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

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

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Shi Qi Xu & Lian Zhou & Seong Hun Kim & Dong-Hwa Chung & Zhen Li, 2023. "Internal marketing analysis for improving the internal consumer satisfaction and customer orientation of employees in private-owned sports center," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-17, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0286021
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286021
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Collins, Brett & Payne, Adrian, 1991. "Internal marketing: A new perspective for HRM," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 261-270, September.
    2. Conduit, Jodie & Mavondo, Felix T., 2001. "How critical is internal customer orientation to market orientation?1," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 11-24, January.
    3. Athanassopoulos, Antreas D., 2000. "Customer Satisfaction Cues To Support Market Segmentation and Explain Switching Behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 191-207, March.
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    1. Zoljargal Ulziibadrakh & Kovács Sándor & Zoltán Szakály, 2025. "Influence of the service marketing mix on audience decision-making in Mongolian performing arts," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.

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