Employees’ propensity to endorse their firms on social media

This research investigates the effect of three firms’ initiatives aimed at managing employees behavior on their personal social media profiles (communication of policies on the use of social media, training programs and encouragement to join social media conversations regarding the firm) on the employees’ propensity to endorse the firm. Analyzing a sample of 225 employees that declare to use their personal accounts on social media to talk about their firms, results reveal that the encouragement is the only initiative that is positively associated to the employees’ propensity to endorse. Findings also show that the frequency of use of social media moderates the impact of training programs on the employees’ propensity to endorse their firm. From a managerial perspective, results suggest that firms could enhance employees’ confidence and willingness to use their personal social media profiles to endorse their firms by explicitly encouraging them and, when they are non-frequent users, even by improving their competencies through training activities.