Brand equity in the professional service context: Analyzing the impact of employee role behavior and customer–employee rapport Galina Biedenbach a, ⁎, Maria Bengtsson a, 1 , Joakim Wincent b, 2 a Umeå School of Business, Umeå University, Biblioteksgränd 6, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden b Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden abstract article info Article history: Received 30 December 2010 Received in revised form 4 July 2011 Accepted 12 August 2011 Available online 2 October 2011 Keywords: Brand equity Role ambiguity Role overload Customer–employee rapport Professional services The study examines whether factors related to customers' perception of employees' behavior in terms of cus- tomer perceived role ambiguity, role overload and customer–employee rapport influence the development of brand equity in the professional service context. 632 customers of one of the Big Four auditing companies participated in the study. The results of structural equation modeling show negative effects of role ambiguity and role overload on brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty, which constitute brand equity. The findings indicate a positive effect of customer–employee rapport on the enhancement of B2B brand eq- uity. However, the negative influences of role ambiguity and role overload on customer–employee rapport transfer detrimental indirect effects on brand equity. The study contributes to an understanding of how the real interaction between service providers and customers can influence brand equity in the professional ser- vice setting. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Brand equity defined as “the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand” (Keller, 1993, p. 8) has been shown to be of high importance for companies' competitive positions and performance (Kim & Hyun, 2011; Kotler & Pfoertsch, 2007; Webster & Keller, 2004). The concept of brand equity was origi- nally developed in the B2C market and it is a well-accepted fact that brand equity and brand management are crucial for success in this set- ting (Keller, 2008; M'zungu, Merrilees, & Miller, 2010; Park, MacInnis, Priester, Eisingerich, & Iacobucci, 2010). Some researchers have argued that brand equity has a minor role in the B2B market as the number of buyers and sellers is relatively small, which makes it easier to develop knowledge about each other (Anderson, Narus, & Narayandas, 2009). The exchange in business markets is also assumed to have a more ratio- nal foundation, since professional experts in different areas are involved in the purchasing process (Kim & Hyun, 2011). Previous research on B2B branding has however demonstrated that brands are also important in the decision making process that takes place in the B2B market (Kotler & Pfoertsch, 2007; Michell, King, & Reast, 2001; Mudambi, 2002; Webster & Keller, 2004), especially in the professional service context (Dall'Olmo Riley & de Chernatony, 2000; Kim & Hyun, 2011; Roberts & Merrilees, 2007). These studies show that brand equity leads to similar positive outcomes in the B2B setting as in the B2C setting. Brand equity motivates B2B customers to pay a price premium, to consider brand extensions, and to recommend the brand (Bendixen, Bukasa, & Abratt, 2004; Hutton, 1997; Michell et al., 2001). Furthermore, successful B2B brands with high levels of brand equity serve as the key for building trust (Roberts & Merrilees, 2007), which is important for the exchange in industrial markets (Hite, 2003). Trust, obligations, and expectations based on relational contracts facilitate knowledge sharing and activity exchange among or- ganizations (Adler & Kwon, 2002; Dyer & Singh, 1998; Granovetter, 1985; Hite, 2003), and are of relevance for the maintenance of a rela- tionship (Li & Ferreira, 2008). These factors affect transaction perfor- mance, market performance, and profitability performance of a company (Baldauf, Cravens, & Binder, 2003; Han & Sung, 2008). Earlier studies on the determinants of B2B brand equity mostly elaborated on the influence of marketing-mix efforts on brand equity (Kim & Hyun, 2011). In line with Davies, Chun, and Kamins (2010), we however argue that the real interaction between employees of a service company and the customers affects brand equity in the pro- fessional service market, besides the image communicated through marketing efforts. Davies et al. (2010) state that employees within a service organization are the face of the organization, as the employees interact with the customer in service encounters. The personal inter- action between the service providers and the customers involves both experiences of how the professional employees engage in their work role to meet customers' expectations and the emotional reactions of the employees during the interaction with the customers. Therefore, Industrial Marketing Management 40 (2011) 1093–1102 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 46 90 7866150. E-mail addresses: galina.biedenbach@usbe.umu.se (G. Biedenbach), maria.bengtsson@usbe.umu.se (M. Bengtsson), joakim.wincent@ltu.se (J. Wincent). 1 Tel.: +46 90 7866161. 2 Tel.: +46 92 0492161. 0019-8501/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.09.007 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Industrial Marketing Management