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The effects of internal marketing onjob satisfaction and organizationalcommitment in Taipei sports centersWeisheng Chiua, Nam-Heung Choa & Doyeon Wona

a Department of Sport and Leisure Studies, Yonsei University,Seoul, South KoreaPublished online: 19 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: Weisheng Chiu, Nam-Heung Cho & Doyeon Won (2014) The effects of internalmarketing on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in Taipei sports centers, Journalof Global Scholars of Marketing Science: Bridging Asia and the World, 24:2, 206-222, DOI:10.1080/21639159.2014.881609

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The effects of internal marketing on job satisfaction and organizationalcommitment in Taipei sports centers

内部营销对台北运动中心员工工作满意度和企业认同感的作用

Weisheng Chiu, Nam-Heung Cho and Doyeon Won*

Department of Sport and Leisure Studies, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

(Received 11 October 2013; final version received 22 December 2013)

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among internal marketing, jobsatisfaction, and organizational commitment of employees in the context of the sportsservice industry. All employees of public sports centers in Taipei City participated in thisstudy, and the data (n ¼ 261) were subsequently analyzed. The results show that internalmarketing has a positive influence on job satisfaction among employees, and that jobsatisfaction in turn has a positive influence on the organizational commitment ofemployees. Although a direct relationship between internal marketing and organizationalcommitment among employees was not found, a full mediation effect of job satisfactionbetween the factors was revealed. The findings of this study clarify the relationships andverify the mechanisms at work among internal marketing, job satisfaction, andorganizational commitment of employees. Academically, the study fills the gap in sportsmanagement literature regarding the role of internal marketing for sports services. Thestudy alsoprovides practical implications for sports centermanagers to implement internalmarketing in sports centers, and thereby provide better-quality service for customers.

Keywords: internalmarketing; job satisfaction; organizational commitment; Taipei sportcenter; service quality

服务行业中高品质的顾客服务是现代市场中提高比较优势的 一 种途径 (Doyle, 1994)。普遍认

为员工决定对顾客的服务品质 (Gummesson, 1987)。从公司雇员角度出发的内部营销是提升

员工对顾客服务品质的途径。内部营销遵循企业应该按照对待内部顾客的方式对待、重视并

尊重雇员，以此来吸引、拓展、鼓励并留住优秀雇员 (Berry & Parasuraman, 2000)。同时，内

部营销有助于提高员工工作满意度和企业认同感，两者正是留住员工并促进企业在服务行业

成功的重要因素 (Heskett & Schlesinger, 1994; Schneider & Bowen, 1993)。

虽然已经有大量文献研究服务行业中的内部营销，但在运动服务领域中队内部营销的研究

却寥寥可数，仅有为数不多的研究探讨了内部营销在运用服务业的重要性(比如, Davis, 2005;

Martinez, Stinson, & Jubenville, 2011; Seok, 2011)。其实，内部营销在运动中心的运用与在服务

行业的运用同样重要。近来，私人健身中心竞争越来越激烈，台北运动中心面临着巨大的挑战。

本文旨在建立并测试将内部营销，工作满意度和员工企业认同感联系在 一 起的实验模

型，以探究内部营销对台北运动中心员工工作满意度和企业认同感的影响。如上所述，尽管在

运动领域此项研究还是刚刚开始，目前的研究成果对运动服务管理的研究具有启示作用。

通过文献研究，本文提出以下四个假设：假设1、内部营销对员工工作满意度起到积极作

用；假设2、内部营销对员工企业认同感起到积极作用；假设3、工作满意度对员工企业认同感

起到积极作用；假设4、工作满意度对员工内部营销和企业认同感的关系有调节作用。

q 2014 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science

*Corresponding author. Email: dwon@yonsei.ac.kr

Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 2014

Vol. 24, No. 2, 206–222, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21639159.2014.881609

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本研究运用了调查法，参与者(n ¼ 261)均来自于台北12个公共运动中心的员工。主要从内部

