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1 – 10 of over 32000Sally Raouf Ragheb Garas, Amira Fouad Ahmed Mahran and Hassan Mohamed Hussein Mohamed
This paper aims to study the effect of internal branding on brand supporting behaviour (in-role and extra-role) of bank employees in Egypt. It proposes a model which examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the effect of internal branding on brand supporting behaviour (in-role and extra-role) of bank employees in Egypt. It proposes a model which examines the relationship between internal branding and employees’ brand supporting behavior, mediated by employees’ role clarity, affective commitment and continuance commitment, to provide insights into the way in which employees can become brand champions.
Design/methodology/approach
A single cross-sectional descriptive research was employed. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 400 frontline bank employees. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the scales, and structural equation modelling was used to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
The results showed that internal branding did not have a direct significant impact on employees’ in-role and extra-role behaviour. However, that impact only took place through employees’ role clarity and their affective commitment.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that banks can differentiate their offers and build powerful corporate brands through their employees’ brand supporting behaviour. Therefore, bank managers need to consider internal branding within the context of a corporate marketing orientation. Moreover, enhancing employees’ role clarity and affective commitment will ensure sustainable brand supporting behaviour.
Originality/value
This research is the first quantitative study to examine the impact of role clarity and continuance commitment as possible mediators to the proposed relationship. It further adds up to the internal branding literature, which is mostly qualitative or conceptual and thus suffers from limited conclusive evidence in terms of internal branding benefits and practical implications.
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Donna Smith, Jenna Jacobson and Janice L. Rudkowski
The practice of frontline employees articulating their brand voice and posting work-related content on social media has emerged; however, employee brand equity (EBE) research has…
Abstract
Purpose
The practice of frontline employees articulating their brand voice and posting work-related content on social media has emerged; however, employee brand equity (EBE) research has yet to be linked to employees’ social media activity. This paper aims to take a methods-based approach to better understand employees’ roles as influencers. As such, its objective is to operationalize and apply the three EBE dimensions – brand consistent behavior, brand endorsement and brand allegiance – using Instagram data.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative research uses a case study of employee influencers at SoulCycle, a leading North American fitness company and examines 100 Instagram images and 100 captions from these influential employees to assess the three EBE dimensions.
Findings
Brand consistent behavior (what employees do) was the most important EBE dimension indicating that employees’ social media activities align with their employer’s values. Brand allegiance (what employees intend to do in the future) whereby employees self-identify with their employer on social media, followed. Brand endorsement (what employees say) was the least influential of the three EBE dimensions, which may indicate a higher level of perceived authenticity from a consumer perspective.
Originality/value
This research makes three contributions. First, it presents a novel measure of EBE using public Instagram data. Second, it represents a unique expansion and an evolution of King et al.’s (2012) model. Third, it considers employees’ work-related content on social media to understand employees’ role as influencers and their co-creation of EBE, which is currently an under-represented perspective in the internal branding literature.
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Praveen Dhiman and Sangeeta Arora
Relying on social identity and social exchange perspectives, the present study aims to investigate the role of employee branding dimensions in stimulating employees’ brand…
Abstract
Purpose
Relying on social identity and social exchange perspectives, the present study aims to investigate the role of employee branding dimensions in stimulating employees’ brand citizenship behaviour (BCB) directly and indirectly through job satisfaction and affective brand commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
A field-survey method was used to target customer-contact employees of luxury chain hotels. Regression-based approach and bootstrap method (via PROCESS MACRO, Model 6) were applied to test the direct and indirect effects.
Findings
The results show that perceived external brand prestige has a strong direct effect on BCB. Through mediation analysis, this study observes that job satisfaction and affective brand commitment have significant mediation effects (i.e. individual, parallel and sequential) between employee branding dimensions and BCB. Analysing the results precisely, job satisfaction and affective brand commitment have the lowest sequential mediation effect and the greatest parallel mediation effect concerning the said relationships.
Originality/value
This study is novel in applying a three-path mediation model in the Indian hospitality context, considering a multi-dimensional perspective of employee branding to capture its diverse impact on BCB directly and indirectly through job satisfaction and affective brand commitment. Moreover, this study advances employee branding research by considering the under-investigated mediating (individual, parallel and sequential) role of job satisfaction and affective brand commitment.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of brand identification between internal branding and brand citizenship behavior as well as brand loyalty, and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of brand identification between internal branding and brand citizenship behavior as well as brand loyalty, and the roles of working generation and organizational tenure as moderators of the relationship between internal branding and brand identification.
