Internal Brand Management in an International Context

330 Pages·2014·130.284 MB·English

by  Christina Ravens (auth.)

Innovatives Markenmanagement
Band 47
Herausgegeben von
Ch. Burmann, Bremen, Germany
M. Kirchgeorg, Leipzig, Germany
Marken sind in vielen Unternehmen mittlerweile zu wichtigen Vermögenswerten
geworden, die zukünft ig immer häufi ger auch in der Bilanz erfasst werden können.
Insbesondere in reiferen Märkten ist die Marke heute oft das einzig nachhaltige
Diff erenzierungsmerkmal im Wettbewerb. Vor diesem Hintergrund kommt der
professionellen Führung von Marken eine sehr hohe Bedeutung für den Unterneh-
menserfolg zu. Dabei müssen zukünft ig innovative Wege beschritten werden.Die
Schrift enreihe will durch die Veröff entlichung neuester Forschungserkenntnisse
Anstöße für eine solche Neuausrichtung der Markenführung liefern.
Herausgegeben von
Professor Dr. Christoph Burmann Professor Dr. Manfred Kirchgeorg
Universität Bremen HHL Leipzig Graduate School
Lehrstuhl für innovatives of Management
Markenmanagement (LiM®) Lehrstuhl für Marketingmanagement
Christina Ravens
Internal Brand
Management in an
International Context
Foreword by Prof. Dr. Manfred Kirchgeorg
Christina Ravens
Leipzig, Germany
Dissertation HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, 2012
ISBN 978-3-658-00753-9 ISBN 978-3-658-00754-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-00754-6
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Foreword
For multinational corporations internal brand management creates a significant
challenge given the different employee nationalities and cultures within the
multinational. Defining a brand identity within a multinational will suggest different
interpretations of the brand by each employee depending on their cultural back
ground, because the brand identity elements themselves either explicitly or im
plicitly trigger a culture-specific decoding and interpretation of information. For
intemational companies, the risk that inconsistencies between the intemal brand
awareness and brand identity preclude the building of strong brands because the
employees are not able to adequately transport the brand identity outward into
the market. Intercultural characteristics and their influence on intemal brand
management therefore deserve particular attention. As well, the fit between the
brand identity and the personal values of the employees and the corporate culture
is an important prerequisite for success of the identity-based brand management,
and creates considerable challenges for intemational companies in this regard.
Existing literature on these concepts unearth only few contributions dedicated to
theoretical and conceptual as well as empirical analysis of the personal values
and brand commitment in an intemational context.
Against this background, Dr. Christina Ravens has set the goal to investigate
the influence of different cultural values of employees in intemational country
contexts on brand commitment and brand behavior. Here, she initially separates
and questions to which extent the existing models for intemal brand management
reflect the intercultural constellations in multinational companies. The focus of the
work then shifts to the theory-based empirical study of the influence of personal
values of employees from different cultural contexts, to the commitment to the
brand of the company for which they work. Based on this, the effects of various
instruments of intemal brand management are examined in different countries'
contexts. For the empirical analysis of the study, the author draws upon a trans
national employee survey of a DAX 30 company. Based on the study, Dr. Ravens
concludes that cultural values with different country-specific meanings are to be
considered as determinants of brand commitment to international companies in
order to optimally align the measures of intemal brand management.
This dissertation is the 47th volume in the series "Innovative Brand Manage
ment" by the publisher Springer Gabler Research. This series documents the
research work at the Department of Marketing Management at the Leipzig Gra
duate School of Management (HHL) and the Department of Innovative Brand
Management (LiM®) at the University of Bremen. At the same time, this disser
tation should motivate further research efforts for innovative brand management
VI Fol"S'NOrcI
and initiate lively exchanges. As editors, Christoph Burmann and I (manfred.
[email protected] or [email protected]) look forward to any type of
feedback on this series and on this present volume. It is planned in the future to
publish at least three dissertations per year in this series to repeatedly come up
with new ideas at short intervals to enliven the growing interest in the topic of
"Innovative Brand Managemenf'.
With its conceptual considerations and empirical cross-national survey, Dr.
Ravens enriches the discussion on the effects and instruments of internal brand
management in an intercultural context. Therefore the work is of particular
interest for both researchers as well as decision makers. Thus I wish a wide
distribution of the work of Dr. Christina Ravens in research and in practice.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Manfred Kirchgeorg
Preface
Intemal brand management is an essential component of successful brands and
translates into brand equity across all business segments and industries. The
intemal perspective on brand management is increasingly recognized in research