营销，工作满意度和企业认同感三方面进行调查。调查采用五点里克特量表，测量范围从（1）

非常不同意至（5）非常同意。数据通过验证性因子分析法(CFA)和结构方程模式(SEM)进行分

析。

研究结果显示从内部营销到工作满意的路径在统计上显著。这说明员工对内部营销的积极

态度与员工不断增强的工作满意度息息相关。因此，假设1是成立的。另外，工作满意度与企业

认同感正向相关，所以假设3也同时成立。从内部营销到企业认同感的路径不显著，假设2不成

立。工作满意度对内部营销和企业认同感具有调节作用，因此假设4成立。以上研究结果显示，

以工作满意度为中介的模型呈最佳状态，相应地中介模型同样运用到此项研究。

本研究阐明了内部营销，员工的工作满意度和企业认同感的关系，同时证实了内部营销和

企业认同感的工作机制。学术上，本研究填补了运动管理方面内部营销在运动服务中重要性研究

的空白。本研究为运动中心管理者运用内部营销起到实际启示作用。例如，运动中心可以定期为

员工举办工作坊或者培训课程进而促使员工为顾客提供更高品质的服务。

关键词：内部营销;工作满意度;企业认同感;台北运动中心;服务质量

1. Introduction

In service industries, internal marketing is regarded as a method of improving service

quality for customers. The concept of internal marketing originates in the field of

marketing research in the service industry (Berry, 1981; Gronroos, 1981), and internal

marketing is proposed as a solution to the question of how to deliver consistently high-

quality service for customers and users (Berry, 1981). In addition, Greene, Walls, and

Schrest (1994) hold that internal marketing is the key to better service, emphasizing that it

is a required condition for effective external marketing. Scholars have found evidence

supporting the view that the implementation of internal marketing in an organization is an

essential component of successful service industry operations (Choi, Baek, & Kang, 2013;

Gronroos, 1990; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993; Rafiq & Ahmed, 2000).

The precepts of internal marketing emphasize that organizations should treat, value,

and respect employees from the perspective of internal customers (Longbottom, Osseo-

Asare, Chourides, & Murphy, 2006) in order to attract, develop, motivate, and retain

qualified employees (Berry & Parasuraman, 2000). Internal marketing has been widely

studied in previous research, and the concept is essential to organizations in the service

industry because it is related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment among

employees (Siddiqi, 2013; Sihombing & Gustam, 2007). Theorists have already noted the

importance of employee satisfaction and commitment in retaining employees working in

service industries, as well as the importance of employee retention to the success of

service-oriented organizations (Heskett & Schlesinger, 1994; Schneider & Bowen, 1993).

When the needs of employees are satisfied, the employees are in turn more likely to satisfy

the needs of external customers (Chung & Kim, 2003; Greene et al., 1994). The particular

characteristic of organizational commitment among employees has been identified as an

important variable in understanding the work behavior of employees in organizations

(Lee, Kwon, & Lee, 2007). Therefore, for the benefit of both the organization and its

employees, organizations must focus on cultivating organizational commitment among

employees (Chelladurai, 1999).

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Although the importance of internal marketing in service industries has been widely

investigated, studies on the role of internal marketing in sports services are limited in

number, and only a few studies have examined the significance of internal marketing in

sports as a service industry (Davis, 2005; Martinez, Stinson, & Jubenville, 2011;

Novatorov, Kim, Wall, & Crompton, 1998; Seok, 2011). Indeed, the role played by

internal marketing in service industries may translate to sports centers. Customers of

sports and leisure centers have increased expectations of greater personal benefits as a

result of their participation in sports, as well as expectations of quality in sports services

(Howat, Absher, Crilley, & Milne, 1996). Many private fitness clubs in Taipei City are

expanding their facilities and locations on a continual basis. Due to increased competition

from these private fitness clubs, with their superior facilities, Taipei sports centers are

facing a huge threat to their core business. To attract new members and retain current

customers, Taipei sports centers must provide better services, to meet and exceed the

expectations of their customers (Mullin, Hardy, & Sutton, 2007; Oh, Lee, & Kim, 2011).

Moreover, Taipei is the first city to operate public sports centers in Taiwan. In the coming

years, more and more public sports centers will be established in many other places in

Taiwan. Consequently, the operation and management of employees of Taipei sports

centers could be taken as a model by the rest of the cities in Taiwan. Thus, understanding

the impact of internal marketing in sports centers is necessary for sport managers to

improve organizational effectiveness through employees in order for sports centers to

possess greater competitive capabilities in the market.

Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to propose and test an empirical model

linking internal marketing, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among

employees, and to examine the influence of internal marketing on employee job

satisfaction and organizational commitment in Taipei sports centers. The findings of this

study may offer practical implications and contributions to the literature about the

management of customer service in sports.

2. A brief overview of Taipei sports centers

Aiming to implement the ideal of “Sports for All” and following the trend to build a

“Healthy City” (Taipei City Government, 2002), the Taipei City Government established

12 sports centers, one in each of its 12 districts, to meet its citizens’ demand for public

sports and leisure spaces. Currently, all of the sports centers are established and

operational based on an operate-and-transfer (OT) model. The OT model is a type of

public–private partnership. Financed, designed, and constructed by the government, the

sports centers are commissioned for operation and management by the private sector.

