Innovation leads to results : the impact of digitalisation, organisational innovativeness and salespeople’s innovative behaviour on customer relationships

Abstract

This study examines how perceived organisational innovativeness and perceived organisational digitalisation influence innovative salesperson behaviour and customer relationship performance. Building on boundaryspanning theory, relationship marketing, and task–technology fit, it tests an integrated model in which organisational innovativeness shapes both the perceived digital environment and frontline innovative behaviour, which in turn affect relationship outcomes. Drawing on survey data from 233 Hungarian sales professionals, the analysis shows that perceived organisational innovativeness has significant positive effects on innovative salesperson behaviour, perceived organisational digitalisation, and customer relationship performance. Perceived organisational digitalisation also positively influences innovative salesperson behaviour, but its direct effect on customer relationship performance is not significant. Innovative salesperson behaviour has a significant positive effect on customer relationship performance and partially mediates the effect of perceived organisational innovativeness, whereas indirect paths involving perceived organisational digitalisation are not significant. The findings suggest that digitalisation alone does not automatically improve relationship outcomes; rather, its value depends on an innovation-supportive organisational context and on salespeople’s ability to translate organisational and technological resources into innovative customer-facing behaviour. The study contributes by integrating organisational, technological, and behavioural mechanisms into the explanation of relationship performance and offers managerial implications for firms seeking to strengthen customer relationships through digitalisation