Managing Employee-Based Brand Equity and Firm Performance in the Hospitality Industry: The Role of an Employer’s Symbolic Brand Image and Work Environment

This paper examines the effect of an employer's symbolic brand image on employee-based brand equity (EBBE) and firm performance. Drawing upon theories of Field and Equity, it hypothesises that EBBE mediates the relationship between the employer's symbolic brand image and firm performance, and the work environment acts as a moderating variable. The study has two sampling frames: senior managers to provide firm-performance perception; and cross-sectional employees to provide symbolic brand image, workplace environment and EBBE data. Data for the proposed model was regressed using SPSS Macro PROCESS Model 58 (Hayes, 2018). Results validate the proposed model except for the role of a moderating variable on the EBBE and firm-performance relationship.