After the sports centers have operated for a specified period of time, ownership is

transferred back to the government (Kumaraswamy & Morris, 2002). The sports centers

are mainly equipped with swimming pools, weight-training rooms, dancing rooms, and

multipurpose courts for recreational sports.

3. Conceptual framework and hypotheses

3.1 Internal marketing

Berry (1981) initially defined internal marketing as “viewing employees as internal

customers, viewing jobs as internal products that satisfy the needs and wants of these

internal customers while addressing the objectives of the organization” (p. 25).

Gummesson (2000) suggested that internal marketing is a strategic operation that

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combines marketing and human resources management in order for employees to provide

better service to customers.

Typically, internal marketing activities are identified and categorized to provide a

framework for evaluating their implications and effectiveness (Gronroos, 1990). Many

studies in internal marketing literature have identified key elements of internal marketing

(Ahmed, Rafiq, & Saad, 2003; Conduit &Mavondo, 2001; Foreman &Money, 1995). The

current study adopts the five dimensions of a study by Conduit and Mavondo (2001) –

market training and education, management support, internal communication, personnel

management, and external communication – to measure internal marketing in the field of

sports services.

3.2 Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is perhaps the most commonly discussed topic in research about the

service industry. At the same time, researchers have made several attempts to define and

describe the concept of job satisfaction. The essence of all these definitions, as Dawis and

Lofquist (1984) pointed out, is that job satisfaction is “a pleasurable affective condition

resulting from one’s appraisal of the way in which the experienced job situation meets

one’s needs, value, and expectations” (p. 72).

Moreover, researchers have suggested that job satisfaction can be divided into two

constructs: intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction (Hirschfeld, 2000; Porter & Lawler, 1968;

Wanous, 1974; Wernimont, 1966). Intrinsic job satisfaction describes how people feel

about the nature of the tasks involved in the job itself, whereas extrinsic job satisfaction is

how people feel about aspects of the work situation or environment that are external to the

job tasks or the work itself (Porter & Lawler, 1968; Spector, 1997; Wernimont, 1966). In

order to measure intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction, Spector (1997) developed the 20-item

short-form Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) (Weiss, Dawis, England, &

Lofquist, 1967), which has become a popular measure of various facets of work. The

questionnaire is frequently used in job satisfaction research to measure job satisfaction

among employees.

3.3 Organizational commitment

The concept of organizational commitment has become an important research topic in the

field of organizational behaviors since it was first proposed by Whyte (1956). Buchanan

(1974) asserted that organizational commitment describes situations in which an

individual is attached emotionally to an organization, including identification of the

individual with organizational objectives and values, mental devotion to and concentration

on a job role, and loyalty to and affection for the organization. Additionally, employees’

identification with an organization may be regarded as their psychological attachment to

the organization (O’Reilly & Chatman, 1986). A study by Mowday, Porter, and Steers

(1982) suggests that when there is a high-level linkage of individual commitment to an

organization, the phenomenon leads to good results for both the individual and the

organization. Thus, when employees of sports centers have a high level of commitment to

their center, this characteristic indicates that the employees are involved and devoted.

Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian (1974) and Trimble (2006) asserted that

organizational commitment is an attitude and defined it as the degree of an individual’s

identification with and devotion to a specific organization, including (1) value

commitment: the strong belief of an individual in organizational objectives and values;

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(2) effort commitment: the willingness of an individual to dedicate greater personal efforts

to benefit the organization; and (3) retention commitment: the willingness of an individual

to remain a member of an organization on a long-term basis. The three constructs of value

commitment, effort commitment, and retention commitment are utilized in this study.

3.4 Relationship between internal marketing and job satisfaction

Based on the concept of internalmarketing, an organization that tries its best to apply internal

marketing in order to satisfy its employees will provide a positive influence and improve job

satisfaction among employees (Conduit & Mavondo, 2001; Rafiq & Ahmed, 2000). The

results of many empirical studies have also found that internal marketing enhances the job

satisfaction of employees (Shiu & Yu, 2010; Tansuhaj, Randall, & McCullough, 1991;

Trimble, 2006). Accordingly, we establish the first hypothesis to be tested:

Hypothesis 1: Internal marketing has a positive influence on the job satisfaction of

employees.

