Abstract
Managing brand related attitudes and behaviors of customer contact employees has gained importance for airline services recently. However, there is still need for further understanding of employees’ brand related behaviors and their effect on consumers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the moderating role of consumer nationality on the link between employee brand behaviors and consumers’ relation with the brand in terms of their trust and commitment in the airline industry. This study analyzed both service employees and consumers in the same research model to understand the effect of brand citizenship behaviors of employees on consumer brand relationship as well as the role of nationality on brand trust and commitment of consumers. The uniqueness of this study is to integration of nationality as a moderator into the link between employee behaviors and consumer brand relationship as well as using both employees and customers in the same research setting. While the results suggest that airline employees’ brand related behaviors have a significant effect on passengers’ trust, the relation is moderated by consumers’ nationality. Specifically, the brand trust is higher for the passengers who are from the same nationality with the employees.
Highlights
Solomon et al (1985, p. 99) distinguished between marketing of services and marketing of products as “service marketing refers to marketing of activities and processes rather than objects”
The purpose of this study is to understand the moderating role of consumer nationality on the link between employee brand behaviors and consumers’ relation with the brand in terms of their trust and commitment in the airline industry. This study analyzed both service employees and consumers in the same research model to understand the effect of brand citizenship behaviors of employees on consumer brand relationship as well as the role of nationality on brand trust and commitment of consumers
The brand trust is higher for the passengers who are from the same nationality with the employees
Summary
Solomon et al (1985, p. 99) distinguished between marketing of services and marketing of products as “service marketing refers to marketing of activities and processes rather than objects”. 99) distinguished between marketing of services and marketing of products as “service marketing refers to marketing of activities and processes rather than objects” It is for this reason that marketing of services is a challenge compared to marketing of tangible goods (Grönroos, 1978; Zeithaml et al, 1985). For branding, it is about delivering the service promise through direct interaction between employees and consumers. As a result, branding of services differs from branding of products due to its reliance on employees’ behaviors to deliver the brand promise at each service encounter (de Chernatony & Segal-Horn, 2001). Brand helps a consumer to develop relationship with a service provider through trust in a service brand (de Chernatony & Segal-Horn, 2001)
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