Investigating internal employee behaviors that influence firm results is an area of on-going interest to both academics and practitioners. This study combined the two recently developed constructs of internal market orientation and industrial service quality to investigate their relationship. The integration of the business outcomes of overall service quality, customer satisfaction, and commitment to the relationship were included to add practical application to study. Additionally, the moderator length of relationship between service provider and customer was included to examine its influence in the model. Internal marketing and market orientation influenced the development of the internal market orientation. Decades of studies into service quality lead to the development of the business-to-business service quality scales applied to this study. Studying these constructs in real world settings, including the moderator, and measuring subjective business outcomes was conducted to confirm scale use, broaden the settings, and offer depth to the field of study. Two surveys to employees and one survey to matching customers created 107 dyad records for structural equation model analysis. Results showed no significant relationship between internal market orientation and industrial service quality. There was a significant relationship between industrial service quality and overall service quality perception, confirming past studies. However, counter to past research industrial service quality did not influence customer satisfaction and commitment to the relationship. A surprising result was the significant relationship reported between employee perceived service quality and the two business outcomes of customer satisfaction and commitment. This research did not support the theoretical premise that internal market orientation is an antecedent to industrial service quality. This study reported mixed results for the connections between perceived service quality and the business outcomes included. Some of the limitations from previous research were addressed while a more integrated model was investigated to add to the understanding of the marketing concept.

This case study has researched the internal market orientation (IMO) in relation to a merger and acquisition (M&A) situation. Research within these two areas has been done to a great extent on their own. However, the combination of the two has not been made previously. By combining the areas, it was made possible to evaluate employee satisfaction, and how it was actively attended to, in an organization experiencing an M&A situation. Variables for evaluating the IMO were selected from an existing model, which then was combined with M&A research to create a conceptual framework. This framework was used for analysis and as the basis for the questions for the interviews.  The empirical data showed signs that even though the organization was not actively working according to an IMO mindset, there were signs of IMO in their operations. However, the M&A situation heavily influenced day-to-day tasks and infringed on managers’ ability to prioritize the employees. The research is concluded by the clear signs that actively working with an IMO can have a substantial effect on employee satisfaction and could decrease some of the negative effects that the M&A situation brings.