Scrutinizing stakeholder thinking. Orthodoxy or Heterodoxy (original) (raw)
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Along with corporate identity, stakeholders are recognized as significant to both management and organizations. A glance at existing scholarship suggests that stakeholders are scrutinized from within multiple perspectives. For instance, in corporate marketing (Balmer 2011) and corporate communication (Podnar 2014), the traditional viewpoint is that organizations and their managers need to place stakeholders in the forefront of their thinking. And in corporate branding (Hatch and Schultz 2010), critical and constructionist perspectives suggest consumers and other stakeholders to be co- creators in the development of identities and brands. However, the examination of the relationships between corporate identity and stakeholders remains underdeveloped. In this introduction, we examine the corporate identity and stakeholder ‘interface’. Mindful of, and building on, previous discussions in this journal on related issues (see: Alvesson 1998; Balmer and Wilson 1998; Czarniawska and Wolff 1998; Marziliano 1998; Motion and Leitch 2002: Stewart 2002; Lawer and Knox 2008), we argue that corporate identity, and the ways it is conceptualized, is of critical importance in comprehending stakeholders. Marshaling insights from the corporate marketing and corporate communication fields, this article scrutinizes two prominent - albeit highly contrasting - perspectives relating to the corporate identity and stakeholder interface. The first takes an endogenous and institutional approach: this represents the orthodox and dominant perspective that focuses on an organization’s inherent corporate identity traits, ethos, and capabilities. The second adopts an exogenous and relational approach: this exemplifies a critical and constructionist perspective where corporate identities are constituted by the interactions with and among stakeholders. By examining these two perspectives, this article seeks to advance our understanding of the territory and the ays
Corporate Responsibility and Identity: from a Stakeholder to an Awareness Approach
Firms are encouraged to manage their corporate responsibility and identity in accordance with the popular stakeholder theory. Managers are, however, confronted with the complexity of the praxis and related ethical dilemmas, as the expectations of their external stakeholders may be myriad, ambiguous and self-contradictory, or even non-existent in the global and dynamic business contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to (a) review and critically discuss the stakeholder approach in striving for a responsible identity and (b) introduce an alternative approach that can address its inadequacies and shortcomings. The study outlines an alternative theorem, the awareness approach to responsible identity. In the conclusions, the article proposes how firms can adopt a responsible identity that leads to a desired image and reputation, and maps out further research opportunities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Co-creating stakeholder and brand identities: Introduction to the special section
Journal of Business Research, 2017
This article introduces the special section on reciprocal co-creation of stakeholder and brand identities. Branding research and practice traditionally focus on the managerial creation and implementation of brand identity. Based on recent paradigmatic shifts from managerial to co-creative branding and from consumer to multi-stakeholder approaches in marketing, this special section develops a dynamic, process-oriented perspective on brand identity. Brand identity continuously emerges as a dynamic outcome of social processes of stakeholder interaction. Reciprocally, brand identity plays a potentially important role in ongoing interactive identity development processes of stakeholders. The special section contributes to deepening the understanding of this reciprocal co-creation of stakeholder and brand identities, through a series of conceptual and empirical articles. The Introduction reviews four articles as well as related commentaries and discusses their contributions towards establishing a new dynamic paradigm of co-created and reciprocal brand and stakeholder identities.
Seven dimensions of corporate identity: A categorisation from the practitioners' perspectives
European Journal of Marketing, 2006
Purpose -This paper investigates what organisations perceive as the essential components of corporate identity concept and their contents. It proposes an operational definition of corporate identity on the basis of the practitioners' views. Design/methodology/approach -The information was gathered through 32 in-depth interviews with managers from different organisations (mainly multinational companies) and an analysis of corporate literature and web sites. The initial analysis is based on a multidisciplinary categorisation developed by the first author, which facilitated the systematic analysis of a wide range of components (e.g. corporate communication, corporate design, corporate culture etc.) associated with corporate identity. Findings -The study shows that there is a considerable divergence in opinions concerning the fundamental components of corporate identity among practitioners. Most interviewees heavily associated identity with the areas of corporate design, communication, behaviour and strategy whereas there was no unanimous agreement as to whether or not corporate culture was a product or determinant of corporate identity. Research limitations/implications -Developing sub-items and their measures for each dimension presented in the proposed definition and examining the possible relationships between them might be the further step. Also additional empirical research which considers consequences of corporate identity management in relation to company performance indicators could enhance overall understanding of the concept. Practical implications -Senior company management can use the categorisation discussed in this paper as a starting point for development of corporate identity management strategies. Originality/value -Recategorisation of Melewar's corporate identity dimensions, which help define corporate identity concept in measurable terms.
