Employee Engagement and Digital Leadership with Brand Advocacy Mediation on Marketing Performance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71154/htz56990Keywords:
Brand advocacy, Digital leadership, Employee engagement, Marketing performanceAbstract
This study examines the influence of employee engagement and digital leadership on marketing performance, with brand advocacy as a mediating mechanism, in the context of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). A quantitative approach using partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied to survey data collected from 230 MSME employees. Measurement model evaluation confirmed adequate reliability and validity before assessing the structural relationships through bootstrapping procedures. The results indicate that employee engagement and digital leadership both have significant positive effects on brand advocacy and marketing performance. Brand advocacy shows a strong direct impact on marketing performance and partially mediates the relationships between employee engagement, digital leadership, and marketing performance. These findings suggest that internal psychological conditions and leadership practices influence market outcomes through employees’ voluntary brand-supportive behavior. The study extends the employee-based brand equity perspective by clarifying the behavioral pathway that links internal organizational factors to external performance. From a managerial standpoint, the results emphasize the importance of fostering employee engagement and digitally oriented leadership to strengthen employees’ role as brand advocates. This research integrates engagement, digital leadership, and brand advocacy within a unified framework to explain marketing performance in MSMEs, offering a human-centered perspective on competitiveness in digitally mediated markets.
Downloads
References
Anggraeni, O., Puspasari, E., Triyono, B., Hasibuan, R. R., Perwita, D., & Mulasiwi, C. M. (2025). Inclusive Economic Education for Empowering Local Tourism MSMES Through Human Capital and Innovation in The Lake Toba Region. Modern Economic Science, 47(6), 77-99.
Albrecht, S. L., Breidahl, E., & Marty, A. (2021). Organizational resources, organizational engagement climate, and employee engagement. Human Resource Management Review, 31(2), 100713.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100713
Amin, M. A. N. (2024). Pengaruh Literasi Keuangan, dan Kepribadian Terhadap Perilaku Manajemen Keuangan. Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 10-22.
Anggraeni, O., Puspasari, E., Triyono, B., Hasibuan, R. R., Perwita, D., & Mulasiwi, C. M. (2025). Inclusive Economic Education for Empowering Local Tourism MSMES Through Human Capital and Innovation in The Lake Toba Region. Modern Economic Science, 47(6), 77-99.
Avolio, B. J., Sosik, J. J., Kahai, S. S., & Baker, B. (2020). E-leadership: Re-examining transformations in leadership source and transmission. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(1), 101356.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2019.101356
Bailey, C., Madden, A., Alfes, K., & Fletcher, L. (2017). The meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: A narrative synthesis. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(1), 31–53.
https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12077
Berg, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2018). Job crafting and meaningful work. Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work, 81–104.
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198789087.013.4
Breevaart, K., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Hetland, J. (2019). The influence of daily transformational leadership on employee work engagement. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 92(3), 516–544.
https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12252
Cortellazzo, L., Bruni, E., & Zampieri, R. (2019). The role of leadership in a digitalized world: A review. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 26(4), 1–14.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051818782984
Deci, E. L., Olafsen, A. H., & Ryan, R. M. (2017). Self-determination theory in work organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 119–142.
https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2129
Hadianto, H. R. (2024). Analysis of the Development of Cooperative Digitalization in an Effort to Increase Member Participation in the Class IIb Tasikmalaya Prison Cooperative. Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 33-39.
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2022). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7
Hasanah, Yulia Nur, Oki Anggraeni, S. Suwali, D. Kusnaman, R. R. Hasibuan, and B. Efendi. "Entrepreneurial marketing and marketing performance in gen z entrepreneurs: exploring the mediating pathways to entrepreneurial resilience." Journal of Ecohumanism 4, no. 1 (2025): 3583-3602.
Hasibuan, R. R., Suliyanto, S., & Novandari, W. (2025). Bridging Digital Marketing and Tourism Development: The Role of Social Media Marketing in Enhancing Business Performance. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 14(2), 351-360.
Hasibuan, R. R. H., Suliyanto, S., & Novandari, W. (2025). Penggunaan Sosial Media Pemasaran Dan Kemampuan Digital Terhadap Kinerja Pemasaran Melalui Persepsi Iklan Sebagai Variabel Mediating. In Prosiding Seminar Nasional Ekonomi Bisnis (Vol. 3, No. 01, pp. 317-341).
