European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx

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European Management Journal

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/emj

Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How

company-related employee posts on social media can help firms to
attract new talent
Pawel Korzynski a, b, c, *, Grzegorz Mazurek d, Michael Haenlein e
a
Kozminski University, Department of Human Resource Management, Jagiellonska 57/59, 03-301, Warsaw, Poland
b
Harvard University, Department of Economics, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
c
INSEAD Business School, Boulevard de Constance, 77300, Fontainebleau, France
d
Kozminski University, Department of Marketing, Jagiellonska 57/59, 03-301, Warsaw, Poland
e
ESCP Europe, Department of Marketing, 79, Avenue de la R
epublique, 75011, Paris, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In a similar way as consumers use social media to spread word-of-mouth about brands and firms,
Received 11 February 2019 employees perform similar activities when posting company-related content on social media. Such posts
Received in revised form can be of significant importance for future employees who use them as supposedly unbiased information
16 July 2019
of firm attractiveness. Hence better understanding such activity is a crucial element of many HR man-
Accepted 2 August 2019
Available online xxx
agers. In this study we rely on signaling theory to explore the relationships between corporate brand
strength, corporate social media activity and company-related posts by employees on social media
channels. To analyze those relationships, we apply variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS
Keywords:
Corporate brand strength
SEM) based on data from a survey among scholars who published in A-journals. Our results show that
Employees corporate brand strength alone is not sufficient to mobilize employees to upload company-related posts.
Signaling theory However, corporate brand strength influences corporate social media activity, which, in turn, impacts
Social media company-related posts by employees on social media. We highlight the crucial role of employees as
spokespeople and influencers for firms, especially vis-a-vis applicants and prospective employees.
© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction (Spence, 1973). Recently, signal transmission increasingly occurs on

Companies and customers alike increasingly rely on information
about firms that appears on social media (Felix, Rauschnabel, &
Hinsch, 2017; Godey et al., 2016; Kamboj, Sarmah, Gupta, &
Dwivedi, 2018; Wagner, Baccarella, & Voigt, 2017). Such platforms
have a huge influence not only on a firm's interactions with its
customers but also on its relationships with current and prospec-
tive employees (Chen, Lu, & Wang, 2017; Schroeder & Cavanaugh,
2018). One way to explain this is through information asymmetry
in the labor market (Jayasinghe, 2016). To reduce such information
asymmetry, organizations and individuals send signals about their
qualities (Bergh, Connelly, Ketchen Jr., and Shannon, 2014) e a
process that has been explained through the signaling theory
* Corresponding author. Kozminski University, Department of Human Resource
Management, Jagiellonska 57/59, 03-301, Warsaw, Poland.
E-mail addresses: pkorzynski@fas.harvard.edu (P. Korzynski), gmazurek@alk.
edu.pl (G. Mazurek), haenlein@escpeurope.eu (M. Haenlein).
social media, and companies experience loss of control as a result of
this shift (Kohli, Suri, and Kapoor, 2015).
What exacerbates the situation even further is that the value of
such employee- or customer-generated information, which is
neither inspired nor controlled by the firm, is perceived as higher
than the value of information created by an organization itself. As a
result, employee-created content is related to eight times greater
engagement than organization-related content (Holmes, 2015). A
company should therefore try to gain more control over its brand,
be even more active on social media, engage new stakeholders
(Wider, von Wallpach, & Mühlbacher, 2018), and execute new
strategies involving new actors (Tajvidi, Richard, Wang, & Hajli,
2018). Currently, it is recognized that organizational reputation is
often created by employees, who are considered credible sources of
information (Helm, 2011; Melia
n-Gonz
alez & Bulchand-Gidumal,
2016).
However, when an employee's voice is no longer guided and
controlled by the organization, employees can easily find new

