Ian Lings

Measuring Internal Market Orientation

Internal marketing has been discussed in the management and academic literature for more than three decades, yet it remains ill defined and poorly operationalized. This article responds to calls to develop a single, clear understanding of the construct, to develop an instrument to measure it, and for empirical evidence of its impact. Existing conceptualization of internal marketing are explored, and a new, multidimensional construct, internal market orientation (IMO), is developed. IMO represents the adaptation of market orientation to the context of employer-employee exchanges in the internal market. The article describes the development of a measure of IMO in a retail services context. Five dimensions of IMO are identified and confirmed. These describe different managerial behaviors associated with internal marketing. The impact of IMO on important organizational factors is also explored. Results indicate positive consequences for customer satisfaction, relative competitive position, staff attitudes, staff retention and staff compliance.

Internal market orientation: Construct and consequences

Research in services has long recognized the need for managers to focus internally on employees as well as externally on customers. This internal focus is the domain of internal marketing. Despite over 2 decades of discussion of internal marketing, most operationalizations of marketing are grounded in ideas of product markets and remain resolutely focused on the external market, ignoring the internal focus necessary in services markets. Such operationalizations of marketing are outdated in modern markets where most purchases involve a combination of product and service elements, and, in the long term, service quality may be more important than product quality to the consumer. This paper reconceptualizes marketing and develops a new construct, ‘internal market orientation’ (IMO), which closely parallels and complements existing models of external market orientation. The relationship between internal and external market orientations is explored, and the performance implications of IMO are discussed. A second model of these proposed relationships is presented with implications for managers and recommendations for future research.

Employer branding: strategic implications for staff recruitment

Abstract In many developed economies, changing demographics and economic conditions have given rise to increasingly competitive labour markets, where competition for good employees is strong. Consequently, strategic investments in attracting suitably qualified and skilled employees are recommended. One such strategy is employer branding. Employer branding in the context of recruitment is the package of psychological, economic, and functional benefits that potential employees associate with employment with a particular company. Knowledge of these perceptions can help organisations to create an attractive and competitive employer brand. Utilising information economics and signalling theory, we examine the nature and consequences of employer branding. Depth interviews reveal that job seekers evaluate: the attractiveness of employers based on any previous direct work experiences with the employer or in the sector; the clarity, credibility, and consistency of the potential employers’ brand signals; perceptions of the employers’ brand investments; and perceptions of the employers’ product or service brand portfolio.

Implementing and Measuring the Effectiveness of Internal Marketing.

Despite over a decade of interest in internal marketing and the evolution of various approaches to its operationalisation, the potential benefits of an internal marketing campaign in improving the quality of service delivered to the customer have not been fully explored. This article focuses on the internal customer model of internal marketing, further developing the concept through a synthesis with service blueprinting (a method of representing the service delivery mechanism), to produce a new model of internal marketing, which can be readily applied to the service organisation. An exploratory investigation into the effect of applying this model of internal marketing to service quality is conducted. Changes in internal service quality are measured using a modification of the SERVQUAL model and external service quality is measured using the original SERVQUAL model. This exploratory study was undertaken in a medium sized UK service organisation, and found that service quality increased both internally and ...

The impact of internal and external market orientations on firm performance

The role of internal marketing in developing organisational competencies is identified as a key area for continued research (Rafiq & Ahmed, 2003). One competence of particular interest to marketers is market orientation. This paper examines the impact of internal marketing, operationalised as a set of internal market‐oriented behaviours (IMO), on market orientation (MO) and consequently organisational performance. It provides the first quantitative evidence to support the long held assumption that internal marketing has an impact on marketing success. Data from UK retail managers were analysed using structural equation modelling employing LISREL software. These data indicate significant relationships between internal market orientation, employee motivation and external marketing success (market orientation, financial performance and customer satisfaction). Our results also support previous findings indicating a positive impact of external market orientation on customer satisfaction and financial performance. For marketing practitioners, the role of internal market orientation in developing marketing strategies is discussed.

