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In consideration that the purpose of talent management is to attract and nurture productive employees for the benefit of the hospitality organization, this study aims to examine why employees respond in such favorable ways. Recognizing beneficial employee behavior advances a hospitality organization through their ability to deliver an experience that aligns with the promoted brand promise, inspiration is drawn from both the strategic human resource management as well as the internal brand management literature. The power of this approach is illustrated through a survey of employees of a Latin American restaurant chain with a long-standing policy of values-based recruiting, inclusive talent management and progressive people management practices.

Informed by literature, employee perception of their relationship with the organization (i.e., relationship orientation) and alignment with the brand’s values (i.e., brand fit) were considered drivers of favorable employee attitudes and behavior as a result of hospitality talent management practices. These were hypothesized to positively influence employee confidence and motivation as reflected in organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and brand motivation, which in turn drive employee brand-aligned behavior. A survey measured the variables of interest with the same employees over two time periods, matched using employees’ identification code, resulting in 199 complete surveys. The structural model was estimated using partial least squares (PLS).

Relationship orientation and brand fit were significant drivers of OBSE and brand motivation, respectively. In turn, they had a significant effect on employee brand-aligned behavior. Model estimation complied with all PLS quality criteria.

Traditional talent management practices that tend to focus on the transactional benefits of the job/career can be strengthened by leveraging strong organizational relationships as well as engagement with the hospitality brand. In turn, employees have the confidence and motivation to exhibit brand-aligned behavior, a path to competitive advantage, which may also act as a buffer helping employees manage the stress of hospitality jobs.

Understanding why employees respond favorably to hospitality talent management practices, beyond simply transactional, monetary reasons, is important to designing relevant and timely initiatives that have the potential to enhance organizational performance.

The purpose of this study is to extend previous research by using a longitudinal design to examine the differential contribution of brand understanding (BU) drivers at various moments in the early tenure of service employees. Employee BU is a prerequisite of brand promise delivery among service employees. Previous studies, using cross-sectional samples, established that brand-oriented recruitment, training and leadership are significant BU drivers.

A three-wave survey was collected from a 105-member panel of recent hires at a restaurant chain that displayed a strong brand culture and adopted internal brand management (IBM) practices. Structural equation models with carryover effects were estimated to measure the impact of BU drivers on Day 1, as well as at four and seven months of tenure. In addition, a latent growth model of BU was estimated using random coefficients modeling.

Results show a significant positive effect of IBM practices on BU at each point in time; however, despite this, by the seven month milestone, BU is still not fully developed.

As with most organizational longitudinal studies, there was sample attrition because of the high turnover that characterizes the restaurant industry. This attrition is not believed to be correlated with the variables measured in the study.

Managers seeking a differentiated customer experience should not assume new hires attain a good understanding of the service brand even after the first seven months of tenure. Hence, brand training and leadership should extend well beyond this time frame.

This study is the first, as per the authors’ understanding, to use a longitudinal design to model BU as a dynamic variable because it befits the learning trajectories of new employees.

Adopting a social capital theoretical (SCT) lens, this study aims to propose a conceptual framework of effective internal communication (IC) for the hospitality industry. The study explores how to enhance current practices and the suitability of social media as an augmentation to traditional IC channels.

A qualitative research methodology, consisting of 20 semi-structured interviews with hospitality employees, was adopted. Following a “reduction” and “interpretation” process, 16 themes related to effective IC were identified which informed a conceptual framework.

Characteristics of effective IC were identified in addition to IC benefits at both employee and organizational levels. Considering the limitations of current practices, the applicability of social media was explored. Requirements of effective IC suggest that new channels (e.g. social media) should be adopted to build social capital.

The study informs SCT from a meso-level (process) perspective. The articulation of an IC framework informs how social capital can be built through effective IC, providing a foundation for further empirical examination as to the impact of various channels on the IC process. Adoption of a case study design suggests that results and implications can only be generalized to similar environments.

The study details the characteristics of effective IC and its subsequent benefits, highlighting how social media can augment current IC practices in a hospitality organization.