and business, while the intemational perspective on internal brand management
has so far been largely neglected. Global organizations are challenged by the
cultural value differences of various constituencies affecting not only commitment
levels and thus behavior towards the brand, but also the processing of informa
tion and evaluation levels overall. Intemational organizations therefore risk differ
ent perceptions of the brand, potentially causing inconsistencies in what is per
ceived as being aligned to a local understanding of the brand, thereby potentially
deviating from a global brand image and brand identity. This research further
analyzes the impact of intemal branding instruments available to organizations
and their impact on brand commitment levels, showing that the relative import
ance of instruments differ across the samples as well as the relative importance
of brand commitment components varies across the groups analyzed.
Writing a PhD is both a challenging and rewarding experience for one to
embar!< upon. However, it is not only a solo joumey, as without the guidance,
wisdom and mentorship provided by my Doctoral advisor Prof. Dr. Manfred Kirch
georg, this joumey would have been quite a different experience. Throughout the
course of this research he has been a steadfast motivational figure, whose
exceptional competency, inSight, and empathetic regard leaves one humbled and
grateful.
I would also like to provide deep appreciation to my second referee, Prof. Dr.
Christoph Burmann for his precise assessments, thus providing to the overall
integrity of this wor!< and thank Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Althammer for serving as a third
referee during my defense.
I am grateful for the data collection support received by my colleagues Tanja
Kurz, Stefan Witte and Cathleen Bartoly. Thank you for sharing a wonderful time
with me.
Throughout writing my PhD thesiS, previous and actual PhD candidates asso
ciated with the Chair of Mar!<eting at HHL I Graduate School of Management in
Leipzig provided valuable comments and succinct advice. I would like to thank Dr.
Anna Liersch who not only provided tireless support during the course of my
research and final manuscript development, but tumed into a close friend. Fur
ther, Dr. Gunter Greven, Dr. Birgit Sponheuer, Prof. Dr. Christiane Springer, Prof.
Dr. Kathrin Reger-Wagner and Dr. Lars Fiedler whom all provided invaluable
comments.
VIII Preface
However, it is not without the continual support of my friends and family
throughout, for having the patience and understanding of the commibnent made
to this research and enabled its ultimate completion. Namely Silke and DeUef
Barthelmes, Susanne and Patrick Moulin, Silke Wick and Sabine Deuble, and last
but not least, Anna-Mart Jansen v. Rensburg, who were always there for me and
showed unprecedented levels of patience. Additionally, my heartfelt thanks goes
out to my parents and siblings who have enabled me to step back and refocus my
perspective. I would also like to thank my father for providing extensive IT
support.
In particular, I would also like to extend my special gratitude to my grand
mother and my children, to whom I dedicate this work to.
Christina Ravens
Content
Foreword ................................................................................................................ V
Preface/Acknowledgements ................................................................................ VII
List of Figures ...................................................................................................... XCV
List of Tables ..................................................................................................... XCVII
List of Abbrevations ............................................................................................ XXI
Part A: Internal brand management conceptualizations
in a cross-cultural environment .................................. 1
1 Relevance of brand commitment in a cross·cultural context ..................... 3
2 Classification of relevant terms and definitions ........................................ 11
3 Placement of the study among relevant research fields ........................... 15
3.1 Behavioral assessment and the S·O·R model ........................................ 15
3.2 Identity· based internal brand management... .......................................... 18
4 Objectives and outline of the study ............................................................2 3
Part B: Theoretical framework and conceptual
development of the internal branding model ........... 27
1 Status of internal brand management research ......................................... 29
1.1 Definitional foundations of internal brand management... ....................... 29
1.2 Synopsis of internal brand management models .................................... 32
1.2.1 Burmann and Zeplin (2005), Zeplin (2006), Maloney
(2007), Konig (2010), Piehler (2011) ........................................... 35
1.2.2 Wittke·Kothe (2001) ..................................................................... 39
1.2.3 Tomczak, Esch, Kemstock, and Hermann (2008, 2009) ............. 41
1.2.4 Vallasler and de Chern atony (2005, 2006), Vallaster
(2009) ......................................................................................... .44
1.2.5 King and Grace (2009; 2010) ...................................................... 50
1.2.6 Baumgarth and Schmidt (2010) ................................................... 54