research articles on internal marketing

• DOI: 10.1080/10696679.2021.1886588
• Corpus ID: 233567489

Internal Marketing: A Systematic Review

• Jingqi Qiu , Achilleas Boukis , C. Storey
• Published in Journal of Marketing Theory… 1 April 2021

12 Citations

Is internal marketing a declining field if so, why a literature exploration from a hermeneutic perspective, the role of employer branding and internal marketing in talent attraction and retention: an applied study in a portuguese metallurgical industry, service beyond the status quo: the ripple effect of corporate social responsibility and internal marketing on employee's customer-oriented behavior, the effects of internal marketing on business performance with employee relationship quality as a mediator: a resource-based approach, evolution and application of internal marketing and its role in financial service organizations.

• Highly Influenced

The role of endomarketing in human capital management: a study applied to the Minho Urban Quadrilateral

Exploring the impact of internal marketing practices on the commitment to “green” intellectual capital, redefining brand globalness: an interpretive inquiry, investigation of the effect of internal marketing on quality of work-life: evidence from sport organizations, sustainability starts from within: a critical analysis of internal marketing in supporting sustainable value co-creation in b2b organisations, 117 references, towards a holistic internal market orientation measurement scale, developing an integrative model of internal and external marketing, measuring internal market orientation, internal marketing impact on business performance in a retail context, service firms: interdependence of external and internal marketing strategies, a multi-dimensional framework of organizational innovation: a systematic review of the literature, fostering corporate entrepreneurship through internal marketing, advances in the internal marketing concept: definition, synthesis and extension, internal‐market orientation: a misconceived aspect of marketing theory.

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Can internal marketing be implemented within bureaucratic organisations

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Internal marketing: a review and future research agenda Internal marketing: a review and future research agenda

Internal marketing is a method of cultivating high-level employee performance. However, the concept is marred with confusion due to the wide range of definitions and consequent implementation challenges. We reviewed the literature on internal marketing published between 1980 and 2020, using a theory, context and method framework. We found that scholars have not paid attention to the utilization of an established framework for construct operationalization. We advocate for the application of self-determination theory as a framework for operationalizing internal marketing. In addition, based on the identified research gaps, we propose several ideas for future research directions. ARTICLE HISTORY

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International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

George Panigyrakis

Purpose – The majority of research pertaining to internal marketing (IM) is conceptual and still remains so even at present. The lack of widely accepted definitions of the IM concept and a relevant valid measure has lead to increased attempts by academia to investigate the relative concepts and measures. The purpose of this paper is to examine a synthesis of IM and investigates its effect on business performance in a retail context. Design/methodology/approach – The context of this paper is within supermarket chains in Greece with nation wide coverage. A survey is designed and implemented using the branch managers. Findings – SEM analysis indicates five dimensions of the IM construct: formal interaction, reward systems, feedback, internal procedures and policies and internal customer orientation (ICO). Retailers seem to adopt in an embryonic stage a concept of IM. IM indeed has a positive effect on business performance. Research limitations/implications – Single key informant, single context of the paper are considerations when examining research limitations. Practical implications – The embryonic stage of adopting and implementing IM within supermarket chains illustrates a certain manner of managing the internal customer; centralisation of procedures and tactics. Even if the concept of IM is partially exploited, the respective organisational behaviours clearly have a positive impact on both financial and non-financial aspects of retail performance, thus revealing their importance. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the rare empirical investigation of the IM notion in the firm and provides evidence on both its synthesis and its impact on business performance. The authors synthesize the concepts of internal market and ICOs providing a new approach to IM. Construct and research propositions have been axiomatic and in an only conceptual context until recently. Keywords Internal marketing, Business performance, Retailing, Supermarkets, Greece Paper type Research paper

Amani Mojtaba

Deogratias Bugandwa

Internal marketing, employee job satisfaction, and perceived organizational performance in microfinance institutions Eddy balemba kanyurhi Déogratias BUGANDWA Mugu Akonkwa Article information:

Prokopis Theodoridis

... definition of the IM concept and relevant valid measures (Varey, 1995; Rafiq and Ahmed, 1993; Ahmed and Rafiq, 1995; Rafiq and Ahmed ... productivity (Cronin and Skinner, 1984; Ingene, 1982, 1984; Dobson, 2005; Reynolds et al., 2005) and stock turn (Dawson and Shaw, 1989 ...

Journal of Marketing Management

Jodie Conduit , Felix Mavondo

Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Denizcilik Fakültesi Dergisi

gamze arabelen , Esra Baran

The internal marketing concept is an important part of holistic marketing and services marketing triangle, and it argues that the needs and wants of employees must be satisfied by viewing them as internal customers. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of internal marketing activities on employees' job satisfaction. In order to reach the aim of the study, as a quantitative research method, the survey method was used. A total of 157 questionnaires were conducted through office employees of container line ship agents in İzmir. 143 usable responses were collected and data were analyzed by SPSS 20.0 software program. Regression analysis was used to examine the effects of internal marketing on job satisfaction. The research findings revealed that the internal marketing (development, vision and communication, and reward system) has a positive effect on job satisfaction of the office employees of container line ship agents in İzmir. Consequently, this research contributes to the related literature and also to container line agents' managers in terms of internal marketing activities and employees' job satisfaction. ÖZET İçsel pazarlama kavramı bütünsel pazarlamanın ve hizmet pazarlaması üçgeninin önemli bir parçasıdır ve çalışanları iç müşteri olarak görerek, onların istek ve ihtiyaçlarının tatmin edilmesi gerektiğini savunur. Bu araştırmanın temel amacı, içsel pazarlama faaliyetlerinin çalışanların iş tatmini üzerindeki etkisini araştırmaktır. Çalışmanın amacına ulaşmak için, bir nicel araştırma yöntemi olarak, anket yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Toplam 157 anket İzmir'deki konteyner hat gemi acentelerinin ofis çalışanlarına uygulanmıştır. 143 adet kullanılabilir anket toplanmış ve veriler SPSS 20.0 yazılım programı ile analiz edilmiştir. İçsel pazarlamanın iş tatmini üzerindeki etkisini incelemek için regresyon analizi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın bulguları, içsel pazarlamanın (gelişim, vizyon ve iletişim, ve ödüllendirme sistemi) İzmir'deki konteyner hat gemi acenteleri ofis çalışanlarının iş tatminleri üzerinde pozitif bir etkiye sahip olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Sonuç olarak bu araştırma, konuyla ilgili yazına katkıda bulunup aynı zamanda içsel pazarlama faaliyetleri ve çalışanların iş tatmini açısından konteyner hat gemi acentesi yöneticilerine katkı sağlamaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Hizmet pazarlaması, içsel pazarlama, iş tatmini, gemi acentesi, İzmir.

Ijbmm Journal

Service sector is flourishing in India and contributing a lion's share to the economic growth. India's services sector includes a wide variety of activities such as trade, hotel and restaurants, transport, storage and communication, financing, insurance, real estate, business services, community, social and personal services, and services associated with construction. The human element in service delivery process plays a crucial role in each and every interaction between the employee and customer. The presence of efficient, satisfied and loyal employee is the backbone of a service industry. Irrespective of technological advancements in banks, quality comes from people. For this reason, banks have increased their focus on the attraction, retention and satisfaction of quality employees in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage. The internal marketing has been identified as a mechanism which could able to attract, retain and motivate employees for achieving organizational goals. This paper has made an attempt to present a critical review of related literature on concepts and theories of internal marketing and it elements The paper has also indented to derive the linkage between the 7 Ps of internal marketing mix and employee satisfaction. The study is based on secondary data which were collected from various sources like journal articles with peer-reviewed, books, government publication, conference proceedings and other relevant works. The study constructed a conceptual model depicting the relationship of seven factors of internal marketing mix named as internal product, internal price, internal place, internal promotion, internal people, internal process and internal physical evidence with employee satisfaction.

… proceedings: Marketing in the Age of …

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BBR-Brazilian Business Review

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Remus Ionut Naghi

Since the emergence of the concept of internal marketing in the literature there have been almost 40 years. This period was marked by a constant increase of the concerns in the internal marketing area, these efforts being evidenced by the publication of a consistent number of articles (conceptual and empirical) which analyze this subject. Considering the previous empirical studies, most of them have focused on studying the relationship between internal marketing and employee satisfaction and / or organizational commitment. However, the relationship between internal marketing and its consequences has been less analyzed in the context of emergent economies. In this paper we aimed to analyze the individual consequences of the internal marketing in the Romanian economy context, focusing our attention on three constructs: employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. The research was conducted on a sample of 83 medium and large companies in various sectors of the Romanian economy. In order to proceed with the statistical data analyses we followed these steps: verifying the scales reliability, determining factor loadings and research hypotheses testing. Our research results are consistent with results of previous studies showing that the adoption of internal marketing practice has a positive effect on employee satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior.

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The Influence of Internal Marketing and Job Satisfaction on Task Performance and Counterproductive Work Behavior in an Emerging Market during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Associated data.

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due the fact that they were obtained within the project POCU 123793 entitled “Researcher, future entrepreneur—New Generation of the Operational Program Human Capital 2014–2020.

To reduce the spread of the virus, authorities have imposed restrictive measures, such as limiting movement of individuals, shutting down non-essential stores, imposing a general or local quarantine, along with physical distancing and isolation of vulnerable people. Remote working has become the ‘new normal’ for many organizations, engendering further challenges for employees, who have started experiencing anxiety, technostress caused by digitalization and lack of social interaction, frustration, occupational burden, counterproductive work behavior, exhaustion, burnout, depersonalization, and increased turnover intention. All these factors, corroborated by prolonged restrictions, have contributed to a decrease in employee satisfaction, diminishing performance and generating a counterproductive behavior. Based on Social Exchange Theory, this research plans to investigate the influence of internal marketing on job satisfaction, task performance, and counterproductive work behavior in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in an emerging market, namely Romania. Based on a quantitative research study among 850 employees, we show that internal marketing strongly and significantly impacts job satisfaction, while insignificantly impacting task performance and counterproductive work behavior. Job satisfaction actuates task performance in a significant and positive manner, contributing to a reduction in counterproductive work behaviors. This paper highlights the effects of internal marketing orientation on job satisfaction, and the effects of job satisfaction on job performance and counterproductive work behaviors.

