The influence of internal marketing by airlines on customer-oriented behavior: A test of the mediating effect of emotional labor

Most studies on internal marketing and customer-oriented behavior have not examined the correlation of these factors with emotional labor, and there are even fewer papers focusing on this subject with respect to airlines in particular. Thus, this study is to include flight attendants' emotional labor in the model and test its mediating effect between internal marketing and customer-oriented behavior. This study treats two measures of internal marketing as antecedent variables and treats surface acting and deep acting in emotional labor as mediators to construct a model of customer-oriented behavior. A survey of flight attendants from six airlines was conducted, and the research validated the model by SEM, demonstrating that internal marketing significantly and positively influences customer-oriented behavior. In the analysis of the mediating effects of emotional labor, surface acting and deep acting show a partially significant mediating effect on the “relationship between value of needs and customer-oriented behavior”. However, surface acting and deep acting show a more significant mediating effect on the “relationship between authorized autonomy and customer-oriented behavior”. Finally, this study proposes managerial implications and suggestions for future research.