Being a 24/7 labor-intensive operation makes employee communication to ensure service excellence challenging in the hospitality industry. Through the application of SCT and the exploration of social media in a workplace setting to enhance IC, significant theoretical and practical insights are realized.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how brand management research has evolved to inform future hospitality research agendas that are both theoretically and practically innovative and relevant.

A review of leading tourism and hospitality journals, augmented by a review of leading mainstream marketing and services journals, over the past 20 years was undertaken. Focusing on papers with an emphasis on the brand, as reflected in the title, over 263 articles were reviewed.

In contrast to the more established mainstream literature, brand management research in the hospitality literature is limited in both its depth and breadth. In seeking to go beyond mere replication, and in consideration of industry needs, the review informs the articulation of an integrative research framework that reflects the extant literature and illuminates new research pathways that, in anticipation of making a significant contribution to brand management theory, will enhance hospitality academic and practitioner understanding of brand management.

The comprehensive critical review affords insight into areas of brand management research innovation, both from a topic and methods perspective. The proposed research agenda not only reflects industry priorities but also responds to gaps within academia’s current understanding of brand management theory, particularly within a service context. Grounded in classical theories and industry insight, the pursuit of topics advanced in the research agenda are expected to make a significant contribution to the theoretical understanding of the brand management concept in an applied setting, in addition to providing timely and relevant insight to practitioners seeking to stand out from the crowd.

With brands dominating the hospitality landscape, insight derived from thought leading and innovative research is needed. With no comprehensive review of brand management research within the tourism and hospitality literature, clarity with respect to what is known and, more importantly, what is not known is not apparent. This paper addresses this paucity and, in doing so, gives hospitality academics a clear pathway to conducting meaningful and relevant brand management research from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

There is a growing trend that hospitality brands are allowing employees to personalize their workplace display. Following this trend in practice, this paper aims to examine the influence of employees’ conspicuous consumption cues (ECCCs) on consumer responses toward service failures in luxury dining.

Two experiments were conducted. Study 1 adopted a 2 (ECCC: present vs absent) × 2 (employee physical attractiveness: control vs high) between-subject experiment to test the effect of ECCCs in interactional service failures. Study 2 tested the hypotheses in core service failures.

The results of Study 1 indicate that the presence of ECCCs lowers consumers’ negative behavioral intentions in interactional service failures when employees are highly attractive. When employees’ attractiveness is not distinctive, however, ECCCs lead to higher levels of negative behavioral intentions. Mediation test results demonstrate that perceived employee service competence drives this effect. Results of Study 2 show that the joint effect of ECCCs and physical attractiveness is attenuated when core service failures are not attributable to the service employee.

Extending previous research, this study reveals the impact of employees’ physical characteristics on consumers’ post-failure responses. In addition, the effect of ECCCs on consumers’ post-failure responses was driven by the psychological process of perceived competence.

Findings of this research emphasize the importance for hospitality brands to practice tight control over employee esthetics. For hospitality brands that embrace individuality in the workplace, results of this research highlight the importance of service training in customer interactions.

This research examines an underexplored phenomenon in the hospitality service setting: employees’ display of conspicuous consumption cues and its impact on consumers’ responses to service failures.

This study aims to develop comprehensive definitions, conceptualizations and measures of four internal brand management (IBM) outcomes, namely, brand understanding, brand identification, brand commitment and brand citizenship behaviour (BCB). In doing so, it also aims to propose a model, which considers the relationships across these outcomes.

Data were collected via an online survey of 375 employees who work in service organizations, sourced from an Australian, Web-based market research list.

In addition to the indirect effect of brand understanding on BCB via affective IBM outcomes (i.e. brand identification and brand commitment), the study exposes a direct effect of brand understanding on BCB. Therefore, the study shows that BCB is affected by cognitive and affective antecedents.

Because this study focuses on IBM outcomes, future studies could propose and test relevant antecedents and moderators. As the empirical basis of this study comes primarily from the tourism and hospitality industry in one domestic market, the study should be replicated in other industries and countries to ensure the generalizability of the identified relationships.

This study not only delivers IBM outcome measures but also empirically validates that employees’ understanding of the brand is a foundation for affective and behavioural IBM outcomes. Therefore, managers, especially in service organizations, should provide sufficient IBM practices to enable such brand understanding.

