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1 – 10 of over 118000The purpose of this paper is to examine the latest development of a crucial sub‐area within the field of corporate identity (CI): the interface between CI and strategy. Moreover…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the latest development of a crucial sub‐area within the field of corporate identity (CI): the interface between CI and strategy. Moreover, this paper presents the marketing implications of identity/strategy interface.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is based on both pertinent literature and a recent grounded theory case study on the interplay between identity and strategy,
Findings
The findings from literature review suggest that more theoretical and empirical studies are essential to advancing CI/strategy interface, whose progress in turn is critical to the field of corporate identity and corporate level marketing. The case study finds that: CI/strategy dissonance is a key construct to examine CI/strategy interface; and managers utilise a range of defence mechanism to make sense of CI/strategy dissonance.
Originality/value
Corporate identity research has paid generous attention to the potential mismatch between identity‐image, identity‐communication, identity‐culture, but limited attention has been directed to the potential breakdown of the CI/strategy link. The study suggests that companies should pay more attention to the potential negative effect of their market strategies, such as market choices and diversification, on identity and image. On the other hand, the dissonance between identity and strategy could be great opportunities for proactive reputation management and organizational change.
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Barry Brunsman, Stacey DeVore and Andrew Houston
Very few functions seem as well‐positioned as the corporate strategy function to create value. Even the name, corporate strategy, suggests access to critical information and…
Abstract
Purpose
Very few functions seem as well‐positioned as the corporate strategy function to create value. Even the name, corporate strategy, suggests access to critical information and decision‐makers, as well as distinctive contributions to the organization's most important decisions. Yet many corporate strategy functions find that their contributions are limited and they are unable to have significant, tangible impact. Understanding the opportunities to increase the value of the corporate strategy function allows managers and executives to make purposeful change to tune the function to the organization's needs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors interviewed managers and executives responsible for the corporate strategy function in 11 different companies across multiple industries. These interviews identified several approaches to providing the corporate strategy function, the keys to their success, and their limitations. A simple matrix was developed that allows the corporate strategy function to be characterized and identifies opportunities to increase the impact of the function.
Findings
The authors found that increasing the impact of the corporate strategy function involves increasing the complexity of the function's contribution (e.g., from simple analysis to solution design) or increasing the scope of that contribution (e.g., from process support to solution implementation). Increasing complexity or scope requires changes to the function's organization, processes and people competencies.
Originality/value
Increasing the impact of the corporate strategy function has clear implications – better decisions are made, important initiatives are more likely to succeed, and the strategy function is better able to meet the organization's unique needs.
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Johannes J.L. Scheffer, Bastiaan P. Singer and Marc C.C. Van Meerwijk
The purpose of this research paper is to provide corporate real estate executives with a measurement tool for pinpointing and enhancing the contribution of corporate real estate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research paper is to provide corporate real estate executives with a measurement tool for pinpointing and enhancing the contribution of corporate real estate to corporate strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
A measurement tool is designed by adopting a theoretical framework in which seven added values of real estate are aligned with nine corporate strategic driving forces. The practical applicability of this tool is validated by assessing the contribution of corporate real estate to corporate strategy at 14 Dutch‐based global corporations.
Findings
Many corporations still lack sufficient insight into the impact of corporate real estate decisions on corporate performance. Therefore, it is difficult for senior management and other stakeholders to grasp the actual contribution of corporate real estate.
Research limitations/implications
Future research may be conducted to investigate the exhaustiveness of the listed real estate issues. Moreover, the linkage between the added values and the strategic driving forces could be validated further in practice.
Practical implications
The measurement tool supports corporate real estate executives in aligning corporate real estate with corporate strategy. Thereby it contributes to the further recognition of the importance of real estate in a corporate setting.
Originality/value
Prior papers on the contribution of corporate real estate to corporate strategy have primarily been focused on either pinpointing various driving forces or linking specific property decisions to corporate strategy. This paper, however, unveils the linkage between fundamental drivers of corporate real estate and corporate strategy in a comprehensive management tool for portfolio analysis and strategy formulation.
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This study aims to analyze the relationships between knowledge management and co-evolvement to green product and process design and green manufacturing and logistics. Besides…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the relationships between knowledge management and co-evolvement to green product and process design and green manufacturing and logistics. Besides, this study also analyses the direct and indirect effects of corporate environmental strategy, knowledge management and co-evolvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The data used in this study were collected by a survey of Indian manufacturing firms and analyzed by a variance-based structural equation modeling technique to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results suggested that knowledge management and co-evolvement have significant positive relationships to green product and process design and green manufacturing and logistics. Likewise, corporate environmental strategy has positive effects on knowledge management and co-evolvement.
