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Article

How Does Friendship Motivate Frontline Employees to Exhibit Brand Ambassador Behavior: The Important Role of Well-Being and Helping Behavior

by
Haihong Wang
1,
Hongxia Sha
1,*,
Yi Wang
2,
Lijie Cheng
2,
Qifan Yu
1,
Deyun Jia
3 and
Liuting Lu
3
1
Department of Tourism Management, Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
2
Department of Marketing, Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
3
Department of Human Resource Management, Business School, Faculty of Economics, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110036, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6859; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086859
Submission received: 7 March 2023 / Revised: 15 April 2023 / Accepted: 17 April 2023 / Published: 19 April 2023
Browse Figure
Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Training employees to become image ambassadors is an important manifestation of an organization’s internal branding. However, most tourism destination marketing studies consider external image-building and pay little attention to the brand ambassador behavior of internal members. This study investigates 208 front-line employees in two tourist attractions and constructs a structural equation model including workplace friendship, employee well-being, employee helping behavior, and employee brand ambassador behavior. The results show that: (1) workplace friendship has a significant promoting effect on employee brand ambassador behavior; (2) employee helping behavior mediates the relationships between workplace friendship and employee well-being, and between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior; (3) employee well-being mediates the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior; (4) employee helping behavior and employee well-being play a chain-mediating role in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior. Our findings not only enrich the theoretical understanding of outcomes of workplace friendship, but also provide important guidance for tourist attractions regarding internal brand marketing.

1. Introduction

Tourism has been effective in driving economic development, but the industry has suffered a major blow in recent years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of tourists in China in 2020 was only 2.9 billion, a decrease of 3.022 billion or 52.1% year-on-year [1]. However, as the pandemic entered a phase of open management, the tourism industry recovered rapidly, and the market became extremely strong and dynamic, with great momentum. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s calculations, on New Year’s Day 2023, domestic tourism revenue was RMB 26.517 billion, up 4.0% year-on-year, demonstrating a long-awaited positive growth in tourism [2]. The return of robust tourism demand has also intensified competition among tourist attractions, and numerous scholars and market practitioners have affirmed the need for organizations to build strong brands to gain a long-term stable competitive advantage [3,4,5].
However, traditional tourist attractions often limit their attention to external brand management, believing that branding is primarily externally driven and ignoring the importance of frontline employees in brand-building [6,7,8]. Research has shown that place-branding faces many challenges, one of which comes from the many stakeholders involved in the place-branding process [9,10,11]. The findings of studies on resident and visitor perceptions of destination branding also emphasize the importance of residents’ involvement in destination branding [12]. Related research focuses on the management of branding in tourism destinations, emphasizing the active role of destination residents in promoting good destination branding. In contrast, the present study focuses on corporate employees. Corporate employees are one of a company’s most important brand assets, and they naturally become stakeholders in corporate brand building. Therefore, it is feasible to guide tourist attraction employees to play an active role in establishing a strong tourist destination brand, and ambassadors possess significant credibility and cost effectiveness in communicating unique local brand characteristics [13]. Therefore, it is both theoretically and practically useful to explore how internal employees can be prompted to act as brand ambassadors for tourism attractions.
Existing research on employee brand ambassador behavior focuses primarily on how organizations can influence employee brand citizenship behavior through proper leadership and appropriate training [14,15,16], or indirectly motivate brand congruent behaviors by guiding employees to develop personal values that are aligned with brand values [17,18,19]. However, this research generally focuses on the leadership level, thus advocating a top-down approach to motivating employees to act as organizational brand ambassadors, ignoring bottom-up approaches. For example, workplace friendships formed by employees through close interactions in the workplace may also be a factor in motivating employees to perform brand-ambassadorial behaviors. In an era of increasingly competitive business and a growing reliance on teamwork for success [20], relationships are a critical part of the workplace [21]. When employees have positive and beneficial interpersonal interactions in the workplace, they are also more likely to experience a sense of purpose at work; conversely, attempts to obtain positive organization-building outcomes from employees will be unlikely to succeed if the employees do not perceive a friendly, cooperative, and trustworthy environmental climate created by the company [22]. Employees with higher job satisfaction are more likely to take on the role of organizational brand ambassadors [23]. At the same time, previous studies have confirmed that workplace friendship is closely related to the improvement of employee satisfaction [24,25]. Thus, it also hints at the important role of building workplace friendships in the tourism industry in guiding employee brand ambassador behavior.
To further explore the mechanism of how workplace friendship influences employee brand ambassador behavior, we introduce two mediating variables: employee helping behavior and employee well-being. The motivations for helping behavior are generally classified as organizational concern, pro-social motivation, and impression management [26,27]. Of these, pro-social motivation is thought to be the most predictive of helping behavior [27,28], and the construction of workplace friendships coincides with pro-social motivation. It has been shown that workplace friendship and helping behavior lead to positive interpersonal relationships among employees and have a positive effect on employee well-being [29]. Need satisfaction is a fundamental determinant of well-being [30], so employee helping behavior may be beneficial for the satisfaction of employee resource needs to increase employee well-being. Compared to workplace relationships prescribed by processes, workplace friendships, as voluntary and multiple interpersonal relationships, may better predict individual well-being [31]. There are numerous types of workplace relationships, among which friendship is most closely associated with positive emotions at work, which is an important indicator of employee well-being [32]. The informal nature of workplace friendships also allows for lower constraints on role expectations [33], and lower constraints contribute to further intimacy among friends, which benefits employee well-being [34]. Employees’ strong sense of well-being may strengthen their organizational brand identity, brand role internalization behavior, brand organizational citizenship behavior, brand involvement, and other brand attitudes and behaviors, as an intrinsic mechanism for employees to consciously serve as brand ambassadors. Therefore, exploring the mechanism by which workplace friendship influences employee brand ambassador behavior is the focus of this paper.
Specifically, we consider the mediating roles of employee helping behavior and employee well-being in the effect of workplace friendships on brand ambassador behavior. Our findings provide detailed insights that suggest feasible measures by which tourist attractions can promote internalized brand management, build strong scenic brands, and exert brand effects.