1. Introduction

The COVID-19 global pandemic has become a reality in managing the processes of organizational health, and in the recent management of human resources [ 1 , 2 , 3 ], with direct implications on employee satisfaction and performance [ 4 ], together with the effects and vast repercussions on employee wellbeing. Managers [ 5 ] and authorities [ 6 ] are not always fully aware of these effects. To remain in the market, organizations from various industries have devoted considerable effort to adapt to the turbulent conditions in their dynamics, and to identify solutions and proper strategies [ 6 , 7 ].

For well over a year, the new socio-economic context, especially in sanitation [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], has affected the way employees perform their tasks and duties. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic [ 12 , 13 , 14 ] has demanded decision-making in terms of isolation and physical distancing of individuals, and employees in particular [ 15 ]. The restrictive measures have imposed a reorganization of internal processes and procedures regarding subsequent economic activities [ 16 ]. If at first employees’ work was suspended for various time periods [ 17 , 18 ], thereafter, teleworking has become the new reality [ 1 , 2 , 19 , 20 ]. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, human resources managers are facing challenges in maintaining a proper level of job satisfaction among employees, in coordinating them, and in encouraging efficiency in the performance and implementation of assumed tasks [ 4 ]. Therefore, internal marketing assumes a major role in maintaining and increasing employees’ job satisfaction [ 21 , 22 ], boosting organizational engagement [ 23 , 24 ], and increasing performance under unfamiliar conditions in the performance of tasks and duties according to job descriptions [ 23 ].

This paper plans to fill a research gap regarding the extent to which, in the context of the pandemic, internal marketing may provide a solution to increase employee satisfaction, to diminish counterproductive work behavior, and to increase task performance within an organization. Based on the Social Exchange Theory, the authors have implemented a quantitative study in an emerging market heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic [ 13 ], identifying the degree to which the internal marketing orientation of organizations influences job satisfaction, the accomplishment and fulfilment of tasks, and the diminishing of unproductive work behavior among employees.

The paper is structured as follows: the following section is comprised of a literature review regarding the approach of internal marketing within organizations and its role in managing human resources in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this framework, the role of employees’ job satisfaction and performance in accomplishing tasks with regards to organizational health and stability are highlighted. The third section covers the context and research methodology, the conceptual framework, and analysis process, followed by the discussion and results in comparison with existing data from the literature. The final section consists of the theoretical contributions of the paper to the advancement of Social Exchange Theory, the managerial implications, and the limitations and research prospects.

2. Literature Review and Conceptual Model Development

The socio-economic crisis engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a change in the operating strategy of all organizations, and a re-thinking of activities performed by employees [ 1 , 2 , 18 ]: the wearing of masks, constant disinfecting [ 25 ], switching from working in an office to working remotely—namely teleworking, etc. These changes have led to the use of multiple technologies and digital tools [ 26 ] to perform ordinary tasks: attending and/or organizing meetings through video conferencing, collaborating with team-mates regarding task fulfillment, preparing reports and/or presentations, using electronic registers, etc. [ 27 ]. Teleworking is not a new phenomenon and has been used to a certain extent in the past [ 28 ]. However, it has now become the preferred means of work for many organizations, especially in the service industries, for they must abide by the social distancing norms [ 20 ] and have had to reduce employee traffic [ 2 ]. This has been strongly favored by recent developments in digital technologies [ 29 ] and virtual communication [ 17 , 30 ]. Teleworking has been met by employers and employees with understanding and acceptance, as it is deemed an essential lever for the continuation of organizational activities in close-to-normal conditions [ 1 , 31 ]. Nonetheless, teleworking poses great challenges due to the lack of face-to-face social interaction [ 20 , 30 ], stress [ 3 , 32 ], and employee exhaustion [ 33 ], affecting their mental health [ 33 , 34 ]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations must maintain an acceptable level of job satisfaction [ 35 ], increasing employee productivity [ 36 ]. In this new working environment, it is hence important for human resource management to adopt procedures and work policies capable of maintaining employee motivation [ 37 ].

The complexities of the phenomena and social implications generated by the COVID-19 pandemic—namely stress, exhaustion, anxiety, burnout, counterproductive work behaviors, along with motivation, performance, health, wellbeing, development, and employee satisfaction—can be explained with the help of the Social Exchange Theory [ 38 ]. Social exchange is founded on specific conditions, such as interdependence, social relations, and obligations between parties [ 39 ]. One of the Social Exchange Theory assumptions is that within organizational relationships, the exchange of two parties is based on reciprocity [ 40 , 41 ]: when employees feel supported and rewarded, they manifest positive and proactive attitudes and behaviors regarding their work, thus supporting desirable practices [ 42 ]. Essentially, the employee-employer relationship takes shape and is strengthened based on these conditions. In an organizational context, employees tend to understand employee-employer reciprocity, and are prone to manifest positive attitudes and obtain results for the benefit of the organization when the latter helps and/or supports them [ 38 ]. In internal marketing research, Social Exchange Theory shows a theoretical worth in evaluating the exchange between organization management that offers support through communication, development and rewards, and employees’ performance [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ].

Such an organizational endeavor contributes not only to the physical wellbeing and mental health of employees, but also to a balancing of the climate within the organization. Under conditions of organizational stress, along with the technostress caused by excessive use of modern communication technologies, and due to teleworking, employees can feel support through better internal communication with their employer [ 42 ]. Internal communication as a component of internal marketing [ 21 ] has developed a new edge and an increased importance. Moreover, well-designed, and consistent internal marketing may contribute hugely to the reversal of the damaging effects engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic [ 48 ].

Social changes and behaviors generated by this pandemic are perceived differently by employees—to some people they seem beneficial, allowing them to spend more time with their families and to easily manage their household activities [ 30 ], but to other people, the exposure to online communication technology, increased mobile device usage, learning of new procedures and the necessity of online platforms combined with the lack of social interactions and limiting of social gatherings has fostered discomfort, generating anxiety, stress, and exhaustion [ 1 , 20 , 34 ].

2.1. Internal Marketing

Internal marketing represents the human resource management of an organization, wherein the employee is considered its internal client [ 49 ]. This approach was considered a possible solution to the delivery of high-quality services by satisfying employee needs in the 1970s [ 50 ]. According to this philosophy [ 51 ], employees pose as internal clients, whose jobs are assimilated with the internal products of the organization. These must be comprised of tasks and duties that satisfy the needs of the internal clients. In this manner, the organization, along with its internal clients, can achieve their set objectives and strategies. Thereafter, this concept was developed, experiencing three stages of evolution [ 52 ]: the first one was aimed at employee satisfaction and motivation [ 51 , 53 ]; the second was aimed towards the consumer (external client), internal marketing becoming a form of integration of various vital functions enhancing customer relations [ 54 ]; whereas the third stage transformed internal marketing in a mechanism for the implementation of organizational strategies [ 55 ].

Internal marketing has been approached oftentimes in the organizational context [ 23 ], having been analyzed through communication of the organization’s vision, and the development and rewarding of employees [ 56 ]. Internal communication with employees is deemed the relational component of internal marketing, bearing a significant influence on the increase in job satisfaction and organizational engagement [ 57 ]. Through internal marketing, an organization ensures that the promise of a satisfying result for clients can be met with success [ 55 ], fostering positive implications in boosting employee satisfaction [ 21 , 22 ], subsequent organizational engagement [ 24 , 57 ], and in improving performance of the provided service [ 58 ]. Internal marketing orientation on an organizational level has been studied in all sectors: in the productive sector [ 59 ], in the tertiary sector [ 24 , 55 , 58 , 60 ], in public institutions [ 61 ], and in nonprofit organizations [ 29 , 62 , 63 ]. In stressful situations, especially the technostress engendered by the necessity or mandatory use of technological devices [ 64 ], internal marketing orientation constitutes a mode propitious for increasing performance and employee satisfaction, along with the reduction of subsequent negative results [ 24 , 58 , 60 , 65 ].

In internal marketing theory, there are various dimensions to this construct. One of the largely accepted models of internal marketing is comprised of the following dimensions: communicating vision, and the development and rewarding of personnel [ 56 , 66 , 67 ]. From an internal marketing perspective, communicating vision is defined as how an organization conveys its purpose, objectives, and strategies to every employee [ 56 , 68 , 69 ]. Organizations that constantly communicate their objectives and vision to their employees manage to mobilize them towards increased performance, boosting their satisfaction owing to the sense of belonging to a successful organization, along with an increased engagement towards that organization [ 69 ]. Developing personnel is a central element of internal marketing orientation [ 56 ]. It consists of all modes through which an organization facilitates the professional development of its employees, via training, materials, courses, supervisors, etc. [ 29 , 63 , 67 ]. Developing personnel as a dimension of internal marketing significantly increases job satisfaction and individual performance [ 70 , 71 ]. However, the impact of internal marketing on counterproductive work behaviors has been studied too little; studies in human resources show that the development of personnel contributes to a reduction in counterproductive behaviors [ 72 ].

Rewarding personnel depending on the evaluation of performance results is another important dimension in internal marketing [ 56 , 67 , 70 ]. This shows the degree of implementation of certain evaluation systems in terms of performance, and various forms of results rewards that contribute to the welfare of the organization [ 52 , 73 ]. Those organizations which employ performance evaluation and reward systems record better results and more highly satisfied employees [ 71 ]. When a reward system is unfair, and the social exchange between an organization and its employees is not equitable, the employees’ wellbeing and health may be negatively affected [ 74 ], leading to repercussions in terms of task management and organizational results.

2.2. Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction represents a positive attitude [ 75 , 76 ] or favorable emotion of the employee towards the activity carried out [ 77 ], enhancing the working environment and thus contributing to a favorable atmosphere in the workplace [ 78 ]. This attitude reflects a high degree of employee wellbeing and is often associated with the desire to show more dedication towards the organization [ 79 ]. A satisfied employee will show reduced turnover intention [ 80 , 81 ], making considerable efforts not only at better integration, but also to represent the organization with dignity and pride [ 82 ]. Job satisfaction is perceived as a good indicator of employee wellbeing [ 83 ] or as a dimension of employee happiness regarding the workplace [ 84 ]. This employee attitude [ 76 ] is of paramount importance for human resource managers who understand that maintaining employees in the long run, and increasing engagement and performance depends on job satisfaction [ 79 , 81 , 85 ].

