ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the brand personalities that employees are creating of their employer brands, in particular business-to-business (B-to-B) brands, when describing these brands on social media. We examine how the brand personalities, based on written online reviews, differ between high- and low-ranked, and high- and low-rated brands.

Methodology/Approach: 6,300 written employee reviews from a social media platform, Glassdoor, are used for content analysis in DICTION, to determine the brand personality dimensions they communicate (J. L). An independent B-to-B brand ranking data source, Brandwatch, is used as a reference to various brands’ level of ranking, while an ANOVA test is used to determine whether there is a difference in the brand personality trait means when comparing high and low-ranked, and high- and low-rated brands.

Findings: Our findings suggest that a strong social media presence does not equate to a strong employer brand personality perception among employees, since there are no significant differences between B-to-B firms based on their rankings.

Research Implications: Extant literature has mostly explored the impact of either critical reviews or favourable customer ratings and reviews on company performance, with very little research focusing on the B-to-B context. In addition, research employing DICTION for the purposes of content analysis of reviews is sparse. The methodology used in this study could thus be employed to further compare and contrast the reviews from a single company, dividing top and low starred reviews to compare discrepancies.

Practical Implications: The results of this study show how online shared employee experiences of employer brands contribute to the formation of a distinct employer brand personality. From a managerial viewpoint, engaging with current and past employees and being cognizant of the online narratives that they share on social media, may be an early indicator of where the firm is lacking (or showing strength) in its’ employee engagement. This would offer a way for firms to both understand their employer brand personality as well as gauge how they compare to top employers in a specific sector or industry.

Originality/Value/Contribution: The study attempts to grow the literature of employee brand engagement in a B-to-B context, by recognizing the important role that employees play in engaging with their employer brand online. Two main contributions are offered. The first contribution relates to the finding that employees perceive highly-rated B-to-B brands as being more competent, exciting, sincere and sophisticated than low-rated B-to-B brands. Second, the methodology used in this study proves to be a novel and accurate way of comparing employee reviews and perceived employer brand personality, with the employer-created intended brand image.

摘要

目的：本文的目的是探讨员工在社交媒体上描述雇主品牌时所创建的品牌个性，尤其是企业对企业（B2B）品牌。我们根据书面的在线评论，研究品牌个性在高，低排名以及高和低评级品牌之间的区别。

方法论/方法：来自Diction的社交媒体平台Glassdoor上的6,300条书面员工评论用于内容分析，以确定他们交流的品牌个性维度（J. L）。独立的B2B品牌排名数据源Brandwatch被用作各个品牌排名级别的参考，而方差分析则用于确定在比较高和低时品牌个性特征均值是否存在差异低排名，高评级和低评级的品牌。

调查结果：我们的调查结果表明，强大的社交媒体形象并不等同于员工之间强烈的雇主品牌个性感知，因为基于排名的企业对企业之间没有显着差异。

研究意义：现有文献大部分研究了关键评论或有利的客户评级和评论对公司绩效的影响，而很少有研究针对B2B环境。此外，出于评论内容分析目的而采用DICTION的研究很少。因此，本研究中使用的方法可用于进一步比较和对比单个公司的评论，将高星级和低星级的评论分开以比较差异。

实际意义：这项研究的结果表明，在线共享雇主品牌的雇员体验如何有助于形成独特的雇主品牌个性。从管理者的角度来看，与现有和过去的员工互动，并认识到他们在社交媒体上分享的在线叙述，可能是该公司缺乏（或显示出实力）员工敬业度的早期指标。这将为公司提供一种了解其雇主品牌个性以及衡量其与特定行业或特定行业的顶级雇主的比较方式。

原创性/价值/贡献：该研究试图通过认识到员工在在线与其雇主品牌互动中所扮演的重要角色，在B2B环境中发展员工品牌参与的文献。提供了两个主要的贡献。第一个贡献与发现相比低评级的B-to-B品牌，员工认为高评级的B-to-B品牌更胜任，令人兴奋，真诚和老练。其次，本研究中使用的方法论被证明是一种比较新颖且准确的方法，可以将员工的评论和感知的雇主品牌个性与雇主创建的预期品牌形象进行比较。