How Job Insecurity Increase Salesperson’s Cross-Selling Behaviors: Mediating Mechanisms of Job Engagement and Customer Orientation

Purpose: This research aims to examine how salesperson’s perceptions of job insecurity affect their cross-selling behaviors at service encounter and its mediated link through job engagement and customer orientation. In other words, beyond examining the direct effect of salesperson’s perceptions on cross-selling behaviors, our research was to examine the relationship between salesperson’s perceptions of job insecurity and their cross-selling behaviors by exploring the serial multiple mediation process drawing upon self-determination theory. Research design, data, and methodology: For the purpose of our research, we collected data from salespersons working retail shop such as department store in South Korea. Working with a sample of 171 department store salespersons, a theoretical serial multiple mediation model was to developed to examine the proposed hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested using regression with Hayes’ Process Macro. Results: The results of this study suggest that salesperson’s perceptions of job insecurity are negatively related to salesperson’s cross-selling behaviors. Second, on service encounter, job engagement did not mediate negative relationship between salesperson’s perceptions of job insecurity and their cross-selling behaviors. Third, customer orientation also did not mediate negative relationship between salesperson’s perceptions of job insecurity and their cross-selling capabilities. Finally, the relationship between salesperson’s perceptions of job insecurity and their cross-selling behaviors are sequentially mediated by job engagement and customer orientation. Implications: This research provides an important implication for both the Job insecurity and cross-selling behaviors literature by theorizing that job insecurity may not be a sufficient trigger of salesperson’s cross-selling behaviors. Instead, it is necessary to include actual experiences (i.e. job engagement and customer orientation).