3.5 Relationship between internal marketing and organizational commitment

The successful implementation of internal marketing in organizations will not only

enhance employee job satisfaction but also influence employee behavior, including

organizational commitment (Tansuhaj et al., 1991). Hogg (1996) suggested that when

traditional internal communications programs fail, internal marketing is the best approach

to foster employee commitment. Numerous studies reveal that internal marketing is an

antecedent to organizational commitment (e.g., Bansal, Mendelson, & Sharma, 2001;

Caruana & Calleya, 1998; Farzad, Nahavandi, & Caruana, 2008). Based on the above, the

study proposes the second hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2: Internal marketing has a positive influence on organizational

commitment among employees.

3.6 Relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment

The most widely accepted viewpoint on the concept of job satisfaction is that job

satisfaction influences employees’ commitment to an organization (Brooke, Russell, &

Price, 1988; Mowday et al., 1982; Trimble, 2006; Williams & Anderson, 1991).

Accordingly, job satisfaction is a determinant of organizational commitment among

employees. Previous research has suggested that job satisfaction has a positive influence

on commitment (e.g., Brown & Peterson, 1993; Moss, McFarland, Ngu, & Kijowska,

2007; Vandenberg & Lance, 1992). Thus, this study proposes the third hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3: Job satisfaction has a positive influence on organizational commitment

among employees.

3.7 Mediation of job satisfaction

As discussed, internal marketing has a direct and positive influence on job satisfaction, and

job satisfaction has a direct and positive influence on organizational commitment among

employees. But what is the role of job satisfaction in terms of internal marketing and

organizational commitment? A study by Baron and Kenny (1986) indicated that all active

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organisms are actively involved in the process of input–output or stimulation–reaction. If

the process of internal marketing is defined as stimulation, and organizational commitment

is defined as a reaction, then employees are organisms with expectations, motivations, and

judgments. Upon encountering stimulation, individuals first transform the stimulation

through expectations, motivations, and judgments; finally, the individuals react. In other

words, when the internal marketing of an organization fails to bring out high levels of job

satisfaction among employees, the employees will not react with high levels of

organizational commitment.

Ting (2011) proposed that successful internal marketing should enhance employee job

satisfaction through human resources management strategies to influence employee

behaviors. Consequently, the employees will be satisfied and proud of being part of the

organization. Previous studies have shown the direct relationship between internal

marketing and organizational commitment, but the mediating variables between internal

marketing and organizational commitment have remained unclear. For these reasons, this

study suggests that there are mediating effects of job satisfaction on the relationship

between internal marketing and organizational commitment. Thus, this study proposes the

fourth hypothesis:

Hypothesis 4: Job satisfaction has mediating effects on the relationship between

internal marketing and organizational commitment.

The conceptual framework is shown in Figure 1. H1 shows that internal marketing has

a positive influence on employee job satisfaction. H2 shows that internal marketing has a

positive influence on organizational commitment among employees. H3 shows that job

satisfaction has a positive influence on the organizational commitment of employees.

4. Methods

4.1 Participants

A census method was conducted in this study, and participants were drawn from the

employees (n ¼ 284) at each of 12 public sport centers in Taipei City. After eliminating

the invalid responses from a total of 284 returned questionnaires, 261 successfully

H3

H1

H2Internal

Marketing

Job Satisfaction

OrganizationalCommitment

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of the relationship among internal marketing, job satisfaction,and organizational commitment.

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completed questionnaires were included in the data analysis. Of the total participants,

51.3% (n ¼ 134) were male and 48.7% (n ¼ 127) were female. In addition, 71.3% of

participants were under 30 years old, 23.3% of participants were employed at the

managerial level, and most of the participants held a college degree or above (90.8%).

4.2 Measures

The survey instrument was established based on a review of existing literature. The three

sections of the instrument pertain to internal marketing, job satisfaction, and

organizational commitment. The 20-item internal marketing scale was adopted and

modified from a study by Conduit and Mavondo (2001). The five constructs for internal

marketing are: (1) training and education; (2) management support; (3) internal

communication; (4) personnel management; and (5) external communication.

Job satisfaction includes two constructs: measures of intrinsic and extrinsic job

satisfaction. The 20-item short form of the MSQ (Spector, 1997), as modified from a study

by Weiss et al. (1967), was used to measure employee perceptions of intrinsic and

extrinsic job satisfaction.

The 15-item Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) was used to measure

the level of employee commitment to the organizations, and respondents were employed

at the time of participation. The OCQ, developed by Porter and Lawler (1968), was

designed to capture three dimensions of employee commitment to an organization,

including (1) value commitment; (2) effort commitment; and (3) retention commitment.

