Putting internal market orientation into behavioural patterns employed during marketing strategy implementation

The firm’s external ‘market orientation’ can positively influence firm performance (Narver and Slater, 1990; Slater and Narver, 1994). However, there are also internal process drivers and ‘implementation influence tactics’ which can positively impact on marketing success such as ‘internal market orientation’ (Lings and Greenley 2005). As a consequence this paper seeks to explore the drivers of ‘internal market orientation’ and its relationship with ‘implementation influence tactics’ which managers use as a basis for executing their marketing strategies. To aid this process we present hypotheses relating marketing implementation performance to internal market orientation, autocratic tactics, participative tactics and culture based tactics. This paper argues that the ‘internal market orientation’ of the firm is an important antecedent influence on the use of marketing implementation tactics and performance both within and beyond the firm. Thus internal marketing orientation is conceptualised as an enabler in the pursuit of business success, as it sets the landscape in which the firm’s employees and customers operate.