2. Literature Review and Hypothesis

2.1. Workplace Friendship and Employee Brand Ambassador Behavior

As early as the last century, academics have studied the strategic advantages of strong brands and recognized the important role of employees in customer–brand relationships. The literature on employee brand ambassador behavior originated from this work. For example, Harris and De Chernatony (2001) argue that employees can proactively shape other stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization [35]. Burmann and Zeplin (2005) argue that employee behavior is an often underestimated success factor in brand building and propose the concepts of brand citizenship behavior and brand commitment based on brand identity [36]. Miles and Mangold (2005) propose a model of the employee branding process whereby employees receive information from internal and external sources that forms a psychological contract which internalizes the desired brand image, and the employees are motivated to project this image to customers and other parts of the organization [37].
However, truly abstracting employee brand ambassador behavior from branding theory and studying it as an independent concept is still a relatively new topic. Summarizing the previous literature, Sakka and Ahammad (2020) define employee brand ambassadors as employees who can act as ambassadors on behalf of the company [38]. Xiong et al. (2013) argue that to achieve employee brand ambassadorship, it is necessary to motivate positive brand attitudes and behaviors, and that employee brand commitment and brand building behaviors are necessary characteristics of employee brand ambassadors [39]. Thus, the understanding of employee brand ambassador behavior has been gradually enriched.
As research progresses, scholars have further explored the factors influencing employee brand ambassador behavior. Quaratino and Mazzei (2018) identify weak employee commitment, suboptimal external communication, and low levels of motivation as strong situational factors inhibiting employees’ attitudes toward brand ambassadors behavior [40]. Yuan et al. (2022) summarize antecedents for employee brand ambassador behavior exploration into two areas: employee brand knowledge from the employee’s own perspective and internal marketing from the firm’s perspective [23]. The field of internal marketing focuses on antecedent variables such as leadership style and management strategy. In addition to this, however, there are many emotional support factors in organizations, such as workplace friendship and intragroup trust. There have been fewer studies of employee social relationships in the workplace, and there is a lack of exploration of the role of interpersonal relationships in organizations.
Hartup and Stevens (1997) define friendship as a relationship freely chosen and established based on mutual support, intimacy, and shared interests or values [30]. Workplace friendship is distinct from other workplace relationships, and it emphasizes the development of friendships and reciprocal support. Berman et al. (2002) define workplace friendship as informal, voluntary, interpersonal interactions between employees in an organizational setting [41]. Existing research reveals that workplace friendship has both affective and behavioral impacts, which, on the one hand, can increase employee well-being [42] and motivation [43], among other traits, and on the other hand, can improve employee performance [44]. Social exchange theory suggests that if employees perceive organizational support, their intrinsic motivation is enhanced, and consequently, they exhibit more beneficial behaviors [45], so it can be argued that employee friendship in the workplace is a manifestation of organizational support, which promotes employee brand ambassador behavior by stimulating intrinsic motivation. If employees have the opportunity to develop friendships and reciprocal support with colleagues, the establishment of such friendships will promote brand ambassadorial behavior by intrinsically motivating employees to behave in a way that benefits the brand.
Accordingly, we propose our first hypothesis:
H1. 
Workplace friendship has a positive effect on employee brand ambassador behavior.

