Personal Characteristics in Marketing Departmental Power: A Resource Dependence Theory Perspective

Power as the ability to determine action is critical to any organizational player in order to achieve goals and set strategic directions. For marketing departments power perspectives have only been scarcely applied with analyses focusing on structural and contingency determinants. Acknowledging research on micro-foundations, this study proposes a combination of person- and position-based power sources to explore marketing department power, being the first to integrate and observe the role of personal factors. Proposition are derived building on Resource Dependence Theory. Accounting for the importance of context specific variables affecting power emergence, we include asset specificity to moderate the relationship between antecedents and subunit power. Empirical results of a survey among 253 German firms are provided. Person-based power sources are confirmed to drive subunit power emergence in combination with position-based sources. Asset specificity is a vital moderator as it impacts the majority of relationships. In closing, implications, avenues for further research, and potential practitioner lessons are discussed