Harnessing brand authenticity to promote prosocial service behavior

Abstract

In today’s fiercely competitive, customer-centric, and service-driven marketplace, where customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty are hard-won currencies, brand authenticity emerges as a pivotal cornerstone, potentially fostering prosocial service behavior among employees—a crucial driver of organizational success. Yet, the intricate link between brand authenticity and prosocial service behavior remains a compelling and notably understudied frontier. To address this gap, we explore how prosocial service behavior can be shaped by brand authenticity. Using partial least squares–structural equation modeling based on survey responses from a random sample of 410 frontline employees in the hospitality industry, we found that brand authenticity alone cannot spark prosocial service behavior. Instead, brands must foster psychological empowerment and organizational commitment in order to activate and harness the power of brand authenticity in nurturing prosocial service behavior. This is because employees require both a belief in their own influence (empowerment) and a strong attachment to their organization (commitment) to fully express the genuine values of a brand through prosocial actions. However, caution should be noted: introducing job autonomy might diminish the impact of psychological empowerment. This counterintuitive effect could be attributed to the perception that excessive autonomy, while meant to empower, might be seen as a lack of guidance or support. Such a scenario may potentially make employees feel isolated or overwhelmed by decision-making responsibilities.