The Effects of Internal Relationship Marketing on Superior Customer Relations as Competitive Performance: Evidence from Healthcare Industry

Strategies and strategic steps to create a competitive organization have been important parts of market success. Internal customers represent one of the leading elements in building competitiveness due to their direct roles in organizations' market practices. Understanding the motivations of internal customers to deliver competitive performance in favor of organizational strategies is important for both executives and marketing scholars. The aim of this study is to explore the effects of internal relationship marketing (RM) on employees competitive performance through some psychological factors such as internal customer satisfaction, attitudes towards the organization, and emotional labor. This study is based on a survey conducted in Turkey in two seperate hospital chains. The data were collected from 169 doctors in 8 private hospitals in Istanbul and Bursa. A research model is proposed with nine postulated hypotheses and verified by empirical data.