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
0263-2373/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Please cite this article as: Korzynski, P et al., Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts
on social media can help firms to attract new talent, European Management Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
2 P. Korzynski et al. / European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
through which to air their grievances, the blowback from which can
be crushing (Miles & Mangold, 2014). Furthermore, it has been
shown that if employees are strongly encouraged to undertake
corporate branding activities online, which might be viewed as an
intensified form of control, it may cause negative effects such as
sarcasm or irony (Fleming, 2009).
Although the role of employees in corporate branding efforts
has been the subject of prior work, research in this field is still
rather limited (Boukis & Christodoulides, 2018). Some tentative
conclusions can be drawn from research related to the role of
consumers in social media branding, as both consumers and em-
ployees can be regular users of social media. A better understand-
ing of the relationship between employee- and company-related
content and corporate social media activity could improve our
awareness of the employees’ role in the execution of corporate
social media strategies. Moreover, previous studies have not pro-
vided a clear answer as to whether a brand may be sufficiently
strong to mobilize employees into becoming transmitters of
company-related content or whether there are some specific
characteristics of employees who are more likely to serve as
corporate social media supporters.
Our conceptual framework relies on the signaling theory, which
assumes that organizations and individuals signal and receive in-
formation about their qualities to reduce information asymmetries
(Spence, 1973). Employees and employers use social media to
distribute company-related information (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
Thereby, they signal their quality and reduce information asym-
metries (Weiss, 1995). Current employers often do not have all
relevant information about certain individual characteristics of
employees, such as their loyalty or engagement. Likewise, em-
ployees are uncertain which employers could serve as the best
place to work.
The signaling theory primarily focuses on positive information
delivered by the signaler (Vermaelen, 1981). This focus is consistent
with our setting, as we may assume that current employees post
either positive or neutral information on social media regarding
their employer, or at least avoid posting anything that could lead to
negative consequences at their organizations. Therefore, the larger
the quantity of company-related posts that employees upload on
social media, the stronger the impact is on a corporate brand's
strength. Similar to customers who transmit information about
companies and products (Pecot, Merchant, Valette-Florence, & De
Barnier, 2018), employees signal qualities of their employer to po-
tential job candidates, customers, and business partners. They
engage in this signaling to link themselves with some corporate
achievements (Bartels, Pruyn, De Jong, & Joustra, 2007) and also use
social media posts as a digital tool for self-worth validation
(Ritzenho € fer, Brosi, & Welpe, 2018).
Corporate social media activity is important for signal trans-
mission from employers to employees and stakeholders (Rokka,
Karlsson, & Tienari, 2014). Organizations undertake branding ac-
tivities on social media to build corporate brand strength and po-
sition themselves in the market. Previous studies indicate that
corporate brand strength renders signals more credible and has an
impact on how current and prospective customers or employees
perceive an organization (Wilden, Gudergan, & Lings, 2010).
Signaling occurs if the signaler obtains benefits from the receiver
(Connelly, Certo, Ireland, & Reutzel, 2011). A strong brand should
therefore encourage employees to transmit positive signals. In this
vein, note that according to previous research, signal observability,
which depends on network size, is a necessary requirement for
signaling to occur (Connelly et al., 2011).
To sum up, our study aims to shed light on corporate brand
strength, corporate social media activity, employee engagement
with company-related social media content, and how they
Please cite this article as: Korzynski, P et al., Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts
on social media can help firms to attract new talent, European Management Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
influence company-related posts by employees on social media. We
do this by surveying scholars and analyze their social media ac-
tivities in relationship to one of their institutions using variance-
based structural equation modeling (SEM), i.e., partial least
squares (PLS) analysis.
Through our analysis, we offer two theoretical contributions to
the signaling theory. First, the signaling theory was applied in
previous research to explain how employers send signals to job
applicants (Jones, Willness, & Madey, 2014; Stern & James, 2016).
Our study shows that these signals are transmitted not only to
prospective but also to current employees. Social media might be an
effective channel not only for messaging new applicants but also for
interaction with current employees. Second, we build on the pro-
cess of signal transmission from an organization to its stakeholders
by recognizing that brand strength may be signaled through active
corporate social media activity that encourages employees to post
on company-related issues. Managerially, our results can be applied
by marketing and HR executives to develop a firm's social media
strategy. As company-related posts uploaded by employees can
facilitate a given brand's strength, marketing and HR executives
may plan interaction between their companies' social media profile
and employees with high social media engagement and broad
online networks.
2. Hypothesis development
To the best of our knowledge (see Table 1), prior research has not
yet fully explored the link between employee-created content,
company-related content, corporate brand strength, and corporate
social media activity. Although we found former studies that
examine whether or how employees engage in social media ac-
tivities and support their companies’ brands, the role of corporate
social media activity as a mediator between corporate brand
strength and employee-created content is omitted. Similarly, in
studies analyzing the mobilization of employees to engage in social
media activities, researchers did not consider corporate social
media activity. Moreover, individual characteristics (i.e., which
employees are more likely to engage in social media activity) were
also not taken into scholarly discussion.
Marketing researchers have found that online consumer re-
views can serve as a signaling tool whereby customers signal
product quality (F. Zhu & Zhang, 2010), and these reviews may
positively influence a brand (Li, Wu, & Mai, 2019). Similarly, em-
ployees post company-related content, as they are proud of their
companies’ achievement or they are proud of themselves and use
social media for self-signaling (Ritzenho€fer et al., 2018). Such con-
tent can reach not only other employees but also customers, busi-
ness partners, and suppliers (Paniagua, Korzynski, & Mas-Tur, 2017)
and engender evaluative or behavioral reactions to brands by
various stakeholders, i.e., brand strength (Grohs, Raies, Koll, &
Mühlbacher, 2016). Thus, we formulated the following hypothesis:
H1a. Company-related posts by employees on social media have a
positive impact on corporate brand strength.
Many companies decide to engage on social media, as their
employees have already begun to use it, and they are involved in
the creation of various content thereon (Rokka et al., 2014). If a
company is engaged in social media activities, it is easier to coor-
dinate the information flow from various organizational stake-
holders to potential customers, job applicants, and business
partners (Piskorski, 2014). This coordination is not about control of
content uploaded by employees (Castello
, Etter, & Årup Nielsen,
2016) but rather about corporate social media activity based on
interaction with various stakeholders. Companies that are active on
social media may undertake several types of activities, such as
 P. Korzynski et al. / European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx 3

