PurposeThe majority of research pertaining to internal marketing (IM) is conceptual and still remains so even at present. The lack of widely accepted definitions of the IM concept and a relevant valid measure has lead to increased attempts by academia to investigate the relative concepts and measures. The purpose of this paper is to examine a synthesis of IM and investigates its effect on business performance in a retail context.Design/methodology/approachThe context of this paper is within supermarket chains in Greece with nation wide coverage. A survey is designed and implemented using the branch managers.FindingsSEM analysis indicates five dimensions of the IM construct: formal interaction, reward systems, feedback, internal procedures and policies and internal customer orientation (ICO). Retailers seem to adopt in an embryonic stage a concept of IM. IM indeed has a positive effect on business performance.Research limitations/implicationsSingle key informant, single context of the paper are considerations when examining research limitations.Practical implicationsThe embryonic stage of adopting and implementing IM within supermarket chains illustrates a certain manner of managing the internal customer; centralisation of procedures and tactics. Even if the concept of IM is partially exploited, the respective organisational behaviours clearly have a positive impact on both financial and non‐financial aspects of retail performance, thus revealing their importance.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the rare empirical investigation of the IM notion in the firm and provides evidence on both its synthesis and its impact on business performance. The authors synthesize the concepts of internal market and ICOs providing a new approach to IM. Construct and research propositions have been axiomatic and in an only conceptual context until recently.

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The difficulties new nurses experience when first entering acute care work environments have been recognized since Kramer"s seminal work in the 1970s. Despite the implementation of interventions designed to help ease the transition, the literature continues to report that new graduates undergo stress when beginning their careers as nurses. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of perceived demands, control, social support and self-efficacy on the job stress, job satisfaction and intention to leave of new nurses. The conceptual framework used in the study was Karasek"s (1979) Job Demands-Control-Support (JDC-S) model. This model posits that job demands increase employee stress, but that increasing control can alleviate the negative effects of high demands. Social support and self-efficacy were included in this study as potential moderators of the relationships between demands and control and the outcome variables. This was an exploratory study that utilized a cross-sectional survey was used to gather data. Surveys were mailed to the homes of new nurses working in acute care hospitals across Ontario, Canada. Data were received from 232 new nurses, a response rate of 23.8%. Nurses in the sample had an average of 18.2 months of experience. Data were analyzed using separate hierarchical iii regression models for each dependent variable. The results showed that the main effects of job demands, social support and self-efficacy provided partial support for the JDC-S model when examining job stress, job satisfaction and intention to leave the job. Only self-efficacy was significantly related to intention to leave the profession. There was no evidence of moderating effects of social support or self-efficacy. An understanding of factors in the work environment that influence new nurses may assist in supporting them during the transition. By exploring the effects of demands, control, social support and self-efficacy on new graduates" job stress, job satisfaction and intention to leave, this study may provide direction to nursing leaders who are working new nurses in acute care. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -To design and empirically validate an instrument for measuring the effectiveness of a marketing intelligence system (MkIS). Design/methodology/approach -A thorough review of the literature of IS in general and MkIS in particular was the foundation for a new conceptualisation of MkIS effectiveness, which was developed into a measuring instrument for experimental application to data collected by a pre-tested postal questionnaire from 254 five-star hotels in Greece. Findings -Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis show that the proposed measuring instrument meets acceptable criteria of reliability and validity. The effectiveness of MkIS is found to comprise both internal and external components, related on the one hand to the extent to which the user organization improves functional effectiveness and corporate climate and on the other to its adaptability to market conditions and its customer responsiveness. The instrument is capable of integrating these into a holistic measure.Research limitations/implications -The single-industry, single-country sample limits the scope for generalization. Future research should address this through replication in different contexts. Practical implications -A validated measure of the effectiveness of MkIS has important implications for both users and providers. Conceptually, it permits improved understanding of the components of effectiveness. Pragmatically, it provides an assessment of the effectiveness of existing or new systems. Originality/value -Until now, there has been no empirically validated instrument integrating the several dimensions of MkIS effectiveness.