Experience of IM programs, perception of IMO and job outcomes: the frontline employee perspective

The thesis found that frontline employees’ (FLEs) experience of internal marketing (IM) programs positively influence their views of internal market orientation and their job outcomes of organisational identification and job satisfaction which then predicts FLEs’ customer oriented behaviour which is the targeted outcome of IM.

E-marketing orientation and social media implementation in B2B marketing

AbstractPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the potential of an organisational orientation,namely the electronic marketing orientation (EMO) to address implementation issues inbusiness-to-business (B2B) social media implementation. Previous research has demonstrateddifferences between B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on existing B2B marketing, social media andorganisational orientation literature, both academic and practitioner. This facilitates the developmentof a conceptual model and research proposition as a basis of further research into addressingcontemporary barriers to B2B social media implementation.Findings – The paper contends that each of the four components of the EMO addresses differentimplementation issues faced in implementing social media and, more specifically, the unique issuesfaced by B2B marketers.Research limitations/implications – The paper is conceptual in nature; however, it providesdirections for future empirical research.Practical implications – The differences in promotional and sales channels and messages requiredin B2B context are addressed in the research propositions. The paper highlights implementationchallenges and how a particular organisational orientation can facilitate the decision-making in dealingwith them.Originality/value – The paper provides a unique theoretical contribution by introducing the EMOconceptual model in a specific context of B2B social media marketing.

Developing an integrative model of internal and external marketing

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model which presents an expanded view of the beneficial impact of internal marketing (IM) in organizations. The model innovatively proposes links between the development of internal market orientation, internal marketing programs and external market orientation and external marketing programs. As a significant novel contribution to knowledge, this model advocates a continual process of improvement as marketing knowledge develops. Such an approach to the development of the marketing programs within an organization potentially increases business success and competitive advantage. The model has implications for organizational management, where internal marketing programs are desirous. Future research opportunities are suggested, including assessment of the model.

Examining integrated advertising and sponsorship in corporate marketing through televised sport

To determine how integrated TV advertising and event sponsorship should be best managed and evaluated, a theoretical framework derived from global exploratory research of academic literature and consulting reports was validated by 16 experts. To benchmark the current practices against the best practice integration methods, 12 campaigns, which had sponsored a televised event and placed advertisements during the broadcast of the event, were analyzed via case studies. The investigated competitions included the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament in London and the Olympic Games in Sydney. The examined brands comprised automotive, financial services, retail chain, office equipment, and consumer goods. A total of 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted-two for each case-one interview with an internal marketing executive from the promoted corporation, and a second with an external respondent from the advertising agency, event management organization, market research firm, or television channel. The study identified the key techniques that led to increased corporate sales-four steps and four objectives with necessary performance measures.

Senior marketers’ insights into the challenges of social media implementation in large organisations: assessing generic and electronic orientation models as potential solutions

The unique characteristics of social media (SM) have made it difficult to implement this tool within many large organisations. This paper seeks to identify the implementation challenges and evaluate alternative organisational orientations that may provide solutions. We aimed to reconcile theory with current practice by integrating the extant literature with data from three focus groups involving 27 senior marketing executives. The managerial discussions identified additional challenges to those previously discussed in the literature, which appear to result from SM’s unique characteristics. These include: interactivity, the integration of communication into distribution channels, collaborative media and information collection. Using both broad orientation models (market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation) and a specific digital orientation (e-marketing orientation), guidelines and research propositions for effective implementation are put forward.

