"That's my job" Exploring the effect of brand empowerment towards employee brand equity: The mediating role of employee critical psychological states

Purpose - Based on the recent call to uncover the dynamics of employee psychological states in branding, i.e. employee brand understanding and brand psychological ownership, this study aims to investigate the relationship between brand empowerment, employee psychological states, and their outcome i.e. employee brand equity. Moreover, the study tried to investigate the mediating role of employee psychological states, i.e. employee brand understanding and brand psychological ownership, in the relationship between brand empowerment and employee brand equity. Design/methodology/approach - The survey method was adopted to collect the data from the respondents from public sector banks. Data were collected from 374 employees working in the banking sector using the proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Findings - The results of this study confirm the positive relationship between brand empowerment, employee psychological states, i.e. employee brand understanding and brand psychological ownership, and employee brand equity. Furthermore, employees' psychological states play a mediating role in the relationship between brand empowerment and employee brand equity, as illustrated in job characteristics theory. Past studies in branding literature have revolved around employees' psychological states and their impact on personal outcomes, i.e. employee brand equity. Originality/value - Based on the recent call to explore the dynamics of employee psychological states, this study tries to dig deeper into the theory by investigating the link between brand empowerment and employee brand equity.