Table 1
Overview of selected prior research.

Domain Source Area of Focus Context Contribution Main Conclusions

Role of Muntinga Consumer's brand-related Exploration of COBRA motivational Development of online consumer Consumers conduct online brand-
employees/ et al. activities on social media; patterns through unstructured, behavior typology - COBRA. related activities through
customers (2011) COBRAs (consumption, open-ended online interviews (IM) consumption, contribution, and
in SM contribution, creation). with participants from the creation.
branding Netherlands.

Role of Ollier- Management of boundaries A framework to theorize how work The paper contributes to existing Content boundary management
employees/ Malaterre, between professional and < > non-work boundary theory and research on boundary behaviors undertaken by
customers Rothbard, personal identities of preferences and self-evaluation work and self-evaluation motives employees on social media activity
in SM and Berg employees on social media. motives drive online boundary that guide identity negotiation by (such as posting information about
branding (2013) management behaviors, and the extending both to the virtual world achievements, avoiding posting
consequences of these behaviors in of cyberspace. about politics and other
professional relationships. controversial topics) are more
likely to increase respect and
liking.

Role of Schivinski Consumers' engagement with Quantitative and qualitative The authors extend the COBRA Consumer's engagement with
employees/ et al. brand-related social media research on consumers' online framework by introducing the social media brand-related content
customers (2016) content; social media branding; brand-related activities (COBRAs), consumer's engagement with should be considered a learning
in SM COBRAs. to build a measurement instrument social media brand-related content process wherein consumption
branding that differentiates across various scale and discussing its systematicleads to contribution, which in
levels of media engagement. development and validation. turn leads to creation. Each
element of this process is
significantly correlated with brand
equity.
Role of Carpentier Recruitment through social Analysis of online questionnaire Investigate whether and how Employees in health care
employees/ et al. media; employer branding; sent to nursing students and health care employees' exposure undertake social media activities
customers (2017) organizational image. employed nurses with focus on to a hospital's profile on social and support employer branding
in SM Belgian hospital that had LinkedIn media affects their perceptions of activities.
branding and Facebook pages. the hospital's brand and
attractiveness as an employer.

Role of Sias and Links between employee A panel of participants representing Understanding of how The study identified a direct
employees/ Duncan interaction with their a U.S. population recruited by communication in the context of a positive association between
customers (2018) organization's official Facebook Qualtrics completed an online social network system is linked to employee interaction with their
in SM page, social capital, and survey via the Qualtrics site. employee's connection to and company's Facebook page and
branding employee identification with identification with the broader their identification with the
the organization. organization. organizationdthe more
employees interacted with their
organization's official Facebook
page the more intertwined their
individual identity was with the
organization's identity.

Mobilization of Ahearne, Impact of LEB on customer Written salespeople When customers are motivated to
Addresses the question whether to
employees/ Mathieu, service satisfaction and sales (pharmaceutical field) surveys, participate, they are more willing
apply empowerment uniformly or
customers and Rapp performance; empowerment of written customer surveys and to actively use social media and to
differentially across employees by
for (2005) salesforce; job performance; archival job-performance data from make an effort to get co-creation of
examining the role of employee
company- effects of self-efficacy. company records. values through interactive
readiness and its impact on the
related SM influence of LEB. participation of the customers in
activities service production and delivery
process on social media.
Mobilization of Miles and Management of employee voice Framework for understanding the Describing an effective Employees, who can contribute to
employees/ Mangold through social media; purposes of employee voice, the role management of employee voice in management decision making and
customers (2014) employee engagement; of organizational context and its the social media era. are recognized as partners in
for employee brand. influence on an employee's choice corporate discussions, facilitate
company- of voice, and the tools available for their employers on social media
related SM the expression of employee voice. platforms.
activities