A conceptual framework for the implementation of enterprise information portals in large organizations

Addressing the diversity in information requirements across the enterprise is a central challenge in enterprise content management. Enterprise information portals (EIPs) hold promise in this regard, offering each user a gateway to customized and personalized content. However, in large organizations EIP implementers face the complexity of tailoring portals for potentially thousands of users. A conceptual framework based on marketing fundamentals is developed to inform EIP implementation in this respect. It is argued that EIP implementers should view their user community as a number of distinct segments in order to address divergent needs more specifically (as opposed to a ‘one size fits all’ approach). For each identified segment, a ‘mix’ of content (product), distribution (place), promotion and price (cost) should be considered. The framework is applied to two cases of EIP implementation in large organizations. It is proposed that segmentation enables better planning of the overall EIP implementation effort. Considerations such as the number of user segments, customization, and personalization of content, and the funding of EIP development in large organizations are also discussed. The concepts elaborated here also hold theoretical relevance for other IS implementation contexts that involve very large usercommunities with diverse information

Consideration of corporate social orientation in managing sport organisations' internal stakeholders

Increasing pressure from the public has raised the expectations on corporations to be better citizens of their communities and society as a whole (Bennet 2002; Carroll 1999; Epstein 1989; Van Marrewijk 2003; Wood 1991). As a result, corporations have engaged in corporate social responsibility efforts with most of the subsequent research focused on its impact on consumer response (e.g., attitudes, behaviours, etc.) (Bhattacharya & Sen 2001, 2004; Porter & Kramer 2002). Similarly, research interest on corporate social responsibility in the sport industry has risen, yet no research studies have explored the influence and perceptions about corporate social responsibility of important internal constituents (employees and volunteers) of sport organisations. Particular interest would be in uncovering what employees and volunteers specifically believe are important among CSR elements (ethical, discretionary, legal, economic) and what impact a sense of 'shared CSR values' with the respective sport organisation would have on employee and volunteer response. Will understanding how shared social values influence organisational commitment provide insight on recruitment, retention and/or development strategies of employees and volunteers? Further, assessing any difference in sensemaking between these two groups would be of additional value to this line of enquiry, as the perceptions of the organisation are understood as "tantamount to reality, since organisations are social constructions made up of and acting in accordance with shared perceptions," (Brickson 2007, p. 865) particularly those of employees and volunteers of sport organisations. With increasing academic and industry interest of corporate social responsibility in sport and to address the obvious gap on CSR and employees and volunteers in the literature, the present study will explore how CSR impacts internal constituents (employees and volunteers) of sport organisations. Specifically, the main purpose of the present study is to assess the level of perceived shared values as they related to CSR (measured as corporate social orientation) between employees- organisation and volunteers- organisation. Further, the influence of the level of perceived shared corporate social orientation (CSO) on organisational identification will be evaluated in the context of a proposed model, which includes the relationship of perceived shared corporate social orientation>organisational identification> attitudinal and behavioural outcomes (i.e., commitment, satisfaction, and organisational behaviour). Using a sample of employees and volunteers of a sport organisation, the respondents will be asked to complete an online survey composed of demographic items, the corporate social orientation scale, and items that measure organisational identification, value commitment, job/ volunteer satisfaction, and organisational citizenship behaviours. Discussion of how other stakeholder (e.g., sponsors, consumers, etc.) perceptions on CSR potentially impacts the model and outcomes (e.g., corporate reputation, consumer behaviour) will be addressed. Analyses and results will support discussion and conclusions made to provide evidence for practitioner and researcher implications.

Intra-organisational marketing culture and market orientation: a case study of the implementation of the marketing concept in a public library

The measurement of both marketing culture and behaviour provides the opportunity to gain more insight into the overall market focus of organisations. This article seeks to determine the market orientation and marketing culture of all staff within organisations, to ascertain to what extent other members of an organisation support or create barriers to the successful implementation of the marketing concept. This paper will provide a brief overview of the existing literature in the field of market orientation and marketing culture. After detailing the research design and methodology, a summary developed from 11 focus group sessions - consisting of all staff in one public library service in Victoria, Australia - is presented. The findings indicate that while all areas within this organisation are committed to marketing, there are various interpretations of marketing and how it should be implemented. In addition, the research finds a number of factors that could be instrumental in the successful implementation of the marketing concept in public libraries.

