Search results

This study aims to examine the mechanism of how hotel executive brand identity influences physical facility quality, customer-based brand equity (CBBE) and employee-based brand equity (EBBE).

The study introduces a multilevel model and collects 925 executive and 1,978 employee responses from 62 upscale hotels in China.

Executive brand identity positively affects employee brand internalization, which leads to positive EBBE. Meanwhile, executive brand identity positively influences the physical facility quality, which leads to positive CBBE.

This study considers the tangible (physical facilities) and intangible (employees) elements of hotel services to comprehensively investigate the brand equity formation. By applying multilevel structural equation modeling, the study examines the bidirectional relationship between organizations and employees in the brand value transformation process.

Integrating conservation of resources (COR) and complexity theories, this study aims to develop and assess a research model of the relationship between job dissatisfaction and brand sabotage behavior (BSB) based on the moderating mechanism of psychological resources (i.e. brand-based role identity and relational energy). The interdependence between these influencing factors is analyzed from the perspective of social science holism.

A total of 381 valid questionnaires were collected from frontliners serving in full-service restaurants in Guangzhou, China. Regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses and combined with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify the complex triggering mechanism of BSB.

Job dissatisfaction is positively related to BSB, brand-based role identity internalization and relational energy weaken this effect, whereas brand-based role identity compliance strengthens it. Qualitative comparative analysis shows that a single condition does not constitute a necessary condition for BSB. The interdependence of job dissatisfaction and employee psychological resources forms multiple asymmetric paths that trigger high and low BSB.

The findings can be used by catering organizations as guidelines for conducting training for brand internalization, formulating strategies to avoid BSB among employees and strengthening brand building.

This study is the first to integrate COR and complexity theories to comprehensively analyze how BSB is formed among dissatisfied employees. The authors advance theory by distinguishing the role of brand psychological resources (i.e. brand-based role identity) and psychological resources obtained from the environment (i.e. relational energy) in stimulating or buffering dissatisfied employees to engage in BSB.

This paper aims to explore the mechanism of brand internalisation when a brand transcends national borders. It focuses on the ways international and local managers interpret the brand, develop brand understanding and enact it through communication with other colleagues.

The research is based on a case study of IKEA in Russia and China during 2003‐2004.

The processes of brand conceptualising, comprehending and activating are identified, characterised by a weakening collective sense making amongst employees locally. Brand activating represents a discontinuity stage of brand internalisation when a shared brand understanding by employees becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. As such managers should broaden their brand contexts to include cultural elements and cues, involve local staff as well as adopt roles which facilitate collective sense‐making processes.

New research should explore local employees' brand experiences throughout their brand internalisation. It should also delve deeper into the ways they enact their brand in relationships with other local stakeholders.

The study argues that international managers need greater awareness of theirs' and local employees' roles in brand internalisation. Managers need to create common frameworks for sense making and work towards partnership relationships with local stakeholders.

This is an original paper of value to global retailers and other branded organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among internal branding, brand orientation, brand identification, brand commitment, and employees’ intention to stay. The paper also examines the mediating roles played by brand identification and brand commitment on the relationship between brand orientation and retention.

Data were collected from 702 business-to-business salespeople working in 15 cement and building materials companies in Thailand. Hypotheses were tested and analyzed by means of a confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and a bootstrapping procedure.

The results revealed that establishing an internal brand has a positive effect on brand orientation, which has a positive impact on brand attitudes, namely brand commitment and brand identification. Such attitudes in turn are positively related to employee retention. The direct relationship between brand orientation and intention to stay was found to be partially mediated by brand identification.

The current research took place among customer-facing staff (e.g. salespeople), which can be extended to back-end employees in order to better reflect the overall internal branding effort.

Organizations may improve employee retention through an internal branding process, and internalization of brand attitudes. Such efforts are not only the job of brand managers, but a shared responsibility of all employees at all levels. The collaboration between brand management and human resource (HR) interventions is crucial to successfully implement these efforts.

This study extends the existing knowledge by investigating the relationships that have rarely been discussed in the HR management and employee retention literatures. It shows the importance of a brand-building mechanism at the cultural level, and the influential effect of brand attitudes on the turnover of salespeople.

This paper aims to understand employees’ perceptions of human resources management functions and how these affect brand performance, and the indirect influence of human resources management functions when mediated by job satisfaction in branded hotels in China. Hotel human resources functions, specifically organizational career management, and internal branding in hotels in mainland China were examined. The mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between organizational career management and internal branding on brand performance was also examined.

A survey of hotel supervisors and middle managers in mainland China yielded 510 valid questionnaires for data analysis. Structural equation modeling was used to empirically test the relationships between human resources management functions (organizational career management, internal branding and job satisfaction) and brand performance in four- and five-star hotels in China.

The structural equation modeling results showed strong support for the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationships between organizational career management, internal branding and brand performance. Interestingly, although internal branding significantly affected brand performance, organizational career management alone did not.

The main limitation was the use of a convenience sampling method, which means respondents may not represent a sufficiently broad sample of hotel employees. Future studies are encouraged to explore internal branding and hotel career management using a probability sampling method.

The findings offer new insights and directions for hotel human resources managers to improve brand performance, either through promoting internal branding itself, or by enhancing organizational career management, internal branding and employees’ job satisfaction to achieve brand performance.

