Integrated community-based internal branding - a holistic approach to internal branding for B2B organizations

Abstract

Purpose: This study proposes and tests the effectiveness of an integrated approach to community-based internal branding (CBIB) in a business-to-business setting. It integrates classical and contemporary views on internal branding, integrating community-building activities into the proposed internal branding framework ensuring a holistic model of co-creation of a corporate brand identity. It also examines the moderation effect of employee's personal, job, and community-related characteristics on the relationships in the proposed model. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a detailed narrative review to propose a conceptual model and uses a quantitative research design to test a set of hypotheses using structural equation modeling on 400 responses collected through a survey. Findings: This study finds that integrated CBIB is a viable approach for implementing internal branding. The effectiveness of building employee brand commitment is demonstrated through the testing of the model. We also find that employee's age, gender, organizational tenure, membership duration (in the brand community), education level, customer interaction, leadership status, and participation in brand fests moderate the proposed relationships in the CBIB model. Research limitations/implications: One key limitation of this paper is that it lacks the multi-cultural and multi-industry perspective, which, given promising results in the current context, may be investigated in future studies. Practical implications: The paper proposes a community mode of implementing internal branding in a B2B setting and suggests a way to create brand champions across the organization. Originality/value: As per the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first quantitative investigation of integrated community-based internal branding.

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