Internal branding: conceptualization from a literature review and opportunities for future research
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Internal branding: conceptualization from a literature review and opportunities for future research David Barros‑Arrieta1 · Ernesto García‑Cali2 Revised: 31 January 2020 / Accepted: 4 November 2020 © Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract Recently, internal branding has gained relevance in the marketing literature because researchers recognize that corporate brand management not only implicates external actions but also an internal approach that involves employees. Despite the growing interest, there is no consensus among authors about antecedents, dimensions, and outcomes of internal branding. In this sense, this paper aims to explore the conceptualization of internal branding and to offer opportunities for future research. The study is a systematic literature review that uses a specific database. The contributions of each article were extracted, organized, and processed following systematic procedures. This review defines internal branding as a cross-functional process that involves both marketing and human resource departments. It focuses on managing the brand internally through brand-centered human resource management, internal brand communications, and brand leadership, with the aim of achieving brand outcomes among employees (brand understanding, brand identification, brand commitment, brand loyalty, brand citizenship behaviors) so they can build brand equity in front of external stakeholders. Although a lack of consensus had been established, the literature evidenced similarities that gave rise to the conceptualization proposed in this study. Nevertheless, the discussion about internal branding is still open because there are several issues to investigate in this field. Keywords Internal branding · Brand management · Corporate brand · Brand equity · Literature review
Introduction In the business context of the twenty-first century, human resources can represent a source of competitive advantage for organizations. Several authors (Iyer et al. 2018; King 2010; Poulis and Wisker 2016; Ragheb et al. 2018) highlight the importance of employees to generate differentiation in an increasingly competitive environment. The importance of employees for organizational success was recognized more than 40 years ago when Berry highlighted the need to see Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-020-00219-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * David Barros‑Arrieta [email protected]; [email protected] Ernesto García‑Cali [email protected] 1
Department of Business Sciences, Universidad de la Costa, 080002 Barranquilla, Colombia
Barranquilla, Colombia
2
employees as internal customers (Du Preez and Bendixen 2015). Nowadays, employees are considered key actors within organizations who contribute to achieving corporate objectives and, in turn, to build brand equity (Punjaisri and Wilson 2011). Employees are the visible face of the organization, especially in service companies (Piehle
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