The format for the instrument was a five-point Likert scale, with scores ranging from (1)

strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree.

4.3 Data analysis

Both the measurement model and the proposed empirical model were tested through

confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures in

the AMOS statistical package. CFA was conducted to test the reliability and validity of

measurement and SEM was employed to examine the conceptual model. The parameters

of the models were estimated via maximum likelihood estimation, and the research

hypotheses were tested by AMOS 18.0.

5. Results

5.1 Scale reliability and validity

Content validity was established through a review of existing literature and through a

panel of practitioners and researchers. Subsequently, a CFA was conducted to examine the

results of the measurements. Table 1 shows the results of the CFA. The measurement

results met the criteria suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999) and yielded an acceptable

model fit (x 2 ¼ 1104.8, df ¼ 515, RMSEA ¼ 0.068, TLI ¼ 0.905, CFI ¼ 0.918).

Additionally, scale reliability and validity were assessed.

Scale reliability was investigated using item reliability and composite reliability.

Regarding item reliability, with the exception of the personnel management dimension of

internal marketing, the reliability values of the other items were between 0.561 and 0.815,

higher than the recommended value of 0.5 proposed by Bollen (1989). This demonstrates

that the items overall have a certain degree of item reliability. As for composite reliability,

the values of the composite reliability items were between 0.8 and 0.9, all greater than the

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criterion of 0.6 suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981). This demonstrates the good

composite reliability of the items. With regard to convergent validity, the factor loadings

of the construct indicators were all above 0.5. Cronbach’s alpha values were all over 0.7,

except for the personnel management dimension of internal marketing. The AVE values

were all greater than 0.5. Most of the values met the criteria suggested by Hair, Anderson,

Tatham, and Black (2009). Thus these results exhibit good reliability and validity of

measurements (Table 2).

Next, Pearson correlations among variables were calculated to determine the linear

relationships between these constructs (Table 3). All the values were under 0.8, which

indicates that these constructs are not highly correlated. This result reveals that collinearity

does not exist in this study’s measurement.

5.2 Direct effects in the structure model

According to the results of SEM analysis, the conceptual model showed an adequate fit

with x 2 ¼ 77.466, df ¼ 32, RMSEA ¼ 0.074, TLI ¼ 0.965, and CFI ¼ 0.975 (Hu &

Table 1. Results of CFA for measures.

Measures Constructs x 2 df TLI CFI RMSEA

Internal marketing Training and education 240.4 80 0.914 0.935 0.071Management supportInternal communicationPersonnel managementExternal communication

Job satisfaction Intrinsic satisfaction 78.9 19 0.934 0.955 0.072Extrinsic satisfaction

Organizationalcommitment

Value 128.1 51 0.960 0.969 0.066

EffortRetention

Overall measurementmodel

1104.8 515 0.905 0.918 0.068

Table 2. Factor loadings, Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extractedfor measurement.

Factorloading

Itemreliability

Cronbach’salpha

Compositereliability (CR)

Average varianceextracted (AVE)

Internal marketing 0.872 0.577Training and education 0.774 0.599 0.878Management support 0.758 0.575 0.815Internal communication 0.840 0.706 0.865Personnel management 0.668 0.446 0.667External communication 0.749 0.561 0.844Job satisfaction 0.882 0.790Intrinsic satisfaction 0.874 0.764 0.923Extrinsic satisfaction 0.903 0.815 0.902Organizationalcommitment

0.877 0.705

Value 0.844 0.712 0.923Effort 0.873 0.762 0.850Retention 0.800 0.640 0.900

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Table

3.

Resultsofmeans,standarddeviation,andcorrelationsofeach

construct.

TE

MS

ICPM

EC

ISES

VL

EF

RE

Trainingandedu.(TE)

–Managem

entsupport(M

S)

0.60**

–Internal

comm.(IC)

0.62**

0.64**

–Personnel

mgmt(PM)

0.52**

0.41**

0.62**

–External

comm.(EC)

0.56**

0.54**

0.67**

0.51**

–Intrinsicsatisfaction(IS)

0.61**

0.56**

0.56**

0.45**

0.51**

–Extrinsicsatisfaction(ES)

0.61**

0.66**

0.63**

0.50**

0.58**

0.79**

–Value(V

L)

0.59**

0.58**

0.53**

0.45**

0.52**

0.76**

0.73**

–Effort(EF)

0.61**

0.62**

0.55**

0.50**

0.51**

0.69**

0.73**

0.73**

–Retention(RE)

0.53**

0.48**

0.45**

0.40**

0.41**

0.68**

0.68**

0.70**

0.69**

–Mean

3.50

3.81

3.42

3.44

3.36

3.56

3.41

3.41

3.64

3.52

S.D.