Balancing internal and external market orientations

In his ‘Marketing Myopia’ Levitt (1960) argued against the product centred view of the firm and for the marketing view of the firm, suggesting that businesses must be viewed as customer satisfying processes. This view has endured for nearly forty years despite changes in the service requirements of today’s markets. In the current market environment such a narrow focus on customers satisfaction is increasingly being challenged. This article reviews the literature relating to services marketing, market orientation and internal marketing and develops the concept of an internal orientation suitable for today’s service markets where managers have to compete for scarce resources, both in the internal market and the external market. A conceptual model is presented which balances an internal market orientation and an external market orientation and directions for future research into this concept are discussed.

Internal Marketing and Customer Driven Wavefronts

This paper presents a model of internal service quality which is based on internal customer and internal supplier groups. The dimensions of internal service quality are identified and compared with the SERVQUAL dimensions of external service quality which have been proposed by Parasuraman et al. [1988]. The applicability of these internal service quality dimensions to different internal supplier - customer interactions is explored and it is discovered that at least two types of internal customers exist within the firm. Furthermore these internal customers use different criteria to evaluate the quality of the service which they receive from their internal suppliers.

Internal market orientation and market/oriented behaviours

Purpose: The purpose of this empirical paper is to investigate internal marketing from a behavioural perspective. The impact of internal marketing behaviours, operationalised as an internal market orientation (IMO), on employees’ marketing and other in-role behaviours (IRB) were examined. ---------- Design/methodology/approach: Survey data measuring IMO, market orientation and a range of constructs relevant to the nomological network in which they are embedded were collected from the UK retail managers. These were tested to establish their psychometric properties and the conceptual model was analysed using structural equations modelling, employing a partial least squares methodology. ---------- Findings: IMO has positive consequences for employees’ market-oriented and other IRB. These, in turn, influence marketing success. Research limitations/implications – The paper provides empirical support for the long-held assumption that internal and external marketing are related and that organisations should balance their external focus with some attention to employees. Future research could measure the attitudes and behaviours of managers, employees and customers directly and explore the relationships between them. ---------- Practical implications: Firm must ensure that they do not put the needs of their employees second to those of managers and shareholders; managers must develop their listening skills and organisations must become more responsive to the needs of their employees. ---------- Originality/value: The paper contributes to the scarce body of empirical support for the role of internal marketing in services organisations. For researchers, this paper legitimises the study of internal marketing as a route to external market success; for managers, the study provides quantifiable evidence that focusing on employees’ wants and needs impacts their behaviours towards the market.

Managing Service Quality with Internal Marketing Schematics

Abstract This article presents the development and application of a new tool for enhancing the quality of services delivered to a firm’s customers. This new model, the internal marketing schematic, has considerable advantages over other models that have been presented in the literature. The internal marketing schematic is derived from a synthesis of existing tried and tested management tools. It identifies the processes involved in delivering quality services, both internally and externally, and provides for the measurement of the quality of these services. These measures are used to develop improvement targets for all groups within the organization. The internal marketing schematic encourages participation from all employees, focuses them on the impact of their activities on the firm’s customers and motivates them to achieve higher quality service provision. The results of exploratory studies into the application of the internal marketing schematic suggest that the tool has considerable utility in achieving high quality service provision to customers.

Visitor Relationship Orientation of Destination Marketing Organizations

The proposition underpinning this study is that engaging in meaningful dialogue with previous visitors represents an efficient and effective use of resources for a destination marketing organization (DMO), compared to above-the-line advertising in broadcast media. However, there has been a lack of attention in the tourism literature relating to destination switching, loyalty, and customer relationship management (CRM) to test such a proposition. This article reports an investigation of visitor relationship marketing orientation among DMOs. A model of CRM orientation, which was developed from the wider marketing literature and a prior qualitative study, was used to develop a scale to operationalize DMO—visitor relationship orientation. Owing to a small sample, the partial least squares method of structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Although the sample limits the ability to generalize, the results indicate that the DMOs’ visitor orientation is generally responsive and reactive rather than proactive.