Internal marketing and service quality in restaurants

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine an empirical model of internal marketing (IM) and internal service quality (ISQ) in tourism restaurants operating in Jordan. Design/methodology/approach A structured and self‐administered survey was employed targeting managers and employees of tourism restaurants operating in Jordan. A sample of 334 of tourism restaurants managers and employees were involved in the survey. A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the research constructs dimensions, unidimensionality, validity and composite reliability. Structural path model analysis was also used to test the hypothesised interrelationships of the research model. Findings The empirical findings indicate that IM consists of six dimensions: staff recruitment, staff training, internal communications, staff motivation, job security and staff retention. Staff recruitment, staff training, and internal communications positively and significantly affected staff motivation. Staff recruitment and internal communications positively and significantly affected ISQ. Staff motivation positively and significantly affected job security, and job security positively and significantly affected staff retention. Finally, staff retention has positively and significantly affected ISQ. Staff recruitment exerted the strongest effect on both staff motivation and ISQ. Research limitations/implications Theoretically, the authors examined only six components of IM that lead to ISQ; meanwhile other components could affect ISQ. There could also be other factors that affect the practice and components of IM and ISQ. This research has also examined the effect of IM and ISQ only. The potential effect of ISQ on business performance needs to be examined. Practical implications Tourism restaurants managers should have a holistic approach for IM and ISQ. Three dimensions of ISQ – reliability, assurance and empathy – loaded on one factor named “interaction quality”. This finding has important implications since it reveals that “internal customers” (employees) have “working needs” that should be met in order to meet and satisfy external customers’ needs. Managers and executives can benefit from the research findings while designing their IM and ISQ strategies to achieve long‐term organisational objectives. Originality/value This is the first research effort devoted to examining the interrelationships of IM and ISQ in tourism restaurants. Executives and managers can benefit from the research findings while designing their IM and ISQ strategies to achieve long‐term organisational objectives. International tourism organisations planning to expand their operations Jordan's tourism industry have now valuable empirical evidence regarding two important concepts in this industry – IM and ISQ.