2.2. The Mediating Role of Employee Well-Being

Based on an integrative perspective, Zheng et al. (2015) argue that employee well-being is both the perception of satisfaction at the work and life levels, and the psychological experience and satisfaction state of emotions expressed in a work and non-work context [46]. Wilson et al. (2004) suggest that employees’ perceptions of the organization they work in affect their perceptions of the workplace atmosphere, which in turn affect their relationship with their work and the way they view their future in the organization, ultimately affecting their work adjustment, health, and well-being [47]. Employees’ perceptions of whether their organization has a supportive climate are multidimensional and include both work and emotional support. Psychosocial factors in the workplace, especially those related to interpersonal relationships, communication, and social support, are key elements in defining a healthy workplace [48]. Workplace friendship is a type of interpersonal relationship in the workplace, and existing research has revealed the impact of friendship on well-being. Based on social support resource theory, Craig and Kuykendall (2019) argue that supportive friendships influence overall well-being through self-esteem, an important personal resource, such that friendship can be a source of well-being [42].
Moreover, a psychological feeling of well-being can influence employees’ behavior. Cervellon and Lirio (2017) argue that a necessary prerequisite for employees to be active brand ambassadors is brand engagement, and that employee brand engagement encompasses emotional and psychological attachment [49]. Sakka and Ahammad (2020) argue that employees’ psychological and social well-being may be a brand mission for promoting engagement drivers, and that employee well-being influences employee brand ambassador behavior by motivating employee brand engagement, a motivational mediating variable [38].
In summary, the hypothesis can be suggested that work friendships affect employee well-being through employees’ self-esteem, which in turn inspires brand engagement and influences employee brand ambassador behavior. Therefore, we hypothesize:
H2. 
Employee well-being plays a mediating role between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior.