Mobilization of Cervellon Employees as brand Two surveys of employees of a A set of recommendations to help Employees who are brand
employees/ and Lirio ambassadors; employee multinational company selling fast- organizations foster employee ambassadors share social media
customers (2016) branding. moving consumer goods. branding behaviors was skills with more senior employees.
for developed.
company-
related SM
activities

Mobilization of Chan, Opportunities presented to Analyses of two case studies Presenting five steps that can be A prominent social media presence
employees/ Trueger, modern scholars by social highlighting success stories around undertaken to develop online has the potential to influence
customers Roland, media. how scientists and scholars might scholarly presence. public opinion and could drive
for and Thoma use social media to enhance their funding for research and education
company- (2018) careers. or support policies consistent with
related SM scientific evidence
activities

(continued on next page)

Please cite this article as: Korzynski, P et al., Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts
on social media can help firms to attract new talent, European Management Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
4 P. Korzynski et al. / European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx

Table 1 (continued )

Domain Source Area of Focus Context Contribution Main Conclusions

Mobilization of Pitt et al. Employee brand engagement; Analysis of 6300 job reviews Identification of two key drivers of Employees working in companies
employees/ (2018) B2B brand management; authored by employees of B2B firms employee brand engagement that are highly ranked on the
customers human resource management; to explore the differences in how using the content analysis tool evaluation site Glassdoor are more
for social media engagement. employees engage with both high- DICTIONednamely, optimism and willing to express positive
company- ranked and -rated brands versus commonality. opinions about their companies
related SM low-ranked and -rated brands. thereon.
activities
Mobilization of Grewal, Influence of the products Five experiments that test the Findings have important Posting products in social media
employees/ Stephen, posting in social media by conceptual framework, which implications for how firms can that are framed as being identity-
customers and consumers on purchase included undergraduates from the conduct social media marketing to relevant can reduce a consumer's
for Coleman intentions. University of Pittsburgh, members minimize negative purchase subsequent purchase intentions
company- (2019) of Amazon Mechanical Turk who outcomes. for the same and similar products,
related SM declared themselves to be active as this action allows a consumer to
activities Pinterest users. virtually signal their identity,
fulfilling identity signaling needs.

