Internal Marketing and Brand Commitment: An Empirical Review on Employee Perspective in Services Sector

Abstract

Internal marketing and brand-related behavior of employees are found as extendedly researched notions across the markets and product scopes. The concept of internal marketing has been referred in empirical studies connected to different variables and propositions. In addition, brand-related behavior of employees have been studied with specific variables as different facets of committed behavior. Band commitment is one of the main variables found within the domain of brand-related behavior of employees. Studies have discussed employee brand commitment behavior in relation tointernal branding and brand citizenship behaviors. Alongside, it is clear that the interrelated nature of internal marketing,internal branding, and brand citizenship behavior on employee brand commitment behavior has been a highlighted research avenue. Meanwhile, service sector brands and firms have been extendedly considered in recently held studies when examining the concepts of internal marketing and employee brand commitment behavior. The main argument found with the said is services are fully engaged with employees as a value delivering component, thus, their commitment is a critical factor for the external customer satisfaction. However, empirical studies still claim to investigate how internal marketing practices and brand-related behaviors of employees are interconnected within the services sector firms. Accordingly, this paper also attempted to examine the empirical insights revealing how internal marketing and employee brand commitment behaviors are interconnected. This Paper further highlights the empirical thoughts shared on service sector as a specific matter based on the literature review carried out. Paper concludes the future research priorities by summarizing the content presented in the paper whilst highlighting services sector as a specific research niche.