دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی ارتباطات برند سلف و برجستگی برند به عنوان محرک های ضمیمه ی برند کارمند - اشپرینگر 2018

Abstract

Past research reveals that customers can attach meanings to brands that create strong connections between the brand and the self. When they do, and when the brand is prominent in their minds, they become psychologically attached to the brand, and display strong brand loyalty and advocacy behaviors. We use a grounded theory framework to ask if employees develop similar brandself connections and regard the brand as prominent in their lives based on the meaning they attach to the brand they work for. This question is important because employee’s attachment to the brand can have critical equity-driving implications for the brand’s marketplace success and the employee’s commitment to the organization. We also ask what drives such outcomes. Beyond identifying novel drivers of employees’ brand attachment, we find that employees’ attachment to a brand is conceptually and empirically different from attachment or commitment to the organization. Specifically, we observe employees who are not attached to the organization but who are still attached to the brand, and who engage in difficult-to-enact pro-brand and proorganization behaviors. Finally, our findings contribute to a broader knowledge base on organizational commitment and attachment by identifying brand meaning-related drivers of employees’ organizational commitment/attachment. Prior research has studied non-brand related drivers of these organizational outcomes.

Limitations and future research

Despite its contributions, readers should note the following limitations of our study. We were unable to observe employees’ behaviors in the workplace. Data pertinent to real time behaviors and internal communications might result in additional findings that augment our framework. We also based our findings on relatively few informants representing relatively few and relatively large companies, thus limiting the generalizability of our findings. Although we attempted to include employees from diverse brands in the US, Europe, and Asia, all studies based on grounded theory can evoke concerns over generalizability. This might be particularly true in our case given our focus on large, well-known organizations as opposed to smaller ones. However, our finding that employees form brand attachments based on brand-self connections and brand prominence lays the groundwork for future empirical research. Brand relationships deteriorate when the brand demonstrates opportunistic behaviors and a lack of congruity between consumers’ values and the brand’s values. We might expect the same deterioration in the brand relationship with employees too. Potential retaliatory behaviors on the part of employees could have far reaching implications for companies. Thus, future research may explore what occurs in the face of employee resistance, and examine whether employees’ detachment from the brand tarnishes the image of the brand in the eyes of consumers through whistleblowing, subvertising or ‘culture jamming’ (Gabriel et al. 2015). Future research could also examine whether employees detach from the brand in light of the loss of benefits and or self-image (Thomson et al. 2005). How, for example, do employees react to brands that change their identity against the will of employees?