Search

Byline: Yung-Chien Lou, Aihwa Chang, Sheng-Chung Wei, Kuo-Ning Sun The proper management of customer capital has become one of the most important topics in the field of management nowadays. From studying three successful companies in Taiwan's financial industry, we find that the development of customer capital requires knowledge management and the development of clients' trust in the firms. In addition, by the proper utilisation of the company's internal and external networks and the enhancement of its human capital and Information Technology (IT) capital, a company can increase its customer capital. Finally, companies can effectively manage and grow their customer capital through the strengthening of their basic marketing abilities and sound brand management. The priority of the aforementioned factors would be contingent on the nature of business and the stages of market development.

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the process of internal brand management that makes employees identify with the corporate brand and produce positive attitudes and behaviors, thus contributing to customer satisfaction. Three constructs, brand-centered HRM, brand psychological ownership, and brand citizenship behaviors, are utilized to examine the process of internal brand management. The first construct, brand-centered human resource management (HRM), represents managerial practices that improve brand cognitions and brand attitude of employees. The second construct, brand psychological ownership, explains the psychological experiences that make employees feel brand ownership and then express altruistic spirit of the brand. The third construct, brand citizenship behaviors, shows that employees live the brand. Design/methodology/approach – This multilevel research of collecting data from 453 employees, 172 supervisors, and 933 customers from 26 hotels demonstrates the results of different levels. Hierarchical linear modeling is utilized to investigate the relationships among these constructs. Findings – Results at the individual level show that brand psychological ownership of employees has positive effects on brand citizenship behaviors, and all factors of these two constructs are also correlated positively. Results at the cross level demonstrate that brand-centered HRM has positive effects on brand psychological ownership and brand citizenship behaviors. Organizational-level brand citizenship behaviors positively affect customer satisfaction. Furthermore, brand psychological ownership partially mediates the relationship between brand-centered HRM and brand citizenship behaviors. Practical implications – An organization can adopt brand-centered HR practices to make employees produce brand psychological ownership and brand citizenship behaviors, thus contributing to customer satisfaction. HR managers can strengthen employees' brand citizenship behaviors by fostering their brand psychological ownership feelings. Originality/value – This paper explores the conception, measurement, and explanatory power of the new research construct (i.e. brand psychological ownership) on the effectiveness of internal brand management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – To provide a theoretic framework of the development of customer capital and an empirical verification using Taiwanese multilevel firms. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used survey research to collect data from members of four Taiwanese multilevel companies. They explored the mediating roles of the drivers of customer equity in the "relationship marketing activities-customer capita" effect. A total of 306 valid responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling analysis. Findings – Four types of relationship marketing activities – core service performances, recognition for contributions, dissemination of organization knowledge, and member interdependence enhancement – have significant influences on relationship equity. Relationship equity in turn affects customer capital. Value equity and brand equity respectively have significant effects on customer acquisition and customer retention. Customer acquisition has a significant "feedback" effect on value equity, and relationship equity affects brand equity positively. Research limitations/implications – The generalizability of this research is constrained due to a non-probability sample of firms being used to verify the theoretic framework. It is also constrained due to the fact that only customer-side data were collected and proxy measures of customer capital were used. Practical implications – Effective and ineffective types of relationship marketing activities have been identified. The causal paths between relationship marketing and customer capital have been illustrated. Originality/value – This paper sheds light on the approach to building customer capital for membership-emphasized organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]