Marketing and Its Impact on Service Quality in the Healthcare Industry of Pakistan
Abstract
The quality of healthcare services in every society has been a dire need across each era. The effective implementation of which is only possible if the healthcare workers get provided with a suitable environment to perform their duties in. Considering this, the current study determines the impact of internal marketing on the quality of external services delivered to the patients in the labor-intensive healthcare industry of Pakistan. Further, the mediatory role of internal service quality between the said variables is taken into account. The survey-based study was conducted in the twin metropolitans of Pakistan (Islamabad & Rawalpindi). The collected data from 500 individuals comprised of internal customers i.e. doctors, staff members, and external customers i.e. patients, of the public sector as well as private sector hospitals. The study conclusively suggested a significantly positive impact of internal marketing over the external service quality; in both service sectors. Though the public-sector healthcare organizations were found to be comparatively more effective in the implementation of service quality delivered to its customers, in contrast to the private sector healthcare institutions.
References
Akhtar, M. F., Ali, K., & Sadaqat, S. (2011). Factors influencing the profitability of Islamic banks of Pakistan. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, 66, 125-132.
Al-Borie, H. M., & Sheikh Damanhouri, A. M. (2013). Patients' satisfaction of service quality in Saudi hospitals: a SERVQUAL analysis. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 26(1), 20-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/09526861311288613
Allen, D., Braithwaite, J., Sandall, J., & Waring, J. (2016). Towards a sociology of healthcare safety and quality. Sociology of Health and Illness, 38(2), 181-197. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12390
Babbie, E., Wagner III, W. E., & Zaino, J. (2018). Adventures in social research: Data analysis using IBM SPSS statistics. Sage Publications.
Blake, N. (2015). The nurse leader's role in supporting healthy work environments. AACN Advanced Critical Care, 26(3), 201-203. https://doi.org/10.4037/NCI.0000000000000089
Blunch, N. (2012). Introduction to structural equation modeling using IBM SPSS statistics and AMOS. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526402257
Bolin, J. H. (2014). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. Journal of Educational Management, 51(3), 335-337. https://doi.org/10.1111/jedm.12050
Bouranta, N., Chitiris, L., & Paravantis, J. (2009). The relationship between internal and external service quality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 21(3), 275-293. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110910948297
Byun, G., Karau, S. J., Dai, Y., & Lee, S. (2018). A three-level examination of the cascading effects of ethical leadership on employee outcomes: A moderated mediation analysis. Journal of Business Research, 88, 44-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.03.004
Campbell, R., Martin, C., & Fabos, B. (2018). Media essentials: A brief introduction: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Cohen, W. M., & Levinthal, D. A. (1990). Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35(1), 128-152. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393553
Dearing, J. W., & Rogers, E. M. (1996). Agenda-Setting (Communication Concepts). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243283
Dhawan, P., & Prior, D. (2017). Internal branding and leader-member exchange: Role of cultural capital in employee's service delivery behaviour in healthcare sector. Proceedings of the 2017 Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Congress, 259. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68750-6_79
Foreman, S. K., & Money, A. H. (1995). Internal marketing: Concepts, measurement and application. Journal of Marketing Management, 11(8), 755-768. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.1995.9964388
Fortenberry Jr, J. L., & McGoldrick, P. J. (2016). Internal marketing: A pathway for healthcare facilities to improve the patient experience. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 9(1), 28-33. https://doi.org/10.1179/2047971915Y.0000000014
Fröhlich, E., & Grimm, S. (2016). Internal marketing: How to increase a department's reputation within its company. Journal of Media Critiques, 2(8), 239-248. https://doi.org/10.17349/jmc116218
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2019). IBM SPSS statistics 26 step by step: A simple guide and reference. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429056765
George, W. R. (1990). Internal marketing and organizational behavior: A partnership in developing customer-conscious employees at every level. Journal of Business Research, 20(1), 63-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(90)90043-D
Gera, R., Mittal, S., Batra, D. K., & Prasad, B. (2017). Evaluating the effects of service quality, customer satisfaction, and service value on behavioral intentions with life insurance customers in India. International Journal of Service Science, Management, Engineering, and Technology, 8(3), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJSSMET.2017070101
Gunawardane, G. (2011). Reliability of the internal service encounter. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 28(9), 1003-1018. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656711111172559
Han, H., & Hyun, S. S. (2015). Customer retention in the medical tourism industry: Impact of quality, satisfaction, trust, and price reasonableness. Tourism Management, 46, 20-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.06.003
Haugland, S. A., Myrtveit, I., & Nygaard, A. (2007). Market orientation and performance in the service industry: A data envelopment analysis. Journal of Business Research, 60(11), 1191-1197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.03.005
Hollensen, S. (2015). Marketing management: A relationship approach: Pearson Education.
