This article advances the theoretical and instrumental understanding of corporate heritage identities. This exploratory, empirical study focuses on both the nature and the relevance of corporate ...heritage identity as employed by managers for corporate identity management purposes. The research is undertaken within Britain's oldest brewery – one of the oldest corporate entities in Great Britain with a provenance spanning many centuries – and utilizes a qualitative and theory building case study. The research reveals two classes of management responsibilities vis-à-vis corporate heritage identity management, namely corporate heritage management activities and corporate heritage implementation strategies, which follow a particular corporate heritage identity implementation pattern identified. A normative framework synthesizes and marshals the findings. The empirical study provides insight into corporate heritage identity management and is potentially useful to both scholars and practitioners. This study advances the nascent area of corporate heritage identity management by providing empirical and theoretical insight into the salience and strategic relevance of corporate heritage identity as a resource for corporate marketing. The article provides a normative framework of actionable categories of activities related to the management and implementation of substantive corporate heritage identity dimensions.
Ethical corporate marketing—as an organisational-wide philosophy—transcends the domains of corporate social responsibility, business ethics, stakeholder theory and corporate marketing. This being ...said, ethical corporate marketing represents a logical development visa-vis the nascent domain of corporate marketing has an explicit ethical/CSR dimension and extends stakeholder theory by taking account of an institution's past, present and (prospective) future stakeholders. In our article, we discuss, scrutinise and elaborate the notion of ethical corporate marketing. We argue that an ethical corporate marketing positioning is a prerequisite for corporations which claim to have an authentic ethical corporate identity.Our article expands and integrates extant scholarship vis-avis ethical corporate identities, the sustainable entrepreneur and corporate marketing. In delineating the breadth, significance, and challenges of ethical corporate marketing we make reference to the BP Deepwater Horizon (Gulf of Mexico) catastrophe of 2010.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the general understanding of the corporate heritage domain. The paper seeks to specify the requisites of corporate heritage and to introduce and ...explicate the corporate heritage marketing and total corporate heritage communications notions.
Design/methodology/approach
As befits an opening article of the first special edition specifically devoted to corporate heritage, this article is largely conceptual in character and draws on the extant literature on corporate heritage brands and identities. In illuminating key points, it also makes reference to extant corporate heritage entities/brands.
Findings
A provisional theory of corporate heritage sustainability is articulated, as is the enumeration of key corporate heritage traits. The notions of corporate heritage marketing and total corporate heritage communications are introduced and articulated. Key corporate heritage traits requisites encompass omni‐temporality; institution trait constancy; external/internal tri‐generational hereditary; augmented role identities; ceaseless multigenerational stakeholder utility and unremitting management tenacity. Corporate heritage marketing consists of eight dimensions: corporate heritage character/communications/covenant/conceptualisations/culture/constituencies/custodianship/context. Total corporate heritage communicates consists of primary/secondary/tertiary and legacy communications.
Practical implications
The paper notes the need for assiduous management attention to be accorded to organisations with a bona‐fide corporate heritage. Managers are custodians – as are organisational members guardians – of a corporate heritage. Corporate heritage institutions because they are
sui generis
require distinct approaches
vis‐à‐vis
their preservation and management.
Social implications
Corporate heritage identities and corporate heritage brands confer not only corporate but also temporal, territorial, social, cultural and ancestral identities to multi‐generational groups of customers and other stakeholders. As such, they are of importance not only as corporate entities but also as perennial social identities as well. This is of importance to policy makers, managers and owners of corporate heritage identities and corporate heritage brands.
Originality/value
The unveiling of corporate heritage marketing and of total corporate heritage communications perspective and the articulation of key corporate heritage entity traits is original and is of value to corporate communications/corporate marketing scholars and practitioners alike.
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce a new integrated strategic framework entitled, “The corporate identity, total corporate communications, stakeholders’ attributed identities, identifications and ...behaviours continuum” and elucidates the central and strategic importance of corporate identity apropos corporate communications, corporate image, attributed stakeholder identifications and resultant behaviours. The strategic importance of corporate identity is noted. The continuum incorporates a variety of disciplinary/theoretical perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper/framework is informed by corporate marketing and strategic perspectives; legal theory of the firm; social identity branch theories; and stakeholder theory. The effects and management of corporate identity are seen as a continuum. The framework accommodates Tagiuri’s (1982) scholarship on corporate identity.
Findings
This paper formally introduces and explicates “The corporate identity, total corporate communications, stakeholders’ attributed identities, identifications and behaviours continuum”. Corporate identity management is an on-going strategic senior management/strategic requisite. Notably, the legal theory of company law – routinely overlooked – and its impact on corporate identity management is accepted, acknowledged and accommodated. The importance of stakeholders and stakeholder identification (a derivative of social identity theory) is underscored.
Practical implications
Via the explication of the continuum, managers can comprehend the nature and importance of corporate identity; appreciate that corporate identity adaptation/change is on-going; comprehend its interface/s with corporate communications, stakeholder attributed identities, identifications and the business environment; understand the need for on-going fidelity to an institution’s legally based core purposes and corporate identity traits (juridical identity); cognise the efficacy of constant stakeholder and environmental analysis. Corporate identity sustainability requires corporate identity to be advantageous, beneficial, critical, differentiating and effectual. Stakeholder prioritisation is not solely dependent on power, legitimacy and urgency but on legality, efficacy, ethicality and temporality.
Originality/value
The resultant framework/approach, therefore, aims to make a meaningful advance on the territory and, moreover, seeks to be of utility to scholars and practitioners of corporate marketing, strategy and company law. Arguably, therefore, the framework is more ambitious than extant framework on the domain. The resultant framework/approach, therefore, aims to make a meaningful advance on the territory and seeks to be of utility to scholars and practitioners of corporate identity, communications, images, identification, stakeholder theory, company law and, importantly, corporate strategy.
