The internal branding practice and brand citizenship behavior: the mediating effects of employee brand fit

This study examines the determinants of employee brand citizenship behavior (BCB) among employees of telecommunication industry in Nigeria. Primarily, this study explored the role of employee brand fit as a mediator on the relationship between internal branding practices namely brand leadership, brand reward, brand training and brand communication and employee BCB. Partial Least Squares Method (PLS) algorithm and bootstrap techniques were used to test the study hypotheses. The results provided support for most of the hypothesized relationship for the study. Specifically, brand leadership, brand reward, brand training and employee brand fit are significantly and positively related to employee BCB. However, brand communication is found to be insignificant to employee BCB. Furthermore, the study investigated the impact of different brand leadership styles on employee BCB. The results revealed that both transactional and transformational brand leadership have significant impact on employee BCB. However, transformational brand leadership was found to have more significant impact on BCB than transactional brand leadership. Moreover, the results revealed that brand leadership, brand reward and brand communication are significantly and positively significant to employee brand fit. Nevertheless, brand training was found to be insignificant to employee brand fit. Furthermore, the results of mediation indicated that three of the four hypotheses are significant. Therefore, significant positive effects of brand leadership, brand reward, brand training and employee brand fit suggest that the variables are important in motivating and enhancing employee BCB. As such, organization can motivate and encourage their employees to exhibit BCB by improving on these practices. Enhanced performance of brand citizenship behavior is crucial to the success of the brand. Contributions, limitations and implications are discussed.