social networking, professional networking, or microblogging to H2a. Corporate brand strength has a positive impact on company-
support their brands. For example, Wagner et al. (2017) examined related posts by employees on social media.
the role of social networking in branding and found that some
Previous research has found that owing to the increasing role of
brands post appeals that can initiate positive user interactions.
social media in branding, companies with strong brands can no
Analyzing microblogging, Coyle, Smith, and Platt (2012) found a
longer rely on huge marketing budgets only; rather, they need to
positive relationship between corporate problem-solving postings
find the way to signal their strength to their stakeholders on social
and attitudes toward brands. Professional networking has been
media (Trefzger, Baccarella, Scheiner, & Voigt, 2016). If companies
mainly studied in the context of business-to-business branding. In
are engaged in corporate social media activity, they may create
one such study, Ma €la
€ska
€ and Nadeem (2012) discovered that or-
parasocial relationships with their employees, i.e., an individual's
ganizations stimulate discussion by posting some corporate news
feeling or belief that s/he interacts directly with personae (orga-
and announcements, thereby cultivating a brand. Therefore, we can
nizations, celebrities e see Horton & Richard Wohl, 1956). To
formulate the following hypothesis:
facilitate this sense, companies undertake a process of self-
H1b. The relationship between company-related posts by em- disclosure on social media. Thus, companies may encourage em-
ployees on social media and corporate brand strength is mediated ployees to post on company-related content, thereby strengthening
by corporate social media activity. the parasocial relationship through social media use (Hatch &
Schultz, 2010; Yuan, Kim, & Kim, 2016). Therefore, we can formu-
Equally, there is theoretical evidence to assume that the rela-
late the following hypothesis. Note that even though H2b looks
tionship between company-related posts by employees on social
similar in structure to H1b, the flow of causality is reversed:
media, corporate social media activity, and corporate brand
strength flows in the opposite direction. We therefore now state a H2b. The relationship between corporate brand strength and
competing hypothesis to H1 that outlines these reciprocal re- company-related posts by employees on social media is mediated
lationships following the work of Armstrong, Brodie, and Parsons by corporate social media activity.
(2001).
An individual's network size can be expected to influence the
According to the brand signaling theory, stronger brands send
signals that those employees transmit on social media. Network
more credible signals than do weaker ones (Erdem & Swait, 1998).
size assures visibility and higher reciprocity, both of which
Accordingly, with increased corporate brand strength, users' trust
encourage individuals to post on social media. Higher levels of
in a company's brand and in its products and services is higher
visibility might be associated with individuals who have a larger
(Erdem, Swait, & Valenzuela, 2006; Rutter, Chalvatzis, Roper, &
number of connections on social media. Ellison and Vitak (2014)
Lettice, 2018). In turn, when brand trust is high, corporate mes-
analyzed how social media affordances relate to social capital
sages on social media can be more persuasive (Kilambi, Laroche, &
processes (i.e., exchanges of potential and actual resources through
Richard, 2013); this being the case, users are more willing to repost
interactions in the network). They showed that owing to visibility,
corporate content (E. Kim, Sung, & Kang, 2014). Although prior
social media enables quick interactions with an individual's
research focuses on customers, similar logic can be applied to
extended network (i.e., friends of friends). Network size is also
employees who engage with social media and interact with other
related to more frequent reciprocal behavior. Morris, Teevan, and
employees and customers. Vernuccio (2014) showed that organi-
Panovich (2010) studied informational requests on social media
zations that aim to have a positive influence on their brands need to
and found that users comment on a given post because of their
apply conversational forms of communication on social media to
relationships with the requester and due to an overall sense of
involve various stakeholders in the dialogue. Chang and Chin
reciprocity. Thus, users with a high number of connections are
(2018) indicated that an organization's signaling on websites has
more exposed to various requests and can be expected to be more
a positive effect on job candidates. Other research has found that
active in content creation. Hogan (2010) suggested that connec-
employees are more willing to associate themselves with their or-
tions on social media should not be considered friends but rather
ganization when they consider this organization to be reputable
sources of content, which is the reason that network size might
(Bartels et al., 2007). Hence, employees and other stakeholders who
determine the level of visibility and reciprocity and thus increase
are willing to show their link to an organization express their
users' motivation to post content.
support through liking and commenting (de Vries, Gensler, &
Leeflang, 2012). Based on the above discussion, the following hy- H3a. : Employee network on social media has a positive impact on
pothesis is established: company-related posts by employees on social media.

