Explaining the structural model of potential predictors of employees' behavioral performance in order to improve the business environment

EXTENDED ABSTRACT
 
Introduction
This study contributes to the research in the following different ways. First, the present study expands internal branding research by explaining the direct and indirect relationships of internal branding with the behavioral performance of employees in the banking industry. Because the research Little in the past has shown the impact of internal branding from the perspective of employees and the process required to encourage brand-supporting behaviors. Furthermore, most studies related to internal branding agree on the content of internal branding practices. To address this gap, the current research supports the actual methods of internal branding, which are reflected by three components: brand identity, brand leadership, and internal communication. Second, the current research shows the sequential mediating roles of brand credibility and work attachment on the relationship between internal branding and employees' behavioral performance. Brand authenticity has been widely researched from the perspective of customers, but studies from the perspective of employees are scarce. Furthermore, despite extensive research on work engagement and employee performance, there is a gap between organizational efforts and academic research on this topic. described", especially in the banking industry. Most importantly, as far as researchers know, the mediating effects of brand credibility and work attachment have not been studied sequentially on the proposed relationship. The present research shows that banks that authentically promote the brand to employees through internal organizational practices can influence employees' work engagement and behavioral performance, which in turn can be a source of customer differentiation in the market. In conclusion, the current research examines the internal branding of the banking industry, which emphasizes the importance of rebuilding the brand identity of banks. Accordingly, the researchers are looking for an answer to the question of whether internal branding has an effect on the behavioral performance of employees, and if these effects How is it associated with the mediating role of work attachment and perceived brand authenticit.
 
Methodology
The research is "applied one" in terms of its purpose and "descriptive-survey type in terms of the method of data collection. According to the research variables, the statistical population in this research was the employees of the National Bank of Kermanshahz province, whose number was 1200. The sample size was 291 people, which was obtained through Cochran's formula, and the selection of people was by simple random method. From the internal branding questionnaire of Purichelli et al. (2014); Berman et al. (2009) which consists of 11 questions, the behavioral performance questionnaire of Miao et al. (2007), which consists of 4 questions, the work attachment questionnaire of Kalosinitis and Mihail (2020), which consists of 3 questions and finally the originality questionnaire Baker et al.'s (2014) perceived brand, which consisted of 4 questions, was used as the main data collection tool. The basis of the measurement scale was the five-choice Likert spectrum questions. To confirm the validity, three types of validity, "content, convergent validity and divergent validity" were used, and three criteria (factor loadings, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and composite reliability coefficient) were used to confirm the reliability. In Tables 1 and 2, the reliability and validity results of the measurement tool are given in full (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).
 
 Result and discussion
The study aimed to predict employees' behavioral performance using internal branding, with a consecutive mediating role of work Engagement and perceived brand authenticity. The results indicate that internal branding has a positive and significant effect on employees' behavioral performance. Furthermore, work engagement and perceived brand authenticity mediate the impact of internal branding on employees' behavioral performance, and they have a successive mediating role. All evidence suggests that potential predictors of behavioral performance have been able to play their role properly.
 
Conclusion
The research has identified internal branding as a process to provide better services from the point of view of employee performance, a method to align the actions and attitudes of employees with a brand name and a mechanism for creating special value. employee- and customer-centered branding has been investigated. The present study considers the banking industry as its target society, where the emergence of the service age has made employees the focal point of brand management. has transformed the organization. Based on the model developed in this study, the bank can increase its internal branding to enhance employees' behavioral performance. To have a greater impact, the bank should use work Engagement and perceived brand authenticity as mediating variables.