Identity based views of the corporation

Abstract

PurposeThe 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/approachThe paper takes the form of a literature review.FindingsThe 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 implicationsEach 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/valueThe 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.