Machiavellianism and personal success in marketing: The moderating role of latitude for improvisation

According to theory, the success of Machiavellians rests, in part, on the situational factor “latitude for improvisation”—the freedom to improvise in order to successfully manipulate others. In their study of Machiavellianism and marketing, Hunt and Chonko concluded that Machiavellianism is unrelated to success; however, the analysis did not include latitude for improvisation as a moderating variable. The data are reanalyzed with a measure of latitude for improvisation included. Theory predicts that Machiavellianism is positively related to success when latitude for improvisation is high. The results of this analysis suggest that Machiavellianism is unrelated to personal success in marketing when latitude for improvisation is high but is negatively related to success when latitude for improvisation is low. His research interests include marketing ethics, advertising, and marketing communication.