دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی عوامل تعیین کننده عملکرد برند: نقش برند داخلی - اشپرینگر 2018

Abstract

The importance of internal branding is growing in both academia and practice. However, little attention has been directed toward identifying the organizational antecedents and consequences of internal branding. Thus, the current study examines the relationships of internal branding with the three brand management factors that have been discussed in the literature: brand orientation, strategic brand management, and brand performance. Internal branding is viewed as a facilitator for brand orientation and strategic brand management process, which ultimately impacts the brand performance. Survey data collected from brand/marketing managers reveal that while brand orientation, strategic brand management, and internal branding are directly associated with brand performance, internal branding partially mediates the relationship between brand orientation, strategic brand management, and brand performance. From a research standpoint, the current study addresses the call for better understanding the role of employees in improving a brand’s performance. In addition, the importance of developing internal branding along with brand orientation and strategic brand management is highlighted for marketing practitioners.

Limitations and future research directions

While the results of this study contribute to the paucity of the literature on brand management from an organizational perspective, there are some limitations that need to be addressed in future studies. A primary limitation of this study is that we did not take the environmental factors into consideration. The effectiveness of all these three constructs needs to be tested in various environmental conditions. The development and impact of internal branding could be influenced by environmental dynamics. There are several interesting research questions that can be posed in this area, pertaining to the manner in which organizations can develop internal branding in a rapidly changing environment. Organizations respond to fast environmental changes by adapting an adhocratic culture (Moorman 1995), which impedes the development of internal branding. We expect that understanding the environmental impact on an organizations’ willingness to invest in internal branding and its impact on brand performance, will further establish its importance to researchers and practice. Another limitation of the study is pertaining to the sample used in the study. The sample was heterogeneous, limited to one country (USA), and had a relatively small size. Also, the key respondents have medium working experience. Future researchers should seek out larger and more generalizable samples for testing the above research model. A related future research area could be to test for the relationships among these constructs in a service and product brand setting. Considering that the internal branding literature has primarily focused on the service and B2B contexts (Du Preez and Bendixen 2015; King and Grace 2008, 2009; Lynch and de Chernatony 2004; Roper and Davies 2010), examining the role of internal branding across different contexts becomes important. A third limitation of the study is that the data collection was cross-sectional in nature.