Title: The nexus of internal market orientation and international HR management

Authors: Sergey Kazakov; José L. Ruiz-Alba

Addresses: Higher School of Economics, National Research University, Moscow, Russia; Economics and Business Administration PhD Programme, University of Málaga, Málaga Andalusia, Spain ' University of Westminster, London, UK

Abstract: This paper examines Internal Market Orientation (IMO) in the context of international businesses (Multinational Corporations, MNCs) that execute international Human Resources Management (IHRM) to manage their workforce overseas. Grounded in conventional IMO theory, this study suggests a novel iIMO framework that introduces the utilisation of ICTs in IMO and sets business performance metrics as an outcome of iIMO implementation. The viability of the iIMO model was verified following empirical research, which included surveying 650 employees who represent 147 international organisations in the Russian Federation. This paper posits the suitability of the iIMO concept application in the IHRM and affirms its efficacy in the improvement of the MNCs' business performance.

Keywords: IMO; internal market orientation; market orientation; IHRM; international human resource management; international companies; MNC; multi-national companies; organisational performance; business performance; SEM-PLS.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2025.143867

European Journal of International Management, 2025 Vol.25 No.2, pp.285 - 308

Received: 11 Feb 2020
Accepted: 07 Jun 2020

Published online: 12 Jan 2025 *

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