Salesperson Networking Behaviors And Creativity: Exploring An Unconventional Relationship

A great deal of emerging research explores the antecedents and outcomes of salesperson creativity. However, relatively fewer scholarly endeavors have delved into assessing the social antecedents of salesperson creativity. Addressing this issue, the current research focuses on the link between one critical social antecedent in sales research, namely that of networking behaviors, and creativity among salespeople. Specifically, we include customer and professional networking behaviors and study their direct, interactive, and curvilinear effects on salesperson creativity. Empirical findings show that professional networking as well as customer networking are positively related to salesperson creativity. Further, we demonstrate the non-linear effects of professional networking on the salesperson’s creativity. Finally, we report that the salesperson’s creativity is positively related to adaptive selling. These findings suggest that salesperson networking behaviors must be examined and carefully leveraged to gain tactical advantages