2.3. The Mediating Role of Employee Helping Behavior

In academia, helping behavior is generally considered to be a form of organizational citizenship behavior, and it is one important dimension impacting organizational performance [50,51]. George and Jones (1997) define helping behavior as a corporate and voluntary behavior that occurs among employees to solve and handle work-related tasks or problems for their colleagues at work [52]. Dyne and Lepine (1998) interpret helping behavior as a considered, minor facilitation behavior that maintains stable relationships through cooperation with colleagues in the workplace, with more emphasis on interpersonal harmony [53]. Spitzmuller et al. (2013) categorize helping behavior into active and passive forms, based on distinguishing the main theories, research foci, and drivers of helping behavior [54]. Thus, the academic community currently has different understandings of helping behavior. Based on the previous work, this paper considers employee helping behavior as a voluntary behavior that occurs within the workplace, with the intention of helping colleagues with work-related problems.
In the workplace, interpersonal relationships can usually be divided into two types: work relationships and workplace friendships [55,56]. Unlike work relationships, friendship is an emotional bond between individuals that brings about favoritism behavior towards the self and the partner at work and helps to guide employees to achieve their work goals or motivate them to grow, among other positive effects. Workplace friendships play an important positive role in the workplace as a key element of human well-being [57]. Mao et al. (2012) note that workplace friendships help to promote employees’ perceptions of the meaning of their work [58]. There are also positive relationships between workplace friendship and job satisfaction, and between workplace friendship and organizational effectiveness [59,60]. Most importantly, within companies, workplace friendship enhances the exchange of work information among employees and motivates them to give each other help and support at work [61].
Furthermore, in the relationship between employee helping behaviors and employee brand ambassador behaviors, Chen et al. (2020) confirm that perceived leaders’ helping behaviors positively impact employees’ performance, using survey data from employees within different industries [62]. Li et al. (2019) show that in companies, employees who are able to thrive are more likely to engage in responsible behaviors that are conducive to bringing about constructive change [63]. Lina (2019) found, through a survey of hotel employees, that promoting positive social interactions with the corporate organization in a respectful, trusting social environment stimulates employees to internalize the brand, to develop attitudes and behaviors that are consistent with the brand outside the employee’s role, and motivates them to become brand ambassadors for the company [64]. Based on this, the present study argues that the process of employees helping each other in the workplace increases their communication with each other, and this responsible behavior, which benefits the team and the organization, is driven by identification with the corporate brand. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:
H3. 
Employee helping behavior mediates the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior.
In general, employees in a company simply have ordinary work partnerships with each other to accomplish their respective work tasks and rarely have cause to express special gratitude to their colleagues [65]. However, when a colleague lends a helping hand in a crisis or moment of trouble—for example, when an employee provides emotional encouragement, technical guidance, etc., to a colleague who needs help [66]—then according to social exchange theory [67,68], the recipient of the help will be grateful. Gratitude, as a positive emotion, is also believed to contribute positively to well-being [69,70]. Therefore, we theorize that helping behaviors exhibited by employees in the workplace contribute to the level of employee well-being. Building on the theorized relationship between workplace friendship and employee helping behaviors, we hypothesize that:
H4. 
Employee helping behavior mediates the relationship between workplace friendship and employee well-being.
In summary, building on our review of the existing literature, we not only delve into the mediating roles played by employee well-being and employee helping behavior between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior, but also analyze the transmission effect of employee helping behavior in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee well-being. We thus propose that in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior, employee helping behavior and employee well-being each show transmission effects. Based on this, we further propose the following hypothesis:
H5. 
Workplace friendship influences employees to exhibit brand ambassador-related behaviors through a chain mediating effect of employee helping behaviors and employee well-being.
Figure 1 shows a theoretical framework to illustrate the relationship between the five hypotheses.

3. Methodology

3.1. Study Locations

We collected survey data using a questionnaire distributed in two locations. One is Guyan Huaxiang (Guyan), a famous village in Zhejiang Province, China, which is a 4A-level tourist attraction located in Bihu Town, and Dagangtou Town, Liandu District, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province. In 2015, the town was selected by the National Tourism Administration as one of the first 37 characteristic towns in Zhejiang Province, and as one of the first three innovation pilot towns for characteristic service towns in Zhejiang Province, as well as one of the first 20 rural tourism-maker demonstration bases in China. Local residents have actively participated in the construction of Guyan’s tourism industry. According to statistics, the per capita income of villagers in the scenic spot rose sharply from 2010 to 2019. There are more than 1000 people working in tourism, catering, and other related industries. The second location used in this study is Xiaoshi Yizhuang, Benxi City, Liaoning Province. Located 1 km from Benxi Water Cave, a national 5A scenic spot, Benxi Xiaoshi Yizhuang relies on its rich local tourism resources to build a comprehensive scenic spot integrating catering, accommodation, entertainment, leisure, play, and shopping. It is one of the most popular rural tourism destinations in China. Based on the local situation, we distributed questionnaires to front-line employees in the two scenic spots through the local tour guides of Guyan and Benxi Xiaoshi Yizhuang Wen Tourism Co., Ltd. This method ensured a good response rate and a representative sample, compared to other possible methods of distribution, which helped ensure an adequate sample for our analysis and considerably assisted in the construction of the model of this paper.

3.2. Measures

The questionnaire used in this study takes the form of a 7-point Likert scale, and for each variable, the established scales developed in previous studies were selected, with minor adjustments to better fit this study. Workplace friendship is based on the scale items from Nielsen (2000) [71] related to popularity and friendship opportunities [68]. The six statements include “I have built a deep friendship at work” and “I am able to have friendly interactions with colleagues outside the workplace”. Employee brand ambassador behavior is based on the measurement scale of C. King (2012) [72], and we choose brand endorsement as the most important manifestation of employee brand ambassador behavior, adopting the statements “I always speak positively to others about the company I work for”, “If someone asks me for job advice, I would recommend the company I work for to him or her”, and “I would like to talk about the company I work for”. Employee helping behavior is based on the scale of Podsakoff (1997) [73], featuring six items, including “I am willing to help my colleague (her) if he or she falls behind in work”, “I am willing to share my professional knowledge with other colleagues”, and “When other colleagues have disagreements, I am willing to try to be a peacemaker and help them mediate”. Employee well-being is based on the scale of Zheng et al. (2015), which focuses on workplace well-being and features five items [46], including “I am satisfied with the content of my current job”, “Generally speaking, I am quite satisfied with my current job”, and “I find real pleasure in my work”. According to how they actually feel about these statements, the participants choose the corresponding option, from 1 (= strongly disagree) to 7 (= strongly agree). This measure is equal for each scale.

