Towards a holistic internal market orientation measurement scale

Abstract

This paper seeks to propose a conceptual framework for the development of a holistic measurement scale to determine the extent of internal market orientation (IMO) of a firm. To this end, the study reviewed the antecedent of the internal marketing (IM) constructs, and identified some disagreement and controversies surrounding the internal marketing philosophy. Some of the disagreement and arguments identified concerned internal marketing as an approach to human resource management (HRM); similarities regarding IMO and external marketing; and mutual misunderstanding on marketing and public administration. The paper also reviewed research works that confirmed the importance of employees to a firm's performance. Finally, the paper proposed a new direction of research that integrates institutional factors in the development of IMO measurement. The new direction of research is expected to facilitate response to calls for periodic review of an IMO measurement instrument that is consistent with changes in the marketing environment.

Internal Marketing: A Systematic Review

“…HR) (Collins & Payne 1991). For instance, scholars view IM as "a reemphasis of normative HRM, and a mere labelling of a concept that was not clearly defined (...), ambiguous and highly rhetorical" (Gyepi-Garbrah & Asamoah, 2015;p. 276).…”

Exploring the Relationship between Internal Information Security, Response Cost, and Security Intention in Container Shipping

“…External marketing is the act or business of promoting and selling services or products to potential customers (i.e., the major target group) via market research and advertising. Internal marketing is an ongoing process of motivating, training, and promoting all management staff to consistently achieve satisfactory organizational goals [25,26] by attracting, developing, motivating, and retaining qualified employees (i.e., the main target group) and providing jobs that satisfy their requests [27]. Internal marketing is a management philosophy that enables employees to obtain a broader understanding of an organization's needs and achieves the organization's targets.…”

Revisiting Internal Market Orientation in family firms

“…They mainly were limited to the IMO conceptualisation and were not targeted to measure its effects or expose its connotations except one study in the literature review that measured the impact of IMO operationalisation on job performance and employee commitment (Ruizalba et al, 2014). Other studies addressed the customer satisfaction as an outcome of IMO (Tortosa et al, 2009) or intrinsic organisational and job performance (Tortosa et al, 2009;Fang et al, 2014;Gyepi-Garbrah and Asamoah, 2015;Babu and Kang, 2016) which is scantly linked to the specific business performance metrics. The proposed framework is deemed to fill this gap in IMO theory.…”