0.82

0.78

0.79

0.76

0.73

0.68

0.68

0.82

0.72

0.92

**p,

0.01.

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Bentler, 1999). The path from internal marketing to job satisfaction was statistically

significant (b ¼ 0.844; t ¼ 12.645; p , 0.001). This indicates that a favorable perception

of internal marketing was associated with increased job satisfaction among employees.

Thus, H1 is supported. Moreover, job satisfaction was positively associated with

organizational commitment (b ¼ 0.943; t ¼ 8.730; p , 0.001), so H3 is also supported.

The path from internal marketing to organizational commitment, however, was not

significant (b ¼ 0.012; t ¼ 0.121; p , 0.001), and H2 is therefore rejected (Figure 2).

5.3 The mediation effect of job satisfaction

To test the mediation hypothesis (H4) in the conceptual model, an adaptation of Baron and

Kenny’s (1986) method was employed by using the SEM and bootstrap methods (Shrout

& Bolger, 2002) to test for mediation effects. In the present study, a confidence interval of

indirect effects of 95% was obtained with 2000 bootstrap resamples. It should be noted

that an indirect effect is significant at p , 0.05 if the 95% confidence intervals do not

include the value of zero.

As shown in Table 4, these results indicate the existence of a mediation effect of

job satisfaction between internal marketing and organizational commitment among

.943***

.844***

.012Internal

Marketing

Job Satisfaction

OrganizationalCommitment

Figure 2. AMOS Standardized coefficient for Conceptual model.

Table 4. Results of mediation effect of job satisfaction.

Effect Estimate 95% CI (Bias-corrected) p

a 0.844 (0.668, 0.913) 0.001b 0.943 (0.700, 1.324) 0.002c0 0.012 (20.262, 0.239) 0.886a £ b 0.786 (0.581, 1.091) 0.001C 0.798

a ¼ Direct effect (internal marketing ! job satisfaction)b ¼ Direct effect (job satisfaction ! organizational commitment)c0 ¼ Direct effect (internal marketing ! organizational commitment)a £ b ¼ indirect effect (mediation effect)c ¼ Total effectCI ¼ confidence interval, ***p , 0.001.

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employees (95% CI ¼ 0.581–1.091, p ¼ 0.001). Moreover, the indirect effect was

statistically significant, while the direct path between internal marketing and organiza-

tional commitment was not statistically significant. This may suggest that the relationship

between internal marketing and organizational commitment is totally mediated by

intervening variables (specifically, job satisfaction), a finding that is consistent with those

of Baron and Kenny (1986).

5.4 Competing model

As discussed above, the variable of job satisfaction is expected to have a full mediation

effect between internal marketing and organizational commitment. To confirm the

mediation effect of job satisfaction, this study created a competing model (i.e., a fully

mediated model) in which the direct path between internal marketing and organizational

commitment was removed. As shown in Table 5, this model was compared with the

original conceptual model (i.e., the partially mediated model). Moreover, the results of

chi-square tests show that the difference between the chi-square values of the two models

is 0.015 when the degree of freedom increased from 32 to 33, Dx 2 (1) ¼ 0.015 ,3.84,

significant at a ¼ 0.05. This insignificant result indicates that the dropped path between

internal marketing and organizational commitment is not important in the original model

(Steiger, Shapiro, & Browne, 1985). Thus the fully mediated model is utilized in this

study.

5.5 Testing for structural invariance

To verify that the same SEMmodel is applicable across groups, a cross-validation test was

conducted for model stability (Cudeck & Browne, 1983). The general object of the

procedure is to test for structural invariance between the unconstrained models for all

groups combined, then to test for structural invariance in models where certain parameters

are constrained for the sake of equivalence between groups. If the chi-square difference

statistic does not reveal a significant difference between the original and the constrained-

equal models, then it is concluded that the structural model is invariant between the

calibration and the validation samples. Accordingly, the model is cross-validated (Byrne,

Shavelson, & Muthen, 1989). Thus, the total sample of this study (n ¼ 261) was split into

male (n ¼ 134) and female (n ¼ 127) samples for cross-validation tests.

