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Over 20 years ago internal marketing was first proposed as a solution to the problem of delivering consistently high service quality. However, despite the rapidly growing literature, very few organisations actually implement the concept in practice as there does not, as yet, exist a single unified concept of what is meant by internal marketing. Critically examines the internal marketing concept and delineates its scope by tracing the major developments in the concept since its inception. The literature review suggests three major phases in the development of the concept, namely an employee motivation and satisfaction phase, a customer orientation phase, and a strategy implementation/change management phase. Proposes a definition and a set of core criteria that are essential features of an internal marketing program. Also explores the interrelationship between the proposed criteria and suggests a framework for empirical investigation of the IM concept in the context of services marketing. Discusses managerial implications arising from the proposed definition and model of internal marketing.

This study aims to explore the impact of oil prices on housing prices using Pakistani annual data from 1973 to 2021.

The Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) and Phillips–Perron (PP) tests were used for unit-root testing, whereas the johansen-juselius test was used for cointegration. For the short-run, the error correction model is used and the robustness of the model is checked using the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and fully modified OLS (FMOLS). The cumulative sum (CUSUM) and CUSUM of Squares tests were used to check the stability of the model, while parameter instability was confirmed by the Chow breakpoint test. Finally, the impulse response function was used for causality.

According to the findings, rising oil prices, among other things, have an impact on housing prices. Inflation is the single most important factor affecting not only the housing sector but also the entire economy. Lending and exchange rates have a significant impact on housing prices as well. The FMOLS and DOLS results suggest that the OLS results are robust. According to the variance decomposition model, housing prices and oil prices are bidirectionally related. The Government of Pakistan must develop a housing policy on a regular basis to develop the country’s urban housing supply and demand.

It is suggested that in Pakistan, the rising oil prices is a problem for the housing prices as well as many other sectors. The government needs to explore alternative ways of energy generation rather than the heavy reliance on imported oil.

Pakistan has been experiencing rising oil prices and housing prices with the rapid urbanisation and rural–urban migration. The contribution to the literature is that neither attempt (as to the best of the authors’ knowledge) has been made to check the impact of rising oil prices on housing sector development in Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesise internal marketing measures in two service settings across both Western and Eastern backgrounds. Well established views of internal marketing have emerged with more than 200 papers on the topic. To date, no clear accepted measure for the concept has emerged. The developed scale provides a new way of thinking drawing together a diverse range of measures to deliver a practical measure offering marketing managers a diagnostic tool to measure the degree that internal marketing has been applied (or not) inside their organisation.

Conceptual and operational definitions of internal marketing were analysed to generate an item pool for testing. Generated items were then tested in one higher education organisation (n = 205) and in the tourism and hospitality industry with Australian and Taiwanese employees (n = 458) using both English and Traditional Chinese survey versions. The data were analysed with SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 19.0. Reliability analysis was first undertaken to assess the hypothesised internal marketing factor structure followed by confirmatory factor analysis.

A 16-item, three-factor structure was obtained for internal marketing. This research suggests that internal marketing practice is a three-dimensional concept ideally consisting of internal market research, training and communication activities. The findings suggest that further research may be warranted to further expand academic definitions of internal marketing to encompass the varied activities undertaken by practising internal marketers.

This study provides a new measure of internal marketing practice for use in future that captures the majority of the activities undertaken by internal marketing practitioners.

The concept of “internal marketing” (IM) has gained the attention of researchers over the past three decades. Though a lot of research has been carried out on this topic, it remains a concept yet to be completely understood and captured, with ambiguity in terms of its definition and scope. The purpose of this paper is to utilise the higher education (HE) context in an emerging country, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to argue that the term “IM” needs more unbundling and hence the authors propose an enriched framework with a renewed and relevant identity, which the authors term as “corporate fusion” (CF).

The authors do so with a renewed framework and philosophy that tries to capture new constructs and dimensions of IM in line with the emerging corporate milieu and has been applied to the HE sector of the UAE in this paper.

The proposed new conceptual framework identifies a CF philosophy building on the existing literature and captures the essence of IM orientation, albeit with its new constructs, dimensions and justifications. Furthermore, the authors argue that this new model is relevant to the contemporary environmental trends surrounding present day HE organisations, more so ever in emerging markets such as the UAE, given their growth needs in a competitive global marketplace.

In this paper, the authors take a close introspection at the contemporary role of IM in the HE landscape available in the UAE using a renewed framework titled “Corporate Fusion”.