Please cite this article as: Korzynski, P et al., Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts
on social media can help firms to attract new talent, European Management Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
 P. Korzynski et al. / European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Network size e whether large or small e does not guarantee
that employees will post company-related content. Based on pre-
vious research related to the process of engagement with company-
related activities as well as research on employee advocacy, it can
be argued that employees will post on corporate issues if they are
engaged with corporate social media content. Marketing scholars
have analyzed how customers engage with brands on social media.
Shao (2009) studied consumer engagement and identified
consuming, participating, and producing brand-related content as
key engagement behaviors. Muntinga, Moorman, and Smit (2011)
developed the COBRA framework for consumer engagement with
online brand-related activities, and outlined its three dimensions:
consumption, contribution, and creation. According to Schivinski,
Christodoulides, and Dabrowski (2016), who extended the COBRA
framework by introducing consumer engagement with social me-
dia brand-related content scale, the evolution of consumer
engagement should be considered a learning process. Therein,
consumption leads to contribution, which in turn leads to creation.
As many employees are frequent users of social media, as well as
customers, similar interdependencies will also be relevant to them.
Using the label “employee advocacy,” CSR scholars have
analyzed the means of publicly expressing support for an employer
(Dawkins & Lewis, 2003). Men (2014) argued that organizations
can facilitate employee advocacy by respecting employees and
cultivating and empowering organizational culture. If employee
advocacy is facilitated, employees are more willing to express
positive opinions about their employers. Although the majority of
studies on employee advocacy were conducted offline, these terms
are similar to engagement with company-related online content.
Regarding online environments, Miles and Mangold (2014) found
that employees are willing to support their employers on social
media if they can contribute to management decision-making and
are recognized as partners in corporate discussions.
H3b. The relationship between employee network on social me-
dia and company-related posts by employees on social media is
mediated by employee engagement with company-related social
media content.
3. Research methodology
Fig. 1 illustrates the theoretical relationships that we aim to
examine in our empirical analysis. Our analysis is based on a survey
Fig. 1. Research model.
Please cite this article as: Korzynski, P et al., Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts
on social media can help firms to attract new talent, European Management Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
5
of scholars publishing in the Financial Times Top 50 Journals. In
total, our study includes participants from 19 countries, with the
majority from the United States (48%). Sampling scholars is
meaningful, as they are, in a sense, micro-entrepreneurs (Kuhn &
Maleki, 2017) trying to enhance their own brand image. There-
fore, in addition to official social media communication from their
respective universities, scholars themselves may engage in social
media activities. Moreover, scholars might be treated as front-line
employees who directly interact with customers, i.e., students.
According to previous studies, these employees play a crucial role
in management and marketing (Bowen, 2016).
3.1. Data collection
We designed an online questionnaire in Qualtrics and invited
participation through e-mail. Personal e-mail accounts were
collected from university websites. In cases where contact infor-
mation was not available on the university website, we used indi-
vidual web pages or social media profiles to obtain personal e-mail
accounts. The target individuals were scholars publishing in the
Financial Times Top 50 Journals. We selected all first authors of
papers published between 2013 and 2015. In December 2016, a
total of 1142 e-mails were sent. We sent two reminders before
January 2017, resulting in a final response rate of 12% (139 re-
sponses). Some questionnaires were filled out only partially. Thus,
some records were removed, leading to a final sample of 96
questionnaires.
3.2. Measures
We designed a questionnaire with 14 questions. Measures
consisted of multi-item scales adopted from previous research.
Employee engagement with company-related social media content
was measured using a scale adapted from Schivinski et al. (2016). To
measure corporate brand strength, we used six items from Dawar
and Pillutla (2000). To obtain corporate social media activity,
similarly to Aichner and Jacob (2015), we asked participants
whether their institutions are highly active on Twitter, LinkedIn,
Facebook, and ResearchGate. Answers were coded in a 5-point
Likert scale from 1 ¼ “strongly disagree” to 5 ¼ “strongly agree.”
We constructed a formative variable consisting of these four items.
To measure the frequency of company-related posts by employees
on social media, which participants uploaded to Twitter, LinkedIn,
6 P. Korzynski et al. / European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
Facebook, and ResearchGate, we developed a 6-point Likert scale
ranging from 1 ¼ “always” to 6 ¼ “never,” based on which we con-
structed a formative variable. To calculate employee network on
social media, we asked study participants how many connections
or followers they have on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and
ResearchGate, leading to a formative variable consisting of four
items. In addition, we included two control variables into our
model: experience (measured as number of years) and gender (69%
male). Table 2 shows variables used in our model as well as