Huang, Y.-T., Rundle-Thiele, S., & Chen, Y.-H. (2019). Extending understanding of the internal marketing practice and employee satisfaction relationship: A budget Chinese airline empirical examination. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 25(1), 88-98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356766718757270
Khuwaja, H. M. A. (2021). Phasing out diploma in nursing: Merits and implications on nursing education in Pakistan Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 71(3), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.47391/JPMA.463
Kim, M., Vogt, C. A., & Knutson, B. J. (2015). Relationships among customer satisfaction, delight, and loyalty in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 39(2), 170-197. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348012471376
Kossmann, M. (2017). Delivering excellent service quality in aviation: A practical guide for internal and external service providers. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315258232
Kurtulmuşoğlu, F. B., & Pakdil, F. (2017). Combined analysis of service expectations and perceptions in lodging industry through quality function deployment. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence, 28(11-12), 1393-1413. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2016.1147945
Leech, N. L., Barrett, K. C., & Morgan, G. A. (2014). IBM SPSS for intermediate statistics: Use and interpretation. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203122778
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1086/267990
Meesala, A., & Paul, J. (2018). Service quality, consumer satisfaction and loyalty in hospitals: Thinking for the future. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 40, 261-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2016.10.011
Melo, A. J., Hernández-Maestro, R. M., & Muñoz-Gallego, P. A. (2017). Service quality perceptions, online visibility, and business performance in rural lodging establishments. Journal of Travel Research, 56(2), 250-262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287516635822
Park, J. H., & Tran, T. B. H. (2018). Internal marketing, employee customer‐oriented behaviors, and customer behavioral responses. Psychology and Marketing, 35(6), 412-426. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21095
Phillips, T., Evans, J. L., Tooley, S., & Shirey, M. R. (2018). Nurse manager succession planning: A cost-benefit analysis. Journal of nursing Management, 26(2), 238-243. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12512
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141-166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141
Salant, P., Dillman, I., & Don, A. (1994). How to conduct your own survey. Wiley.
Schmumpeter, J. A. (1943). Capitalism, socialism and democracy. Routledge.
Sharma, P., Kong, T. T. C., & Kingshott, R. P. (2016). Internal service quality as a driver of employee satisfaction, commitment and performance: Exploring the focal role of employee well-being. Journal of Service Management, 27(5), 773-797. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-10-2015-0294
Sharma, R., Binsardi, A., Green, J., & Ekwulugo, F. (2012). The application of internal marketing (IM) in a service organization. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 2(1), 25-50.
To, W. M., Martin Jr, E. F., & Billy, T. (2015). Effect of management commitment to internal marketing on employee work attitude. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 45, 14-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2014.11.002
Todorova, G., & Durisin, B. (2007). Absorptive capacity: Valuing a reconceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 32(3), 774-786. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.25275513
Um, K. H., & Lau, A. K. (2018). Healthcare service failure: how dissatisfied patients respond to poor service quality. International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 38(5), 1245-1270. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-11-2016-0669
Vogus, T. J., & McClelland, L. E. (2016). When the customer is the patient: Lessons from healthcare research on patient satisfaction and service quality ratings. Human Resource Management Review, 26(1), 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.09.005
Whitener, E. M. (2001). Do "high commitment" human resource practices affect employee commitment? A cross-level analysis using hierarchical linear modeling. Journal of Management, 27(5), 515-535. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-2063(01)00106-4
World Health Organisation. (2013, November 11). Global health workforce shortage to reach 12.9 million in coming decades. World Health Organisation. https://apps.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/health-workforce-shortage/en/index.html
Yurtseven, G., & Halici, A. (2012). Importance of the motivational factors affecting employees satisfaction. International Business Research, 5(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v5n1p72
Copyright (c) 2022 UNIMAS Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