3.3. Translation and Data Collection

Our questionnaire was conducted in Chinese because our participants are Chinese tourists and employees. We therefore translated the English-language scale items derived from prior studies using a two-way back translation procedure [74]. First, the measurement scale was translated into Chinese. Second, the draft was translated back into English. The authors compared the back translation scale with the original English scale to identify any errors in translation. After developing the initial questionnaire, we randomly selected 20 people to complete the questionnaire and observed whether the respondents understood the items or had questions about them. After collecting all opinions, we corrected the problems identified for each item and adjusted the difficult questions to ensure that the questionnaire was easy to understand. Using the above steps, the final questionnaire was formed.
The research team distributed the formal questionnaire in a one-to-one manner in December 2022, which is considered to be the off-season of tourism in the destination, so employees were given a long period of time and to complete it. The whole process lasted for 20 days. Front-line employees in two tourist attractions were randomly selected to complete the questionnaire. They were informed of the research purpose of this paper, asked if they were willing to help fill in the self-completed questionnaire, and promised that the obtained data would only be used for academic research and would not be used for commercial purposes. After removing incomplete questionnaires, 208 valid questionnaires were obtained, with an effective response rate of 88.14%.

4. Data Analysis

4.1. Preliminary Analysis

Among the 208 valid responses, 65.9% are from female respondents and 34.1% are from male respondents. From the perspective of age distribution, the front-line employees in the scenic spot are generally older, ranging from 40 to 69 years old, with 41- to 50-year-olds accounting for 28.4% and 51- to 60-year-olds accounting for 31.2%. In terms of education level, the ranking from high to low is junior high school education or below (73.6%), bachelor’s degree or above (14.4%), and high school education (12.0%). Participants’ monthly income mainly ranged from RMB 2001 to 5000 (79.8%). In terms of the years working at tourist attractions, the proportions of short-term, medium-term, and long-term working periods are averaged, among which the employees with 1–3 years make of the largest portion, accounting for 27.4% of the total sample, employees with 3–5 years account for 21.2%, long-term employees with 5–7 years account for 18.8%, and the short-term employees with less than 1 year (16.3%) and the long-term employees with more than 7 years (16.4%) account for the smallest portion (Table 1.)

4.2. Measurement Model

First, to address potential common method bias, we use SPSS AMOS 24 and the latent variable method to compare the mean (R) of the standardized coefficient between the single factor model and the multi-factor model. The result was 1.732 (>1), indicating that common method bias is not significant. Second, in this study, the potential multivariate normality problem was evaluated by measuring the skewness and kurtosis of each item’s distribution. The results show that the skewness value ranges from −0.829 to 0.022 (less than 2), and the kurtosis value ranges from −1.703 to 1.618 (less than 7), which conforms to the normality suggestion of Byrne (2013) [75]. Third, for the multicollinearity problem, the researchers assessed the variance inflation factor (VIF) score for each structure. The VIF score ranges from 2.006 to 2.380 (<5), indicating that multicollinearity is not significant. The reliability of the overall questionnaire was 0.958, and the α coefficient of Cronbach alpha for each construct was between 0.904 and 0.925, showing good internal consistency [76]. The KMO value of the whole measurement model was 0.943 (>0.6), and the significance value of Bartlett’s test was 0.000. The fitting data of the measurement model were within the acceptable range (χ2 = 387.719, df = 183, χ2/df = 2.119; GFI = 0.845; AGFI = 0.804; RMSEA = 0.074; CFI = 0.944; TLI = 0.936). The factor load of all the measured items ranged from 0.688 to 0.947. (Table 2.)
As shown in Table 3, convergent validity was demonstrated, as all average variance extracted (AVE) values were above 0.60, and all composite reliability (CR) values were above 0.8 [77]. Discriminant validity was also achieved, as the square roots of each AVE value were larger than their respective cross-correlations [77].

