Ceridwyn King

Building and measuring employee‐based brand equity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the first known empirically‐tested model of Employee Based Brand Equity (EBBE). In doing so, it seeks to provide insight into how organisations can not only effectively manage the internal brand building‐process but also, more importantly, appreciate the subsequent employee effects and organisational benefits.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via an online survey of 371 employees who work in service organisations, sourced from a market research database list.Findings – Strong support was found for nine out of the ten hypothesised relationships, thus providing strong validation for the proposed model.Research limitations/implications – The employment of surveys can present data collection problems stemming from such things as lack of willingness to participate on behalf of the respondent, loss of validity when using structured questionnaires, and inherent challenges of wording questions properly. However, in acknowledging these limitations, ...

Exploring the role of employees in the delivery of the brand: a case study approach

Purpose – Employees are now viewed as playing a crucial role in brand management as they facilitate the interface between the organization and the market. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the role of employees in the delivery of the brand and, in doing so, further ones understanding of an area that, to date, has received little empirical attention from an operational management perspective.Design/methodology/approach – This study demonstrated the use of a qualitative methodological approach to inductively and holistically understand the operational management perspective in a context‐specific situation. A case study approach was adopted and data were gathered via semi‐structured interviews with managers of a customer‐focused organization.Findings – Several themes were identified from the interviews, namely, control, foundation, internal marketing (IM), management role, direction, employee satisfaction, enhancers and element of control. As such, these themes provide the foundation for the discussio...

When experience matters: Building and measuring hotel brand equity - The customers' perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide hotel brand managers with a robust measure to evaluate brand equity as an outcome of brand strategies, as well as to gain insight into what contributes to hotel brand equity.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative methodology was adopted including the development of a survey questionnaire that allows for the measurement of the six constructs contained within Berrys service‐branding model. The development of the survey instrument followed a two‐stage process. In the initial stage, pretested items were generated from the research literature. The second stage involved conducting focus groups to identify and eliminate deficiencies of the questionnaire. Data were collected using a self‐administered survey via central location intercept across multiple tourist attractions in a major tourist destination in Australia. The sample of the present study consisted of 288 respondents who have previously stayed in a hotel organisation.Findings – Using Berrys servi...

Employee Based Brand Equity: A Third Perspective

Despite academics and practitioners alike promoting the positive outcomes of employees being aware of the organizations brand in the context of their work environment, there appears to be no evidence thus far to understand the impact of such brand building efforts from an employee perspective. This article promotes that there is, in fact, a third perspective of brand equity, that being Employee Based Brand Equity (EBBE). In particular, a framework of EBBE dimensions is developed herein, thus representing a significant contribution to the marketing literature and holding strong relevance for service organizations around the globe. The benefits derived from such a framework and, thereby, delivering value to the organization are manifested in brand citizenship behaviors, employee satisfaction and intention to stay with the organization, as well as positive employee word of mouth. This article sets the scene for future research within this important, but neglected, research domain.

The Role of Customer Engagement in Building Consumer Loyalty to Tourism Brands

Customer engagement has recently emerged in both academic literature and practitioner discussions as a brand loyalty predictor that may be superior to other traditional loyalty antecedents. However, empirical inquiry on customer engagement is relatively scarce. As tourism and hospitality firms have widely adopted customer engagement strategies for managing customer–brand relationships, further understanding of this concept is essential. Using structural equation modeling, this study investigates the linkages of customer engagement with traditional antecedents of brand loyalty. Results based on 496 hotel and airline customers suggest that customer engagement enhances customers’ service brand evaluation, brand trust, and brand loyalty. The results show that service brand loyalty can be strengthened not only through the service consumption experience but also through customer engagement beyond the service encounter. This study contributes to the literature by providing an empirical evaluation of the relationships between customer engagement and key brand loyalty development factors.

Examining the antecedents of positive employee brand‐related attitudes and behaviours

Purpose – This study aims to examine the antecedents of employee brand commitment (BC) and brand citizenship behaviours (BCB). In doing so, it also aims to propose a model which includes organisational socialisation, relationship orientation and employee receptiveness to explain the relationships between these three antecedents and BC and BCB.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative research methodology was adopted which resulted in the development of a self‐administered online survey instrument. As the population of interest was employees working in a service industry, a purposive sampling technique was adopted. Using a national database of service employees, a random sample of 2,000 e‐mail addresses was generated and respondents were invited to participate in the online survey. This resulted in the completion of 371 online surveys, representing a response rate of 19 per cent.Findings – The findings revealed a significant positive effect between organisational socialisation and BCB, but not with BC. ...

Travel Decision Making An Empirical Examination of Generational Values, Attitudes, and Intentions

Underpinning generational cohort analysis is the notion that the formative experiences of each cohort influence its members’ lifelong beliefs, values, and behavior. However, previous studies have failed to verify this notion. This study is the first to do so, showing that memories of the formative years influence a generational cohort’s present-day travel decision making. Focus groups and an online survey of Australian Baby Boomer, Generation X, and Generation Y consumers provided data for the development and testing of the model presented here. Structural equation modeling shows the proposed model is robust, substantiating the importance of formative referents influencing salient referents, value perceptions, and attitude and intention to travel. This study provides a theoretical foundation for future research on this topic, highlighting the importance of considering a travel segment’s generational perspective when designing a marketing strategy.

Exploring managers' perspectives of the impact of brand management strategies on employee roles within a service firm

Purpose – This study seeks to examine the impact of brand management strategies on the employee role in the deliverance of the service experience consistent with the brand from a management perspective. In doing so, furthers understanding of an area that, to date, has received little empirical attention.Design/methodology/approach – Case study approach with data gathered via in‐depth interviews with managers of a service organization.Findings – Several themes identified provided the foundation for discussion, namely, direction, involvement, employee selection, relevance, employee satisfaction, flexibility, management role, comprehension of differences, influencing role, control, foundation, internal marketing, management role, enhancers and element of control. The themes of relevance and comprehension of differences had not previously been considered in the literature and therefore explored in depth.Research limitations/implications – Limitations of a case study methodology include insufficient precision ...

Exploring Destination Image Decay A Study of Sport Tourists’ Destination Image Change after Event Participation

Limited research has examined the decay of destination image (DI) using longitudinal repeated measures. This study used a tripartite attitude perspective to examine the structural stability of DI among sport tourists after returning home. Two online survey waves were conducted to monitor the DI change held by 234 nonlocal participants in an international marathon event over a 9-month interval. The results revealed that the DI decayed over time and this decay was dimensionally specific. Affective and conative components of DI were more susceptible to change while cognitive DI was more stable. However, the pattern of decay was moderated by the strength of a tourist’s psychological connection to the destination. Relevant theoretical and managerial implications are discussed to provide insights for both researchers and practitioners.

Sport Tourists’ Involvement with a Destination A Stage-Based Examination

The purpose of this research is to examine sport tourists’ involvement with a destination that hosts a sport event to enable understanding of how a tourist–destination relationship forms. To bolster this understanding, the psychological continuum model (PCM) is applied as a framework to assess sport tourists’ involvement with a destination across four progressive stages. A questionnaire was administered to sport tourists in an international marathon event in the United States (N = 1,029). To allocate these sport tourists into distinct stages that represent an increased psychological connection to the destination, a three-step staging tool using destination involvement (DI) was applied. The findings indicate the progressive development of DI among these sport tourists results in increasingly high place attachment and revisit intentions. The results provide support for DI as an indicator that allows destination marketers to understand sport tourists’ destination attitude as well as predict behavioral intention.