Internal branding: social identity and social exchange perspectives on turning employees into brand championsud

摘要

Prior research acknowledges employees' crucial role in building strong service brands, yetudempirical research on how to turn employees into brand champions remains scarce and has beenudlargely approached from an internal branding perspective. Drawing on social identity and socialudexchange theories, this study takes a broader organizational perspective to link internal brandingudoutcomes (employee-brand fit, brand knowledge, and belief in the brand) and employees'udperceptions of organizational support to a range of employee brand-building behaviors, withudorganizational identification as the key mediating mechanism. Both cross-sectional andudlongitudinal analyses of employee data from a major retail bank reveal organizationaludidentification as a strong motivational force for employees to become brand champions, largelyudmediating the effects of internal branding outcomes. When organizational identification is low,udperceived organizational support (as a quality indicator of employees' exchange-basedudrelationship with the organization) constitutes an alternative, external motivator of on-the-jobudbrand building behaviors; when organizational identification is high, perceived organizationaludsupport boosts employees' voluntary participation in brand development and positive word-ofmouth.udThese findings highlight the managerial relevance of the employee-organizationudrelationship for turning employees into brand champions and show how organizationaludidentification can be stimulated by means of internal branding. (authors' abstract)