Internal market orientation, market capabilities and learning orientation

Purpose – The purposes of this paper are to examine whether internal market orientation facilitates the development of external market capabilities, before influencing organizational performance, and to investigate whether learning orientation strengthens the aforementioned link. Design/methodology/approach – This study collected data through a survey and utilized moderated hierarchical regression analysis to examine the hypothesized relationships. Findings – Internal market orientation facilitates the development of both market capabilities and in turn enhances organizational performance. The result also shows that customer-linking capability is a stronger mediator between internal market orientation and organizational performance. Besides, learning orientation does not moderate the relationship between internal market orientation and external market capabilities. Research limitations/implications – This study only examines two market capabilities; considers only internal market orientation and does not include other antecedents; and used cross-sectional data, instead of longitudinal data, which consist of information only from 159 services companies in Taiwan. Practical implications – A company should have international market orientation mechanisms, such as internal market information system and reward systems to keep the internal communications open. For companies stressing external customer relationship, internal marketing is important. Originality/value – This study provides empirical evidence for the claim that internal marketing influences the formation of an organization's external market capabilities. It also considers two types of market capabilities instead of treating market capabilities as a holistic variable. This study also clarifies learning orientation's relationships with internal market orientation and market capabilities.