Purpose – The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, testing the relationships between internal marketing and employee satisfaction; second, investigating the links between employee satisfaction and perceived organizational performance; and finally, testing the relationship between internal marketing and perceived organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 419 employees working in 53 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Kivu (DR Congo). Data processing was performed using structural equations modeling through LISREL 9.1. Findings – The results revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between internal marketing and employee satisfaction. The results also revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between internal marketing and perceived organizational performance. However, no significant relationship between employee satisfaction and perceived organizational performance was identified. Research limitations/implications – There is a need to conduct a large qualitative survey aiming to understand why MFIs apply internal marketing and marketing practices in general. The results from such a study would serve to prepare a global quantitative study, which integrates in the same model internal marketing, external market orientation, employee job satisfaction (EJS), and organizational performance. Practical implications – Results invite MFIs managers to change their mind and focus more on their employees. In fact, employees generate the most cost in general but they can also contribute to sustain growth and profitability. This is possible if they are better rewarded for their efforts. Originality/value – This study links internal marketing, EJS and perceived performance in a sector and country which have been less or not studied in the marketing sector.

PurposeThis paper has two purposes. First is to operationalise the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and trust in the context of a developing country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Second purpose is to test in a disaggregated perspective the impact of each CSR dimension on trust.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 264 customers of six banks and processed with exploratory, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations using LISREL 9.1.FindingsCSR is found to have five dimensions: legal responsibility, social needs responsibility, product responsibility, environmental responsibility and employee responsibility; trust is found to be a three-dimensional construct: integrity, compassion and partnership. Each CSR dimension has a positive impact on customers' perception of trustworthiness.Research limitations/implicationsReliability of trust is not high enough, suggesting the need to deepen research in order to find a more adapted CSR scale for banks. The smallness of sample size might have influenced the robustness of our psychometric results. CSR and trust relationships might be analysed in a more enriched framework including service quality, reputation and banks' employee performance as moderating variables. This paper has measured the two concepts from the customers' perspective only. However, both CSR and trust are best understood in a stakeholder perspective. So, it might be insightful to extend future research in a stakeholder orientation perspective.Practical implicationsBanks from developing countries are also concerned with CSR and should invest in it. Clearly, each dimension of CSR should receive enough importance if Congolese banks are to recover their customers' trust. The findings of the study also suggest that banks' customers are aware of the necessity for banks to comply with the country's legislation. Non-compliance can have severe influence on customers' trustworthiness to banks.Social implicationsFinancial institutions are generally evaluated through financial indicators. The findings suggest that banks customers and other stakeholders begin a shift towards requiring their banks to invest in social and environmental activities in order to improve their local milieu. These aspects are still very neglected, or adopted only as marketing strategies to improve image, without a true willingness to be socially responsive.Originality/valueThe two concepts are measured in a context where they did not receive enough importance (developing country), hence providing new knowledge in the field. Further, a disaggregated approach allowed understanding the way each CSR dimension impacts trust, which had not been the case in previous research.

Customer satisfaction is a multidimensional construct with five factors: price, reliability, accessibility and flexibility, appearance, social and enhancement of customers. The presence of social inclusion and customer enhancement, accessibility, and flexibility dimensions reveals that a scale measurement should be specific both to a context and to a sector. The value attached to the appearance factor confirms that microfinance seriously tends to “mission drift" which means targeting less poor customers. The simultaneous occurrence of appearance and social dimensions in the same scale is proof that the social and financial goals should coexist in all stages of the development of microfinance institutions. As long as the social funds do not substitute market funds used in financing poor microborrowers, the share of poor clients served increases. So does financial inclusion of the poor.

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