Job satisfaction is a complex construct [ 80 ] with multiple facets, valences, and implications. Satisfaction is assimilated with an employee’s contentment with the organization [ 86 ]; it is also an accumulation of work situations shaped by the relationship between the employee and co-workers, the relationship with supervisors, the working environment [ 87 ], value of work [ 88 ], pay grade, the manner in which the work done favors personal health, work acknowledgement, promotion opportunities, job security, and degree of organizational concern for the employee’s needs, etc. [ 81 ].

In situations that require high resilience to stress [ 89 , 90 ], or where employees are forced to adapt to changes in activity in their workplace [ 76 ], maintaining a high level of job satisfaction is an unrealistic goal [ 76 ]. Therefore, internal marketing is even more important for positive and sustained job satisfaction [ 22 , 24 , 60 ]. Organizations that deem their employees to be internal clients manage to maintain and, over time, increase their level of satisfaction [ 24 ]. When an organization offers sustained support to their employees in their development [ 91 ], by appreciating them, supporting them, and acknowledging their merits, they will be significantly more satisfied with their work done [ 60 ]. Personnel satisfaction is directly influenced by psychosocial support in their career and by the quality of the mentoring, which has direct implications on employee development [ 92 ]. There are close links between job satisfaction and the dimensions of internal marketing—internal communication of organizational vision, personnel development, and performance-based rewards [ 65 , 91 , 92 , 93 , 94 ]. Therefore, we postulate that:

Internal marketing influences job satisfaction.

2.3. Individual Job Performance—Task Performance and Counterproductive Work Behavior

Job performance consists of all the completed tasks in a period by the employees of an organization, and is the total value expected by the organization from the individual behaviors of their employees [ 95 ]. When employees display positive emotions regarding their organization, they will manifest behaviors of organizational citizenship, identifying to a certain extent with it and thus increasing their productivity and the desire to complete their tasks. However, in the case of negative emotions towards the workplace, employees will display counterproductive behaviors [ 96 ].

An employee’s individual performance is touched on from the perspective of three dimensions, namely task performance, contextual performance, and counterproductive work behavior [ 97 , 98 ]. This approach has been highly debated in the literature [ 90 , 99 , 100 ], studies offering a multidimensional perspective on the way employees perceive their own performance or display counterproductive behaviors [ 97 , 98 ]. As intriguing as the analysis of counterproductive work behavior regarding employees’ individual performance may seem, its consideration is entirely justified because, if performance expresses efficiency, then counterproductivity expresses the opposite, namely employees’ inefficiency to handle the tasks and/or the duties, namely the workload. Of course, an employee’s counterproductivity may be a result of individual shortcomings, such as the lack of certain abilities, knowledge, or skills. Such behavior may be detrimental to the organization, engendering damaging effects to its organizational health [ 95 ].

Employee’s task fulfillment performance is of paramount importance to human resource management within an organization because it is linked to the efficiency of the entire activity [ 100 ]. Fundamentally, it is an accumulation of employee results, such as proper task planning so that tasks are completed on time, orientation towards result maximization and effort minimization, prioritization of important tasks over less important ones, and their efficient completion with minimal time and effort [ 97 , 98 ].

Counterproductive work behavior may be manifested by employees through various attitudes or actions with a negative impact [ 95 ], namely complaining to co-workers or people outside the organization about issues encountered, stress, or lack of acknowledgement in the workplace. Granted, they may exaggerate the difficulty or scale of a given task, focusing mostly on the negative aspects of tasks, and minimizing the positive ones [ 98 ]. Job performance is determined by a multitude of factors, two of which are internal marketing [ 23 , 101 , 102 ] and employee job satisfaction [ 24 , 103 ]. Internal communication and employee development through training are two components of internal marketing and can generate an increase in job satisfaction and employee performance [ 91 ]. Therefore, we consider that:

Internal marketing influences task performance.

Internal marketing is dealt with in relation to job performance [ 104 ] and organizational performance [ 102 ], highlighting its role in creating the necessary premises for the reduction of counterproductive work behaviors of employees. Internal marketing has direct implications for the orientation and development of employees so that they are more likely to contribute to increase in client satisfaction and to enhancing organizational performance [ 68 ]. At the same time, it has been proven that internal marketing has a significant impact in diminishing unwanted organizational influences, such as turnover intention [ 105 ]. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

Internal marketing influences counterproductive work behavior.

Employee job performance constitutes the main vector of organizational efficiency, so human resource managers should prioritize its enhancement [ 95 ]. Job satisfaction constitutes perhaps the main driving force behind the increase in employee performance [ 90 ], thus strongly contributing to the reduction of counterproductive work behavior [ 106 ]. An increase in job satisfaction among employees will motivate them to obtain better results, to plan their work more thoroughly, and to become more efficient in task fulfillment. At the same time, they will be more careful when presenting their organization and/or their superiors to third parties; they are more likely to avoid talking down their own organization, or displaying any infamous behaviors [ 98 ], while becoming more devoted to their workload [ 90 ].

Job satisfaction plays an essential role in overcoming difficult moments, enhancing employee resilience in their organizational endeavors, even when subject to various crises, such as socio-economic, political, etc. disasters [ 90 ]. When employees are satisfied with their jobs, they perform work of a higher quality, thus contributing through advice, counselling, and recommendations to satisfying clients, and implicitly to their own satisfaction towards the organization and its endeavors [ 24 , 103 ], and become more adept at task fulfillment [ 24 , 91 ]. Individual job performance consists of a set of activities which contribute to the results of an organization. When employee needs concerning development and training, autonomy and social support are met, they will be more motivated to invest their physical, mental, and emotional energy in their work, boosting performance [ 107 ]. Therefore, we consider that:

Job satisfaction influences task performance.

Negative behaviors in the workplace have been carefully approached in the literature due to the significant psychological, social, and economic implications on the working environment [ 108 ]. Previous studies highlight the negative association of job satisfaction with counterproductive work behaviors [ 108 , 109 , 110 , 111 ]. If work-related stress generates a counterproductive work behavior, quality relationships between employees and an atmosphere without tension favors their job satisfaction [ 112 , 113 ]. Among the counterproductive behaviors encountered in organizations, such as sabotage, diversion or slowdown in production, harmful behavior towards other employees, or co-workers’ verbal abuse [ 110 ], these are often the result of unsatisfactory work [ 114 ]. Therefore, we propose the hypothesis:

Job satisfaction influences counterproductive work behavior.

Taking into consideration the positive influence of internal marketing and job satisfaction on task performance [ 24 , 58 , 60 ], but also with regards to the reduction of employee counterproductive work behaviors [ 111 ], we propose an analysis of the contribution of internal marketing on job satisfaction, task performance, and counterproductive work behaviors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in an emerging market ( Figure 1 ).

The influence of internal marketing on job satisfaction, task performance, and counterproductive work behavior.

3. Research Methodology

3.1. research design and context.

With a view to identifying the extent to which internal marketing influences job satisfaction, task performance and counterproductive behavior in the context of the sanitation pandemic generated by COVID-19, the authors resorted to implementing an explorative quantitative study among employees in Romania. Choosing Romania as the research context was justified because employee performance has been affected by the new pandemic context. Employees spend more time at work and report lower individual performance than before the pandemic [ 115 , 116 ]. This research was based on the investigation model, using self-administered online questionnaires as a tool. The invitation to participate was disseminated by the authors on different social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), educational platforms, and directly to various organizations.

The questionnaire was filled out by Romanian residents with an employment contract valid at the time of response. The data were collected during the state of emergency and lockdown, over spring-summer of 2020, totaling 850 complete and valid questionnaires according to literature specifications [ 117 ]. Although we collected almost 1000 questionnaires, we dropped from the final sample those with missing data. Sampling was one of convenience, aiming to maintain sampling according to age and gender in accordance with the distribution specified in the Statistical Yearbook of Romania [ 118 ]. The structure of the sampling according to the type of employing organizations is presented in Table 1 .

The structure of the sampling according to the type of employing organizations ( n = 850).

The respondents were employees residing in Romania with employment contracts at foreign private companies (31.64%), privately owned companies (50.47%), and public institutions (17.88%). The largest number of respondents were from the higher education sector (74.35%), of which most employees worked in privately owned companies (32.52%). The research was implemented within organizations with over 500 employees—11.29% were respondents of foreign private companies, 5.8% worked in privately owned companies, and 2.35% in public institutions—and within medium-sized companies ranging from 51 to 500 employees—11.64% were respondents of foreign private companies, 10.58% worked in privately owned companies, and 7.17% in public institutions—and small-sized companies ranging from 1 to 50 employees—7.6% were respondents in foreign private companies, 32.33% worked in privately owned companies, and 6.47 were respondents in public institutions. In Romania, the COVID-19 pandemic generated an emergency state in March-May 2020, when most public institutions and private companies shifted to teleworking: 60.23% of respondents in our study had to do their work through teleworking. During this time, 26.58% of our respondents reported that their job security was directly affected, while 19.76% declared they felt job insecurity. Among the respondents, 16.82% declared that they felt frustrated by having to work remotely, given the COVID-19 pandemic.

3.2. Variable Measurement and Data Analysis

The investigated dimensions presented in Figure 1 have been operationalized according to literature specifications, the authors using the scale of internal marketing orientation [ 56 ], job satisfaction [ 119 ], and individual work performance (Individual Work Performance Questionnaire: IWPQ) for employee task performance and counterproductive work behavior [ 98 ]. For data validity, reliability, and internal consistency, the following were employed: Cronbach α (>0.7) coefficient, KMO criterion (>0.7), Bartlett test of sphericity, and exploratory factor analysis [ 120 , 121 , 122 ]. The data are presented in Table 2 . The obtained values for the Fit indicators are higher than the minimum threshold, which indicates the validity and reliability of data and allows for subsequent data analysis. The results of the factor analysis show that the considered constructs can be delimitated properly one from another and that they are stable [ 123 ].

Results of data validity and reliability regarding collected data.

1 —Cronbach α coefficient (to verify data reliability); 2 —Kaiser-Meyer-Ohlin criterion (exploratory factor analysis) for every dimension; 3 —Bartlett test of sphericity (χ 2 —Chi-square, df: degree of freedom, p: probability; ** p < 0.001).

Thereafter, all the items were included in a single factor analysis [ 120 , 121 , 122 ], which confirmed the stability of each construct [ 117 ] (KMO: 0.956 > 0.7, χ 2 : 18.058,967 ****; df: 595), the results thus highlighting five factors ( Table 3 ). Internal marketing constitutes a dimension [ 56 ], and 3 items of the scales were removed because they loaded more factors, which indicates an inconsistency [ 117 ].

