The effects of internal marketing program implementation

This dissertation examines both antecedent and outcome variables of an internal customer orientation (ICO). Here, ICO is defined as a mindset in which internal providers of services treat current or potential users of those services as customers with whom transactional and relational exchange is sustained through behavioral or attitudinal exhibition of marketing philosophies, theories, and practices. The degree of internal supplier ICO is hypothesized to stem from two main sources: individual characteristics, as well as organization-controlled variables. The resulting degree of ICO, in turn, is proposed to impact internal customers and internal suppliers in relatively similar ways: an increase in the quality assigned to the relationship each shares with his or her exchange partner, as well as overall judgments made by the employees regarding intentions to voluntarily turnover as mediated by job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job embeddedness. This dissertation also examines whether internal customers will perceive an increase in internal service quality and if so, how that perception influences their overall judgments as employees regarding turnover intentions. Partial mediation of relationship quality on perceptions of internal service quality is also examined.; A two-phase field study including qualitative and quantitative employee-provided data from a southeast organization leads to the development of both an internal supplier and customer scale (SICO and CICO, respectively) to capture internal customer orientation from the perspectives of both exchange partners. As hypothesized, the 2nd-order construct of ICO was found to be 3-dimensional consisting of exchange sustainment, relationship sustainment, and marketing focus constructs. The scales showed preliminary reliability, as well as evidence for convergent and discriminant validities.; Path analysis results provide several significant linkages for internal suppliers. Upper-management commitment, or formalized efforts to encourage high levels of internal supplier ICO, is shown to significantly improve the actual degree of ICO an internal supplier possesses. Integration between departments is shown to negatively impact supplier internal customer orientation. ICO among internal suppliers is positively linked to job embeddedness as mediated by relationship quality.; Results also provide several significant linkages for internal customers. Customer perceptions of supplier internal customer orientation are shown to have a positive impact on internal customer job embeddedness and global job satisfaction as mediated by internal service quality. Further, customer perceptions of supplier internal customer orientation are negatively related to intentions to turnover among internal customers.