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Mavens at Work: Brand Commitment and the Moderating Role of Market Mavens on Social Media Engagement

Abstract Employee engagement on social media presents challenges and opportunities for managers as there is limited control over what individual employees post on social media platforms. This research uncovers the role that influential and motivated employees can play in endorsing the employer’s brands on social media platforms. The literature on internal branding motivates this study and we apply uses and gratifications theory and social exchange theory to develop and test a model on the impact of brand-committed employees on social media engagement moderated by market mavenism. A survey of 419 U.S.-based employees finds that brand commitment mediates the effects of employee brand trust on an employee’s social media engagement regarding their employer’s brands. The model also suggests that market mavenism moderates the relationship between employee brand commitment and social media engagement. The results provide empirical evidence in support of the proposed model and suggest that internal branding campaigns should consider identifying and cultivating employee brand-committed market mavens as an additional source of social media engagement for a company’s brands.