Search results

This paper seeks to propose and test the appropriateness of a brand community within an internal branding framework.

Using the multidimensional constructs of brand community and the strengths of internal branding strategies, this study explores the theoretical underpinnings of combining the two constructs.

Intraorganizational brand communities are presented as a viable strategic possibility for targeting internal branding participants. Results lend strong support to the need for and efficacy of internal brand communities, and provide an opportunity to examine the strategic synergies of pursuing such a strategy for internal as well as external audiences.

The study was delimited to domestic participants. Additional studies are recommended to further test the constructs of brand community membership in an internal brand community.

External branding initiatives and communications can be used internally, among employees, to build positive brand associations and brand affinity. Further, implementing an internal brand community can lead to increases in the emotional buy‐in of employees and ultimately could help companies increase the proportion of “champion” employees.

The study integrates the research streams of brand community and internal branding and studies the viability of conducting internal branding within a brand community framework.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Situated between the literature on internal branding and user-generated content, this study aims to demonstrate the effect of employee-generated content (EGC) on consumers’ purchase intentions and positive word of mouth (WOM).

The conceptual model was empirically tested using structural equation modeling based on a sample of 442 participants.

The findings support a sequential mediation model in which employee-created social media content impacts perceptions of brand citizenship behavior (BCB) and perceptions of expertise, which in turn increases purchase intention and WOM.

Based on the findings, this research suggests that employee ambassador programs can work to attract employees with an interest in brand-related social media content creation. Facilitating EGC through support, empowerment and reinforcement rather than traditional control mechanisms is recommended.

This research introduces the concept of EGC and employee content creators while extending the literature on perceived BCB by empirically demonstrating its relationship with perceived expertise and positive consumer behavior outcomes.

Company stores market to their internal employees via the distribution of branded promotional products. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that may influence when an employee is more likely to purchase from a company store.

A survey was administered to the members of a chamber of commerce located in the southeastern USA. Data were analyzed using regression, and post hoc analyses were conducted using an analysis of covariance.

Organizational identification and job satisfaction significantly impacted employees’ intentions to purchase from a company store. Gender, education, marital status and years of work experience were personal factors that moderated that relationship. Firm size and employee rank were company factors that moderated the relationship between employee work perceptions and employee purchase intentions at a company store.

No research to date exists on company stores. This study is unique in that it proposes internal branding as a theoretical foundation for understanding company stores and examines factors that impact employees’ intentions to purchase from a company store.

This study aims to conceptualise the panic buying behaviour of consumers in the UK during the novel COVID-19 crisis, using the assemblage approach as it is non-deterministic and relational and affords new ways of understanding the phenomenon.

The study undertakes a digital ethnography approach and content analysis of Twitter data. A total of 6,803 valid tweets were collected over the period when panic buying was at its peak at the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2020.

The panic buying phase was a radical departure from the existing linguistic, discursive, symbolic and semiotic structures that define routine consumer behaviour. The authors suggest that the panic buying behaviour is best understood as a constant state of becoming, whereby stockpiling, food waste and a surge in cooking at home emerged as significant contributors to positive consumer sentiments.

The authors offer unique insights into the phenomenon of panic buying by considering DeLanda’s assemblage theory. This work will inform future research associated with new social meanings of products, particularly those that may have been (re)shaped during the COVID-19 crisis.

The study offers insights for practitioners and retailers to lessen the intensity of consumers’ panic buying behaviour in anticipation of a crisis and for successful crisis management.

Panic buying took on a somewhat carnivalesque hue as consumers transitioned to what we consider to be atypical modes of purchasing that remain under-theorised in marketing. Using the conceptual lenses of assemblage, the authors map bifurcations that the panic buyers’ assemblages articulated via material and immaterial bodies.