Can internal marketing activities save small and medium industrial enterprises in a tough economy Back to the basics approach

Abstract

Recently, and due to the economic pressure in Jordan, several small and medium enterprises have filed for bankruptcy, or downsized their business leading to the layout of hundreds of employees, which will deepen the economic problems in Jordan and increase the circle of effect. Small and medium enterprises can follow other courses of actions to address such issue. This paper aims to understand the possible impact of internal marketing practices and activities during economic problems on the employees' productivity in small and medium industrial enterprises. In order to achieve this aim, a descriptive analytical methodology was used, quantitative approach through survey strategy was applied and electronically administrated questionnaires were utilised to collect the primary data from a representative stratified random sample of 490 small and medium industrial enterprises out of 2,291 registered local small and medium industrial enterprises. 345 filtered and screened questionnaires were analysed using SPSS, the main results of simple and multiple regression analyses indicate that internal marketing mix has a strong positive direct effect on employees' productivity, where internal promotion has the most effect followed by workplace, internal product and internal price respectively. Discussion, conclusion, and recommendations are provided based on the results of the study.