Model of Internal Branding effects on brand citizenship behavior in hotel industry

Internal branding is a new concept that refers to employees` effects in creating better image of brand in customers` mind. In order to surveying internal branding effects in brand citizenship behavior (BCB) in hotel industry, and also presenting an internalized scale for internal branding, four and five stars hotels located in Tehran have been tested in a model research. by the way of clustering sampling, Sample of 240 hotel customer interface employees` were selected, and questionnaires with five point likert scale have been distributed. 122 out of 136 returned questionnaires were usable (return rate of 56%). Content validity determined as suitable by the approval of marketing experts and hotel indusry professionals`, and Cronbach`s Alpha, AVE, CR, showed a great reliability for questionnaires. Conceptual model testing has been done through partial least square method and correlation test with SMART PLS software V. 1.5. The results showed that internal branding has positive relationship with brand identification (t= 9.537, β=0.563) and brand commitment (t= 2.430, β=0.192), also brand identification has positive relationship with BCB (t= 5.540, β=0.550), and brand commitment (t= 9.141, β=0.718), brand commitment has positive relationship with brand loyalty (t= 11.571, β=0.706), and brand loyalty has positive relationship with brand citizenship behavior BCB (t= 2.555, β=0.295). Correlation test confirmed these results.