Nigel F. Piercy

Internal marketing—The missing half of the marketing programme

Abstract This article examines the use of internal marketing in implementing strategy. The concepts of ‘internal marketing’ and the ‘internal customer’ may be applied operationally in two ways. The internal marketing programme may be seen as a direct parallel to the conventional external marketing programme, using the same concepts and elements, and the same process of customer and segment targetting. Also, the internal marketing concept provides a language for analysing organizational issues such as the impact of organizational power, political behaviour and corporate culture. The article offers a set of practical tools for tackling implementation problems. The practical application of the internal marketing is illustrated in two company case examples. Also empirical evidence is presented, which suggests that little attention is currently given to such issues by U.K. executives, providing a number of opportunities for management education and development, consultancy, and research.

Driving organizational citizenship behaviors and salesperson in-role behavior performance: The role of management control and perceived organizational support

Interest in management control approaches and organizational factors associated with higher levels of salesperson performance is reflected in research streams concerned with behavior-based control strategies and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). This study makes two distinct additions to the literature relating to control, organizational citizenship behaviors and salesperson performance. First, the study distinguishes between salesperson in-role behavior performance and outcome performance to model in-role behavior performance as a mediator between OCB and outcome performance. Second, the work supports sales manager control as an antecedent to OCB. A second model introduces perceived organizational support (POS) as an additional antecedent to salesperson OCB, and more important, as a consequence of sales manager control. This construct has not been included in prior salesperson OCB studies. Results show sales manage control has a stronger impact on OCB through POS, than directly, and POS has a strong impact on salesperson OCB.

Sales management control research: Synthesis and an agenda for future research

Management control in sales and marketing has received substantial attention by researchers during the past decade, demonstrating the importance of the topic for researchers and managers. Research initiatives concerning management control have differed in terms of conceptualization of the control construct and the construct’s antecedents and consequences. Synthesizing the various management control research initiatives is essential in guiding the development of an agenda for future research. We address several crucial managerial and research questions concerning consensus in the conceptualization of sales management control, identify relevant antecedents to control strategy choices, and consider the extent to which management control strategy choices affect salesperson, sales manager, and organizational consequences. We synthesize for the first time in this research stream the key findings of the main studies conducted to date to clarify consistency and inconsistency for both managers and researchers. Guided by the synthesis findings, a research agenda is proposed that is intended to address differences in conceptualization of management control, inconsistencies in research findings, and opportunities to expand the existing knowledge base.

Research in marketing: teasing with trivia or risking relevance?

There are many suggestions that marketing is a discipline in decline and distress, or experiencing a “mid‐life crisis” (though one from which it may not recover). At the heart of these problems lies the fact that much research in marketing appears trivial and irrelevant to practitioners of marketing. Researching trivial and obsolete topics, even with the most sophisticated research methodology conceivable, does not merely exacerbate the divide between academics and practitioners in marketing, it threatens the place of marketing in the business‐school curriculum. The alternative is the adoption of research and publishing strategies for impact with diverse audiences, taking research priorities from practice, and demanding the right to conduct research‐led teaching in marketing.

Corporate social responsibility: Impacts on strategic marketing and customer value

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has impacted on the policies and behaviours of companies throughout the world. However, relatively little attention has been devoted to the link between CSR and strategic marketing. The impact of CSR initiatives on customer and other stakeholder relationships is key to performance improvement. It is also important to recognise that CSR initiatives may achieve undesirable effects and that barriers exist to their effective implementation. We provide a framework examining the degree and type of corporate response to CSR imperatives and the moderating effects of employee/manager perceptions, other stakeholder perceptions, and the companys social credibility. We examine the impact of CSR on customer value, and importantly the need for a resonating value proposition that underlines how a suppliers CSR adds value for the customer. We conclude with a new management agenda for marketing strategy that examines CSR opportunities and risks.

Does Collaboration between Sales and Marketing Affect Business Performance

Prior research proposes that greater collaboration between sales and marketing has benefits to the organization through improved business performance. This study examines the importance of this proposition and finds that there is a direct and positive relationship between these two constructs. In addition, this study identifies five antecedents to improving collaboration between sales and marketing and outlines the management implications of the study. The findings indicate that a positive senior management attitude toward collaboration between sales and marketing, the reduction of interdepartmental conflict, the improvement of communications, the establishment of organizational learning, and effective market intelligence systems are important antecedents to effective collaboration between sales and marketing.

Key Drivers of Frontline Employee Generation of Ideas for Customer Service Improvement

Anchored in the service-dominant logic and service innovation literature, this study investigates the drivers of employee generation of ideas for service improvement (GISI). Employee GISI focuses on customer needs and providing the exact service wanted by customers. GISI should enhance competitive advantage and organizational success (cf. Berry et al. 2006; Wang and Netemeyer 2004). Despite its importance, there is little research on the idea generation stage of the service development process (Chai, Zhang, and Tan 2005). This study contributes to the service field by providing the first empirical evaluation of the drivers of GISI. It also investigates a new explanatory determinant of reading of customer needs, namely, perceived organizational support (POS), and an outcome of POS, in the form of emotional exhaustion. Results show that the major driver of GISI is reading of customer needs by employees followed by affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction. This research provides several new and important insights for service management practice by suggesting that special care should be put into selecting and recruiting employees who have the ability to read customer needs. Additionally, organizations should invest in creating work environments that encourage and reward the flow of ideas for service improvement.

Internal Marketing: Making Marketing Happen

The need to market internally the plans and strategies developed by marketing managers is seen as a critical component of successful plan introduction. “Internal Marketing” appears to be a critical issue in making marketing work.

Market-Led Strategic Change: Transforming the Process of Going to Market

With the use of case studies this book will help the reader go back to basics by confronting critical questions in the organisation of marketing and how the critical processes of marketing, planning and budgeting are managed

Exploring collaboration between sales and marketing

Purpose – The study seeks to explore the antecedents and implications of collaboration between sales and marketing and further to identify whether there are benefits in terms of business performance of improving collaboration between sales and marketing.Design/methodology/approach – Three exploratory case studies and a review of the literature are used to examine the antecedents to collaboration between sales and marketing. The case studies allow this fuzzy and undefined area to be clarified and existing theories to be empirically tested.Findings – The study identifies that there are three types of factor influencing collaboration between sales and marketing: integrators, facilitators, and management attitudes towards coordination. The exploratory case studies establish that senior management plays a pivotal role in creating and improving collaboration between sales and marketing, and that there is a positive correlation between collaboration between sales and marketing, and improved business performance....