In the business-to-business sector, the brand owner´s employees are increasingly playing a key role in terms of representing the brand to existing and potential customer. The role of a well-established internal brand equity can give a business-to Business Company the edge it needs in the market today. Internal branding has recently emerged as an important issue in industrial market. This study aims to find out how internal brand equity and its determinants affect the external brand equity of business-to-business companies. This study is based on previous research of internal brand equity in business-to-business setting. In this study four hypothesis were tested. Surveys were conducted among manufacturing and promotional companies in Sweden and Latvia, which resulted in 94 complete and useful response with a response-rate of 28.3%. The findings offer evidence, that internal brand equity with determinants have a great impact on the external brand equity of a firm.

Background: Differentiation towards one’s competitors is crucial. Brand can symbolize competitive advantages through intangible assets, though the focus in both companies and academia has largely been on adding intangible values to products. To large extent employees has not been consider as an aspects that could add value, i.e. employees as brand builders.  Recently gained interest in both areas have make it possible to compared them both the see employees possibility to add brand value.   Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe the relationship between employer attractiveness and internal brand equity.   Methodology: Conducted a quantitative study, with a single cross-sectional design and self-completion questionnaire as data collection method. Descriptive statistics and simple linear regression was thereafter performed. All with ethical principles in consideration.   Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence that confirms a relationship between employees and the brand equity through the concepts of employer attractiveness, and brand equity through the concept of internal brand equity. The study provides a regression analysis between the two concepts that indicates a relationship to a very large extent. The confirmed relationship thus adds new perspectives of how to add intangible value to a brand and thus adds to a potential success.

In the business environment of today, competency-based organisations with a people- centric focus are at large becoming the norm and replacing task-based firms. This shift is driven by the benefits which the organisation can gain from leveraging the skills, attitudes, values and behaviours of its staff, through a competency-based approach (CBA). This approach can be described as a process where the attributes of the staff members, expressed as core competencies, are converted into capital stock of the firm. It is the success of this conversion that yields a competitive advantage for the firm, which past research has indicated lies at the core of the CBA. Similarly, another emerging trend for organisations of today is that of internal branding (IB). IB is a marketing approach where staff behaviour is aligned with the brand promise of the firm in order to enhance internal brand commitment (IBC) and ultimately staff performance. This concept has grown in relevance in an increasingly service centred economy, where the staff member is responsible for the delivery of the brand promise. Exploring the combined efforts of a CBA with that of IB has to date not yet been researched in detail. The basis of doing this is research is thus clear when evaluating the commonalities, as both approaches aim for alignment and leverage of staff attributes and behaviour ultimately resulting in IBC. The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how a CBA, aided by IB as the operative factor, influence IBC. In order to fulfil this purpose, a qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with employees and managers at a service sector firm. The data collection was grounded in a conceptual model with a foundation in previous research, depicting IB as the operative factor through which core competencies impacted the attraction, selection and attrition, which are stages of the employee lifecycle. These interviews allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of our research phenomena and five underlying themes emerged. The themes were organisational context, competency-based approach, alignment and identification, development and participation and communities and communication. Our empirical findings indicated the interconnectedness and interdependence between these themes. The themes that emerged from our analysis formed the basis for our final conceptual model. This final model provided a visual depiction of the factors that are at play in the creation of IBC through a layered style approach. The findings of the study showed that for a CBA to be effective and successful, the IB components of communities and communication play an important part. Furthermore, the findings suggested that a CBA is a continuous process of influencing actions rather than a three-stage attraction, selection and attrition cycle. Our study highlighted the importance of alignment and integration of the organisation’s HR practices. Furthermore, our study demonstrated how CBA aided by IB can be entrenched in the organisation and influence IBC.

