Objective - Local culture acts as a bridge in empowering the resources owned by a firm so they can operate harmoniously. This research tests the theory of local culture, internal marketing, and employee satisfaction in an effort to improve financial performance.

Methodology/Technique - The research is supported by the existing phenomenon of increasing credit issues. The data is obtained from 1,364 questionnaires and is quantitatively analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling. A qualitative analysis is used to deepen the anomaly relationship through a phenomenological approach.

Findings - The result show that local culture becomes the organizational culture, but has no direct influence on the improvement of performance. Indicators related to the environment have a very low contribution to the development of organizational culture. Internal marketing indicators, such as recruitment processes and internal communication, have a significant contribution on the achievement of financial performance. Further, employee satisfaction has a significant impact on the achievement of financial performance.

Novelty - This study develops a new model that can be used to enhance financial performance. The integration of local culture into internal marketing and employee satisfaction is a relatively novel invention.

Type of Paper: Empirical

Keywords: Local Culture; Internal Marketing; Employee Satisfaction; Financial Performance; Microfinance Institutions; Bali.

JEL Classification: Z1, Z10, Z19.