What is Internal Market Orientation

This chapter illustrates internal market orientation's philosophy (IMO) and the innovative Internal Marketing practices in competitive firms. The chapter begins with an explanation of the field of innovation in services going beyond technology to IMO research topics. A brief history of Internal Marketing (IM) and main literature contributions are provided. After that, the focus turns to the empirical evaluation of IMO's dimensions. The analysis is undertaken with data from a survey in Spanish and Portuguese knowledge intensive business services (KIBs). An exploratory factor analysis was performed and eight factors have been extracted from the data set via principal components analysis: Efforts to create a good place to work, Focus on competencies, Dissemination, Awareness of labour market conditions, Focus on individual training and development, Feed-Back communication, Managing the moments of truth, and Internal market research. The chapter concludes with some reflections and suggestions for managers and future research directions are also highlighted.