Internal brand management: introduction to the special issue and directions for future research

Abstract

This special issue of the Journal of Brand Management has been developed in consideration of the existing gap between the relevance of and research attention to internal brand management (IBM). Despite its relevance, research dealing with brand management in the context of internal stakeholders is still limited. Therefore, we identify five directions for future research after an introduction to the topic. Future research should (1) validate the relevance of IBM, (2) increase the generalizability of IBM research findings, (3) deepen and (4) broaden the IBM framework, and (5) extend methodologies in IBM research. This special issue addresses some of the identified areas for future research by including five articles covering a variety of IBM topics. It is our hope this special issue advances IBM research and encourages researchers to start and continue engaging in research in this important area.

Trending topics plus future challenges and opportunities in brand management

“…A third topic of continued interest is 'corporate branding' together with internal aspects of branding, featuring keywords such as 'employees', 'brand commitment', 'brand identification', 'brand citizenship behaviour', 'internal branding' and 'behavioural branding'. Indeed, 'the increased traction of internal brand management and the role of the employee has been emphasised by several researches and documented as one of the strong research fields within brand management' (Kernstock and Powell 2018, p. 490), as evidenced by a recent Special Issue within JBM (Piehler et al 2018). As also noted by Balmer et al (2017), discussions about corporate brand 'co-creation' and various stakeholders add a further dimension for consideration.…”

Journal of Brand Management: year end review 2018

“…The second of the Special Issues Guest Edited by Rico Piehler, Debra Grace and Christoph Burmann, tackles the challenging theme of Internal Brand Management (IBM). The editors also usefully scope out future research required in the area including (1) further validation of the relevance of IBM, (2) increasing the generalisability of IBM research findings, (3) deepening and (4) broadening the IBM framework and (5) an extension of methodologies in the area (Piehler et al 2018).…”

Twenty-five years of the Journal of Brand Management

“…For example, in this journal a substantial effort has been made via research on corporate heritage and corporate heritage brands which relates to a strong instrumental view on heritage and corporate culture (Balmer and Burghausen 2015). Additionally, the increased traction of internal brand management and the role of the employee has been emphasised by several researches and documented as one of the strong research fields within brand management, as evidenced by the recent Special Issue listed in Table 2 (Piehler et al 2018).…”