Rico Piehler

The importance of employee brand understanding, brand identification, and brand commitment in realizing brand citizenship behaviour

Purpose This study aims to develop comprehensive definitions, conceptualizations and measures of four internal brand management (IBM) outcomes, namely, brand understanding, brand identification, brand commitment and brand citizenship behaviour (BCB). In doing so, it also aims to propose a model, which considers the relationships across these outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via an online survey of 375 employees who work in service organizations, sourced from an Australian, Web-based market research list. Findings In addition to the indirect effect of brand understanding on BCB via affective IBM outcomes (i.e. brand identification and brand commitment), the study exposes a direct effect of brand understanding on BCB. Therefore, the study shows that BCB is affected by cognitive and affective antecedents. Research limitations/implications Because this study focuses on IBM outcomes, future studies could propose and test relevant antecedents and moderators. As the empirical basis of this study comes primarily from the tourism and hospitality industry in one domestic market, the study should be replicated in other industries and countries to ensure the generalizability of the identified relationships. Practical implications This study not only delivers IBM outcome measures but also empirically validates that employees’ understanding of the brand is a foundation for affective and behavioural IBM outcomes. Therefore, managers, especially in service organizations, should provide sufficient IBM practices to enable such brand understanding. Originality/value This study contributes to IBM literature by developing comprehensive definitions, conceptualizations and measures of four important IBM outcomes. This study is the first to include brand understanding, brand identification, brand commitment and BCB simultaneously.

Employer Branding vs. Internal Branding – Ein Vorschlag zur Integration im Rahmen der identitätsbasierten Markenführung

Employer Branding und Internal Branding sind als Konzepte der Markenführung im letzten Jahrzehnt zunehmend in das Interesse von Forschung und Praxis gerückt. Beide Konzepte fokussieren auf die Zielgruppe der Mitarbeiter. Während sich Unternehmen mit Employer Branding als attraktive Arbeitgeber positionieren wollen, um potentielle Mitarbeiter zu gewinnen und aktuelle Mitarbeiter zu binden und zu halten, steht beim Internal Branding die Sicherstellung der Umsetzung des gegenüber relevanten externen Zielgruppen abgegebenen Markennutzenversprechens durch Mitarbeiter im Vordergrund. Wenngleich sich die Zielsetzungen von Employer Branding und Internal Branding demnach unterscheiden, stellen Employer Branding und Internal Branding sich ergänzende Konzepte dar, die entscheidend zum Unternehmenserfolg beitragen können. Daher ist es das Ziel des vorliegenden Artikels, die Konzepte Employer Branding und Internal Branding hinsichtlich Begriff, Zielsetzung und Zielgrössen sowie Instrumenten vorzustellen. Des Weiteren werden Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede erörtert sowie ein Ansatz zur Integration im Rahmen der identitätsbasierten Markenführung erarbeitet.

Drivers of Brand Page Attachment: An Abstract

While there are behavior-related constructs like brand engagement that measure the success of activities in social networks, a psychological, pre-behavioral construct is missing in literature. Therefore, brand page attachment as strength of the bond connecting the brand page with the self of the user is introduced. Based on an empirical study with 590 German Facebook users, brand page attachment is revealed as strong predictor of behavior like brand page participation (like, comment, and share posts). Concerning the drivers of brand page attachment, social value had the largest effect, followed by infotainment and economic incentives. Based on these results, brand page attachment should be considered as psychological, pre-behavioral construct in social media research and practice.

Management Responses to Negative Online Customer Reviews: The Effect of Compensation and Explanation on the Observer’s Purchase Intention: An Abstract

Negative online customer reviews affect potential customers’ purchase decisions. Observers represent potential customers who read online customer reviews to make informed purchase decisions. Consequently, there is a need to respond to negative online customer reviews. This study investigates the effect of compensation and explanation on observer’s purchase intention. Applying an experimental between-subjects design, the results of a study with 381 participants show that a monetary compensation combined with an explanation has the greatest effect on the observer’s purchase intention. More importantly, a monetary compensation and an explanation alone each have the same positive effect on the observer’s purchase intention. As compensating monetarily implies significant financial losses, organizations are advised to provide an explanation in cases of resource constraints.