Based on the reasoning that work means more than just material rewards, the purpose of this paper is to propose the broadening of internal marketing concept (IMC) role through incorporation of happiness in the workplace (HWP) construct.

A conceptual approach is outlined.

This paper provides a theoretical foundation and conceptual framework – based on internal marketing (IM) variables – explaining how goals related to HWP could be achieved.

Given that happiness in life is a goal that everyone pursues, and HWP is one of its dimensions, it is suggested that firms could employ it as a strategy to maintain and motivate their best assets (i.e. their employees). It also suggests that work is far beyond a simple exchange process between employers and employees. Thus, given the nature and meaning of work for human beings, it should be treated as a channel whereby people could improve their self‐esteem and could fulfill themselves through their tasks on the job and feel happy.

Regarding IMC managerial approach and features, it is sustained that it could more aptly address the issue of HWP. To some degree, the desire of HWP brings about the need of changing the current management mindset that puts people on a secondary role.

The majority of research pertaining to internal marketing (IM) is conceptual and still remains so even at present. The lack of widely accepted definitions of the IM concept and a relevant valid measure has lead to increased attempts by academia to investigate the relative concepts and measures. The purpose of this paper is to examine a synthesis of IM and investigates its effect on business performance in a retail context.

The context of this paper is within supermarket chains in Greece with nation wide coverage. A survey is designed and implemented using the branch managers.

SEM analysis indicates five dimensions of the IM construct: formal interaction, reward systems, feedback, internal procedures and policies and internal customer orientation (ICO). Retailers seem to adopt in an embryonic stage a concept of IM. IM indeed has a positive effect on business performance.

Single key informant, single context of the paper are considerations when examining research limitations.

The embryonic stage of adopting and implementing IM within supermarket chains illustrates a certain manner of managing the internal customer; centralisation of procedures and tactics. Even if the concept of IM is partially exploited, the respective organisational behaviours clearly have a positive impact on both financial and non‐financial aspects of retail performance, thus revealing their importance.

This paper contributes to the rare empirical investigation of the IM notion in the firm and provides evidence on both its synthesis and its impact on business performance. The authors synthesize the concepts of internal market and ICOs providing a new approach to IM. Construct and research propositions have been axiomatic and in an only conceptual context until recently.

Higher education institutions, particularly in the case of public universities, face the challenge of creating more value in an environment of increasing requirements and limitations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relation of internal marketing (IM) with employees’ attitudinal outcomes, which aim to stimulate and retain motivated and customer-conscious contact employees.

Survey data of 94 customer-contact employees in a public higher education institution were analysed using partial least squares path modelling to explore and predict key target constructs.

The results demonstrate the relationship between customer-contact employees’ service empathy (SE), institutional IM initiatives and employees’ attitudinal outcomes in the public sector, specifically higher education institutions.

The current study relies on self-reported data and a small sample of customer-contact employees working only on enrolment-related areas. Further studies should be designed for theory confirmation and generalizability of the results.

Top managers in public higher education institutions must encourage organizational identification through IM initiatives, such as well-established internal communication procedures. Academic management should continuously train and retain customer-contact employees that have developed SE and a sense of belonging to the organization. SE must be incorporated in the job descriptions and training of customer-contact employees.

The study contributes to the limited literature on the use of IM and SE in the public sector, specifically higher education institutions.

Las instituciones de educación superior, en particular en el caso de las universidades públicas, se enfrentan al reto de crear más valor en un entorno de necesidades y limitaciones en aumento. El propósito de este estudio es explorar la relación entre el marketing interno y las resultantes actitudes laborales de los empleados. El objetivo del marketing interno es estimular y retener empleados de contacto que estén motivados y sean conscientes de la importancia de los clientes.

Se analizaron datos de 94 empleados de contacto de una institución pública de educación superior utilizando modelos de regresión de cuadrados mínimos parciales para explorar y predecir constructos claves.

Los resultados demuestran la relación entre los siguientes constructos: niveles de empatía de los empleados de contacto, iniciativas institucionales de marketing interno, y las resultantes actitudes de los empleados del sector público, en particular organizaciones en el sector de la educación superior.

El presente estudio se basa en los datos auto informados de una pequeña muestra de empleados de contacto que trabajan sólo en áreas relacionadas con matrícula. Nuevos estudios deberían ser diseñados para la confirmación de la teoría y la generalización de los resultados.

