Internal Marketing Perceptions in Intercollegiate Athletics and Their Influence on Organizational Commitment

Document Type

Article

Department or Administrative Unit

Management

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

While scholars have previously focused on the external impact of marketing efforts in college athletics (e.g., Gladden, Irwin, & Sutton, 2001), little research has been done on the internal marketing orientation of collegiate sport properties and its respective impact on college sport. The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of internal marketing in college athletics and to examine if those perceptions have an effect on the level of organizational commitment among departmental employees. Survey methodology collected information from 248 athletic department administrators at NCAA FBS and FCS institutions. Results indicate that internal marketing orientation strongly influenced affective commitment to the organization. Further, internal marketing was found to fully mediate the relationship of job function and affective commitment. Finally, theorized moderators of job type, level of competition and gender were not statistically significant. The results support the assertion that an internal marketing orientation can be effectively implemented to foster the development of affective commitment to the organization.

Comments

This article was originally published in Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.

Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for download from ScholarWorks @ CWU.

Journal

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Rights

© 2011 College Sport Research Institute.

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