Bakgrund: För att bygga ett starkt varumärke krävs det att det interna varumärket genomsyrar hela organisationen. För att lyckas med detta måste företagen arbeta med sitt interna varumärke vilket innebär att de skall behandla sina medarbetare som sina interna kunder. Det krävs att företagen arbetar med sin organisationskultur och vision för att säkerhetsställa att medlemmarna i organisationen har en enhetlig uppfattning. För att lyckas med detta krävs det även att organisationen har en väl fungerande intern kommunikation. Tidigare studier belyser att det är viktigt för företag att arbeta med sitt interna varumärke, däremot finns det brist på tidigare forskning kring området franchisebolag och hur ledningen arbetar med det interna varumärket. Dessutom finns det väldigt lite forskning kring hur medarbetarna uppfattar det interna varumärket och hur det leder till engagemang. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur ledningen arbetar med det interna varumärket i ett franchisebolag samt hur detta uppfattas av medarbetarna. Metod: Studien utgår från en deduktiv ansats och genom en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi genomfördes totalt nio semistrukturerade intervjuer med ledare och medarbetare inom organisationen. Det insamlade empiriska materialet analyserades med hjälp av en tematisk analys.  Slutsatser: Studien visar att franchisebolaget inte har en uttalad strategi för det interna varumärket. Trots detta har företaget lyckats att skapa en enhetlig syn på företagsvarumärket genom en organisationskultur och vision som medlemmarna kan identifiera sig med. Ytterligare en slutsats är att organisationskulturen och visionen har en direkt påverkan på medarbetarnas engagemang som uttrycks genom begrepp som gemenskap, tillit och öppenhet. Dessutom kan den interna kommunikationen ses som ett nyckelverktyg för franchisebolaget och deras framgång för att engagera medarbetarna. / Background: To build a strong brand, it is necessary for the internal brand to involve the entire organization. To succeed in this, companies must work on their internal brand, which means treating their employees as their internal customers. Companies need to work on their organizational culture and vision to ensure that members of the organization have a unified understanding. To succeed in this, it also requires a well-functioning internal communication within the organization. Previous studies highlight the importance for companies to work on their internal brand, however, there is a lack of previous research on franchise companies and how the management deals with the internal brand. In addition, there is a lack of research on how employees perceive the internal brand and how it leads to engagement. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the management works with the internal brand in a franchise company as well as how this is perceived by the employees Method: The study is based on a deductive approach and through a qualitative research strategy, a total of nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders and employees within the organization. The collected empirical material was analyzed using thematic analysis. Conclusions: The study finds that the franchise company does not have a pronounced strategy for the internal brand. Despite this, the company has managed to create a unified view of the corporate brand through an organizational culture and vision that members can identify with. Another conclusion is that the organizational culture and vision have a direct impact on employee engagement expressed through community, trust, and openness. In addition, internal communication can be seen as a key tool for the franchise company and their success in engaging employees.

This study explores how service firms incorporate CSR activities within the internal brand building process. It was found that CSR does influence and is implemented in every stage of our theoretical framework of the internal brand building process. The study was based on interviews conducted on managers and employees of service firms in the Netherlands and in Sweden.  CSR is an evolving concept, increasingly becoming important in affecting the consumption decisions of service firm’s customers. Service firms are now resorting to incorporating CSR in their internal brand building to appeal to consumers. Consumers who are trying to minimize the inherent risk in buying an intangible product typical of a service product are now shifting their focus from the firm’s product to the firm itself.  The purpose of this study was to explore if and how CSR influences the internal brand building processes of service firms. We did not seek to generalize the findings. We carried out eight interviews where the respondents were able to broadly shared their thoughts and opinions. The research questions we sought to answer were: In what way does CSR influence the internal brand building process in service firms? And, how do service firms implement CSR in their internal brand building process?  It was found that the service firms do define CSR as a responsibility for their Employees, Community, Environment, Clients/Customers as well as Ethical Responsibility. We also found out that CSR influences the internal brand building in service firms through their employees, brand audit, brand identity, brand positioning and brand communication, which we then included in our empirical developed model of the internal brand building processes in service firms. CSR is implemented in service firm’s employees’ management through employee education, training, recruitment and motivation. CSR is implemented in a service firm’s brand audit through a flat/hierarchical organizational structure, multicultural organization, ethics, sustainability, transparency and honesty. CSR is implemented in a service firm’s brand identity through quality assurance, creativity/innovation and compliance. CSR is implemented in a service firm’s brand positioning through partnership, accessibility, quality, trust. CSR is implemented in a service firm's brand communication through intranet, meetings, publications and teams.  Future researchers are recommended to study service firms that are equally divided based on their size, age and wealth to get a deeper understanding. More employees could also be studied since employees might have different viewpoints and since it is found that employees are the most important asset for service firms.