As a first step in the main equivalence tests, a simultaneous test of the unconstrained

model (model 1) across the two groups was conducted (Table 6). Model 1 included no

constraints on any of its parameters. The test revealed that the baseline model represents a

fairly good fit across the groups: x 2 ¼ 135.650, df ¼ 66, RMSEA ¼ 0.064, TLI ¼ 0.948,

and CFI ¼ 0.962. The results show that the model is plausible across the two data sets

from male and female participants. Subsequently, the values of the chi-square and degree

of freedom in model 1 were used as a baseline model for a factor-loading model (model 2).

Table 5. Comparison between the original model and the competing model.

Model x 2 df Dx 2 TLI CFI RMSEA

Original model 77.466 32 – 0.965 0.975 0.074Competing model 77.481 33 0.015 0.967 0.976 0.072

Note. The competing model is the model without a direct pathway between internal marketing and organizationalcommitment.

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The chi-square difference between the two models was 3.611, with edf ¼ 7, which

resulted in an insignificant difference at the significance level of 0.05. This indicates that

the null hypothesis of equality of loadings across the two groups was not rejected,

supporting the invariance of model 1 and model 2. The subsequent models (3–6) were

tested by the same method. The results are shown in Table 6. However, the results of the

chi-square difference between model 4 and model 3 show a significant result ( p ¼ 0.03),

indicating that the two models are not invariant. A study by Byrne et al. (1989) suggested

that, under conditions of full invariance, the existence of partial variance is acceptable.

Consequently, structural invariance is still supported because the influence of variant

items is quite limited. Moreover, the values ofeCFI between the models were below 0.01,

indicating the values are of no practical significance, according to Cheung and Rensvold

(2002). Little (1997) also proposed that a value of eTLI % 0.05 indicates significant

differences between models do not exist. Therefore, the results of these structural

invariance tests indicate that the structural model used in this study was invariant across

genders. Accordingly, the stability of the model is confirmed.

6. Discussion

This study incorporates previous research to investigate the relationships among internal

marketing, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of employees in the context of

sports centers in Taipei City. Understanding the impact of internal marketing is important

for sports centers to provide better services for customers. According to the findings of this

research, discussion and suggestions are proposed as follows.

First, the study found that internal marketing has a positive influence on job

satisfaction, meaning H1 was supported. In addition, this study used aspects of employee

training and education, management support, internal communication, personnel

management, and external communication to measure internal marketing as a whole.

Each of these aspects had high loadings on internal marketing (see Table 2). Therefore,

emphasizing these five aspects could potentially enhance the organizational commitment

of employees. This finding supports an essential tenet of internal marketing, which is to

treat employees as customers and to meet the demands and needs of employees (Berry &

Parasuraman, 2000). This is also consistent with the findings of several previous

studies (Rafiq & Ahmed, 2000; Shiu & Yu, 2010; Trimble, 2006). In other words, the

implementation of internal marketing can significantly enhance employees’ satisfaction

with their jobs. In turn, increasing employees’ satisfaction with aspects of their jobs may

prove to be beneficial to organizations in many areas, including reduced absenteeism,

decreased turnover, and fewer work-related accidents among employees (Balzer et al.,

1990). Moreover, employee satisfaction tends to improve job performance and

productivity (Iaffaldano & Muchinsky, 1985; McNeese-Smith, 1997).

Table 6. Results of multi-group analysis.

Model x 2 df edf ex 2 p CFI TLI RMSEA

1. Unconstrained 135.650 66 – – 0.000 0.962 0.948 0.0642. Measurement weights 139.261 73 7 3.611 0.823 0.964 0.955 0.0593. Structural weights 141.576 75 2 5.926 0.341 0.964 0.956 0.0594. Structural covariances 146.307 76 1 10.675 0.030 0.961 0.954 0.0605. Structural residuals 151.853 78 2 16.203 0.062 0.960 0.953 0.0606. Measurement residuals 159.158 88 10 23.508 0.696 0.961 0.960 0.056

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Second, this study found no significant relationship between internal marketing and

organizational commitment of employees, meaning H2 was rejected. This finding is

inconsistent with the results of numerous previous studies in different service industries

(Caruana & Calleya, 1998; Chang & Chang, 2009; Jaworski & Kohli, 1993; Tansuhaj

et al., 1991). Such inconsistency may be attributed to the prevalence and mediation effects

of job satisfaction. Previous empirical studies examined and showed only the direct

relationship between internal marketing and organizational commitment. However, this

study consists of factors of internal marketing, job satisfaction, and organizational

commitment, evaluating the relationships among all three. A study by Ting (2011)

suggested that even though a significant relationship between internal marketing and

organizational commitment may exist, other factors remain to be investigated. Although

the results herein reject H2, the findings reveal that the influence of other factors (e.g., job

satisfaction) may be involved.