Design/methodology/approach
This research used a survey method and a structured questionnaire to collect data from salespeople working in the cement and construction materials industry. The hypothesized relationships were tested and analyzed by means of a confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, hierarchical regression and a bootstrapping procedure.
Findings
Brand identification partially mediates the link between internal branding and brand citizenship behavior and fully mediates that between internal branding and brand loyalty. Also, the influences of internal branding on brand identification are varied among generational cohorts and employees with different tenure.
Research limitations/implications
The current research took place among customer-interface employees, which can be extended to back-end or supporting workers, in order to better reflect the overall effect of internal branding efforts.
Practical implications
Organizations need to undertake internal branding to induce a shared understanding among employees about brand insights, and to foster their perception of belongingness in order to motivate desired brand behaviors. Furthermore, managers may improve internal branding mechanisms by taking generational differences and duration of employment into consideration, since these factors impinge on the effects of internal branding.
Originality/value
This study contributes to internal branding research by addressing the contingent influences of employees’ differences on the success of internal branding efforts.
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Jin‐Feng Uen, Ting Wu, Huei‐Chun Teng and Yu‐Shuan Liu
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the messages delivered by transformational leaders to front‐line employees to build an organizational brand climate and encourage…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the messages delivered by transformational leaders to front‐line employees to build an organizational brand climate and encourage employees' branding behaviors, to attain better company performance within the Taiwanese hotel industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were obtained from 34 human resource managers and 326 customer contact employees working in Taiwanese hotels.
Findings
Transformational leadership was found to have both direct and indirect positive influences on the development of organizational brand climate and employees' branding behavior.
Practical implications
Results suggest that transformational leaders may facilitate employees' branding behaviors by developing an organizational brand climate to distinguish the organization from its competitors and develop long‐term customer relationships.
Originality/value
This study advances the knowledge of antecedents and outcomes of the organizational brand climate by applying a multilevel approach to reflect the hierarchical nature of brand distinctiveness within the Taiwanese hotel industry.
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Rajwinder Kaur, Sameer Pingle and Anand Kumar Jaiswal
This research aims to investigate the relationship between employer branding and its antecedent organisational culture within the context of the private banking sector. The study…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to investigate the relationship between employer branding and its antecedent organisational culture within the context of the private banking sector. The study also investigates the relationship between employer branding and employee brand equity as a consequential construct. Additionally, the mediating role of trust and the moderating role of gender in the relationship between employer branding and employee brand equity has been examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study’s findings result from data analysis collected from a sample of 454 employees working in private banks in India. The data analysis was conducted utilising the structural equation modelling technique with the assistance of analysis of moment structures (AMOS) software.
Findings
The study’s findings indicate that supportive and bureaucratic (formal) culture in private banks exhibit a significant relationship with employer branding. However, the relationship between innovative culture and employer branding was found to be insignificant. The research also reveals a significant positive association between employer branding and employee brand equity variables: brand consistent behaviour, brand endorsement and brand allegiance. Further, the study highlights the mediating role of employee trust in management in the relationship between employer branding and employee brand equity. Examining demographic variables suggests that gender moderates the relationship between employer branding and employee brand equity.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in its exploration of the critical role of organisational culture variables in shaping employer branding within the context of private banks. The findings highlight that cultivating supportive and bureaucratic cultures can effectively enhance the employer branding of private banks. The study emphasises the outcomes of employer branding initiatives, signifying that they contribute to developing brand equity among employees. This leads to long-term employee commitment and advocacy towards the organisation, as employees become brand advocates for the bank with which they are affiliated. The study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between organisational culture, employer branding and employee brand equity, providing valuable implications for the private banking sector aiming to reinforce their employer brand and increase employee engagement.
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Liem Viet Ngo, Nguyen Phong Nguyen, Kim Thien Huynh, Gary Gregory and Pham Hung Cuong
Internal branding efforts are essential in improving employee performance in services marketing. Drawing on reformulation of attitude theory, this paper aims to contribute to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Internal branding efforts are essential in improving employee performance in services marketing. Drawing on reformulation of attitude theory, this paper aims to contribute to the internal branding literature by positing that while internal brand knowledge (IBK) is essential for transforming brand vision into brand reality, it is not brand knowledge per se but its integration with other brand- and customer-related aspects that drive superior employee performance. In particular, this paper develops a cognitive-affective-behaviour model of internal branding proposing that IBK results in higher levels of employee brand identification (EBI); this sense of identification then motivates employees to engage in both employee-related and brand- and customer-focussed behaviours (i.e. brand citizenship behaviour [BCB] and customer-oriented behaviour [COB]), which in turn foster employee performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses were empirically tested using a sample of 697 from services industry in Vietnam.