<p>Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och utreda hur tjänsteföretag inom charterbranschen arbetar för att stärka sitt varumärke, samt att utreda hur och vilka associationer som skapas kring varumärket.</p><p>Metod: Försöka implementera en modell för att få en klarare bild över hur charter företag arbertar för att stärka sina varumärken, författarna använder sig olika litteratur käller samt emperiska studier.</p><p>Resultat: Resultaten visar hur viktigt det för företag att hitta nya metoder för att stärka sitt varumärke, samt betydelsen för tjänsteföretag av att hitta sin egen plats i en konkurrenskraftig marknad.</p><p>Avgränsning: Genom att begränsa vår undersökning valde vi att koncentrera oss på endast två charterföretag, detta för att skapa en bättre och djupare inblick på vår frågeställning. De två charterföretagen som vi har valt att undersöka och utgå ifrån är; Apollo och Ving. Anledningen till detta är att de är marknadsledande och har lyckats skapa ett starkt varumärke.</p><p>Nyckelord: Varumärkeskapital, kärnvärde av tjänst, postionering, märkesidentitet, marknadskommunikation, intern märkeslojlitet, associationer.</p> / <p>Purpose: The purpose with this study is to evaluate how leading companies in the “charter branch” create brand equity and associations related to the brand.</p><p>Methodology: To test the anticipated model in the context of how charter companies work to establish a stronger brand, the authors use data collected from different literature sources and empirical findings.</p><p>Findings: The results underline the importance of always finding new methods to establish a strong brand, and the value for service companies have to find their own place on a competitive market.</p><p>Research limitations: We choose to limit our study by choosing two different charter companies, this choice made it able for us to get deeper understanding to our purpose. The two companies that we choose to investigate where: Apollo and Ving. The reason was because these two companies are market leaders and they have managed to create a strong brand.</p>

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka och utreda hur tjänsteföretag inom charterbranschen arbetar för att stärka sitt varumärke, samt att utreda hur och vilka associationer som skapas kring varumärket. Metod: Försöka implementera en modell för att få en klarare bild över hur charter företag arbertar för att stärka sina varumärken, författarna använder sig olika litteratur käller samt emperiska studier. Resultat: Resultaten visar hur viktigt det för företag att hitta nya metoder för att stärka sitt varumärke, samt betydelsen för tjänsteföretag av att hitta sin egen plats i en konkurrenskraftig marknad. Avgränsning: Genom att begränsa vår undersökning valde vi att koncentrera oss på endast två charterföretag, detta för att skapa en bättre och djupare inblick på vår frågeställning. De två charterföretagen som vi har valt att undersöka och utgå ifrån är; Apollo och Ving. Anledningen till detta är att de är marknadsledande och har lyckats skapa ett starkt varumärke. Nyckelord: Varumärkeskapital, kärnvärde av tjänst, postionering, märkesidentitet, marknadskommunikation, intern märkeslojlitet, associationer. / Purpose: The purpose with this study is to evaluate how leading companies in the “charter branch” create brand equity and associations related to the brand. Methodology: To test the anticipated model in the context of how charter companies work to establish a stronger brand, the authors use data collected from different literature sources and empirical findings. Findings: The results underline the importance of always finding new methods to establish a strong brand, and the value for service companies have to find their own place on a competitive market. Research limitations: We choose to limit our study by choosing two different charter companies, this choice made it able for us to get deeper understanding to our purpose. The two companies that we choose to investigate where: Apollo and Ving. The reason was because these two companies are market leaders and they have managed to create a strong brand.

Authors: JoAnna Caster &amp; Dana Linnes Tutor: Setayesh Sattari Title: Internal Branding in Multinational Firms- A Gap Analysis of Internal Stakeholder Perceptions Background: As globalization increases, the topic of internal branding has grown in popularity, particularly as a way for firms to secure a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. The topic is quite new however, and there are many aspects that have not been fully explored, including the influence of internal stakeholder perceptions on a firm’s internal brand and related support activities. Purpose: The purpose of this research study is to 1) identify whether a gap exists between employee and manager perceptions of a firm’s internal brand and internal branding activities and 2) investigate the influence of a firm’s country of origin on those perceptions. Delimitations: The study was limited to only medium and large sized firms that have international operations. Additionally, only internal stakeholders were included in the study and the research was limited to respondent’s perceptions, and not necessarily the actual internal brand and related supporting processes or structures. Method: The research was qualitative and data was collected via 24 in-depth interviews of managerial and non-managerial employees at 10 medium and large sized firms. The data was then analyzed using a pattern-matching technique. Conclusions: Perceptions of both managerial and non-managerial employees did not indicate significant gaps, however there seemed to be an unclear understanding of what an internal brand is and what respondent’s firm’s internal brand represents. Also, the country of origin did not have a significant influence on those perceptions, as most respondents indicated that they perceived their firm’s internal brand as primarily “global.” Keywords: internal branding, internal brand, international marketing, marketing strategy, stakeholder perceptions, internal marketing orientation, human resource management, country of origin

