Research Paradigm

The broader relationship marketing (RM) paradigm is said to explain the need and importance of IM (Gounaris, 2006, 2008b); nevertheless, while there appears to be widespread existing theory on internal marketing (IM), there remains a lack of agreement both on the definition, and how it should be measured. As outlined in Chapter 2, IM research appears to have migrated through three phases (employee satisfaction, customer orientation, and strategy implementation); however, there is an apparent paucity of research from a relational perspective. Furthermore, in Grönroos’s (2007) words, “service and relationship marketing seem to provide a logic for marketing which well meets the challenges for marketing theory and practice” (p. 214).

Therefore, this study explores internal communication from a relational perspective to understand its potential influence on promise keeping, which as pointed out earlier is under-researched and appears to remain so. While it has been stated that RM theories may be applicable to all stakeholder relationships (Morgan & Hunt, 1994), there were few studies apparent on internal employee relationships and the influence they may have on marketing outcomes, such as promise keeping.

Because of the lack of existing research on IM communication, and in particular internal relationship marketing communication, this study uses an inductive approach, as explicated in section 3.1.1. However, in so doing, a realist perspective was required to fully interpret the results. As both a theoretical and practical contribution are required from the study, the realist lens ensures that a focus is placed on any findings which may be relevant not only for the development of theoretical knowledge, but also for that which may be utilised by practitioners.

Therefore, the approach that most closely resonates with this exploratory research is that of inductive realism. Hunt (2002) argues that inductive realism is a valid methodology for marketing inquiry, and suggests it is the view that the “long term success of any scientific theory provides reason to believe that something like the entities and structure postulated by that theory actually exists” (p. 5). While an inductive and realist perspective may be considered incommensurate, it has been stated that “the various paradigms are beginning to ‘interbreed’, such that two theorists previously thought to be in irreconcilable conflict may now appear, under a different theoretical rubric, to be informing one another’s arguments” (Lincoln & Guba, 2000, p. 164). In this exploratory study, although an inductive approach was necessary to gain greater insight to the subject, the interpretation of the case is founded on a realist perspective to serve the needs of both an academic and

practitioner perspective. Both the inductive and realism approaches are explicated below.

3.1.1 Induction

Inductive thought is the logic of drawing inferences from repeated instances (Bullock & Trombley, 1999). Inductive research is not usually intended for generalisation, but is used when needing to discover more about the subject, as was the case in this study. As illustrated by the popular case of the discovery of black swans in Australia at a time when all swans were thought to be white, even one instance can bring new understanding to a subject.

As exploratory research, a general inductive approach allows the findings to emerge from the data “without the restraints imposed by structured methodologies” (Thomas, 2003, p. 2). Therefore, the inductive approach in this research appears consistent with the apparent paucity of literature on IM communication practices.

Kalish and Lawson (2007) contend that “the central question for research on inductive inference is how people use their prior knowledge to make novel predictions” (p. 394), in essence, using existing knowledge as a foundation for the development of new understanding. While, there is a lack of agreement on definitions and measures of IM, and in particular relational IM communication, this study did draw on the available extant knowledge of RM, organisational culture, values, and communication theory to provide a framework to facilitate exploration of IM communication practice. For example, while ‘trust’ has been theorised as a key mediating variable of RM (Morgan & Hunt, 1994); the influence of IM communication on trust within employer-employee and employee-employee

relationships did not appear to have been sufficiently explored in the marketing literature.

Because of the exploratory nature of this research, data is drawn from multiple sources including archival, interviews and employee surveys, all of which were analysed and condensed to create new insight into employee experiences of IM communication. The application of the methods used to collect and analyse the data is presented in Chapter 4 which follows. Therefore, in contrast to deduction, which seeks to disprove a hypothesis and provide an explanation (Bullock & Trombley, 1999); this study aims to extend existing knowledge of IM communication as it relates to promise enablement, by using inductive inquiry to provide greater insight.

3.1.2 Realism

Following an initial phase of inductive inquiry, this research also takes a realist turn in order to provide greater depth to the findings. According to Lee and Lings (2008), while realism is not as extreme as the positivist approach, the philosophy of realism shares “positivism’s belief in an objective world which we can observe and measure” (p. 31).

The realist approach was considered important to illustrate the findings in a manner which would be considered relevant to both academics and practitioners (Kover, 1976). Therefore, while acknowledging that unknown phenomena may exist to influence the outcomes of the study, this research sought to identify those elements that may be apparent from the themes that emerge initially from Phase 1, and were later measured during Phase 2, as explained in the following chapter.