Hasibuan, R. R. (2024). Dampak personal branding dan influencer marketing terhadap keputusan pembelian konsumen generasi z. House of Management and Business (HOMBIS) Journal, 3(2), 57-62.
Huang, M.-H., Rust, R. T., & Maksimovic, V. (2021). The feeling economy: Managing in the next generation of artificial intelligence. Journal of Business Research, 124, 1–12.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.09.012
Kemp, E., Borders, A. L., Anaza, N. A., & Johnston, W. J. (2022). The heart in organizational branding: How employee brand commitment influences firm performance. Journal of Brand Management, 29(2), 138–154.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-021-00252-6
King, C., & Grace, D. (2020). Building and measuring employee-based brand equity. Journal of Brand Management, 27(2), 1–15.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-020-00207-7
Kraus, S., Palmer, C., Kailer, N., Kallinger, F. L., & Spitzer, J. (2022). Digital transformation in business and management research: An overview. Journal of Business Research, 123, 85–96.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.10.003
Leckie, C., Nyadzayo, M. W., & Johnson, L. W. (2021). Promoting brand engagement behaviors through employee brand equity. Journal of Brand Management, 28(4), 1–16.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-020-00213-9
Lips-Wiersma, M., Haar, J., & Wright, S. (2020). The effect of fairness, responsibility, and meaningful work on work engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 164(3), 473–488.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4089-8
Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (2019). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(7), 823–842.
https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2340
Morhart, F., Herzog, W., & Tomczak, T. (2020). Brand-specific leadership: Turning employees into brand champions. Journal of Service Research, 23(1), 1–17.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670519871198
Morgan, N. A., Whitler, K. A., Feng, H., & Chari, S. (2019). Research in marketing strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), 4–29.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0598-1
Nurjanah, S. (2024). The Effect Of Work Environment, Work Motivation, And Work Discipline On Employee Performance At CV. Surya Wannas Cilacap. Jurnal Bisnis dan Kewirausahaan, 1(1), 1-9.
Nurwisda, D., Hasibuan, R. R., & Amalia, D. (2025). PENGARUH KETERLIBATAN KARYAWAN DAN INOVASI PRODUK TERHADAP DAYA SAING PERUSAHAAN (STUDI KASUS PADA BUMDES DI JAWA TENGAH). House of Management and Business (HOMBIS) Journal, 4(1), 15-21.
Piehler, R., Hanisch, S., & Burmann, C. (2019). Internal branding and brand citizenship behavior: The mediating role of employee brand commitment. Journal of Service Research, 22(4), 1–15.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670519839134
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.
https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879
Rosso, B. D., Dekas, K. H., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2018). On the meaning of work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 38, 91–127.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2018.11.001
Saks, A. M., & Gruman, J. A. (2018). Socialization resources theory and newcomers’ work engagement. Human Resource Management Review, 28(2), 168–178.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.10.003
Schaufeli, W. B., De Witte, H., & Desart, S. (2019). Manual of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Educational and Psychological Measurement.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164419839389
Singh, R., & Gupta, S. (2020). Impact of employee engagement on organizational performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 69(4), 1–19.
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-11-2019-0566
Steger, M. F., Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2017). Measuring meaningful work. Journal of Career Assessment, 25(3), 322–337.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072715616965
Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., & Derks, D. (2018). Job crafting and work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 104, 52–65.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.12.002
Van Quaquebeke, N., & Felps, W. (2018). Respectful inquiry: A motivational account. Academy of Management Review, 43(1), 5–27.
https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0537
Van Wart, M., Roman, A., Wang, X., & Liu, C. (2019). Integrating ICT adoption issues into leadership theory. Public Administration Review, 79(4), 1–12.
https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13036
Wirtz, J., Patterson, P. G., Kunz, W. H., Gruber, T., Lu, V. N., Paluch, S., & Martins, A. (2021). Brave new world: Service robots in the frontline. Journal of Service Research, 24(1), 1–20.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Jurnal Bisnis dan Kewirausahaan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Ciptaan disebarluaskan di bawah 