Marketing research performance and strategy

Purpose - To investigate whether strategic orientation affects the evaluation of specific market research projects in for-profit firms.
Design/methodology/approach - A small-scale follow-up survey was conducted, building on qualitative and quantitative research among a sample of the top-1,000 marketing managers in Australia. The study used an existing market research evaluation tool, the USER scale and items generated from the qualitative research, to investigate the firm's most recent market research project.
Findings - Four market research performance factors were identified - market research as a knowledge enhancing (KE) function, the internal political use of market research, the misuse of market research and the generation of market understanding. The Miles and Snow strategy types were related to these factors, with Prospector types more likely to use market research rationally and less likely to use it for internal political purposes. Tactical projects were more likely to be misused than were those with a strategic orientation. Prospectors were far less likely and analysers far more likely to misuse tactical research projects. Prospectors were more often satisfied with the performance of their most recent market research. The Porter typology was less successful in predicting market research performance.
Research limitations/implications - The study was based on a small sample of market research projects in Australian for-profit firms. Future studies need to study these phenomena more intensively using ethnographic methods and more extensively using larger multi-country samples.
Practical implications - Market research suppliers should learn the nature of their client's strategic intent to improve their effectiveness. Defender firms should carefully monitor the use of market research, especially that of a tactical nature, which may be wasted or misused.
Originality/value - Contributes to an understanding of how strategic orientation relates to the ways market research information is used within the firm.

Relationship orientation : towards an antecedent model of trust in marketing relationships

With the advent and the increasing use of the concept of Relationship Marketing as a basis for marketing strategy, it has become evident that a lack of empirical knowledge exists as to the operational basis of the concept. Information regarding the conceptual basis of Relationship Marketing and a possible new orientation toward the concept may be of substantial value to both practitioners and scholars of relationship marketing. This paper considers the emergence of a Relationship Orientation within the marketing literature and proposes an antecedent model of Trust as a basis. The role of Ethics as a possible antecedent to Trust is emphasised and identified as a gap within the relationship marketing literature. Based on previous exploratory work and a review of the literature of relationship marketing, exchange theory, general marketing theory, marketing ethics and sales management, four key antecedent dimensions of Trust are identified: Ethics, Bonding, Empathy and Reciprocity. Additional possible antecedents are suggested. Future empirical research is proposed in order to validate the model.

Career orientations of marketing employees : an empirical analysis

There is a distinct gap in research in marketing in relation to understanding the role of marketing employees in organisational marketing performance, in contrast to the usual focus on identifying the contribution of successfully completing marketing tasks in the pursuit of organisational marketing objectives. The major exception to this has been research related to sales personnel, as a subset of all marketing personnel, but even this has usually been from a sales management perspective and not principally from the viewpoint of individual employees. The current study explored the career orientations of marketing employees in relation to the demographic profile and other work-related characteristics of marketing employees. Operationalised by Schein's (1990) Career Orientations Inventory, the 'internal career' of 78 marketing employees at the Australian headquarters of a major multinational manufacturing firm was examined. Sample means indicated that 'Lifestyle', 'Technical Functionality', and 'Pure Challenge' were the dominant career orientations, but a 'General Managerial' orientation also emerged as important, when individual 'Career Anchors' were examined. An 'Entrepreneurial' anchor was found to be the least dominant of the eight anchors measured, which may be seen as somewhat surprising for Marketing employees. Significant relationships were found between some demographic variables and the dominant career orientations, but overall, career orientation tended to be unrelated to the demographic variables. Future research will examine the relationships between employee career orientation and individual position, and marketing productivity.

The orientation of Australian coursework-focussed marketing masters degree

Using content analysis, this paper examines the orientation of Australian coursework masters degrees in marketing by analysing data collected from 38 university websites on the entry requirements, degree structure and research opportunities of the programs. The findings indicate that there appears to be an attempt to offer programs aiming at a range of “outcomes”, i.e. training for PhD, advanced studies in marketing, or accreditation for those in the industry. The diverse orientation of the degrees offered means that Australian institutions are potentially facing a challenge, targeting programs at different market segments.