The corporate social responsibility (CSR) internal branding model: aligning employees’ CSR awareness, knowledge, and experience to deliver positive employee performance outcomes

ABSTRACT

With corporate social responsibility (CSR) becoming increasingly important, this research forms a nexus for strategic CSR and internal brand knowledge through the conceptual development and empirical validation of a model. The research methodology is based on an online survey administered via a temporal data collection approach (i.e. two-wave). The findings substantiate that internal branding constructs that characterise the employees internal CSR experienced. The internal CSR experience is also shaped by individual factors, such as employee awareness of CSR, perception of the sincerity of the CSR brand and subjective knowledge of CSR. The findings demonstrate the precedential effect of the internal branding constructs on employee performance outcomes (CSR involvement, organisational attachment and organisational citizenship behaviours). The integrity of the model is substantiated by partial least squares (PLS) testing. The study provides scholars and practitioners with empirical evidence of CSR as an internal branding tool to improve brand alignment and employee performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• internal branding
• organisational behaviours
• corporate communications
• internal marketing
• internal CSR

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joan Carlini

Joan Carlini is a lecturer within the Department of Marketing in the Griffith Business School, Griffith University. Her work specialises in the intersection of business, government and society, with a particular focus on consumer behaviour. She has extensive research experience and focuses on high impact projects resulting in social and economic benefits. Her work appears in the Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Brand Management, and Event Management.

Debra Grace

Debra Grace is Professor of Marketing at the Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia. Her research interests include services marketing, franchising, branding and consumer behaviour. She is widely published and has published in journals such as Journal of Retailing, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Journal of Brand Management and Journal of Services Marketing.