Breaking Bad: Antecedents and Performance Consequences of Unethical Negotiation Behavior in Sales

The persistence of unethical behavior in organizations is an important problem for both theory and practice. Despite an increasing number of studies, there remains a lack of comprehensive understanding on the antecedents and consequences of unethical behavior. In particular, empirical research has yet to fully investigate performance consequences. We develop and test a comprehensive framework with 310 UK sales professionals on antecedents and consequences of unethical negotiation behavior in sales. We find that unethical behavior is significantly influenced by self-deception, salesforce obsolescence, perceived organizational politics, creativity and risk-taking, and learning orientation but not by ethical climate and performance orientation. Furthermore, unethical behavior negatively influences behavioral performance and value creation competence but does not influence financial performance. Overall, our study sheds light on the importance of understanding the complex interplay between contextual, organizational, and individual factors in unethical behavior. Additionally, our study identifies a novel boundary condition for the consequences of unethical behavior.