4.3. Hypothesis Testing

As shown in Table 4, our results indicate that workplace friendship has a positive and statistically significant effect on employee brand ambassador behavior (β = 0.764, p < 0.01). Therefore, H1 is supported. We also find that workplace friendship has both a statistically significant impact on employee well-being (β = 0.596, p < 0.01), and it also induces employee help behavior among employees (β = 0.763, p < 0.01). After adding the mediating variables, the direct effect of workplace friendship on employee brand ambassador behavior is not statistically significant (β = 0.015, p = 0.971); however, both employee helping behavior and employee well-being show statistically significant effects on employee brand ambassador behavior (β = 0.322, p < 0.01; β = 0.524, p < 0.01). In addition, we find that the path from employee helping behavior to employee well-being shows good statistical significance (β = 0.208, p < 0.05), indicating that such helping behavior among employees can enhance an individuals’ own well-being.
We also examine the mediating effects of employee well-being and employee helping behavior. The indirect effect results show that employee well-being has a good mediating effect between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior (β = 0.285, p < 0.01), and the 95% confidence interval is 0.164,0.469, which excludes 0. Therefore, hypothesis H2 is supported. Similarly, the mediating effect of employee helping behavior in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior is also significant (β = 0.224, p < 0.01), and the 95% confidence interval is 0.098,0.404, which excludes 0. Therefore, hypothesis H3 is supported. The mediating effect of employee helping behavior on the relationship between workplace friendship and employee well-being is significant (β = 0.166, p < 0.05), and the 95% confidence interval is 0.014,0.363, which excludes 0. Therefore, H4 is also supported.
To verify the possible chain mediating effect between employee helping behavior and employee well-being, we also investigate the coefficient size of the path of “workplace friendship–employee helping behavior–employee well-being–employee brand ambassador behavior”, following the suggestions of prior research. The results show that the chain mediating effect of employee helping behavior and employee well-being is significant (β = 0.076, p < 0.05), and the 95% confidence interval is 0.008, 0.195, which excludes 0, so hypothesis H5 is supported. In addition, we calculate the indirect effects produced by the four mediating effects, which account for 98.2% of the total effect value and are supported by the application of the variance accounted for (VAF) index. When the VAF value exceeds 80%, complete mediation can be considered. This result shows that in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior, employee helping behavior, and employee well-being play crucial transmission roles.
Finally, we compare the four mediating effects, looking for differences between them. Table 5 shows a statistically significant difference between indirect effects M1 and M4 (β = 0.209, p < 0.05). Compared with M1, M4—as a chain intermediary—has stronger statistical significance, indicating that the influence of employee helping behavior and employee well-being, as chain intermediaries, is stronger than the influence of a single intermediary variable (employee well-being) on the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior. Similarly, there is also a large difference between the indirect effects M3 and M4 (β = −0.091, p < 0.05), indicating that the effect of the chain intermediary consisting of employee helping behavior and employee well-being in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee brand ambassador behavior is stronger than that of employee helping behavior in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee well-being.

5. Discussion

To investigate the factors that influence employee brand ambassador behavior, we construct a chain mediating effect model from the perspective of front-line employees within tourist attractions. Our empirical results show that workplace friendship can indirectly influence employee brand ambassador behavior through two mediating variables of employee helping behavior and employee well-being. The specific results are as follows:
First, within tourist attractions, workplace friendship has a positive and statistically significant impact on employee brand ambassador behavior.
Most prior literature in this field focuses on aspects of the organization’s influence on staff and brand ambassador behavior, such as the management’s governance style [78], to explain the development of the staff’s brand commitment [39]. This approach is relatively simplistic and is not conducive to exploring other factors influencing employee brand ambassador behavior. Focusing on the perspective of an organization’s employees, this study analyzes the influence of friendship among employees, mutual assistance, and personal well-being on brand ambassador behavior, which enriches the literature on factors influencing employee brand ambassador behavior.
Second, employee helping behavior has a positive and statistically significant mediating role in the relationship between workplace friendship and employee well-being. This finding is consistent with previous studies confirming that workplace friendships have a positive impact on employee well-being [79]. When the friendship between employees reaches a high level, employees will help each other to deal with work problems, and helping is likely to improve the well-being.
Third, by constructing a chain intermediary model of “workplace friendship–employee helping behavior–employee well-being–employee brand ambassador behavior”, we document the importance of helping behavior and employee well-being for organizational brand development. This result supplements and demonstrates the importance of academic research on employee well-being for organizations. Organizational efforts to promote workplace friendships not only help employees improve their well-being, but also benefit the organization itself [58].