This is the first empirical study to analyze hotel management employees’ perceptions of the relationships between hotel human resources management, employees’ job satisfaction and hotel brand performance in China. The findings demonstrate the usefulness of applying human resources management functions to hotel branding.

The purpose of this study is to propose and develop an antecedent model from star hotel employee viewpoint and a consequence model for star hotel customers’ evaluation of the brand equity development process.

In terms of the study setting, structural equation modelling was conducted. Study 1 used the views of 323 star hotels’ employees on the mutual relationships among employee-based brand equity, and Study 2 used 516 star hotels’ customer perspectives concerning the mutual relationships among customer-based brand equity.

In the antecedent model of Study 1 from an employee viewpoint, service quality is a foundational attribute of the indirect influences of brand equity development through brand promise, values and message. A moderating role of brand identity is also found. In the consequence model of Study 2 from the perspective of customers’ evaluation, mutual relationships of brand equity are identified, and social interactions are established that enhance the positive relationships among the different critical attributes of brand equity.

Although numerous hotel branding studies have identified the consequences of hotels for employees, few have simultaneously considered employees and customer feedback in terms of star hotel branding. This research considers the bidirectional effects of such a comprehensive perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the brand identity management process from the employees’ perspective. Specifically, it explores how the different dimensions of brand identity management influence employees’ attitudinal and behavioural responses.

An empirical study was carried out to test the proposed model. The sample consisted of 297 employees in the UK financial services sector. Hypothesis testing was conducted using partial least square regression.

Results indicate that effective brand identity management can increase employees’ identification with their organisations. Specifically, the most influential dimension is the employee-client focus. Results also show that organisational identification is a key variable to explain job satisfaction, word-of-mouth and brand citizenship behaviour.

This study focusses on the UK financial sector. To explore the generalisability of results, replication studies among other sectors and countries would be useful. The cross-sectional nature of the study also limits its causal inference.

This study shows the importance of brand identity management to foster positive employee attitudes and actions that go beyond their job responsibilities. The model developed may help organisations analyse the impact of managerial actions, monitoring the potential effects of changes in brand identity management amongst employees.

Although numerous conceptual frameworks highlight the importance of brand identity management, empirical studies in this area are scarce. The current work extends previous research by empirically analysing the effects of the dimensions of brand identity management from the employees’ perspective.

This study aims to explore the concept of frontline employee’s brand sabotage behaviour (BSB) and the influencing factors of BSB in the hotels and their partner travel agencies from the perspective of perceived justice and establishes a moderating mechanism based on emotional resource supplementation.

This paper developed a measurement scale of BSB through interviews with hotel employees and multiple rounds of questionnaire surveys in Study 1 and tested the research model and hypotheses using a structural equation model analysis in Study 2.

The results of multiple rounds of surveys indicate that a positive perception of procedural justice helps to restrain employees from implementing BSB but the employee’s perceived customer injustice can directly stimulate not only the BSB but also reduce employees’ perception of the level of procedural justice. However, when employees’ self-efficacy for emotional regulation is higher, the positive relationship between customer injustice and BSB and the negative impact on procedural justice is weakened.

The findings suggest that managers should implement practices to suppress BSB by actively managing the service interaction process and reduce the instances of unjust customer behaviours, while preventing employees from sabotaging brands at both organizational and employee levels by promoting organizational procedural justice and employees’ self-efficacy for emotional regulation.

The research results enrich the discussion on the integration of resources in the process of value co-creation and the common sabotage of brand value caused by resource abuse. Further, this study also supplements and perfects the theory of service brand management.

Employee position is acknowledged as central in service brand management to achieve competitive advantage. Hence, this study aims to illustrate the importance of brand role clarity (BRC) and employee brand commitment (EBC) by investigating the moderating role of EBC on the relationship between BRC and employee brand equity (EBE) in Islamic banking.

Data is collected from 259 respondents who are involved in Islamic banking. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used to select bank branches for the study, and simple random sampling was adopted to choose respondents within these bank branches.

Building on the insight obtained from data analysis, the results of this study demonstrate that the EBC strengthens the significant relationship between employee BRC and EBE. It indicates that EBC is vital in affecting the employee BRC on EBE.

The importance of BRC and EBC has been widely discussed in the literature that both of these variables are essential sources of EBE. However, empirical studies on the combined effect of EBC and BRC on EBE have not been considered in past studies.

Past integrated marketing communications (IMC) frameworks have established brand contacts as important sources of information and feedback. This paper aims to discuss how the presence of multiple brand stakeholders and the proliferation of digital media increase the amount of brand information generated exponentially. When a firm fails to harness this information, it risks misalignment between brand identity and brand image, which, in turn, tarnishes brand-equity.

Past IMC frameworks are reviewed and extended to identify specific brand contact points between multiple stakeholders that hold significant potential to dynamically reconfigure brand identity. Theoretical propositions regarding the IMC function’s role in managing these contact points to generate brand-equity are offered.

The brand contacts described and their successful integration into a firm’s brand-equity strategy extend current IMC-based brand-equity models and suggest fruitful, novel avenues for creating brand-equity. Further, these brand contacts offer practical examples of how the scope of marketing communications can be redefined.

This paper contributes to the body of research on the elevation of IMC to a strategic level function. In addition to the synergistic communication of the brand offering, IMC needs to play a pivotal role in coordinating the contacts between the brand and stakeholders, and in extrapolating relevant brand insights from these contacts.