HOW INTERNAL BRANDING PROCESS REALLY PAYS OFF THROUGH BRAND TRUST

Abstract

Internal branding is gaining importance for services to manage brand-related attitudes and behaviors of service employees. Although service branding literature points out employees' brand commitment as the key for internal branding activities to influence their brand supporting behaviors, previous studies neglect the role of brand trust to explain both commitment and brand-related behaviors of employees. Therefore, the present study mainly aims to investigate the effect of brand trust for the relationship between internal branding and brand citizenship behaviors of employees. Data were collected from airline customer contact employees and structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed relations. The results suggest that brand trust has a significant effect on brand citizenship behaviors as well as mediates the effect of internal branding activities on brand commitment of airline employees. Managerial implications are provided for internal branding in services and further research topics are suggested.