Findings
The findings indicate a sequential mediation model in that employee brand knowledge affects employee performance (both objective and subjective measures) through EBI, BCB and COB. Employee brand knowledge results in higher levels of EBI; this sense of identification then motivates employees to engage in employee-related brand and customer-focussed behaviours (BCB and COB), which in turn foster employee performance.
Practical implications
Firms should understand that IBK may not directly result in high levels of service performance, and instead should embrace the culture of self-driven positive brand-connection attitudes that motivate employees to engage in BCB and COB that are consistent with their sense of self.
Originality/value
This study makes a unique contribution to the internal branding literature by unravelling a pathway that integrates employees’ self-related psychological mechanism (EBI) and employee-related brand and customer-focussed behaviours (BCB and COB) through which employee brand knowledge is converted into employee performance.
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This study aims to understand the effect of brand citizenship behaviors of hospitality employees on customers’ relation with the brand. A model, which links employee behaviors to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to understand the effect of brand citizenship behaviors of hospitality employees on customers’ relation with the brand. A model, which links employee behaviors to customers’ evaluation of brand performance, brand trust and brand commitment, is proposed to provide further insight into how customers form their relation with a brand.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from both customer-contact employees and passengers of a corporate airline company. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model by using both employee and customer data in the same research model.
Findings
The results showed that even brand citizenship behaviors of employees did not affect brand commitment of customers directly; these behaviors explain customers’ commitment to a brand through influencing perceived brand performance of customers and their trust toward a brand. Overall, this study provided support for the impact of employees’ brand-related behaviors on consumers’ relation with the brand.
Research limitations/implications
The results suggest that hospitality employees contribute to the brand success through their behaviors. This helps organizations to enhance brand-related behaviors of their employees to ensure long-term relationships not only with customers but also with their employees in a labor-intensive and high customer contact industry.
Originality/value
This research was one of the first to analyze the effects of employees’ brand supporting behaviors on consumers by using both employee and consumer data in the same research model within the hospitality context.
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Khanyapuss Punjaisri, Heiner Evanschitzky and Alan Wilson
The purpose of this paper is to understand the internal branding process from the employees' perspective; it will empirically assess the relationship between internal branding and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the internal branding process from the employees' perspective; it will empirically assess the relationship between internal branding and employees' delivery of the brand promise as well as the relationships among their brand identification, brand commitment and brand loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
On a census basis, a quantitative survey is carried out with 699 customer‐interface employees from five major hotels.
Findings
Internal branding is found to have a positive impact on attitudinal and behavioural aspects of employees in their delivery of the brand promise. As employees' brand commitment does not have a statistically significant relationship with employees' brand performance, it is not regarded as a mediator in the link between internal branding and employees' brand performance. Furthermore, the study shows that brand identification is a driver of brand commitment, which precedes brand loyalty of employees.
Practical implications
A number of significant managerial implications are drawn from this study, for example using both internal communication and training to influence employees' brand‐supporting attitudes and behaviours. Still, it should be noted that the effect of internal branding on the behaviours could be dependent on the extent to which it could effectively influence their brand attitudes.
Originality/value
The results provide valuable insights from the key internal audience's perspectives into an internal branding process to ensure the delivery of the brand promise. It empirically shows the relationship between internal branding and the behavioural outcome as well as the meditational effects of employees' brand identification, commitment and loyalty.
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This study aims to expand the emerging body of literature on employer branding from the current employee perspective. It proposes that effective integrated communication helps an…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to expand the emerging body of literature on employer branding from the current employee perspective. It proposes that effective integrated communication helps an organization fulfill its employer value proposition or employment value proposition (EVP). A firm that fulfills its brand promise in terms of EVP will derive employee-based brand equity (EBBE) benefits. Integrated communication is effective when employees experience coordination and consistency in brand communication. This influences their perception of psychological contract fulfillment (in terms of EVP attributes), which results in positive employee behavior in the form of EBBE benefits.
Design/methodology/approach
The study draws insights from the signaling theory and psychological contract literature which is based on the social exchange theory. The literature on integrated communication, employer branding and internal branding was reviewed to propose the relationships between the variables of interest. Data was collected using a questionnaire survey on 520 employees from the information technology (IT)-business process management industry in India, which is a customer-oriented industry known for its exemplary employer practices.
Findings
The findings suggest that integrated communication effectiveness impacts the perceived fulfillment of EVP attributes and EBBE. Again, the fulfillment of the relational value dimension of EVP attributes partially mediates the relationship between integrated communication effectiveness and EBBE.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to explore employees’ perception of integrated communication effectiveness and fulfillment in terms of EVP attributes as antecedents to EBBE.
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