low Motivation
Task Proactivity 6.0
(3) Low Political skill,
High Motivation
5.5
(4) Low Political skill,
Low Motivation
5.0
Low Adaptive selling High Adaptive selling

Fig. 3. Three-way interaction effects on individual task proactivity (ITproa).

slope 1 and slope 3 (t = 2.42; p = .01), showing that for individuals Table 3
high in intrinsic motivation, the level of political skill makes a differ- OLS vs GLS regression.
ence to the association between adaptive selling behavior and in- OLS GLS
dividual task proficiency.
Regarding task proactivity, the results are quite similar to those for Coeff. S.E. p Coeff. S.E. p
task proficiency. The effect of adaptive selling behavior on task
H1 Adaptive selling .24 .08 < .01 .30 .08 < .01
proactivity is larger for politically-unskilled individuals who are also →Task proficiency
low in motivation (Fig. 3, slope 4). However, the greatest effect is for Adaptive selling 0.29 0.09 < .01 .24 .07 < .01
those salespeople who are high in both political skill and intrinsic →Task proficiency
motivation (slope 1). Adaptive selling 0.17 0.10 < .05 .32 .08 < .01
→Task proficiency
The slope difference test (slopes 1 and 4) showed that this difference
H2 Task proficiency .12 .11 =.29 .05 .08 =.48
was significant (t = 2.32; p = .02). In addition, the significant differ- Task adaptivity .30 .11 < .01 .21 .07 < .01
ence between slope 1 and slope 2 (t = 3.02; p < .001) confirmed that Task proactivity .38 .12 < .01 .21 .09 < .01
for politically-skilled individuals, the level of intrinsic motivation H3 Task proficiency .33 .11 < .01 .32 .11 < .01
Task adaptivity .14 .10 =.16 .14 .10 =.16
makes a difference to the relationship between adaptive selling and task
Task proactivity .44 .11 < .01 .45 .11 < .01
proactivity. Moreover, for those salespeople who are high in intrinsic
motivation, their political skills influence the effect of adaptive selling
on individual task proactivity (the difference between slope 1 and slope By definition, task proficiency represents whether an individual
3: t = 3.96; p < .001). completes the core parts of his/her task using standard procedures
(Griffin et al., 2007). Therefore, to achieve a high level of task profi-
4.3. Additional analysis ciency, individuals need to activate their psychological processes of
arousal, direction, and persistence, which are essential components of
Our data set was built from the information provided by 145 su- motivation (Mitchell, 1982). As for task proactivity, individuals need to
pervisors and 249 salespeople. Thus, observations of the variables take initiatives and behave proactively to achieve a high level of task
provided by the supervisor (i.e., salesperson's performance) are not proactivity. Such proactivity is generated by intrinsic motivation
independent of one another. Accordingly, if there is statistically de- (Parker, Bindl, & Strauss, 2010). Thus, a high level of task proactivity
pendency (nested data) standard OLS regression can produce unbiased might be likely to be achieved by intrinsically motivated individuals.
regression coefficients, but the standard error associated with these Task adaptivity requires one's skillful adaptation to changes that
regression coefficients may be biased. In situations of potential corre- already occurred or are expected but does not necessarily require high
lations between error terms or autocorrelation, generalized least levels of persistence and proactivity. Therefore, it is possible that po-
squares (GLS) is the preferred estimator (Judge & Ferris, 1993) as GLS litically-skilled but intrinsically unmotivated salespeople are able to
produces unbiased estimates of regression parameters and error terms adapt to change out of necessity (task adaptivity), but do not complete
(Bollen, 1989). Using STATA 15, we estimated again the regressions their core task (task proficiency) because they do not persist in their
corresponding to the three proposed hypotheses, taking into con- effort. For example, salespeople who are low in intrinsic motivation
sideration the interaction terms. The findings show that all parameters may not tend to make much effort to network and collect information
that were significant in the OLS regression remained so in the GLS es- from their networking. Moreover, although salespeople who are high in
timation (see Table 3). political skill but low in intrinsic motivation may adapt to change re-
actively, they may not be likely to proactively initiate change (task
proactivity). Therefore, the development of political skill is not suffi-
5. Discussion
cient for the effectiveness of adaptive selling, regarding task proficiency
and task proactivity.