6. Practical Implications

The results of this work have practical significance for managers of tourist attractions. First, scenic location managers should recognize the important impact of employee relations on the organization’s brand. In the early stages of talent selection, organizational managers should make reasonable arrangements to ensure good team composition, provide a relatively relaxed working environment in daily business activities, and understand the process of cooperation between employee to facilitate workplace friendships and promote employees’ helping behavior.
Second, organizations should make employees feel valued, provide personalized support when appropriate, and promote communication among employees to enhance employee well-being. In addition, employees should be encouraged to recognize the brand value created by the organization, in order to cultivate their sense of brand identity. Such a management mode can not only increase the enthusiasm and creativity of employees, but also reduce the organization’s management costs and help to form a benign two-way value output between the organization and its employees, so that the comprehensive value and development potential of the organization can be effectively enhanced.
Finally, the managers of scenic locations should seek to increase the quality and frequency of employees’ collective activities, within a reasonable range, to create opportunities for employees who work in different fields to communicate with each other, to increase the closeness between various departments of the organization, and to thus improve the degree of brand internalization and the internal brand marketing of the scenic spots.

7. Limitations

Although this study meaningfully expands the research on brand internal marketing, it has some limitations. First, we only investigate employee brand endorsement behavior as the main aspect of brand ambassador behavior. However, brand ambassador behavior can also include brand love, employee loyalty, and other behaviors conducive to brand development. It remains uncertain whether workplace friendship can also affect these other behaviors. Therefore, future research could consider the effect of workplace friendship on these other employee behaviors relevant to brand ambassadorship. Second, studies of the psychology of organizational citizenship behavior show that individual personality traits and emotions may affect an individual’s willingness to display behaviors that are conducive to the organizational brand [80,81]. Therefore, future studies can also investigate aspects of personality, such as the sense of humor, positive attitude, and active disposition, of front-line employees or managers of tourist attractions. Finally, due to practical limitations, this study only carried out a questionnaire survey in two tourist attractions. In the future, the geographical scope and types of scenic spots can be broadened to enrich the theoretical research framework proposed in this paper.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, H.W.; methodology, H.S.; software, H.S.; validation, H.W., H.S., Y.W., L.C., Q.Y., D.J. and L.L.; formal analysis, H.S., Y.W., L.C., Q.Y., D.J. and L.L.; investigation, H.W., H.S., Y.W., L.C., Q.Y., D.J. and L.L.; resources, H.W.; data curation, H.W.; writing—original draft preparation, H.S., Y.W., L.C., Q.Y., D.J. and L.L.; writing—review and editing, H.W., H.S., Y.W., L.C. and Q.Y.; visualization, H.S., D.J. and L.L.; supervision, H.W.; project administration, H.W.; funding acquisition, Y.W., L.C., Q.Y., D.J. and L.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Social Science Foundation of China (provided to Haihong Wang; No. 18BGL159).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The data analyzed in this paper are proprietary, and therefore, they cannot be posted online.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