Los altos directivos de las instituciones públicas de educación superior deben fomentar la identificación con la organización a través de iniciativas de marketing interno, tales como procedimientos establecidos de comunicación interna. Los directivos académicos deben continuamente adiestrar y retener a los empleados de contacto que han desarrollado la capacidad de proveer servicios de manera empática y que tienen sentido de pertenencia a la organización. Proveer servicio de manera empática debe ser incorporado en las descripciones de empleo y formación de los empleados de contacto.

El estudio contribuye a la literatura limitada sobre el uso de marketing interno y empatía en los servicios en el sector público, específicamente en las instituciones de educación superior.

The study is intended to find out the relationship between housing prices and the inflow of foreign capital in Pakistan. There is a shortage of housing units due to rising population and rural–urban migration since its inception; on the other hand, there is also a lack of housing finances. The urban sprawl has created the demand for housing units, but the supply of housing has not been increased up to the required level, the major reason is a deficiency of housing finances.

The analysis was carried out from 1973 to 2018, on an annual, quarterly and monthly basis; the structural changes are captured by the Zivot–Andrews unit root test. Gregory–Hansen test is used for cointegration, the combined cointegration also validates the results. In addition, the rolling window is used to capture timely changes between data sets. Finally, wavelet analysis is used to prove volatility.

The rising prices of housing in the country is alarming; Pakistan is a developing country, and it is facing many problems along with a housing shortage. The domestic sources of housing finances are inadequate, so foreign funds are welcomed. The rolling window regression proves that domestic factors along with the foreign capital inflow affect housing prices positively, and the wavelet analysis finds out that foreign direct investment is more volatile than workers’ remittances in financing the housing market.

This is a pioneering study to find out the impact of foreign capital inflows on the housing prices in the economy of Pakistan. The inadequacy of housing finances from domestic sources attracted foreign funds financing this sector. This study has used new techniques like rolling window and wavelet transformation, such techniques have not been used before.

This study aims to explore how the ideal employee effects of internal marketing are created and sustained. It aims to reveal the role that outbound marketing activities play in the reproduction of a brand-centric employee culture.

From an organizational ritual perspective, this study conducts a qualitative study of a Chinese department store’s anniversary celebration, which is a multi-day annual sales event. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, supplemented with corporate documents and field observation.

This study reveals that the focal event remains a success because the well-managed coordination of its onstage and backstage activities serves to reproduce an employee culture of espousing and voluntarily enacting corporately mandated role norms, values and beliefs.

For the management of retail events with the aim of building organizational culture, this study points to the importance of emphasizing the symbolism of the sales promotion aspects of an event and paying as much attention to employees’ backstage experiences as to the public execution of a consumer event.

This study shows that external marketing could set the stage for internal marketing, with the ideal effects of internal marketing actually constructed and institutionalized during activities and procedures comprising outbound marketing. This suggests that a more nuanced view of the practice of internal marketing is warranted.

The purpose of this paper is to perform a psychometric evaluation of the internal green marketing (IGM) scale in the context of consumer, industrial and service industry from a developing economy. Drawing on IGM theory, this study validates the measurement scales to operationalize IGM as green internal communication (GIC), green skill development (GSD) and green rewards (GRs).

The sample was drawn from the consumer, industrial and service industries in Jammu and Kashmir, India, using a random sampling method. Data were collected from consumer, industrial and service industries in two phases through a self-administrated questionnaire-based survey. In total, 137 managers responded during the first phase, and 368 managers responded during the second phase. During the first phase, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to uncover the underlying dimensions of IGM, and during the second phase, data were analyzed to test the validity of the IGM scale through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

EFA suggested a three-dimension scale (green internal communication (GIC), green skill development (GSD), and green rewards (GR)) which was confirmed by CFA. The findings of the study demonstrate that IGM is a valid and reliable scale to capture the individual-level perception of the employees with respect to the green internal marketing of an organization.

This paper is expected to provide valuable insights into the area of internal green marketing (IGM) about an industry that can be of immense help to domestic and international marketers in formulating human resource (HR)/marketing strategies. Further, it provides a wide-ranging scale that can act as a base for future research studies that aim to explore internal green marketing (IGM) in different organizational settings.

IGM is embedded in three underlying elements as GIC, GSD and GRs. It is suitable to the practitioner and researchers to operationalize IGM as a second-order construct in future studies.