Antecedents of the Intention to Use Location-Based-Advertising: Advertising Value, Privacy Concerns, and the Role of Brand Trust: An Abstract

The increasing diffusion rate of GPS-enabled smart phones and the possibility to collect and handle a huge amount of data in real time (the so-called Big Data) equip marketing managers with an innovative advertising channel: Location-Based Advertising (LBA). Despite the vast opportunities offered by LBA, consumers are still skeptical about this innovative advertising channel. While consumers may see benefits of LBA, privacy becomes an important concern (the so-called personalization–privacy paradox). Therefore, it is very important for LBA providers to identify factors influencing the intention to use LBA and, thereby, the willingness to disclose personal information. These antecedents were identified in this study applying privacy calculus and expectancy theory and the advertising value model. Based on an empirical study with 1121 German smart phone users, the positive effect of advertising value on intention to use LBA is larger than the negative effect of privacy concerns. In addition, there are positive effects of entertainment and informativeness on advertising value and a negative effect of irritation on advertising value. Finally, brand trust and self-efficacy have negative effects on privacy concerns. Comparing both antecedents, brand trust has a stronger effect on privacy concerns than self-efficacy.

The Effect of Communication on Employee Brand Understanding, Brand Commitment, and Brand Citizenship Behavior: An Abstract

Because employees are important for building and maintaining brand-customer relationships, managing employee behavior in applying internal brand management (IBM) becomes a critical success factor in brand management. As communication is one of the most powerful tools of organizations to inform employees about the brand, to build affective attachment, and to influence employee behavior, this study investigates the effect of internal and external communication on these employee-related IBM outcomes. Based on a sample of 521 employees working in a German service company in the tourism sector, this study validates the positive direct effect of internal communication usage on the cognitive IBM outcome of brand understanding. The effect on the affective IBM outcome of brand commitment is fully mediated by brand understanding. In addition, the effect on the behavioral IBM outcome of brand citizenship behavior is fully mediated by brand understanding and brand commitment. In contrast, external communication congruence had positive direct effects on brand understanding, brand commitment, and brand citizenship behavior. Therefore, our findings especially highlight the often-overlooked role of external communication for internal brand management. Overall, the study contributes to literature by integrating marketing research (advertising, services marketing, brand management) and organizational behavior research (organizational identity, organizational commitment/identification, role theory).

Identität und Marke im Entrepreneurial Marketing

Grundungsunternehmen stehen vor dem Problem, ihre „liability of newness“ (Witt/Rode 2005, S. 273) zu uberwinden. Eine Strategie, diese Herausforderung zu bewaltigen, ist der Aufbau einer Marke, die das Grundungsunternehmen bzw. sein(e) Produkt(e) im relevanten Markt bekanntmacht, vom Wettbewerb differenziert und letztendlich zur Kundengewinnung und -bindung beitragt. Wenngleich es zum Markenmanagement sowie zur Unternehmensgrundung zahlreiche Beitrage in der Wissenschaft gibt, stellt die Schnittmenge beider Bereiche, d. h. das Markenmanagement bei Grundungsunternehmen, ein Forschungsfeld dar, das bisher nicht besonders intensiv bearbeitet wurde (vgl. Merrilees 2007, S. 403; Bresciani/Eppler 2010, S. 356).

Strategy Changes, Flexibility and Brand Management

Brand management of companies has to maintain flexibility to be successful in an environment, which is characterized by changing technologies, changing consumer needs, organizational changes, and a changing competitive environment. The state-of-the-art brand management approach, which explicitly views brand management as continuous task considering a feedback loop in the brand management process, is identity-based brand management. In context of flexibility and change in brand management there are two challenges companies have to overcome to adapt successfully. The first challenge is related to the component and the level of change in brand identity. The first question to answer in this context is which component of the brand identity can be changed without damaging it. While the core of the brand identity, i.e. essential identity components, must not be changed, the periphery of the brand identity, i.e. nonessential identity components, can be changed. The second question to answer in this context is how much a brand identity can be changed without damaging it. Overall, the level of brand identity change must not be too radical because customers cannot connect the new brand identity with their current brand image if the change is too radical. The case study of FRoSTA illustrates this first challenge of dynamic brand management: Radical changes of the brand identity especially regarding essential identity components can lead to economic failures. The second challenge is related to the internal implementation of the brand, its identity, and change of the identity. The question to answer is how the brand identity and subsequent changes of the brand identity can be communicated to employees as internal stakeholders responsible for living the brand and for communicating the change to external stakeholders. In order to implement the brand within the organization companies have to engage in internal brand management (IBM), which is a concept that implements the brand cognitively (brand understanding), affectively (brand commitment), and behaviorally (brand citizenship behavior) at employee level. Managerial tools to implement the brand within the organization are internal and external brand communication, brand-oriented leadership, and brand-oriented human resource management. The case studies show that companies engaging in these activities are able to create strong brands and competitive advantages.