Learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors: the mediation of customer knowledge
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of learning climate on customer-oriented behaviors by incorporating salespeople’s customer knowledge in the banks. It also explores the mediating role of customer knowledge between learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual two-level model that links learning climate to customer-oriented behaviors was developed and tested using data collected from salespeople and customers in banks in Taiwan. Data from 444 customers involving 92 salespeople was collected via a questionnaire and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling.
Findings
The results show that learning climate encourages salespeople to develop customer knowledge and customer-oriented behaviors, and that salespeople’s customer knowledge positively influences customer-oriented behaviors. This study also provides empirical support for the hypotheses that learning climate helps salespeople increase customer-oriented behaviors through improving salespeople’s customer knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
The findings highlight the importance of enhancing learning climate and customer knowledge to enable banks to improve salespeople’s customer-oriented behaviors. This research also points to customer knowledge as mediating mechanisms that can explain the association between learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors in the sales context.
Originality/value
By integrating knowledge management with organizational learning research, this study evaluates the effect of learning climate on salespeople’s customer-oriented behaviors by incorporating their customer knowledge. In addition, the present study points to salespeople’s customer knowledge as one of several mediating mechanisms that explains the association between learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was founded by National Science Council in Taiwan with Project ID: NSC 99-2410-H-032-003-.
Citation
Wang, M.-L. (2015), "Learning climate and customer-oriented behaviors: the mediation of customer knowledge", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 30 No. 8, pp. 955-969. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-09-2013-0310
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited