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Corporate branding
Edited by T.C. Melewar, Manto Gotsi and Constantine Andriopoulos
Introduction
Research has shown that positive interaction between employees and customers can contribute to brand value and organizational performance ([11] Burmann and Zeplin, 2005; [43] Ramani and Kumar, 2008). To foster employee behavior consistent with brand value has been the main focus of internal brand building. Literature on internal branding documents the effects of marketing control, employee empowerment, corporate identity structure and leadership ([24] Henkel et al. , 2007, [51] Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2006). Yet, there remains unclear understanding as to how the human resource management, the most comprehensive set of employee directing and supervising system in a firm, could contribute to the internal brand management. The rare cases are research work done by [11] Burmann and Zeplin (2005) and [12] Burmann et al. (2009), in which they reveal that brand-centered HR activities have a positive effect on brand commitment of employees. However, their research analysis does not take into considerations of effects at different organizational levels. Research results have shown that human resource practices are the important foundation of organizational competitive advantage ([14] Collins and Clark, 2003). Yet, prior research has not thoroughly addressed the issue of how human resource practices may affect the brand value and market performance. Therefore, the first objective of this study intends to investigate the important role of human resource management in the multilevel brand management.
Second, internal branding literature has seldom addressed the mental process of employee through which the brand-consistent behaviors has been developed. Research has shown that greater involvement and liking for the brand can be the result of ownership ([28] Kirmani et al. , 1999). Possession or feeling of ownership could induce psychological ownership of an object ([23] Heider, 1958, [6] Beggan, 1992; [35] Nesselroade et al. , 1999). While lacking legal ownership, employees may still develop a sense of psychological ownership via the mental processes ([46] Rousseau and Shperling, 2003). [52] Van Dyne and Pierce (2004) find that psychological ownership is positively associated with organizational commitment, which is an important source of organizational competitive advantage and is usually enhanced through organizational support ([1] Allen et al. , 2003). Based on the previous research, this study infers that employees can develop a...