Building Quality Internal Exchange: The Role of the Organization and the Individual in Internal Customer Orientation‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Internal customer orientation (ICO) is defined as a mindset in which internal providers of services treat current or potential users of those services as customers with whom transactional and relational exchange is sustained through behavioral or attitudinal exhibition of marketing philosophies, theories, and practices (Kilburn, 2006). The degree of internal supplier ICO is hypothesized to stem from two main sources: individual characteristics, as well as organization-controlled variables. The resulting degree of ICO, in turn, has shown positive impacts on internal customers such as improved job satisfaction, job embeddedness, as well as improved quality of relationship with internal exchange partners, thus lowering internal customer intentions to voluntarily turnover (Kilburn, 2006).