The results largely support our hypothesis, showing that for sales-
persons with high political skill and intrinsic motivation, the positive
effects of adaptive selling on task proficiency and task proactivity are 5.1. Research implication
greater than for those low in political skill and/or intrinsic motivation.
Unexpectedly, regarding task adaptivity, our results showed that As customer demands have become complicated in various fields,
political skill strengthens the positive effects of adaptive selling beha- the importance of effective adaptive selling has been growing. As sug-
vior regardless of the level of intrinsic motivation. One possible ex- gested by Weitz's original model and subsequent empirical studies,
planation for this finding is that while high levels of task proficiency there are moderating factors that strengthen or weaken the effect of
and task proactivity require activation of the psychological processes adaptive selling. While previous empirical research has provided us
that can be realized by motivation, task adaptivity does not. with much knowledge about situational moderators, only a few studies

204
T. Kimura et al.
have explored what kind of individual's skill can affect the effectiveness
of adaptive selling.
Some scholars have addressed this issue by revealing that some
“customer-related” skill contributes to enhancing the effectiveness of
adaptive selling. These findings are consistent with the model devel-
oped by Weitz (1978) that proposed a process model of adaptive selling
focusing on customer-related behavior. However, salespersons' skills
related to internally-directed behavior have been paid little attention in
this stream of research.
Recently, there has been growing research interest in salespersons'
internally-directed interaction in the field of sales management (Plouffe
& Barclay, 2007; Steward et al., 2010). Because of the complex cus-
tomer needs and highly specialized organizational structure, expertise
and knowledge needed to meet customer demands are widely dispersed
within the organization. Therefore, a salesperson cannot implement
effective adaptive selling only by their own knowledge and expertise.
Thus, they need to engage in various influence behavior to obtain wide
cooperation with organizational members.
This perspective suggests that salespersons' skill for intraorganiza-
tional influence behavior is essential for effective adaptive selling. Such
influence behaviors are intended to acquire internal resources, and
some of them are called political behavior. That is, effective im-
plementation of adaptive selling is associated with political tactics
within the organization, and it needs the salesperson's political skill.
Thus, we need to integrate the perspective of organizational politics
with research on adaptive selling. However, although recent studies
have recognized the importance of political skill in leadership
(Kapoutsis, Papalexandris, & Thanos, 2016; Kimura, 2015), few re-
searchers and practitioners have seemed to regard political skill as
useful in selling situations. In fact, it is quite recently that empirical
research on sales management has focused on salespersons' political
skill.
Recent empirical studies reported that internal networks contribute
to enhancing sales performance, and some of them showed that poli-
tical skill improves sales performance through the development of fa-
vorable interpersonal relationships within the organization (Bolander
et al., 2015; Li et al., 2017). However, these studies did not include
adaptive selling in their model, and therefore, do not provide an un-
derstanding of political aspects of adaptive selling.
Therefore, by integrating the study of adaptive selling behavior and
that of political skill, this study filled this research gap. Specifically, this
study showed that political skill can enhance sales performance through
augmenting the effectiveness of adaptive selling behavior. Individuals
high in political skill are good at both internally-directed and ex-
ternally-directed behavior (Fang et al., 2015; Treadway et al., 2014).
For example. Politically-skilled salespeople are able to not only read a
situation and effectively interact with customers but also to develop
interpersonal networks and use them to acquire social support or collect
useful information for adaptive selling.
Contrary to the most of previous research that focused on skills in
“customer-directed” behavior, this study explored the effect of sales-
person's skill related to internally-directed interactions within organi-
zations. In sum, this study complements the traditional view of research
on adaptive selling by revealing the effect of political skill, which is a
skill for internally-directed interactions within organizations. In addi-
tion, this study can add the consideration of political nature of orga-
nization to the future research on salespersons' intrapreneurship
(Plouffe & Barclay, 2007).
Our analysis did not include mediating variables that can be “in-
termediate products” of political behavior. Therefore, this study cannot
provide a full understanding of how political skill improves the effec-
tiveness of adaptive selling. However, our finding can serve as a
bridgehead for future studies that include mediating variables such as
network resources and favorable internal positions.
