Beyond addiction: how social media dependence triggers frontline sales deviance in China’s property market

This study examines how alesperson maladaptive social media dependence behaviours (cognitive absorption, dysfunctional use, blind trust, overreliance) among front-line sales employees in China affect job performance through customer-directed deviance. Through three-wave surveys with 610 real estate salespeople, PLS-SEM analysis confirmed that: (1) all four dependence dimensions significantly increase customer-directed deviance; (2)such deviance fully mediates the dependence-performance relationship; (3) ethical leadership negatively moderates the dependence-deviation link. Findings offer ethical management interventions for organizations combating digital dependency in Asia’s sales contexts.