This study scrutinizes how places meaningfully burnish corporate brand attractiveness and identification. To date, extant research adopts a mono-lateral, rather than multi-lateral perspective. ...Marshalling the corporate brand identification theoretical perspective, the findings make a theoretical advance by explicating how a nascent corporate brand can be enhanced through its positive associations with places. The research setting for this study was a newly-established business school and the research focused on international postgraduate students who are a key business school constituency. In this study, the tripartite place associations which meaningfully enhanced customer corporate brand attractiveness and identification were found to be country, city, and corporate locale.
Purpose - This article scrutinises the nature and salience of corporate heritage identities via the lens of the British Monarchy. A corporate heritage identity framework is introduced. The heritage ...identity construct is positioned vis-à-vis other related constructs such as nostalgia, tradition, and custom.Design methodology approach - An embedded case study informed by desktop research and a literature review of the British Monarchy and by an empirical-collaborative study on the Swedish Monarchy. The paper is also informed by the literature on heritage and other historically-related constructs.Findings - The notion of relative invariance is introduced. The latter is important since it explains why heritage identities can remain the same and yet have changed, namely: The Relative Invariance Notion. Corporate heritage identities and brands are invested with special qualities in that they are a melding of identity continuity, identity change and are also invested with the identities of time (times past, present and future). Heritage identities are an accretion of various identities, which are variously linked to institutions, places, cultures, and to time frames. The notion of Institutional Role Identities is introduced. The study suggested that heritage identities have multiple institutional role identities. These identities can be utilised in various contexts and for a variety of purposes: this might account for their strength. One explanation of why heritage identities are powerful is because they meet customer and stakeholder needs by encapsulating and, importantly, by giving identity. Heritage identities, potentially, are an important dimension of a group's collective memory.Practical implications - A revised corporate heritage identity framework relating to the British Monarchy is introduced. The model can be adapted so as to appraise our comprehension of corporate heritage identities in more general institutional contexts. The importance of bi-lateral institutional and stakeholder trust to the framework and the need for (institution) heritage authenticity - or perceived authenticity - and stakeholder affinity are noted.Originality value - The paper focuses on heritage identities in institutional contexts and a distinction is made between corporate heritage identities and corporate heritage brands identities.
Purpose
The study aims to explore customer satisfaction towards the celebrated Tong Ren Tang (TRT) Chinese corporate heritage brand (established in 1669). This paper examines the multiple role ...identities of the corporate brand and, in particular, the enduring imperial identity (role identity) of the corporate brand. The study examines whether the corporate heritage brand’s imperial associations are still meaningful.
Design/methodology/approach
A indicative, survey-based case study methodology undertaken with Chinese customers informs this research.
Findings
TRT’s corporate heritage brand identity and, moreover, its imperial role identity were salient in terms of customer satisfaction. TRT’s augmented imperial role identity not only was highly salient but also, moreover, meaningfully enhanced the organisation’s corporate reputation in terms of customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implication
This study lends further support for the utility of the notion of corporate heritage/corporate heritage brands and in particular the saliency of the theoretical notion of augmented role identity within the corporate heritage marketing field.
Practical implication
Corporate heritage brand managers should be appraised of which corporate role identities are meaningful for customers. At a practical level, senior corporate marketing managers of corporate heritage organisations should accorded importance to the additional P of Provenance apropos the corporate marketing mix.
Social implication
At a time, when China is reappraising its relationship with its past – including its imperial past (of which much has been destroyed) – this paper’s focus on TRT’s unsurpassed augmented role identity is pertinent and propitious. Seemingly, this corporate heritage brand’s imperial association provides a living and tangible link with China’s long and momentous imperial provenance and erstwhile imperial polity. In short, the corporate heritage brand is part of China’s patrimony and enjoys a unique place in this regard.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first empirical studies examining a Chinese corporate heritage brand entity. The study marks new ground in examining customer satisfaction from the theoretical perspectives of corporate heritage brand and augmented role identity. It is believed that this is the first study to consider corporate heritage in the pharmaceutical sector and marks new ground in considering the saliency of China’s imperial legacy on an extant, highly successful and high profile-Chinese corporate heritage brand.
Purpose
This article introduces the special symposium entitled “Advances in corporate brand, corporate heritage, corporate identity and corporate marketing scholarship” and provide a synopsis of the ...five articles constituting this symposium. By means of context, this article celebrates the anniversaries of four marketing milestones apropos the formal introduction of the corporate brand concept (1995), the formal introduction of the corporate heritage notion (2006), the first special edition (in this journal) devoted to corporate identity (1997) and the formal introduction of the corporate marketing philosophical approach (1998). The latter – corporate marketing – can be viewed as a revolution in marketing thought by noting that mutually beneficial company–stakeholder relationship can be based on corporate identities and corporate brands are not restricted to products and/or services.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a retrospective, this paper explains the four marketing milestones detailed above and notes the revolutionary notion of corporate marketing. All of the aforementioned have meaningfully advanced marketing scholarship over the last 20 years.
Findings
This study provides 18 reflections of developments with the corporate brand and corporate identity fields. It also shows the seminal importance of European Journal of Marketing (EJM) special editions on the territory dating back to 1997.
Practical implication
This paper discusses how corporate identity, corporate branding, corporate heritage, corporate identity and corporate marketing have, increasingly, become mainstream marketing concerns.
Originality/value
In marking these milestones, this celebratory EJM symposium comprises cutting-edge scholarship on the aforementioned areas, penned by renowned and prominent scholars from Australia, England, Germany and the USA.
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