In addition, this study revealed the moderating effects of intrinsic
motivation. Previous studies on political skill have shown that
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Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208
politically-skilled employees do not necessarily use their political skill
to improve their performance and contribute to organizational goals;
rather, they can behave politically for their own personal benefit, re-
gardless of the organizational goals (Wu et al., 2013). Our findings of a
three-way interaction suggest that for politically-skilled salespersons to
achieve a high level of performance through adaptive selling, they
should be intrinsically motivated in their current work. In short, con-
sistent with some recent studies on the relationship between skill and
intrinsic motivation (Hill et al., 2016; Logan et al., 2011), this study
revealed that intrinsic motivation is one of the fundamental conditions
that direct employees to concentrate their general skills, such as poli-
tical skill, to contribute to organizational goal (Becker, 1962; Ferris
et al., 2005, 2007).
5.2. Practical implications
The present study offers several practical implications. As an im-
plication for salespersons, our finding suggests that salespersons need to
recognize the intrapreneurship in adaptive selling. As we argued, to
implement effective adaptive selling, salespersons often need to colla-
borate with organizational members to collect and integrate within-
firm knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary for salespersons to develop
personal networks and favorable reputation within the organization
that contributes to effective collaboration with organizational mem-
bers. Therefore, in addition to engaging in tactical adjustments in sales
settings, salespersons need to engage in political behavior within the
organization such as network formation and reputation building.
As for managerial implications, many studies have shown some
factors that facilitate salespersons' implementation of adaptive selling,
the influence of salespersons' skill on the effectiveness of adaptive
selling has been underresearched. Our finding of the moderating effect
of salespersons' skill indicates the importance of training programs that
are designed to develop skills for adaptive selling. In fact, scholars have
pointed out the importance of training programs for adaptive selling
(e.g., Gengler, Howard, & Zolner, 1995; Pelham & Kravitz, 2008).
However, their focus has been limited to “customer-related” skills. Our
finding of political skill as a moderator suggests that managers can also
focus on the development of skills for intraorganizational behavior such
as political skill. Although the term “political” may sound “devious” or
“unethical,” political behavior is sometimes required to the effective
functioning of organizational behavior (Hochwarter, 2012) and there-
fore, managers need to recognize the importance of political process
and developing skills needed in such process.
Although several studies indicated that some people are born poli-
tically adept (e.g., Ferris et al., 2008; Shi, Chen, & Zhou, 2011), it has
been argued that political skill is malleable and can be enhanced
through developmental experience (Blass & Ferris, 2007). Therefore, it
should be recommended that managers include political skill in training
programs for salespersons. Bolander et al. (2015) suggested that for
developing political skill, traditional lecture−/presentation-based
training programs would not be sufficient and thus experiential training
is essential. As a concrete method of such experiential learning, some
scholars have proposed mentoring as an effective way (Blass & Ferris,
2007; Ferris et al., 2008). Supporting this view, an empirical study by
Chopin, Danish, Seers, and Hook (2012) showed that mentoring con-
tribute to the enhancement of political skill. Following these arguments
and finding, we can say that mentoring would be an effective way of
developing political skill. In addition, although to our knowledge there
have not been empirically tested, educational programs using case
method may also be effective especially for individuals who do not have
much experience of workplace politics.
As noted in the previous sections, individuals can use their political
skill for self-serving, rather than organization-serving, purposes. When
an employee is only extrinsically motivated but not intrinsically moti-
vated, he/she may use political skill for impression management be-
havior and make his/her abilities and performance appear better than
T. Kimura et al.
they really are. Therefore, in addition to training politically-skilled
employees, managers need to direct efforts to intrinsically motivating
these employees. For example, managers can provide positive feedback
or create an autonomy-supported workplace climate (Gagné & Deci,
2005).
5.3. Strengths, limitations, and future research directions
Our study contains several strengths to be highlighted. First, we
collected data from multiple sources (i.e., supervisors and salespeople),
which served to minimize concerns for common method variance
(Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). Second, based on
Griffin et al.'s (2007) three dimensions of performance, we con-
ceptualized and measured performance in an integrative way, which
enabled us to consider proactive and change-oriented aspects of sales-
person's performance. Finally, we used a sample of salespeople working
in Spain, where relatively few studies on political skill have been
conducted in the field of management.