As for the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment (H3),

this study revealed that internal marketing has a significantly positive influence on job

satisfaction, thereby supporting hypothesis 3. This finding confirms the viewpoint of many

scholars (Brooke et al., 1988; Mowday et al., 1982; Trimble, 2006; Williams & Anderson,

1991), in which job satisfaction has a meaningful impact on employees’ commitment to

their organizations, as well as confirming the empirical results of numerous studies (e.g.,

Brown & Peterson, 1993; DeCotiis & Summers, 1987; Moss et al., 2007; Vandenberg &

Lance, 1992), in which job satisfaction is an antecedent of organizational commitment.

The strong factor loading (b ¼ 0.943) of this path indicates the importance of job

satisfaction to organizational commitment.

The mediation effect of job satisfaction was consistent with the empirical results of a

study by Ting (2011), meaning hypothesis 4 was confirmed. This study found that internal

marketing’s influence on organizational commitment is not a simple relationship of input–

output or stimulation–reaction; rather, the relationship is mediated by the relative levels of

employee job satisfaction. Thus, the superior results of the fully mediated model compared

to the partially mediated model (in terms of the mediating path from internal marketing to

job satisfaction to organizational commitment) indicate the importance of the mediating

effects of job satisfaction.

While numerous studies have investigated both internal marketing and organizational

commitment, the process through which internal marketing influences organizational

commitment has remained unclear (Ting, 2011). Therefore, this study makes several

academic contributions that not only extend the influential scope of the internal marketing

theory to organizational commitment, but also suggest that job satisfaction is an important

antecedent of organizational commitment. Additionally, this study clarifies the

mechanisms that drive the link between internal marketing and organizational

commitment among employees.

6.1 Managerial implications

Internal marketing has been proven as a method to improve the quality of customer service

among employees (Gronroos, 1990). Although the quality of service in the sports industry

has long been explored (Chelladurai, 1999; Howat et al., 1996), the concept of internal

customers and the application of internal marketing has remained limited in the context of

sports services. Based on the findings of this study, the effects of internal marketing on the

organizational commitment of employees can be better understood in the context of sports

center services.

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Accordingly, to enhance the organizational commitment of employees, sports center

management should strengthen internal marketing activities for employees. Strengthening

these activities would promote employees’ job satisfaction, which is helpful in promoting

employees’ organizational commitment. Internal marketing should become an absolute

strategy for sports centers. For example, John Caraccio, the CEO of World Gym Taiwan,

once mentioned that all the employees of World Gym fitness centers, including trainers

and administrative staff, are required to participate in internal and external training

regularly in order to improve professional competence at all levels (ASIA Taipei

International Sport Industry Forum, 2010). Sports centers might also hold regular

workshops or educational training classes for employees to maintain high levels of service.

Such implementation of internal marketing would allow sports centers to establish an

organizational vision for managers, to provide training and development for employees, to

enhance motivation and inspiration, and to retain employees.

In addition, this study demonstrates that internal marketing influences organizational

commitment among employees through the full mediation effects of an employee’s level

of job satisfaction. It is inconsistent with the other service industries and indicates the

significant importance of job satisfaction in the sport service industry. Accordingly, sports

center managers should not neglect the attitudes of employees, particularly employees’ job

satisfaction levels. Successful internal marketing activities in the sport service industry

should promote employee job satisfaction and, consequently, lead to increased

organizational commitment of employees.

6.2 Limitations and suggestions

The empirical model of this study was tested based on data obtained from employees at

Taipei sports centers, which are public sports centers in an urban setting. Future research

should collect data from different types of sports centers, such as private sports centers, in

order to generalize the scope of the conceptual model. Moreover, future studies might also

validate the conceptual model in other services within the sports industry, such as

professional sports organizations or volunteer sports organizations, in order to generalize

the findings of this research, as well as to clarify their relevance in the sports industry.

This study found that internal marketing affects organizational commitment through

job satisfaction as a mediator. However, due to the nature of jobs in service industries, it is

suggested that other mediating and moderating variables such as job involvement, job

motivation, and job design could be investigated to understand more about the relationship

between internal marketing and organizational commitment in the service industry sector.

Thus this study suggests that future research should include additional variables for

analysis to probe the relationship between internal marketing and organizational

commitment among employees.

Finally, even though testing for structure invariance was conducted in this study, the

cross-sectional data herein cannot sufficiently test the causal relationships implied in the

proposed model. Future research should attempt to collect data at more than one point, and

should carry out cross-lagged analyses to test the causality implied in the model.

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