This study contributes to IBM literature by developing comprehensive definitions, conceptualizations and measures of four important IBM outcomes. This study is the first to include brand understanding, brand identification, brand commitment and BCB simultaneously.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differential effect of reciprocal and negotiated social exchanges in establishing workplace relationship cohesion, providing a mediating influence between social constructed initiatives (i.e. internal socialization and support) and internal customers’ psychological connectedness.

Data were gathered via a national online survey of service employees in Australia, representing a diverse range of service industries (e.g. retail (food/non-food), health, financial, administrative support, real estate, household, insurance, education and training, etc.).

Reciprocal-exchange relationship quality fully mediates the relationship between internal socialization and psychological connectedness; and negotiated-exchange relationship quality partially mediates the relationship between internal support and psychological connectedness of internal customers.

While the findings reported herein support the salience of interpersonal relationship quality enhancing the internal performance of the organization, it is essential to consider how the findings link to externally perceived performance (i.e. from the customer’s perspective). Future research is guided by a framework that the authors propose as a result of the study’s findings to facilitate research in this under-researched area.

The development of sound socially relevant internal marketing strategies is vital to the long-term health and prosperity of the firm and its internal counterparts necessitating a move beyond transactional internal marketing, reflecting “pay for service” organizational thinking.

The examination of internal relationship cohesion and how this effects internal customers’ allegiance to their organizations addresses an important research gap and, thus, provides a significant contribution to both theory and practice.

This study aims to serve as an important resource for customer engagement (CE) researchers by presenting a comprehensive, up-to-date and objective assessment of the status and evolution of the CE literature. This purpose is achieved through simultaneous consideration and separate analyses of both the marketing/service and hospitality/tourism literature where CE research dominates.

This study integrated three review techniques, including a systematic review technique, evaluative technique and relational technique, to present a state-of-the-art analysis of 236 articles. It provides an updated picture of scientific research on CE, as well as the thematic evolution and structure of the CE literature across the two disciplines.

Through a comprehensive review of the CE literature in marketing/service and hospitality/tourism domains, the present study findings build a robust foundation to evaluate how this strand of literature has developed and evolved over time. More importantly, a comparative and quantitative analysis of marketing/service and hospitality/tourism journals delivers actionable insight for hospitality and tourism scholars.

This study reframes the scientific knowledge regarding the evolution of CE literature, along with interrelation patterns, to advance relevant studies in hospitality and tourism. Findings offer a broadened perspective on the concept’s scholarly development and current research trends, thereby charting a new path for future research.

By adopting three review techniques, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this state-of-the-art analysis is the first to compare and synthesize a large volume of marketing/service and hospitality/tourism research, assembling a springboard from which to evaluate how CE studies have developed.

The purpose of this paper is to start a conversation on achieving a shared understanding among hospitality service co-creation participants. Adopting a stakeholder and service eco-systems approach, attention is drawn to the necessity for all service experience participants to have a shared understanding of the service experience and their role within it, for a sustained competitive advantage to be realized. Informed by community of practice (CoP) thinking, a road map of research questions is advanced encouraging insight into a macro level phenomenon that, traditionally, is only ever considered at the micro service encounter level.

A thorough multidisciplinary review of the literature was undertaken, providing an opportunity to present a viewpoint on the strategic implications of providing a sustainable competitive advantage via the hospitality service experience.

To achieve a shared understanding across the Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System, potential tensions among stakeholders are highlighted. Accounting for such barriers, institutional arrangements, combining organizational CoPs that are bridged by designated boundary objects, is advanced. Given the novel approach of applying a traditionally organizational phenomenon at a macro multi-stakeholder level, several research questions are proposed to inform thinking about this neglected perspective.

Acknowledging the innovation, agility and resources required to maintain a competitive service experience, the paper emphasizes the importance of adopting a macro perspective to effective service management. The hope is to stimulate academic interest to inform understanding as to how to build this capability as well as enhance practitioner interest in promoting stakeholders’ CoP for the benefit of the entire Hospitality Service Experience Eco-System.