This study also contains some limitations and offers avenues for
future research. First, our analysis did not completely reveal why po-
litical skill improves the effectiveness of adaptive selling. One of the
purposes of this study was to examine how political skill enhances
salespersons' performance. This study addressed this issue by in-
vestigating the influence of political skill on the effectiveness of adap-
tive selling. Our results suggest that salespersons high in political skill
are likely to achieve high performance through effective adaptive
selling since they can implement customer interaction skillfully and
obtain support and resources within their organization. However, these
explanations remain speculative because our model did not include
variables that mediate the interaction effect of adaptive selling and
political skill on sales performance. Therefore, future research can test a
mediated moderation model to reveal how political skill enhances the
effectiveness of adaptive selling. For example, scholars can include
organizational support and sales resources as mediators.
Second, our focus in this study is limited to adaptive selling beha-
vior and political skill. Future researchers can include other in-
traorganizational skills in their research models to reveal the influences
that these have on the effectiveness of adaptive selling. For example, by
including some constructs of social skill in their model, researchers can
respond to a recent call by Kidwell et al. (2011) to more broadly ex-
amine the effect of social skills on adaptive selling. Moreover, future
research can explore the effect of political skill on other kinds of selling
behavior. For example, investigating the influence of political skill on
ethical sales behavior may have a potential for future research (Lagace,
Dahlstrom, & Gassenheimer, 1991). As summarized by Arli et al.
(2018), recently, research attention has been increasingly paid to team-
based selling. In addition, in research in the field of political skill, team
political skill, as an emergent construct, has attracted the attention
(Lvina, Johns, & Vandenberghe, 2018; Lvina, Maher, & Harris, 2017;
Semrau, Steigenberger, & Wilhelm, 2017). Therefore, future research
can implement team-level analyses that explore whether team political
skill contributes to team-based selling.
This study also faces some methodological and data-related limita-
tions. First, since we only used a Spanish sample, we cannot determine
whether our results can be generalized to other contexts. Spain has
more collectivistic culture than the United States where many of studies
on organizational politics have been conducted (Hofstede, 1984;
Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010). As suggested by previous studies,
effective tactics for fostering cooperation and managing impression are
different between individualistic and collectivistic societies (Nahapiet &
Ghoshal, 1998; Khilji et al. 2010; Zaidman & Drory, 2001). For ex-
ample, relationship-focused tactics rather than job-focused tactics are
more preferred in a collectivistic effective, and vice versa in an in-
dividualistic society (Khilji et al. 2010; Zaidman & Drory, 2001).
Therefore, future research can consider the cultural difference in what
kind of political behavior can enhance the effectiveness of adaptive
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Industrial Marketing Management 77 (2019) 198–208
selling.
Second, we did not collect data from all the supervisors and sales-
people in a given company. Therefore, the test results may be biased
caused by the existence of supervisors and salespeople who did not
respond to your survey. However, the selection of participating super-
visors and salespeople was randomly based, minimizing potential bias.
Third, since our data regarding adaptive selling behavior and poli-
tical skill were self-reported, it is possible that the respondents over-
estimated the levels of their behavior and skill. Finally, although we
recognize that prior research has proposed a four-dimension structure
of political skill, and some empirical studies have conducted dimen-
sional analysis (e.g., Ferris et al., 2005; Shi et al., 2011), we did not
implement dimensional analysis of the effect of political skill. The
reason for this is that our data on political skill did not show the four-
dimension structure suggested in previous studies. Therefore, to avoid
confusion, we examined political skill as a unified construct.
6. Conclusions
By using a sample of Spanish salespersons and their supervisors, this
study revealed that political skill and intrinsic motivation interact to
strengthen the positive effect of adaptive selling on sales performance.
Our finding suggests that in order to implement adaptive selling be-
havior successfully, salespeople need to develop their political skill and
have high levels of intrinsic motivation. It also shows that political skill
contributes to not only internal political tactics but also effective selling
behavior.
Funding
This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number:
17K03961) and the Government of Galicia, Ministry of Economy,
Employment and Industry (Grant Number: 10PXIB293021PR).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.09.005.
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