To achieve brand success and develop a competitive advantage through consistently delivering brand experiences to customers, the roles of employees in service organizations are critical. Specifically, it is necessary that service employees are capable and motivated to transform a brand promise into brand reality. Although service organizations have widely adopted internal branding initiatives to engender employees' pro-brand attitude and behavior, how employees perceive such organizational effort to inform their brand-consistent attitude and behavioral outcomes has remained unclear. Drawing upon Job Characteristics Theory, Self-Determination Theory, and Organismic Integration Theory, it is suggested that the attainment of employees' pro-brand attitude and behavior requires a joint effort from both the organization and employees. Organizations need to establish a brand climate through internal branding practices that enhance employees' perceived encouragement and support of the coveted brand performance. Based on this brand climate, employees are likely to internalize the brand enabling them to obtain necessary brand knowledge and skills, understand the relevance of the brand to their roles, as well as perceive a fit between their values and the values of the brand. As such, employees are more likely to develop positive brand attitudes and behaviors, including endorsing the brand, staying with the brand, and exhibiting brand-consistent behaviors (i.e., employee brand equity). The brand climate to brand internalization to employee brand equity model conceptualized in this dissertation was assessed with two empirical studies. Study 1 utilized a sample of current employees in service-related industries and Study 2 served as a strict replication study with a sample of current hotel employees. Additional moderation effects based on employees' individual traits including proactive personality and intrinsic motivation were also examined in Study 2. The results from both studies provide strong support for the conceptual model. Brand climate is shown to have a significant impact on all employee brand internalization factors. That is, when employees perceive that the organization is supportive and encouraging with respect to employees' brand performance, they are more likely to transform such perception into their brand understanding, including perceiving appropriate brand knowledge, self-brand relevance, and congruence between the brand values and their own value systems. In addition, it was found that when employees perceive a high level of relevance between their roles and the brand success, as well as congruence between the brand's values and their personal values, they are more likely to develop positive brand attitudes and behaviors, including endorsing the brand, staying with the brand, and exhibiting brand-consistent behaviors (i.e., employee brand equity). Further, it is suggested that employee proactive personality has a positive impact on the relationship between brand climate and employee brand value congruence, while employee intrinsic motivation to work has a negative impact on the relationship between employee perceived brand relevance and employee brand equity. This dissertation significantly advances the current internal brand management literature and contributes to theory development with respect to examining and validating employee brand internalization. This dissertation also provides practical implications to help justify and guide service organizations' investment in internal branding. In addition, this dissertation demonstrates that a brand-aligned workforce can be selected and cultivated through a brand climate that affords employees' internalization of the brand. / Tourism and Sport

As technology evolves, companies face both new opportunities and challenges in staying competitive. Traditionally, businesses focused on branding related to their products or services. But nowadays, having a skilled and dedicated workforce is seen as the key competitive advantage—a concept known as employer branding. Employer branding is about how a company is perceived as an employer, not just by consumers but also by potential employees. It involves both external communication, like advertising, and internal activities within the organization to build its reputation as an employer. This study focuses specifically on how large Swedish companies use internal employer branding to attract, engage, and retain employees. It uses a qualitative research approach, comparing three well-known Swedish companies: IKEA, Volvo, and Spotify.The study finds that the internal employer branding process revolves around five main factors: leadership vision, organizational identity, corporate culture, HR-marketing communication, and the company's efforts to define its value proposition for employees. It also highlights the importance of management innovation and transparent, inclusive leadership styles. On a practical level, the study enhances comprehension of how employers can effectively attract prospective employees, and engage, and retain employees.