Operationalisation of constructs.

Notes: EV: Eigenvariance; % of var: percentage of variance; Factors in the order of their extraction. Extraction Method: Principal Axis Factoring. Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization; Rotation converged in 9 iterations.

Following the analysis of the exploratory factor analysis, the research model has been adapted according to the results ( Figure 1 ), and the aggregated data were analyzed with the help of structural equations modelling done in AMOS [ 70 ].

4. Results and Discussions

During structural equations modelling (SEM), the goodness-of-fit indices exceed the minimum values of sample adequacy specified in the literature: GFI, AGFI, NFI, CFI, TLI > 0.8; RMSEA, SRMR ≤ 0.08 [ 120 , 121 , 122 ], which allowed for the validation of the model ( Figure 1 ) and data interpretation ( Table 4 ).

The influence of internal marketing on job satisfaction and job performance.

Note: n.s. —not significant; ** p < 0.001; goodness-of-fit indices of the structural model: χ 2 /df: 4.665; GFI: 0.997; AGFI: 0.973; NFI: 0.995; CFI: 0.996; TLI: 0.974; SRMR: 0.0208 ≤ 0.08; RMSEA: 0.066 ≤ 0.08.

The results of the SEM analysis of the sample (850 cases) highlights that the dimensions of internal marketing influence job satisfaction directly (0.721 ***) and significantly. Increasing satisfaction is directly and strongly determined by the internal marketing components. Therefore, H1 is validated. This result is corroborated with the literature, which demonstrates that the orientation of an organization towards meeting the needs of its employees [ 49 , 55 ] is associated with wellbeing and job satisfaction [ 22 , 24 , 60 ]. Internal marketing had no significant impact on the job performance of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, which invalidates the H2 hypothesis. The results are rather surprising, as they contradict previous studies [ 68 ], which highlight a significant and positive link between internal marketing dimensions and job performance. Most likely the COVID-19 pandemic has baffled previous value systems and employee perceptions due to uncertainty and the return to the office being constantly postponed, teleworking thus becoming ‘the new normal’.

Internal marketing has no significant influence on counterproductive behavior, which leads to the rejection of H3. These results are also surprising, for previous studies confirmed the significant influence of internal marketing [ 24 , 58 , 60 , 68 ] at the organizational level [ 105 ]. Most likely the research context generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed the perception of respondents. Nevertheless, job satisfaction has a significant and positive, though less intense impact on task performance (0.296 **), which allows for the validation of H4. This result confirms previous studies from the literature [ 90 ]. Job satisfaction has a significant and negative impact, though less intense, on counterproductive work behaviors (−0.275 **), which allows for the validation of H5. This result confirms the conclusions found in the literature [ 109 , 110 , 111 , 112 ].

The positive influence of internal marketing on job satisfaction was emphasized within various types of organizations. In private companies [ 24 , 71 ] and public institutions [ 124 ], internal marketing practices generate an increase in employee satisfaction. For instance, the implementation of internal marketing led to positive results among 355 employees within the hospitality industry, thus marking its significant and positive impact on job satisfaction [ 5 ]. Similar results were obtained from research involving Greek hospitals [ 124 ]. Especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of internal marketing is considered important for employee management [ 48 ] and to provide high-quality services [ 125 ].

The strongest evidence concerning the influence of internal marketing on job performance comes from the services sector [ 23 , 102 ]. A study among 617 Chinese employees in IT highlights the influence of internal marketing on psychological empowerment, a dimension which determines job performance [ 101 ]. By mediating organizational engagement, internal marketing influences job performance, an aspect also confirmed by Varshney and Varshney [ 90 ].

While little interest has been shown in the literature on studying the influence of internal marketing on counterproductive work behaviors, this has assumed a key role in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reduction of counterproductive work behaviors and maintaining of a high level of job satisfaction among employees subject to various changes such as teleworking [ 2 , 20 ], or the introduction of new social distancing norms [ 20 ] can be achieved with the aid of internal marketing. Therefore, job satisfaction assumes the role of mediator between various precursor variables and counterproductive work behavior, diminishing its manifestation among employees [ 109 , 111 , 112 ].

5. Conclusions

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, human resource management is subject to new challenges in maintaining a high level of job satisfaction, task performance, and a reduction of counterproductive work behaviors. Internal marketing represents the way an organization may meet the needs of its employees, thus contributing to an increase in performance, and positively impacting the desired results. At the same time, internal marketing contributes to the reduction of unwanted behaviors, attitudes, and negative effects of work. This paper expands the research from internal marketing theory, thus confirming the strong and significant link between the internal marketing orientation of an organization and job satisfaction, whilst also showing that internal marketing does not directly contribute to the reduction of counterproductive work behaviors. Nevertheless, there is an indirect role of internal marketing in reducing counterproductive work behaviors by increasing job satisfaction, an attitude which has direct and significant implications for organizations, in the improvement of task performance, and the reduction of counterproductive work behavior. This paper contributes to the Social Exchange Theory [ 126 ], based on the premise that employees will foster positive attitudes towards the organization and engage with its endeavors provided they feel supported by it. Therefore, the influence of internal marketing on job satisfaction confirms the advantageous social exchange for both parties—job satisfaction has positive implications on task performance and is a determinant in the reduction of counterproductive work behaviors.

The managerial contributions of this paper consist in pointing out the importance of internal marketing in enhancing job satisfaction within an organization in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis has come with changes in the way employees perform their activities, which have been met with resistance and a degree of concern from many employees. Maintaining job satisfaction at a high level is directly and strongly determined by the manner in which an organization communicates its vision, employee development endeavors through training, and the promotion of reward systems based on measuring employee performance. Therefore, the policy of human resources requires an approach through which employees’ needs are a central objective in maintaining a high level of job satisfaction. The obtained results reflect that internal marketing has no direct influence on the reduction of counterproductive work behaviors, but by boosting job satisfaction, there is a significant reduction in counterproductive work behaviors. The dimension of rewarding performance highlights—according to the results—a negative impact, though less intense, on job performance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing satisfaction comes with a desired effect of encouraging individual job performance, achieved through proper planning of tasks, their successful fulfillment, orientation towards results, and proper prioritization.

Research limitations envisage internal marketing analysis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic only through the lens of organizational results. The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed major changes in the way employees perform their work, such as massive implementation of teleworking, even by organizations and institutions that have never previously employed such a practice. We did not analyze the impact of COVID 19 on work behavior. This would be another research context and the topic of another paper. Digitalization forced by the necessity of physical distancing, the stress concerning infection, technostress, and other factors have contributed to the diminishing of employee comfort. In the future, studies will have to take into consideration the impact of teleworking on employee task performance, their work engagement and/or the decrease in turnover intention or employee intention to quit. At the same time, future studies might take into consideration the effects of stress generated by teleworking and digitalization. Human resource management is subject to new challenges for which pertinent and proper solutions must be implemented so that there is an increase in employee job satisfaction and a decrease in counterproductive work behaviors. Future research might consider applying a hierarchical linear modelling for such a research question, which would require collecting a new set of data. In a future study, organizational variables, and personal variables, for example, organizational commitment and a psychological variable, could be included as intermediary or regulating variables, and corresponding control variables could be incorporated to exclude relevant influencing factors to obtain more representative conclusions.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, M.-S.N. and D.-C.D.; methodology, M.-S.N.; software, M.-S.N.; validation, M.-S.N.; formal analysis, M.-S.N.; investigation, D.-C.D.; resources, M.-S.N. and D.-C.D.; data curation, D.-C.D.; writing—original draft preparation, M.-S.N.; writing—review and editing, D.-C.D.; visualization, D.-C.D.; supervision, D.-C.D.; funding acquisition, M.-S.N. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This work was possible with the financial support of the Operational Program Human Capital 2014–2020, under the project number POCU 123793 entitled “Researcher, future entrepreneur—New Generation”.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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A systematic review of the influence of internal marketing on service innovation.

1. Introduction

1.1. theoretical background, 1.1.1. internal marketing, 1.1.2. service innovation, 1.1.3. linking internal marketing and service innovation, 2. materials and methods.

• Search protocol: We used the Scopus library to collect the appropriate journals related to this study. Scopus is a user-friendly platform and allows us to create and use our parameters in its search engine. It informs every phase of the editorial process, and this strictness influenced our decision to choose Scopus.
• Main keywords: We used the main keywords, such as “internal marketing” and “service innovation.” However, we did not consider papers where only one of these keywords was used. The reason we strictly focused on having both main keywords is that we wanted to investigate the fundamental core variables that link between them. Besides, we excluded conference papers, reviews, essays, and undefined documents that we once considered as working papers or not the final version.
• Year of publication: We sampled relevant articles that consist of the main keywords between 1990 and 2016. The reason we used the range between these periods is the rising demand in the area of study. Concerning the purpose of this research, the selected period of study between 1990 and 2016 is relevant because we wanted to see the changes of a trend in the area of study, as well as to identify the potential variables that link between internal marketing and service innovation.
• Language: We considered only articles published in English because the majority of journals with impact factor are in English, and due to the linguistic limitation.
• Quality: The reason we considered the journals with an impact factor is that we tried to be consistent with academic trends. However, this does not mean that other publications do not contribute or are less relevant for academic arenas. The significance of using journals with an impact factor is the validated knowledge in the field, so we feel that this criterion could provide an appropriate picture of the current issues and debates in internal marketing ( Keupp et al. 2012 ).

2.1. Data Sources and Mapping the Evidence

2.2. procedures, 2.3. data analysis, 3.1. overall trends, 3.2. regarding objectives, 3.3. regarding theoretical frameworks, 3.4. regarding methodologies, 3.5. regarding potential variables, 4. conclusions and recommendations, 5. managerial implications, 6. limitations, conflicts of interest.

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Raeisi, S.; Suhaili Ramli, N.; Lingjie, M. A Systematic Review of the Influence of Internal Marketing on Service Innovation. J. Risk Financial Manag. 2020 , 13 , 207. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13090207

Raeisi S, Suhaili Ramli N, Lingjie M. A Systematic Review of the Influence of Internal Marketing on Service Innovation. Journal of Risk and Financial Management . 2020; 13(9):207. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13090207

Raeisi, Soheila, Nur Suhaili Ramli, and Meng Lingjie. 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Influence of Internal Marketing on Service Innovation" Journal of Risk and Financial Management 13, no. 9: 207. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13090207

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Internal Marketing: Theories, Perspectives, and Stakeholders

• Edinburgh Business School
• School of Social Sciences

Research output : Book/Report › Book

This book traces the development of internal marketing from initial conceptualisation through to the current issues. It identifies both significant underlying tensions between major theorists and areas in which new perspectives may enrich our understanding of this crucial subject.