descriptive statistics.
3.3. Data analysis
We used variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM),
i.e., partial least-squares SEM, to analyze data in this study due to
the inclusion of formatively measured constructs and due to our
small sample size (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2004; Hair Jr., Hult, Ringle,
and Sarstedt, 2016; Reinartz, Haenlein, & Henseler, 2009; Richter,
Cepeda, Rolda
n, & Ringle, 2016). Moreover, PLS-SEM is recom-
mended when theoretical information is rather low (Chin,
Marcolin, & Newsted, 2003), as the validity and reliability of con-
structs need to be evaluated as well as a new model tested (Wasko
& Faraj, 2005). We used the resampling method for significance
testing and bootstrapping of 500 resamples and 100 cases per
sample and checked for common method bias using the latent
factor method (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003).
4. Results
4.1. Measurement model
Composite reliability exceeds 0.70, indicating internal consis-
tency (Wasko & Faraj, 2005), and Cronbach alpha is above 0.70,
confirming the reliability of our reflective measures. To assess
discriminant validity, we analyzed the heterotrait-monotrait ratio
of correlations (HTMT). As the HTMT value was below 0.90,
discriminant validity is established (Henseler, Ringle, & Sarstedt,
2015). The average variance extracted (AVE) serves as a criterion
to evaluate convergent validity (Naylor, Lamberton, & West, 2012).
In our study, it exceeds 0.50, which confirms convergent reliability.
All values are summarized in Table 3.
4.2. Structural model
To test the competing hypotheses H1 and H2, we estimated two
separate models in which the relationship between company-
related posts by employees on social media, corporate social me-
dia activity, and corporate brand strength flows in opposite di-
rections. We compared those models based on their standardized
root mean square residual (SRMR; Hu & Bentler, 1998; Henseler
et al., 2014). While the model including the relationship as out-
lined in H1 had an SRMR value of 0.090, the one with the re-
lationships outlined in H2 had an SRMR value of 0.077. As lower
SRMR values indicate better fit, we see this as an indication that the
Table 2
Descriptive statistics.
Company-related posts by employees on social media
Corporate brand strength
Employee network
Corporate social media activity
Employee engagement with company-related SM content
Experience
Please cite this article as: Korzynski, P et al., Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts
on social media can help firms to attract new talent, European Management Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
directionality expressed in H2 fits our data better. We therefore
reject H1 and accept H2. The detailed results for this model can be
found in Table 4.
Within this final model, we assessed validity by the significance
of structural paths and R-squared value (Chwelos, Benbasat, &
Dexter, 2001). The results show an R-squared value for company-
related posts by employees on social media of 71%. This implies
that more than two thirds of the variance in company-related posts
by employees on social media is accounted for by employee net-
works on social media, employee engagement with company-
related social media content, and corporate brand strength
(mediated through corporate social media activity). In addition, the
R-squared value for corporate social media activity is 24% and the
one for employee engagement with company-related social media
content is 17%.
We now look into possible mediation effects (H2b and H3b)
following the process outlined by Zhao, Lynch, and Chen (2010).
Regarding the relationship between corporate brand strength and
company-related posts by employees on social media, we observe
an indirect effect of 0.150 (0.304  0.493), which is significant (p-
value of 0.013). As the main effect between both variables is not
significant (p-value of 0.350), we have a case of indirect mediation.
With regard to the relationship between employee network on
social media and company-related posts by employees on social
media, we observe an indirect effect of 0.212 (0.410  0.517), which
is significant (p-value of 0.003). Here the main effect between both
variables is significant (p-value less than 0.0005), providing an
indication for complementary mediation. In summary, our empir-
ical supports both mediation effects, which means H2b and H3b
cannot be rejected.
An analysis of the path coefficients for the direct effect shows
that corporate brand strength has no significant impact on
company-related posts by employees on social media. Hence, H2a
is not supported. However, corporate brand strength influences
corporate social media activity (0.493), which, in turn, impacts
company-related posts by employees on social media (0.304).
Overall, our results show that corporate brand strength is not suf-
ficient to mobilize employees to upload company-related posts on
social media. Employee network has both a direct effect on
company-related posts by employees on social media (0.428) and
an indirect one by influencing employee engagement with
company-related social media content (0.410), which, in turn, in-
fluences company-related posts by employees on social media
(0.517). H3a is therefore supported.
5. Implications and discussion
Our study assesses how employees may support their com-
panies’ activities on social media, with a particular interest in
investigating the role of corporate brand strength, employee
engagement with company-related social media content, and
employee networks, in employee social media activity concerning
corporate issues.
Our results have several theoretical implications: First, our
Mean SD Min Max
2.34 0.94 1 5.75
4.06 0.75 1 5.00
326.35 495.31 0 2300.00
3.04 0.79 1 4.50
1.96 1.11 1 6.00
13.59 9.63 1 45.00
 P. Korzynski et al. / European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx 7

