Paving the path for retail salesperson’s adaptive selling behaviour: an intervening and interactional analysis

Purpose: In hypercompetitive markets, retail brands should fuel their sales employees’ to responsively serve customers. In connection, the study aims to unpack the direct and indirect, via psychological flourishing, the role of inclusive leadership in paving the path for retail salesperson adaptive selling behaviour. Additionally, the study also empirically investigates the moderating role of work centrality to offer critical insights for effective managerial interventions. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing upon conservation of resource theory to test the nexuses of the model, time-lagged survey data were collected from 313 retail salespersons from the leading retail brands. Data were analyzed using the bootstrapping method. Findings: Results revealed the direct positive association between inclusive leadership and adaptive selling behaviour and indirect association via psychological flourishing. Furthermore, the direct association between inclusive leadership and adaptive selling becomes more pronounced for employees high on work centrality. Practical implications: Findings can help retail brands to enhance adaptive selling behaviour, which enables them to provide efficient solutions and gain sustainable competitive advantage. Originality/value: The study offers several important contributions to the sales literature by establishing the direct and indirect link between inclusive leadership and adaptive selling via psychological flourishing. Moreover, the result of the interaction effect highlights the critical aspects of work centrality in the retail sales context.