Internal marketing is the use of traditional strategies by organisations to market themselves to their employees. Presented in bite-sized sections, each of which dissects the most important themes and concepts underpinning the subject, this book explains how subsidiary areas of study have emerged and suggests how the introduction of concepts and perspectives from channel management literature can help analyse the dyadic encounters in which internal marketing takes place. Brown critically extends the scope of internal marketing theory yet further by presenting and analysing new interview transcripts to suggest that internal demarketing – an organisation making itself less attractive to its employees – may sometimes be undertaken intentionally.

 Internationally applicable and highly accessible, Internal Marketing is perfect for students, teachers, and researchers with an interest not only in internal marketing, but also in employer relations, internal branding, employer branding, and internal communications. It uses clear language and gradually introduces the reader to more sophisticated theoretical concepts step by step, with a uniquely focused, critical, and comprehensive thematic coverage of internal marketing and its extensive theoretical outputs.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

• Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)
• General Business,Management and Accounting

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• 10.4324/9781003081326

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• Link to publication in Scopus

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• Marketing Theory Social Sciences 100%
• Internal Marketing Social Sciences 100%
• HR Marketing Economics, Econometrics and Finance 100%
• marketing INIS 100%
• employees INIS 25%
• Student Teachers Social Sciences 12%
• Channel Management Social Sciences 12%
• market INIS 12%

T1 - Internal Marketing

T2 - Theories, Perspectives, and Stakeholders

AU - Brown, David M.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 David M. Brown.

PY - 2020/10/30

Y1 - 2020/10/30

N2 - This book traces the development of internal marketing from initial conceptualisation through to the current issues. It identifies both significant underlying tensions between major theorists and areas in which new perspectives may enrich our understanding of this crucial subject.Internal marketing is the use of traditional strategies by organisations to market themselves to their employees. Presented in bite-sized sections, each of which dissects the most important themes and concepts underpinning the subject, this book explains how subsidiary areas of study have emerged and suggests how the introduction of concepts and perspectives from channel management literature can help analyse the dyadic encounters in which internal marketing takes place. Brown critically extends the scope of internal marketing theory yet further by presenting and analysing new interview transcripts to suggest that internal demarketing – an organisation making itself less attractive to its employees – may sometimes be undertaken intentionally. Internationally applicable and highly accessible, Internal Marketing is perfect for students, teachers, and researchers with an interest not only in internal marketing, but also in employer relations, internal branding, employer branding, and internal communications. It uses clear language and gradually introduces the reader to more sophisticated theoretical concepts step by step, with a uniquely focused, critical, and comprehensive thematic coverage of internal marketing and its extensive theoretical outputs.

AB - This book traces the development of internal marketing from initial conceptualisation through to the current issues. It identifies both significant underlying tensions between major theorists and areas in which new perspectives may enrich our understanding of this crucial subject.Internal marketing is the use of traditional strategies by organisations to market themselves to their employees. Presented in bite-sized sections, each of which dissects the most important themes and concepts underpinning the subject, this book explains how subsidiary areas of study have emerged and suggests how the introduction of concepts and perspectives from channel management literature can help analyse the dyadic encounters in which internal marketing takes place. Brown critically extends the scope of internal marketing theory yet further by presenting and analysing new interview transcripts to suggest that internal demarketing – an organisation making itself less attractive to its employees – may sometimes be undertaken intentionally. Internationally applicable and highly accessible, Internal Marketing is perfect for students, teachers, and researchers with an interest not only in internal marketing, but also in employer relations, internal branding, employer branding, and internal communications. It uses clear language and gradually introduces the reader to more sophisticated theoretical concepts step by step, with a uniquely focused, critical, and comprehensive thematic coverage of internal marketing and its extensive theoretical outputs.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118408133&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.4324/9781003081326

DO - 10.4324/9781003081326

AN - SCOPUS:85118408133

SN - 9780367532925

SN - 9780367532970

BT - Internal Marketing

PB - Routledge

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, a holistic management tool for measuring internal marketing activities.

Journal of Services Marketing

ISSN : 0887-6045

Article publication date: 14 September 2015

The purpose of this paper is to synthesise internal marketing measures in two service settings across both Western and Eastern backgrounds. Well established views of internal marketing have emerged with more than 200 papers on the topic. To date, no clear accepted measure for the concept has emerged. The developed scale provides a new way of thinking drawing together a diverse range of measures to deliver a practical measure offering marketing managers a diagnostic tool to measure the degree that internal marketing has been applied (or not) inside their organisation.

Design/methodology/approach

Conceptual and operational definitions of internal marketing were analysed to generate an item pool for testing. Generated items were then tested in one higher education organisation ( n = 205) and in the tourism and hospitality industry with Australian and Taiwanese employees ( n = 458) using both English and Traditional Chinese survey versions. The data were analysed with SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 19.0. Reliability analysis was first undertaken to assess the hypothesised internal marketing factor structure followed by confirmatory factor analysis.

A 16-item, three-factor structure was obtained for internal marketing. This research suggests that internal marketing practice is a three-dimensional concept ideally consisting of internal market research, training and communication activities. The findings suggest that further research may be warranted to further expand academic definitions of internal marketing to encompass the varied activities undertaken by practising internal marketers.

Originality/value

This study provides a new measure of internal marketing practice for use in future that captures the majority of the activities undertaken by internal marketing practitioners.

• Higher education
• Internal marketing

Huang, Y.-T. and Rundle-Thiele, S. (2015), "A holistic management tool for measuring internal marketing activities", Journal of Services Marketing , Vol. 29 No. 6/7, pp. 571-584. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-03-2015-0112

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Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Internal marketing analysis for improving the internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation of employees in private-owned sports center

Contributed equally to this work with: Shi Qi Xu, Lian Zhou

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Sports Convergence Technology, Sangmyung University, Seoul, South Korea

Roles Conceptualization, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Software, Writing – original draft

Roles Conceptualization, Software, Visualization

Affiliation Department of Physical Education, Chung-ang University, Seoul, South Korea

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected] (D-HC); [email protected] (ZL)

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

• Shi Qi Xu, 
• Lian Zhou, 
• Seong Hun Kim, 
• Dong-Hwa Chung, 

• Published: August 10, 2023
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021
• Reader Comments

With the concept of “healthy lifestyle” deeply rooted in people’s minds, the sports service industry is thriving, which has resulted in intense competition. The sports service industry must improve its service quality to be competitive. Customer orientation is the key factor for enterprises to gain competitive advantage. With the in-depth understanding of internal marketing in the service industry. Managers have realized that treating employees as internal consumer is a good way to improve their satisfaction and gain customer orientation. However, what internal marketing strategies will have a positive effect on internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation of private-owned sports center employees are still unclear. In this investigation, a total of 326 employees from the private-owned sports center were used to investigate the effects of internal marketing strategies on internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation. All employees were asked to complete a questionnaire on 5-point scale. A path model was used to investigate the direct and indirect effects of hypothetical measurements on internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation. The findings suggested that internal communication, administrative support, and educational training were important factors affecting internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation. We concluded that the implementation of internal marketing strategies could improve internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation, and higher levels of internal consumer satisfaction will encourage employees to have higher degrees of customer orientation. Therefore, the implementation of internal marketing strategy was beneficial to the development of private-owned sports centers.

Citation: Xu SQ, Zhou L, Kim SH, Chung D-H, Li Z (2023) Internal marketing analysis for improving the internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation of employees in private-owned sports center. PLoS ONE 18(8): e0286021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021

Editor: Wojciech Trzebiński, SGH Warsaw School of Economics: Szkola Glowna Handlowa w Warszawie, POLAND

Received: October 27, 2022; Accepted: May 6, 2023; Published: August 10, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Xu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: "The data presented in this study are publicly available from the figshare repository ( https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21896796.v1 )."

Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The private-owned sports center is an infrastructure that provides convenient and diversified exercise programs at a reasonable price. With the concept of “healthy lifestyle” deeply rooted in people’s minds, the development of private-owned sports centers is thriving [ 1 ]. Simultaneously, the spread of sports culture promoted by government support also boosts the development of private-owned sports centers.

However, from the perspective of market supply, the excessive supply of private-owned sports centers makes the managers of sports centers encounter an intensely competitive market environment [ 2 ]. How to improve the benefits of enterprises in this environment has become a key issue for managers.

The benefits of enterprises are affected by internal and external factors. In the case that external factors are not easy to change, more and more managers are starting to pay attention to the management of internal factors [ 3 , 4 ]. In the service process of sports center, employee, also known as internal consumer, has a close relationship with customers [ 5 ]. The quality of service provided by employees plays a key role in affecting customers’ consumption mood. Higher service quality will make customers have higher consumption intention. Therefore, better performance will be achieved by understanding and satisfying individual needs to motivate internal customers [ 6 ]. Additionally, treating employees as initial customers and instilling service consciousness or customer first concept in them can optimize their service attitude. The strategy of satisfying employees’ needs and customer-centered service objectives is called internal marketing strategy [ 7 , 8 ]. From the perspective of marketing, the implementation of internal marketing strategy helps employees to have a positive attitude and is beneficial to the development of enterprises [ 7 , 8 ]. Therefore, the establishment of managing means centered on internal marketing management is necessary to make private-owned sports centers gain a stronger competitive advantage.

The successful implementation of internal marketing strategy can improve service quality by improving the satisfaction of internal consumers, so as to achieve the purpose of improving customer satisfaction [ 9 , 10 ]. So-called internal consumer satisfaction can be defined as the cheerful and positive emotional state of employees when they are engaged in work-related activities [ 10 ]. Internal consumer satisfaction plays a decisive role in commercial activities. It is reported that the implementation of internal marketing strategy can improve employees’ satisfaction and loyalty, and promote customers’ repeated purchase behavior [ 4 , 11 – 13 ].

Moreover, the intimate relationship between employees and customers is established by meeting the demands of customers. Therefore, the behavior of internal consumers has the characteristics of customer orientation [ 14 ]. That is, in the process of contacting customers, employees strive to understand the demand of customers and try their best to meet their demands [ 15 , 16 ]. Therefore, customer orientation plays an important role in enterprise development in a competitive environment [ 17 ].