Table 3
Measurement model.

Reflective Constructs Composite reliability AVE Cronbach's alpha

Corporate brand strength 0.949 0.758 0.936

Employee engagement with company-related social media content 0.924 0.753 0.892

Reflective Constructs and Control Variables Corporate brand strength Experience Gender

Experience 0.244
Gender 0.079 0.151
Employee engagement with company-related social media content 0.086 0.095 0.052

Table 4
Path coefficients and p-values.

Parameter Estimate p-value

H2a: Corporate Brand Strength -> Company-related Posts by Employees on SM 0.063 0.350
H2b: Corporate SM Activity -> Company-related Posts by Employees on SM 0.304 0.004
H2b: Corporate Brand Strength -> Corporate SM activity 0.493 0.000
H3a: Employee Network -> Company-related Posts by Employees on SM 0.428 0.000
H3b: Employee Network -> Employee Engagement with Company-related SM content 0.410 0.001
H3b: Employee Engagement with Company-related SM content -> Company-related Posts by Employees on SM 0.517 0.000
Gender -> Company-related Posts by Employees on SM 0.106 0.160
Experience -> Company-related Posts by Employees on SM 0.044 0.373

study shows that not only the social media activity of customers but
also the employees should be the focus of attention for companies
in terms of corporate branding.
Second, our findings indicate that corporate brand strength is
not sufficient to mobilize employees to upload company-related
posts on social media. This contradicts previous studies that
showed that stronger brands are more trusted (Kilambi et al., 2013)
and users are more willing to repost the corporate content of such
brands (E. Kim et al., 2014). A possible explanation for this finding is
that strong brands are related to large companies where re-
sponsibility for additional company-related activities is spread
among many employees (Vanderslice, 1988). Weaker brands may
have stronger motivation to engage employees to use social media
due to lower marketing budgets (Ho-Dac, Carson, & Moore, 2013).
Third, our study shows that the brand strength could be signaled
through corporate social media activity, where it has a significant
indirect effect on company-related posts by employees on social
media. Employees who receive signals from organizations on social
media may be more inspired to post company-related content than
are employees whose companies are rather silent on social media.
This finding is consistent with the concept of parasocial relation-
ships, i.e., a link between company and employees on social media
platforms that motivates employees toward more intense social
media use.
Finally, our results confirm the existence of a significant rela-
tionship between company-related posts by employees on social
media and employee networks. This finding supports previous
studies stating that users with a larger network are more inclined
to post content, as they are exposed to various interactions and
reciprocal activities (Morris et al., 2010). The positive impact of
network size, however, is mediated by employee engagement with
company-related social media content, implying that users who
follow and read corporate content are more inclined to initiate
posts on corporate issues on social media.
Managerially speaking, our findings show that employees
should serve as a significant element of a firm's social media
strategy. Companies may influence employee-generated content to
a greater extent than that created by customers, as employees are
formally linked to their companies. That is why their posts
strengthen a positive message delivered by a company on social
media to various stakeholders, thus supporting brand strength. To
mobilize employees to post company-related content, companies
need to undertake activities on various platforms such as profes-
sional networking (e.g., LinkedIn), social networking (e.g., Face-
book), or microblogging (e.g., Twitter). Moreover, organizations
willing to facilitate employee content creation should focus on
employees with a high number of connections who are followers
and readers of corporate profiles. It is likely that such employees
will initiate posts about their company more frequently than other
users.
In addition to these direct theoretical and managerial implica-
tions, our study contributes to the signaling theory. Previous
studies explained how organizations send signals to job applicants
(Jones et al., 2014; Stern & James, 2016). We shift attention from an
organization not only to prospective employees but also to current
employees. Former research usually assumed an organization's
strength and position, while our findings do not confirm this
assumption. We build on the understanding of the process of signal
transmission from an organization or other actors to its stake-
holders by recognizing that organizational signaling sometimes
incorporates employees' messaging, which strengthens the signal
delivered by an organization.
In addition, we provide theoretical implications for marketing
studies. Previous studies have analyzed how customers engage
with brands on social media. Our study extends previous
consumer-related frameworks, such as the earlier mentioned CO-
BRA, to employees. We show that employees are more likely to post
company-related content on social media if they observe and read
company-related social media content (i.e., they are engaged in
company-related posts). The effect for employees also depends on
network size.
We also provide theoretical implications for human resources
management and employer branding (Mo €lk & Auer, 2018).
Expressing public support for an employer has previously been
analyzed through the lens of employee advocacy in CSR (Dawkins &
Lewis, 2003) and human resources management (Graham &
Tarbell, 2006). Previous studies on employee advocacy were con-
ducted in offline environments. Our research extends positive
impact of employee advocacy to online settings and links employee
advocacy with a broader construct than CSR or employer brand, i.e.,
brand strength. The most recent qualitative study on employee
brand management focuses on employee qualities and behaviors

Please cite this article as: Korzynski, P et al., Leveraging employees as spokespeople in your HR strategy: How company-related employee posts
on social media can help firms to attract new talent, European Management Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.08.003
8 P. Korzynski et al. / European Management Journal xxx (xxxx) xxx
and creates four categories for employees who undertake online
branding activities: community seekers, engagers, apathetics, and
“here for my friends” (Pitt, Botha, Ferreira, & Kietzmann, 2018). Our
study uses a quantitative approach and shows that not only online
activities e but also employees’ specific individual characteristics
such as network size or engagement with social media brand-
related content e can facilitate employee advocacy on social me-
dia. It means that human resource managers working on strategies
supporting employee advocacy need first to analyze employees in
terms of the above-mentioned individual characteristics and then
undertake actions toward selected employees.
6. Conclusion
Our study has some limitations. We conducted the study in
academia, as we can observe increasing digitalization in this sector
(Stathopoulou, Siamagka, & Christodoulides, 2019). However, the
use of social media in academia may differ from that in other sec-
tors. Moreover, we used self-reported measures to track social
media activity. Future studies could use other methods to obtain
data, for example, observe actual use of social media activity over a
limited period of time. Finally, there might be some overlap of
network connections across various social media. Thus, network
size's impact on company-related posts by employees on social
media might be slightly biased.
Social media changes how we build brands. Today, critical actors
of the brand management process are not only brand marketers
and consumers but also employees whose social media company-
related content creation is important in terms of corporate brand-
ing. To facilitate company-related posts by employees on social
media, companies may increase their corporate social media ac-
tivity. Furthermore, companies should be aware of the fact that
they can count on these employees who have larger social media
networks as well as those who are engaged with company-related
content.
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