Brand equity is an important firm resource that signals the strength of a business in a marketplace of imperfect information. As a result, this concept has been well theorized in marketing theory and practice as a tool for influencing customer behavior. Despite high relevance, how brand equity can affect relationships in supply chain management has been less researched. Therefore, based on the core tenets of the resource-based view and the relational view, this study aims to empirically investigate how brand equity can affect firm operational and risk management performance through supply chain integration of both customers and suppliers.
Primary survey data were collected from 223 manufacturing firms in China and analyzed through structural equation modeling.
Results suggest that brand equity positively relates to both operational and risk management performance, where supplier and customer integration play partial mediating roles.
Based on the resource-based view and the relational view, the study integrates and advances the business-to-business brand equity literature and supply chain management literature by providing empirical evidence on how brand equity strengthens both customer and supplier integration and firm performance. Brand equity as a valuable organizational resource supports performance in stable and turbulent business environments. Furthermore, it motivates both upstream and downstream supply chain integration due to its ability to convey messages related to the focal firm’s strength, quality and trustworthiness.