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Sustainability 15 06859 g001 550
Figure 1. Theoretical framework.
Figure 1. Theoretical framework.
Sustainability 15 06859 g001
Table
Table 1. Demographic information for participants.
Table 1. Demographic information for participants.
VariableCategoryCountPercentage (%)
GenderMale7134.1
Female13765.9
Age (years)Age 18 and under00.0
19–302210.6
31–405827.9
41–505928.4
51–606531.2
Age 61 and older41.9
Education
background		Junior middle school and under15673.6
High school degree2512.0
Bachelor’s degree or above3014.4
Monthly incomeUnder RMB 2000 199.1
RMB 2001~5000 16679.8
RMB 5001~8000 209.6
RMB 8001~10,000 10.5
Above RMB 10,001 21.0
Working seniority1 year and under3416.3
1–3 years (including 3 years)5727.4
3–5 years (including 5 years)4421.2
5–7 years (including 7 years)3918.8
7–9 years (including 9 years)2110.1
Over 10 years 136.3
Whether or not a front-line employee of a tourist attractionYes208100.0
No00.0
Table
Table 2. Assessment of the measurement model.
Table 2. Assessment of the measurement model.
ConstructItemsLoading
Workplace friendship
I have formed deep friendships in my work.0.855
I have friendly interactions with colleagues outside of the workplace.0.858
I feel I can trust a lot of my colleagues to a large extent.0.762
One of the reasons I want to work is to see my colleagues.0.688
I had a chance to get to know my colleagues.0.782
I was able to work with my colleagues and solve problems together.0.820
Employee well-being
I am satisfied with the content of my work so far.0.759
On the whole, I am quite satisfied with my present job.0.852
I find real pleasure in my work.0.902
I always find ways to enrich my work.0.789
For me, work is a meaningful experience. 0.826
Employee brand ambassador behavior
I always speak positively about the company I work for.0.709
If someone asks me for job advice, I recommend the company I work for.0.794
I like to talk to people about the businesses I work for.0.947
I actively talk to people about the business I work for.0.938
Employee helping behavior
If a colleague is falling behind in his/her work, I am willing to help him/her.0.837
I am willing to share my expertise with other colleagues.0.853
When other colleagues have disagreements, I am willing to try to be a peacemaker and help them reconcile.0.715
I will take steps to avoid conflicts with other colleagues.0.858
If my behavior affects other colleagues, I will communicate with them in advance.0.799
When I or a colleague is feeling down, we encourage each other.0.881
Table
Table 3. Testing discriminant validity.
Table 3. Testing discriminant validity.
CRAVE1234
WF0.9120.6340.796
EWB0.9150.6840.7550.827
EBAB0.9130.7270.6560.7480.853
EHB0.9280.6820.7630.6630.6810.826
Note: WF: workplace friendship; EWB: employee well-being; EBAB: employee brand ambassador behavior; EHB: employee helping behavior.
Table
Table 4. Significance of direct and indirect effects.
Table 4. Significance of direct and indirect effects.
PathPath EstimateBootstrap 95%
LowerUpper
Total effect0.764 ***0.5830.987
Direct effect
WF→EWB0.596 ** (0.002)0.3220.805
WF→EHB0.763 ***0.6640.844
WF→EBAB0.015 (0.971)−0.2230.267
EWB→EBAB0.524 ***0.2920.716
EHB→EBAB0.322 ** (0.002)0.1410.515
EHB→EWB0.208 * (0.045)0.0060.420
Indirect effectEstimateLower 95%Upper 95%VAF
WF→EWB→EBAB0.285 ***0.1640.46937.2%
WF→EHB→EBAB0.224 ***0.0980.40429.3%
WF→EHB→EWB0.166 * (0.033)0.0140.36321.8%
WF→EHB→EWB→EBAB0.076 * (0.026)0.0080.1959.9%
Note: WF: workplace friendship; EWB: employee well-being; EHB: employee helping behavior; EBAB: employee brand ambassador behavior. *** p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05.
Table
Table 5. Comparison of mediating effects.
Table 5. Comparison of mediating effects.
EstimateLower 95%Upper 95%p
Different effects
M1–M20.060−0.1430.2840.502
M1–M30.118−0.1650.4010.376
M1–M40.2090.0470.4390.017
M2–M30.058−0.1790.2730.616
M2–M40.148−0.0250.3270.085
M4–M3−0.091−0.225−0.0110.025
Note: M1: WF→EWB→EBAB; M2: WF→EHB→EBAB; M3: WF→EHB→EWB; M4: WF→EHB→EWB→EBAB.
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Wang, H.; Sha, H.; Wang, Y.; Cheng, L.; Yu, Q.; Jia, D.; Lu, L. How Does Friendship Motivate Frontline Employees to Exhibit Brand Ambassador Behavior: The Important Role of Well-Being and Helping Behavior. Sustainability 2023, 15, 6859. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086859

AMA Style

Wang H, Sha H, Wang Y, Cheng L, Yu Q, Jia D, Lu L. How Does Friendship Motivate Frontline Employees to Exhibit Brand Ambassador Behavior: The Important Role of Well-Being and Helping Behavior. Sustainability. 2023; 15(8):6859. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086859

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wang, Haihong, Hongxia Sha, Yi Wang, Lijie Cheng, Qifan Yu, Deyun Jia, and Liuting Lu. 2023. "How Does Friendship Motivate Frontline Employees to Exhibit Brand Ambassador Behavior: The Important Role of Well-Being and Helping Behavior" Sustainability 15, no. 8: 6859. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086859

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