Leadership Styles, Internal Marketing, and Market Orientation: Conceptualising the Relationships

Market orientation is widely accepted as important for company performance. However, scholarly research on market orientation has emphasised the consequences of marketorientation rather than its antecedents. With the growth of the services industry, it has been suggested that internal marketing influences market orientation, as the product received is a human performance, with the employees playing a critical role in this performance. Consequently, employees need to be satisfied and motivated in order to exhibit those attitudes and behaviour that are conducive for market orientation. However, little research has been conducted on internal marketing as an important antecedent for market orientation, and on how leadership styles influences internal marketing. To this end, this paper integrates the marketing literature with leadership literature and proposes a conceptual framework to illustrate the relationships between these factors. Specifically, the effect Transformational and Transactional leadership styles have on internal marketing and how trust in the leader moderates the effect of Internal marketing on market orientation. Managerial implications are then addressed.