By implementing internal marketing strategies, the sports center can improve internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation, thus improving customer satisfaction and realizing business behavior, which is of great significance to maintaining high competitiveness [ 14 ].

However, studies related to the development of private-owned sports centers are mainly focused on the aspects of customer satisfaction evaluation [ 18 ], customer loyalty [ 19 ], repurchase intention of customers [ 20 ], and the investigation of customer situation [ 21 ]. Currently, studies on the effects of internal marketing strategy on the marketing behavior of private-owned sports centers are still limited. Future development of private-owned sports centers will benefit from the implementation of internal marketing strategies. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of implementing internal marketing strategy in private-owned sports centers on internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation, which contributed to providing a new strategy for the development of private-owned sports centers.

Literature review and research hypothesis

Fierce market competition makes the marketing strategy of service industries change from passive to active. At present, many enterprise marketing researches focus on the relationship between enterprise activities and external customers [ 22 , 23 ]. Limited studies have investigated the role of employees in corporate marketing activities [ 24 ]. This is unfortunate, because employees are not only the main stakeholder group of the enterprise, but also play a frontline and interactive role in affecting the service experience of customers [ 25 ]. Employees as a crucial factor in maintaining company’s value have not been given enough attention. Enterprise managers have gradually realized that paying attention to the needs of employees is very important to improve their job satisfaction, so as to better connect enterprises with external customers. Chiu et al. [ 26 ] suggested that internal marketing was an effective measure to improve the job satisfaction of employees in public sports center. Huang & Chen [ 27 ] reported that internal marketing was associated with the customer orientation of full- and part-time service employees at public sports centers. Chiu et al. [ 28 ] investigated the relationship between internal marketing and work performance in municipal sports centers, they suggested that internal marketing had positive effects on work performance. Therefore, internal marketing is an effective strategy to improve work satisfaction, customer orientation, and work performance. Under the framework of service industries, internal marketing is defined as a strategy to regard employees as internal consumers and actively respond to their needs [ 29 ]. In this study, the role of the sports center’s employee is defined as internal consumer. However, the above studies are examined in the context of public sports centers, which is different from this study. As the private-own sports centers are more profit-based, the role of internal marketing can be more important to improve internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation.

Internal marketing

Since 1990s, concepts of marketing have been gradually applied to human resource management, and the concept of internal marketing came into being [ 30 , 31 ]. From the perspective of marketing, internal marketing is a strategic activity that integrates marketing with human resource management, aiming at helping employees to have a positive attitude, so as to realize the sustainable competitive advantage for enterprises [ 7 , 8 , 32 ]. Therefore, this strategy requires organizations to regard employees as internal consumers and constantly meet the needs of employees [ 33 ]. In service organizations, employees are at the forefront of communication activities with customers [ 34 , 35 ]. According to marketing theories, internal marketing emphasizes the importance of employees’ satisfaction and regards their work as internal products [ 36 ]. The goal of internal marketing is to develop and motivate employees. The function of internal marketing is based on the supposition that motivated employees comply with organizational policies and decision-making. This benefits the organization as employees understand organizational goals, empowering employees to act, and fulfill their roles. Therefore, these dedicated employees can promote the development of the organization [ 37 ]. Internal marketing recognizes the value of employees [ 38 ], which is conducive to increasing employees’ enthusiasm and then helps to enhance their human and social capital. The company will develop better with the motivation of employees increased. Many studies suggest that internal marketing activities are the primary tools to ensure employee retention, customer satisfaction, and profitability [ 39 – 42 ]. It has been stated that frontline employees working in the field of sports and fitness usually lack motivation and interaction with organizations and customers due to limited training and the minimum wage culture [ 43 , 44 ]. Therefore, the implementation of internal marketing is expected to help employees cultivate a sense of ownership for their work [ 44 ]. Internal marketing activities can provide a supportive environment for employees, help employees build a sense of responsibility and belonging to their work, and their level of identification with an organization, thus improving their performance [ 43 , 45 , 46 ]. The importance of internal marketing in the development of sports industry has been fully demonstrated [ 26 , 27 , 47 – 49 ].

Internal consumer satisfaction

Emotional state is an important factor affecting employees’ behavioral intentions [ 50 ]. Their emotional state is closely related to their work satisfaction [ 10 ]. High satisfaction of employees with their work will produce positive emotions. From the perspective of marketing, all employees in an enterprise are internal consumers who serve external customers. Therefore, employees’ satisfaction with work is essential for the satisfaction of external customers [ 29 ]. It has to be recognized, however, that the sports service industry is distinct from other service industries. Consumers at sports centers frequently interact with service staff since they completely participate in tasks during the service process [ 51 ]. Therefore, good internal consumer satisfaction ensures that they have a good emotional state, which is conducive to improving the quality of service.

Customer orientation

Customer orientation refers to the predisposition of employees to meet customers’ needs in their work environment [ 52 ]. This predisposition is very important, because customer orientation is the basic feature of quality service [ 53 ]. In the service industry, employees with high customer orientation play an important role in affecting the company’s profitability and realizing the company’s competitive advantage [ 54 , 55 ]. In the process of contacting consumers, employees with high customer orientation will strive to understand the needs of consumers and try their best to meet their needs [ 15 , 16 ], which is conducive to establishing long-term relationships between potential customers and enterprises [ 56 ]. As stated by Donavan et al. [ 57 ], highly customer-oriented employees are more suitable for service jobs. Therefore, in the increasingly competitive service-oriented market, it is crucial to create a customer-oriented business culture for the successful operation of enterprises [ 58 ]. The goal of sports clubs is to promote and cultivate interest in a particular sport or physical activity. During the exercise, customers have many demands, such as finding ways to use equipment, understanding exercise precautions, etc. Internal consumers should solve these demands in time. As mentioned by Ng [ 59 ], sports clubs should set customer-focused actions and beliefs for achieving long-term development.

Internal consumer satisfaction & customer orientation

Internal consumer satisfaction is associated with customer-oriented behavior [ 57 , 60 ] and customer-friendly behavior [ 61 ]. High levels of work satisfaction indicate that employees have higher degrees of customer orientation [ 10 , 60 , 62 ], thus providing better services to customers and improving customer satisfaction [ 63 ]. Therefore, we hypothesized that internal consumer satisfaction of employees in private-owned sports centers had positive effects on customer orientation (Hypothesis 1).

If hypothesis 1 was supported, the satisfaction of internal consumers was significantly related to customer orientation. Therefore, the antecedents of internal consumer satisfaction would indirectly affect customer orientation. Proceeding from this logic, all the hypotheses put forward in part (b) below were corollaries to part (a).

As a strategic management strategy, internal marketing is an effective means to improve internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation [ 64 ]. According to Woodworth’s [ 65 ] stimulation organism-reaction model, employees are organisms with expectations and motivations. After receiving stimulation, individuals first transform it through expectations and motivations, and eventually chooses a response. That is, when internal marketing fails to bring a high level of internal consumer satisfaction, internal consumer will not respond with high customer orientation. Typical internal marketing activities can be identified and classified to provide a framework for evaluating their implications and effectiveness [ 66 ]. In the present study, the internal marketing strategies are divided into five areas, reflecting the categories conceptualized by Gronroos [ 66 ], i.e. internal communication, administrative support, encouraging system, educational training, and authority appointment. It is important to check each of these measurements to examine their contribution to internal consumer satisfaction and their corresponding effect on customer orientation.

Internal communication

Two-way communication between managers and employees not only strengthens the support of management, but also provides feedback for employees to improve their work performance [ 66 ]. Employees need to understand the needs of customers, their organization, and the importance of their contribution to the organization and customers. Effective communication within an enterprise is a necessary condition for developing internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation [ 67 , 68 ]. In an investigation of sports clubs, Roșca [ 69 ] suggested that good communication between club managers and athletes had a great influence on athletes’ performance, and thus enhanced the satisfaction of athletes and their fans. In this environment, athletes’ performances are provided for fans, and the role of athletes is a server. Effective communication seems to be an effective measure to create the best working environment. If communication is clear and focused on the mission, it can promote participation, increase the trust of managers and colleagues, and enhance loyalty [ 69 ]. Therefore, we hypothesized that internal communication positively affected internal consumer satisfaction (Hypothesis 2a) and customer orientation (Hypothesis 2b).

Administrative support

Managers have the responsibility to create an atmosphere conducive to improving internal consumer satisfaction and developing customer orientation [ 66 ]. Managers need to show administrative support by paying attention to employees [ 70 ] and responding to their suggestions [ 71 , 72 ]. The role of administrative support has become a necessary prerequisite for cultivating internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation [ 41 ]. To achieve the success of the sports industry, sound administrative support is necessary. Therefore, we hypothesized that administrative support positively affected internal consumer satisfaction (Hypothesis 3a) and customer orientation (Hypothesis 3b).

Encouraging system

Encouraging system can motivate employees to adopt new behaviors and attitudes that are beneficial to the development of enterprises. Encourage efforts aimed at providing customers with the best possible service will help to improve their work enthusiasm and service quality [ 14 , 70 , 73 ]. Meyer & Allen [ 74 ] stated that employees tend to develop strong commitments when the incentives provided exceed employees’ expectations. Encouraging system has become an important strategy to improve internal consumer satisfaction [ 10 , 75 ] and customer orientation [ 67 , 76 ]. Therefore, we hypothesized that encouraging system positively affected internal consumer satisfaction (Hypothesis 4a) and customer orientation (Hypothesis 4b).

Educational training

For the service industry, employees gaining an understanding of their role and what they should do within a customer-oriented enterprise is important. Educational training can provide employees with professional skills and sensitivity to customer needs to realize customer orientation [ 77 ]. Educational training can help employees understand each other’s role relative to others and various functions in the enterprise, thus forming an overall view of service strategy [ 66 ]. Additionally, training and educational activities can improve employees’ skills and abilities related to their tasks and development, and enhance their positive attitude and commitment to work [ 28 ]. Chiu et al. [ 28 ] investigated the relationship between educational training and job performance in a public sports center, they suggested that educational training is an effective measure to improve job performance. Customers evaluate the quality of service according to their interaction with service employees and their behaviors. Consequently, employee knowledge and interpersonal skills are important to the success of a service enterprises [ 78 ]. Training and education of employees can be regarded as an investment in employees. Extending the theory of social exchange to service settings suggests that when employers invest more in employees, employees are more likely to reciprocate the benefits they have obtained [ 79 , 80 ]. Educational training is important for the development of internal consumer satisfaction [ 9 , 75 ] and customer orientation [ 76 , 81 ] within an enterprise. Therefore, we hypothesized that educational training positively affected internal consumer satisfaction (Hypothesis 5a) and customer orientation (Hypothesis 5b).

