Defending the frontier: examining the impact of internal salesperson evasive knowledge hiding on perceptions of external customer outcomes

Abstract

Purpose

Salespeople frequently face the predicament of wanting to protect their market knowledge from coworkers while not appearing recalcitrant. Considering the choice of disclosing information or refusing to disclose, they may choose a third option: appearing to share knowledge while concealing substantive information, which this study calls evasive knowledge hiding. This study surmises that the consequences of these choices impact perceptions of customer outcomes. Using social exchange theory, the purpose of this article is to examine the internal relational antecedents and perceptions of external customer outcomes of evasive knowledge hiding, as well as the moderating effects of pushover manager and environmental dynamism.

Design/methodology/approach

A moderated mediation model was used to analyze survey data from 234 business-to-business salespeople.

Findings

Internal competition and coworkers’ past opportunistic behavior increase evasive knowledge hiding. These effects are attenuated if the manager is not a pushover. Evasive knowledge hiding decreases perceptions of external customer outcomes, particularly at low levels of environmental dynamism.

Research limitations/implications

Data was collected from salespeople, which presents a look from perpetrators themselves. While directly observing salespeople was the goal, sourcing and matching customer and manager data would only strengthen the results.

Practical implications

Salespeople evasively hide their knowledge if it is in their best interest, which may unwittingly hurt perceptions of customer outcomes.

Originality/value

This study formally introduces salesperson evasive knowledge hiding into the marketing and sales literature. The research highlights the dark side of social exchange theory by demonstrating how internal coworker relationships affect perceptions of external customer relationships via evasive knowledge hiding. This study also introduces pushover manager as an enabling moderating variable.

Citation

Chaker, N.N., Nowlin, E.L., Walker, D. and Anaza, N.A. (2021), "Defending the frontier: examining the impact of internal salesperson evasive knowledge hiding on perceptions of external customer outcomes", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55 No. 3, pp. 671-699. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-02-2019-0174