Sustainable business models: integrating employees, customers and technology

This Special Issue of the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing has the same title as the 23rd International Conference CBIM 2018 (June 18-20, 2018, Madrid, Spain) “Sustainable Business Models: Integrating Employees, Customers and Technology”. In this edition of International Conference, following a competitive blind review process, papers from 126 authors and 25 countries were ultimately accepted. The best papers of the Conference were invited to submit to this Special Issue and we were also open to direct submissions from other authors. We present here the 17 accepted papers for publication in this Special Issue

Internal Market Orientation: a solution to strategy implementation in organisations

Take care of your people and your people will take care of your business. Internal Market Orientation as business logic facilitates job satisfaction and commitment

El compromiso organizacional: un valor personal y empresarial en el marketing interno

Organizational commitment has been extensively studied and has a great importance for companies. In this research an analysis of relevant scientific literature has been done in order to answer the question: what is commitment and what kind of commitment exists? Tridimensional model of commitment is shown and a groundbreaking example of the relation of this model with ethical aristothelical tradition. Theory of value has also been analyzed. To answer the question what factors contribute most to compromise?, the results of an empirical research on Spanish hotel sector are shown, within the scope of internal marketing. This research concludes that factors with greater correlation with commitment are: internal communication, management concern, training and family work balance

Liderazgo basado en el 'management concern' como factor de la orientacion al marketing interno

Management concern is an essential factor in leadership and constitute one of the factors that create Internal Market Orientation (IMO), an emerging paradigm in the Internal Marketing field and. In this research an analysis of relevant scientific literature has been done in order to consider this factor and its relation with transactional and transformational leadership styles. The aim is a characterization of the elements that compose it, proposing a theoretical model in which it is also discussed the effects that the Management Concern may have on employees in regard to their Extra-role performance. This will leave the door open to further empirical research to contrast the proposals. The results of an empirical research on Spanish hotel sector are shown, within the scope of internal marketing to see with factors have greater impact on Job Satisfaction and Employee´s Commitment. This research concludes that within the factors with greater correlation with commitment, the second is Management Concern

The Market Orientation and Customer Orientation Continuum: A Literature Review for Service Marketing

The purpose of this study is to disclose a drawback in the literature of the constructs of market orientation (MO) and customer orientation (CO). This flaw is indeed the lack of a systematic literature review of both concepts. This literature review should serve not only to collect all the literature regarding both constructs, but also to identify and classify the different relationships between MO and CO suggested by academics. The methodology is therefore divided in two, a first stage where a systematic literature review is conducted and a second stage where each study would be classified according to their positioning relative to the MO-CO relationship. The preliminary results suggest that there are three research streams regarding the MO-CO relationship: (1) MO and CO are analogous, (2) CO is part of MO, and (3) MO and CO are independent constructs. This conclusion must still be confirmed with the systematic literature review and used to catalogue the eventually collected studies. A key contribution of this research is to help academics to have access to the main literature about MO and CO and provide them with an adequate reference to frame their studies in one of the three research streams that have been identified. A potential contribution for professionals is the synthesis of several theories regarding MO and CO that could facilitate their implementation in companies and eventually improve their performance

New Perspective on Customer Orientation of Service Employees: A Conceptual Framework

Customer orientation of service employees (COSE) refers to the capacity and skills of employees to (1) identify, understand and satisfy their clients’ needs, and (2) act to that end. The COSE model has been used extensively to assess customer orientation of service employees within different settings. However, minimal modifications from the original have been presented so far, and the proposed settings were unrelated to highly relational services such as private banking (PB). PB is defined as the services specifically designed to satisfy the financial needs of high net worth individuals (HNWI); they are usually delivered by only one contact person – the private banker. Thus, PB is based on a personal and long-lasting relationship between the private banker and the client. Drawing on the literature regarding customer orientation and PB, trust, loyalty and word of mouth are identified as the potential consequences of COSE, improving on previous models. These new propositions are accompanied by a conceptual framework of COSE that is able to address the PB particularities by considering some moderating variables that are inherent to the PB service (customer segment and type of banking firm). Further avenues for research are then charted in light of the new conceptual framework developed

Customer Orientation in Highly Relational Services

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate the antecedents, importance, and consequences of the customer orientation of service employees (COSE) in highly relational services (HRS). This study challenges the traditional vision of COSE and its sole focus on transactional services. The paper also examines and confirms new outcomes of COSE. Then, a revised COSE model adapted to HRS is proposed. Design/methodology/approach – The private banking (PB) service is chosen to represent a HRS setting. The qualitative study is comprised of 25 semi-structured interviews with PB practitioners. The results are analysed using NVivo 11. Findings – This study confirms the validity of the construct. COSE is proven to have notable importance in HRS. Various dimensions of COSE have different grades of importance. New consequences are elicited for HRS, including trust, loyalty, and co-creation. Practical implications – The results show that most private banking firms do not have standardised processes in place to measure COSE. This study proves how COSE can be used for several purposes by practitioners as a means of customer relationship management and in co-creation strategies. Originality/value – This study expands on the potential of the COSE construct by the use of HRS for the first time and introduces new consequences from the original COSE model

Keeping promises: Interview with Professor Christian Grönroos

Professor Christian Grönroos, from the Hanken School of Economics at Helsinki in Finland, recently selected as a Legend in Marketing, shares his vision of the future for marketing

Empirical analysis of the constituent factors of internal market orientation at Spanish hotels

This study, which draws upon specialized literature and empirical evidence, aims to characterize the underlying structure of the construct ‘Internal Marketing Orientation’ (IMO). As a consequence six underlying factors are identified: exchange of values, segmentation of the internal market, internal communication, management concern, implementation of management concern and training. It also evaluates the degree of Spanish hotels’ IMO, classifying them into three different groups according to their level of IMO. Findings indicate that a higher degree of IMO is found when the company belongs to a hotel chain, while no other variables such as hotel size or category have proven to be significan

The nexus of internal market orientation and international HR management

This paper examines Internal Market Orientation (IMO) in the context of international businesses (Multinational Corporations, MNCs) that execute international human resources management (IHRM) to manage their workforce overseas. Grounded in conventional IMO theory, this study suggests a novel iIMO framework that introduces the utilisation of ICTs in IMO and sets business performance metrics as an outcome of iIMO implementation. The viability of the iIMO model was verified following empirical research, which included surveying 650 employees who represent 147 international organisations in the Russian Federation. This paper posits the suitability of the iIMO concept application in the IHRM and affirms its efficacy in the improvement of the MNCs’ business performance