Authority appointment

Personnel management represents the design and implementation of human resource policies. Customer-oriented employees are an asset. It is necessary to keep these employees by maintaining satisfactory human resource policies [ 66 ]. It is more effective to select employees with high customer orientation than to train an employee with these characteristics [ 66 , 77 ]. Designing and implementing human resource policies, such as effective election practice, can improve internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation [ 67 , 77 ]. Therefore, we hypothesized that authority appointment positively affected internal consumer satisfaction (Hypothesis 6a) and customer orientation (Hypothesis 6b).

Conceptual framework

The purpose of this study is to explore various internal marketing practices through researching employee satisfaction and testing the relationship between internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation. Based on these assumptions, this study developed a research model, which is shown in Fig 1 .

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

Fitting degree of model: Cmin/df, 1.368; GFI, 0.998; Adjusted GFI, 0.967; Root mean standard error of approximation, 0.034; Tucker-Lewis index, 0.994; Normed fit index, 0.998; PNFI, 0.095.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.g001

Materials and methods

The procedure and protocol used in this study have been approved by the ethics committee of Sangmyung University (Seoul, South Korea).

Survey design and questionnaire

The questionnaire used in this study was administrated and web-programmed by Wen Juan Xing (Changsha Ranxing IT Ltd.) and was spread using WeChat. The questionnaire was structured with closed-ended questions and divided into four parts ( S1 Table ). Among them, the design of items from section 2 were referred to the studies of Sun [ 82 ] and Lee [ 83 ]; items from section 3 were referred to the studies of Kim [ 84 ] and Lee [ 19 ]; items from section 4 were referred to the studies of Lee [ 19 ] and Lee [ 11 ].

In section 1, we collected the socio-demographic information of the respondents, including age, gender, work experience, and employee type.

Section 2 consists of five measurements, including internal communication, administrative support, encouraging system, educational training, and authority appointment. In the measurement of internal communication, each respondent’s evaluation of the freedom to express one’s wishes, communicate work or other things, understand work-related guidelines and information on work performance results, and actively express one’s intention to the boss were measured on a 5-point scale. In the measurement of administrative support, each respondent’s evaluation of the management in creating an approachable atmosphere, encouraging open communication, allowing employees to participate in the planning and decision-making process, and striving to promote the exchange of information between each other were measured on a 5-point scale. In the measurement of encouraging system, each respondent’s evaluation of company’s reward based on customer evaluation, establishing close customer relationships, and putting forward ideas that will help improve business were measured on a 5-point scale. In the measurement of educational training, each respondent’s evaluation of the frequency of service and job-related education and training, the opportunities to provide continuing education and training, the help of education and training to understand the customers’ present and future requirements, and the value of company’s formal education and training were measured on a 5-point scale. In the measurement of authority appointment, each respondent’s evaluation of the company in allowing employees to have autonomy in job-related decisions, encouraging employees to use their own judgment when solving problems, encouraging innovation, and giving employees a lot of initiative were measured on a 5-point scale.

In section 3, ten items were given on a 5-point scale to understand respondent’s satisfaction with the internal service quality of the company, their work in the company, matching degree between work and competence level, workload, freedom to express opinions on their work, freedom to communicate with their superiors about their work, the treatment level provided by the company, colleagues, and current working environment, as well as overall satisfaction with the company’s work.

In section 4, 14 items were given on a 5-point scale to understand respondent’s evaluation of “customers first”, explain the problem to the customer in detail, take customers’ problems seriously, know what customers need in advance, understand customers’ needs, be good at listening to customers, be interested in customer behavior, recognize and respond to customers’ needs in advance, provide customers with the services they want accurately, provide a good service that customers can trust, provide service at the time appointed with customers, pay individual attention to customers, remember customer’s name, and strive to maintain a good relationship with customers.

Data collection and analysis

The questionnaire was distributed to the frontline employees of three relatively large-scale private-owned sports centers located on Wuhan, China (120 for Kongzhong sport center; 120 for Cutting Up sport center; 110 for Any sport center). Each of these sports centers has more than 15 branches in Wuhan. The survey was conducted using a convenient sampling method [ 85 ]. During the survey period, we visited the above sports centers and invited the respondents face-to-face. A total of 339 responses were received, of which 13 were unusable. A total of 326 questionnaires were then used for the analysis. Personal characteristics of employees were shown in Table 1 . All participants were informed of the purpose of this study, and each submitted written informed consent before participating in this study.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.t001

Statistical analysis

All data obtained in this study were analyzed by the software of SPSS (version 26.0). Method of frequency analysis was used to analyze the general characteristic of respondents. The validity and reliability of questionnaire were examined via confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha, respectively. The research hypotheses in the proposed model were tested by using the method of structural equation modeling by AMOS. The two-stage test program proposed by Anderson & Gerbing [ 86 ] was adopted to estimate measurement and structural models. In the first stage, the items in the research model were estimated by confirmatory factor analysis. In the second stage, structural relationships among the constructs in the research model were estimated to evaluate the structural model and test the research hypotheses. Results were considered significant at P < 0.05.

Demographic characteristics of respondents

A total of 325 respondents were used in this investigation, of which 76.07% of respondents were male and 23.93% were female. More than half of respondents were younger than 29 years old (69.63%), others were older than 30 years old, of which older than 30 years old but younger than 39 years old were 15.03%, while older than 40 years old but younger than 49 years old were 15.34%. Most of respondents were engaged in private-owned sports center for less than 1 year (37.11%), moreover, working experience for more than 1 year but less than 2 years were 20.25%, more than 2 years but less than 3 years were 12.27%, others were experienced for more than 3 years (30.37%). For employee type, more than half of respondents were formal employee (52.45%) and less than half of respondents were informal employee (47.55%) ( Table 1 ).

Results of factor analysis

Based on the results of factor analysis of internal marketing ( S2 Table ), internal consumer satisfaction ( S3 Table ), and customer orientation ( S4 Table ), no questions involving low factor loading value were observed. Factors with eigenvalues higher than 1.0 were thus extracted. The factor analysis among these three analyses was reasonable based on the coefficient of Cronbach’s α of all factors. Additionally, according to the results of convergent and discriminant validity statistics, all average variance extracted and composite reliability values for the multi-item scales were greater than 0.6 and 0.8, respectively, indicating a sufficient level of convergent validity for the measurement model.

Model parameters

Results of the research model were shown in Fig 1 . Parameters in model confirmed that the proposed measurement model fitted the data well, of which Cmin/df = 1.368; GFI = 0.998; adjusted GFI = 0.967; root mean standard error of approximation = 0.034; Tucker-Lewis index = 0.994; Normed fit index = 0.998; PNFI = 0.095.

Indirect and total effects

Total effects were the sum of direct and indirect effects. The concept of total effects was important as it seeks to interpret all changes, including mediating effects, from an independent measurement to a dependent measurement. Therefore, this study can be said to interpret the total effects of each dependent measurement. As shown in Table 2 , internal consumer satisfaction was the most powerful antecedent for predicting customer orientation, with the largest total impact (0.864), followed by encouraging system (0.576), internal communication (0.096), and administrative support (0.081). In assessing internal consumer satisfaction, educational training (0.667) was the most significant factor, followed by internal communication (0.111) and administrative support (0.094).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.t002

Hypothesis testing

The results of hypothesis testing indicated that internal communication, administrative support, and educational training had a significant direct effect on internal consumer satisfaction (internal communication → internal consumer satisfaction = 0.111, P < 0.001; administrative support → internal consumer satisfaction = 0.094, P < 0.01; educational training → internal consumer satisfaction = 0.667, P < 0.001) and a significant indirect effect on customer orientation (internal communication → customer orientation = 0.096, P < 0.001; administrative support → customer orientation = 0.081, P < 0.01; educational training → customer orientation = 0.576, P < 0.001). The findings supported hypotheses 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 5a, and 5b. However, encouraging system and authority appointment were not statistically significant in predicting internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation, leading us to reject hypotheses 4a, 4b, 6a, and 6b. Additionally, internal consumer satisfaction was a significant determinant for explaining customer orientation (internal consumer satisfaction → customer orientation = 0.864, P < 0.001), supporting hypothesis 1 ( Table 3 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.t003

Results obtained in this study indicated that employees with high work satisfaction have higher customer orientation. Similarly, a study investigated the relationship between internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation for employees in the National Opera House and Ballet Theatre, and suggested that employees’ customer orientation was positively affected by their work satisfaction [ 62 ]. Yoo & Park [ 87 ] reported that enhancing hospital employees’ internal consumer satisfaction would increase their customer orientation. Additionally, Lee et al. [ 88 ] noted that internal consumer satisfaction was positively related to customer orientation. Therefore, employees with high work satisfaction will actively respond to consumers’ needs, which is conducive to maintaining the long-term relationship between employees and consumers. Maintaining good relationships can prevent the loss of existing customers and help increase the number of customers.

Internal marketing as a strategic management is an effective strategy to improve internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation [ 64 ]. Chiu et al. [ 26 ] suggested that implementing internal marketing was beneficial to improve the job satisfaction of employees in public sports centers. Additionally, Huang & Chen [ 27 ] reported that internal marketing was associated with the customer orientation of full- and part-time service employees in public sports centers. Therefore, establishing internal marketing management-centered managing means can be considered as an effective measure to make private-owned sports centers gain a stronger competitive advantage. In this study, we observed that internal communication, administrative support, and educational training were important factors that directly affect internal consumer satisfaction and indirectly affect customer orientation.