This paper addresses the challenge to differentiate public relations scholarship from other related communication disciplines (i.e., marketing, advertising, communication studies) by examining the concept of the stakeholder-organization relationship and public relations' unique contributions therein. This paper proposes that public relations scholars move beyond discussing relationship attitudes and examine the central concept of a relationship, which comprises mutual orientation around a common interest point and the multiplicity of stakes and stakeholders. Research imperatives in the integration of relationship stakes and the value of social media in relationship analysis stand to further differentiate public relations from marketing.
Purpose – This article has an explicit purpose of making a theoretical contribution to the issue of senior management cognitions of the corporate identity/corporate strategy interface. The aim of this research is to particularise the nature and saliency of this interface to corporate marketing scholars and practitioners alike. Design/methodology/approach – This article adopts a grounded theory methodology and is informed by three in depth case studies undertaken among three building societies (mutuals) operating within the British Financial Services Industry. Findings – The results confirm the saliency of the corporate identity/corporate strategy dyad vis‐a‐vis the comprehension and management of contemporary organisation. Theoretically, the study finds that senior management's cognitions of the corporate identity/strategy interface are interdependent, symbiotic and dynamic in nature: the nature of the dyad differed among the three institutions examined. In terms of the nascent domain of corporate marketing, this study confirms the extant literature, which suggests that, in addition to comprehending the psychology of customers and other stakeholders, the psychology of senior managers is also highly germane. Practical implications – Within corporate marketing contexts, organisations should be mindful of the critical importance of the corporate identity/strategy interface; a concern for the above should be an important part of their corporate marketing as well as regulatory and strategic deliberations. However, senior managers should note the inherent dangers to identity maintenance where material alignment between corporate identity and strategy is ignored and where cognitive alignment is adopted as a surrogate: the former entails a synchronisation of facts whereas the latter entails the calibration of beliefs vis‐à‐vis corporate identity and strategy. Originality/value – This is a major theory‐building study, which examines managerial cognitions of the corporate identity/strategy interface and a major study of its type within the British Building Society sector. Keywords: Building societies, Corporate identity, Corporate marketing, Corporate strategy, The corporate identity/strategy interface, Financial services, Grounded theory, Marketing
IDENTITY BASED VIEWS OF THE CORPORATION (2008)
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to consider advances in corporate identity scholarship on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the first special edition of corporate identity to appear in the European Journal of Marketing in 1997.Design methodology approach - The paper takes the form of a literature review.Findings - The notion of, what can be termed, "identity-based views of the corporation" is introduced. Each of the ten identity based perspectives that inform the above are underpinned by a critically important question which is believed to be of considerable saliency to marketing scholars and policy advisors alike. As a precursor to an exposition of these ten perspectives, the paper discusses five principal schools of thought relating to identity and identification ((the quindrivium) which can be characterised as: corporate identity (the identity of the organisation); communicated corporate identification (identification from the organisation); stakeholder corporate identification (an individual, or stakeholder group's, identification with the organisation); stakeholder cultural identification (an individual, or stakeholder group's, identification to a corporate culture); and envisioned identities and identifications (this is a broad category and relates to how an organisation, or group, envisions how another corporation or group characterises their identity or mode of identification.))Practical implications - Each of the ten identity-based views of the corporation outlined here is underpinned by a question of critical importance which aims to be of assistance to senior executives in comprehending and managing identity-related concerns of the corporation.Originality value - The introduction of notions relating to identity based views of the corporation corporation brands represents, perhaps, a natural denouement for the "schools of thought" approach which has long-characterised the British School of scholarship vis-à-vis corporate identity scholarship since the early 1990s
Conceptualizing corporate identity in a dynamic environment
Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal
Purpose This study aims to revisits the meaning of corporate identity (CI) in practice to identify its key dimensions and the interrelationships between them and to provide insights on how to operationalize the construct. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a comprehensive literature review and qualitative research consisting of 22 semi-structured interviews with senior managers from 11 UK-leading companies, and three in-depth interviews with corporate brand consultants who worked closely with these firms in cognate areas. Findings The study identifies the following six key dimensions of CI in the UK industry: communication, visual identity, behavior, organizational culture, stakeholder management and founder value-based leadership. Research limitations/implications The focus on UK leading companies limits the generalizability of the results. Further studies should be conducted in other sectors and country settings to examine the relationships identified in the curren...