Digitally supported internal market orientation: antecedents, measurement, repercussions for organisational and business performance

Abstract

The present thesis depicts Internal Market Orientation (IMO) theory development conceptualisation with contemplation of new conditions, realities and technologies available to modern businesses in service industries. Grounded in the extant body of literature in the IMO domain (Lings, 2004; Gounaris, 2006, 2008; Lings and Greenley, 2009; Rodrigues and Carlos Pinho, 2012; Ruizalba et al., 2014; Edo et al., 2015), the motivation which drove this research project was to propose a novel IMO framework which reflected the noted global changes in economic and social environment affecting business organisations in a greater extent.

In line with the above, the purpose of the research exhibited in this thesis is to develop and empirically validate a conceptual model of internal market orientation (iIMO). The iIMO model denotes the antecedents (organisational behaviour elements) of internal market orientation that activate its implementation in a firm. Besides, we contribute to the theory by introducing novelty iIMO variables, including Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Outsourced Personnel structural constructs. They avail to measure the effect of iIMO implementation on organisational and business performance.

To accomplish the above-noted purpose of the study, we pose two key research questions that overarch our studies, namely (a) what are the antecedents of internal market orientation framework driven by information and communication technologies and applied in various settings?, and (b) how does the internal market orientation framework enforced by the information and communication technologies help organisations operating in various settings to support their organisational and business performance?. This thesis is comprised of a compendium of three publications that address the posed research questions.