Optimizing internal communication is an effective way to improve the satisfaction of internal consumer [ 84 ]. As reported by Kim & Chung [ 9 ], effective internal communication had a positive effect on the satisfaction of the staff in the wedding hall. A study conducted by Paek [ 10 ] investigated the effects of internal marketing subordinate factors of employees in small and medium-sized enterprises on internal consumer satisfaction, and they suggested that effective internal communication was an important way to improve internal consumer satisfaction. Therefore, effective communication within an enterprise is a necessary condition for developing internal consumer satisfaction. This is to be expected, as communication is crucial to the service industry. Communication is not only between managers and employees, but also between employees and customers. Therefore, effective communication is beneficial to establish a connection between the enterprise and the customer. Additionally, we also observed an indirect effect of internal communication on customer orientation. Internal communication is essential to cultivate customer orientation of employees from customer center [ 84 ], state-owned enterprise [ 81 ], administrative organs [ 89 ], and public research institutions [ 68 ]. Therefore, effective communication within an enterprise is a necessary condition for developing internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation.

Senior management is crucial to the development of enterprises. The manager’s encouragement and praise to employees helps to improve their enthusiasm for work. As observed in this study, administrative support is not only the direct reason to improve internal consumer satisfaction, but also the indirect reason to encourage customer orientation. Choi & Shim [ 41 ] demonstrated that administrative support had positive effects on customer orientation of civil servants in local autonomous organizations. Employees with high customer orientation are an asset. Effective personal promotion practice is the key to keeping these employees [ 66 ]. Therefore, designing and implementing administrative support is considered as an effective strategy to improve internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation.

For the service industry, educational training can provide professional skills for employees and enhance their sensitivity to customer needs. Studies reported that internal consumers’ satisfaction with wedding hall staff has been improved through educational training [ 9 ]. Chung et al. [ 75 ] targeted the employees engaged in medical devices to analyze the effectiveness of internal marketing, they suggested that educational training had positive effects on internal consumer satisfaction. Additionally, educational training would have positive effects on customer orientation of customer center employees [ 84 ]. In the study of Lee [ 67 ], they suggested that educational training was necessary to improve the customer orientation of teenage instructors. Nam et al. [ 76 ] conducted a study aimed at employees in engineering enterprises, they suggested that educational training had positive effects on customer orientation. Therefore, according to the results observed in the present study, we considered that educational training plays an important role in developing internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation, so it should be paid more attention. As sport center belongs to the service industry, educational training can help employees understand each other’s role relative to others and various functions in the enterprise, thus forming an overall view of service strategy and helping employees provide services to meet customers’ needs.

As the results of this study indicate, internal communication, administrative support, and educational training were important factors that affect internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation. Additionally, customer orientation was positively affected by internal consumer satisfaction. We concluded that the implementation of internal marketing for private-owned sports centers had positive effects on internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation. Also, we suggested that higher levels of internal consumer satisfaction would encourage employees to have higher degrees of customer orientation. Therefore, the implementation of internal marketing strategy was beneficial to the development of private-owned sports centers.

Limitations and suggestions for future research

However, this study also had some limitations.

Firstly, the participants used in this study were only distributed in a single area (Wuhan, Hubei, China), and can’t represent all the employees of the private-owned sports center in China. Therefore, generalizing the results to the entire employees in private-owned sports centers in China would be difficult.

Secondly, our investigation was focused on internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation, not customer satisfaction and their willingness to spend. It may be more beneficial to improve the commercial value of the investigation by conducting more surveys on customer behavior.

Thirdly, the method used in this study was only quantitative questionnaire survey. Qualitative survey of internal consumers’ opinions was beneficial to formulate targeted strategies.

To the best of our knowledge, this was the first study to explore how internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation were affected by internal marketing strategy in a Chinese private-owned sports center. This study provided evidence for formulating the operation strategy of a private-owned sports center focused on internal consumers. Future surveys should conduct in-depth interviews and focus group surveys on internal consumer, which would help managers to better understand the thoughts of internal consumers. Therefore, our study should be considered to be exploratory.

Contribution of the research

The results obtained in this study supported the perspective that managers should regard employees as internal consumers. For the service industry, managers should pay more attention to optimizing internal communication, administrative support, and educational training, as these factors are important for improving internal consumer satisfaction and encourage customer orientation. Additionally, managers should regard internal consumer satisfaction as a key factor, as a higher level of internal consumer satisfaction will encourage employees to have higher degrees of customer orientation. To establish a competitive private-owned sports center, implementing internal marketing strategies is needed.

Supporting information

S1 table. compositions of questionnaire..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.s001

S2 Table. Factors and reliability analysis of internal marketing.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.s002

S3 Table. Factors and reliability analysis of internal consumer satisfaction.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.s003

S4 Table. Factors and reliability analysis of customer orientation.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0286021.s004

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• Vol 6 (4), 2011

Research Article

The role of internal marketing in creation of sustainable competitive advantages.

Received: March 17, 2010;   Accepted: May 26, 2010;   Published: July 28, 2010

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More From Forbes

Internal marketing: what it means and why it's important.

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When we think of marketing, advertising and branding — creating awareness in the minds of our target audience — come to mind first. There is another important audience that marketing often overlooks: The one inside your own offices.

The good news is, this audience is relatively easy to target and inexpensive to reach. So, why are they not part of your marketing communications plan?

Internal Marketing Versus Employee Engagement

Employee communications are often less formalized and less budgeted than marketing. HR generally sends out the majority of employee communications, with managers and corporate communications departments doing the rest, but rarely are these efforts coordinated and most could use some help from your marketing staff.

Researchers at Gallup found that only 15% of workers are actively engaged in their jobs and that the behaviors of highly engaged business units result in 21% greater profitability.

Formalized or not, employee engagement and the employee experience is a team effort. Who’s the leader? Who’s the coordinator? And why should marketing get involved?

Why Employee Communications Need Marketing

How often do your leadership messages read like a press release? How many HR communications are so overloaded with content and links you can’t bother reading it now, if ever? How many corporate communications messages are worth sharing socially? Are employees finding out about company news and new products in the media first?

If any of these sound familiar, then your company needs a communications organization to coordinate these efforts.

HR, leaders and managers, and corporate comms would all benefit from adopting a marketing mindset. Why? Today’s marketing professionals are focused on using customer research, data and creativity to define the customer experience at multiple touchpoints in order to capture attention and build profitable relationships.

Now substitute "employee" for "customer" in that sentence. This is why internal marketing is important. Marketers simplify complex ideas into compelling emotional arguments. They know how to use words and images to attract attention and build campaigns to lead people through a series of steps.

Internal marketing is an opportunity. It is the heart of a coordinated communications organization. It is about applying the same level of data and creative thinking that you would for any promotional or advertising campaign for an external audience, where you promote an idea consistently and repetitively over time in ways to work down a logical funnel from attention to engagement.

When internal marketing is properly executed, your communications campaigns will improve the employee experience, boost company loyalty and increase employee engagement, which ultimately leads to a better-performing business.

The Power Of Employee Advocacy

Internal marketing can also turn your employees into active brand advocates. As customers increasingly tune to social media to understand why brands and businesses are doing and why, the voice of the employee has value.

According to Hinge Research:  “A formal employee advocacy program helps shorten the sales cycle. Nearly 64% of advocates in a formal program credited employee advocacy with attracting and developing new business, and nearly 45% attribute new revenue streams to employee advocacy.”

Internal marketing can use stories to connect your workforce with your corporate vision and values and produce shareable content that harnesses the employees’ own networks and online channels, maximizing your company outreach.

Internal marketing is about building a consistent company story and aligning your HR, leadership and corporate communications teams around the same narrative. When employees buy in, customers buy more.

Building An Internal Marketing Practice

Whether you call it internal marketing, employee marketing or employee communications, businesses looking to the future will build a team focused on communications with employees, with a leader and a coordinated organization designed to knit together the HR, leadership, corporate news and marketing communications into a unified whole.

• Appoint champions and encourage collaboration: Identify a leader and influencer from each department and put them together on an employee communications board. Give this team the objective to establish your employee communications culture and coordinated communications efforts. This collaborate group could meet weekly and set a handful of quarterly objectives.

• Focus on your primary communications channels: You are aiming to engage an audience that is already overloaded with communications and trying to sort and prioritize their way through it. They likely don’t need anything new. They just need meetings and email to work better for them.

• Provide training, tools and budgets: Change and coordination take time. Teaching HR people how and why to write emotional hooks into their content and teaching PR people to write leadership messages in a more authentic human voice takes time. Each member of the employee communications group can learn from the others, contribute, share best practices and improve over time. They will need adequate support to move forward.

• Establish metrics and objectives: What you can’t measure, you can’t manage. This applies to your internal communications as much as external. Start by establishing baseline measurements of communications' reach and frequency. Then advance into monitoring attention, engagement and participation outcomes for specific target audiences and communications programs.

When employees believe in the brand and are engaged in your company initiatives, they will generally be more motivated and loyal to the organization and more likely to spread your company message.

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US consumer confidence rises in August as Americans’ optimism about future improves

FILE - A customer walks by No Boundaries merchandise at a Walmart Superstore in Secaucus, New Jersey, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

A shopper considers a purchase in a Costco warehouse Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Parker, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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American consumers felt more confident in August as their outlook for the future improved.

The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 103.3 in August from 101.9 in July.

The index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months.

The measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for income, business and the job market rose to 82.5. July’s figure was revised up to 81.1 from its initial reading of 78.2, ending a five-month stretch below 80. A reading under 80 can signal a potential recession in the near future.

Consumers’ view of current conditions rose to 134.4 in August from 133.1 last month.

Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70% of U.S. economic activity and is closely watched by economists for signs how the American consumer is feeling.

Though the report’s topline numbers all improved slightly from July, consumers continued to have mixed feelings about the economy.

“Consumers’ assessments of the current labor situation, while still positive, continued to weaken, and assessments of the labor market going forward were more pessimistic,” said Dana Peterson, the Conference Board’s chief economist.

Peterson said that dreary view was likely spurred by the July jobs report, which showed slowing job growth and a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.3%.

On top of the weak July jobs data, the government reported last week that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total added to evidence that the job market has been steadily slowing.

Though inflation has largely receded from 2022 highs, the cost of essentials continues to chip away at American consumers’ savings and optimism.

Write-in responses to the Conference Board’s survey were still focused on prices and inflation, even as 12-month inflation expectations fell to their lowest level since March of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic upended the U.S. economy.

The Federal Reserve began raising its benchmark lending rate in March of 2022 in an attempt to fight the inflation that took hold in the wake of the pandemic. Higher borrowing costs, combined with rising prices, had consumers in a foul mood for the better part of the past two years.

Some help could be on the way though. Fed officials have strongly suggested that an interest rate cut is coming at its September meeting, giving some relief to consumers and businesses.