Practical implications
Manufacturing firms should invest and deploy corporate environmental strategies to develop knowledge management and co-evolvement capability that foster green product and process design and manufacturing and logistics.
Originality/value
This study investigates the role of knowledge management and co-evolvement to improve green product and process design and green manufacturing and logistics. The uniqueness of this study is that it investigates novel direct and indirect relationships between corporate environmental strategy and knowledge management and co-evolvement.
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Pantea Foroudi, Mohammad Mahdi Foroudi, Maria Palazzo and Bang Nguyen
The airline aviation industry is both capital-intensive and competitive. Hence, the evolution of the sector needs original marketing strategies. To study the relationships between…
Abstract
Purpose
The airline aviation industry is both capital-intensive and competitive. Hence, the evolution of the sector needs original marketing strategies. To study the relationships between corporate branding and corporate image, taking into account two views, namely, corporate strategy and corporate expression in airline identity, this paper aims to analyze the main indicators of the corporate branding that affect the outcomes of the corporate image.
Design/methodology/approach
To inspect the theories, the foundational configural model was assessed through the perceptions of 395 employees in Indian aviation companies. By using complexity theory, this study matched the concept of equifinality and it examined the data via a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis.
Findings
Findings show that corporate strategy positively influences the corporate image and corporate expression. Corporate expression offers the verbal and visual facets of a brand. Surprisingly, the paper shows that there is no link between corporate expression and corporate image. It also suggests that corporate expression, including corporate community, corporate promise and corporate personality, are all components of a corporate brand and do not influence the corporate image. Finally, the study highlights that corporate image positively affects superior business performance, which influences superior retailer preference.
Research limitations/implications
The study identifies the corporate identity’s indicators (corporate strategy and corporate expression) that affect the corporate image, which results in stronger, superior business performance and retailer preference. It suggests that managers in the airline industry should follow the recommendations of this research by adopting more objective and fairer procedures to attain superior business performance and retailer preference. In addition, the continued growth and the financial impact of the airline sector require the use of pioneering branding strategies. Future study is needed in various nations to advance the generalizability of the research findings.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is the first to study corporate brand, its sub-dimensions (corporate strategy and corporate expression) and their individual links to brand image, which involves experience, relationships and visual identity.
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The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions:
Hong‐Wei He and John M.T. Balmer
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…
Abstract
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.
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This article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The article offers a review of the field by mapping previous studies according to their strategy and responsibility orientations and, consequently, identifies the classic perspective, as well as the major deficiencies and prevailing research gaps in the literature.
Findings
The article contributes to the field of strategic corporate responsibility by reframing the field with a contender perspective that challenges the classic view of strategy and responsibility amalgamation. Together, the classic and the contender perspectives are synthesized to form an integrative perspective that is more holistic than those currently available.
Originality/value
The article ends by calling for a reimagining of the relationship between corporate responsibility and strategy to find promising future research avenues and effective business practices suitable to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
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Karolin Köhler and Ansgar Zerfass
The purpose of this paper is to address an important but seldom explored field of study: the communication of corporate strategies to external and internal stakeholders. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address an important but seldom explored field of study: the communication of corporate strategies to external and internal stakeholders. The relevance of the topic can be tracked both in communication studies and in management research, but empirical insights are rare. The paper addresses this research gap by asking: How do listed companies in key industrial markets communicate publicly about their corporate strategy?
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive content analysis of corporate websites was conducted for a sample of the 20 largest listed companies in the UK, the USA and Germany (n=60). The subsequent benchmark analysis has identified best practices and highlighted them in detail.
Findings
The study revealed significant differences between companies and countries in the sample for most of the dimensions. Cross-country comparisons confirm these differences statistically: German companies score significantly higher in the benchmark than British or US companies.
Practical implications
This paper outlines quality criteria for professional strategy communication, helping practitioners to improve their activities and contribute to organizational goals.
Originality/value
The study offers a holistic approach to strategy communication by providing an interdisciplinary theoretical foundation as well as insights into corporate practice, with the aim of laying the ground for further research and discussion in both academia and practice.
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Tsoanelo Ntene, Samuel Azasu and Anthony Owusu-Ansah
This paper aims to discuss whether alignment between corporate real estate strategy and corporate strategy exists for non-property companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss whether alignment between corporate real estate strategy and corporate strategy exists for non-property companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange and what effects alignment has on the firms’ financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was both qualitative and quantitative in nature, with a specific focus on non-property firms listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. The qualitative part of the study involved the analysis of the firms’ annual reports to determine the presence and use of corporate real estate strategies and their alignment to corporate strategy and the extraction of financial indicator data. The quantitative portion of the study involved the use of multivariate analysis, to distinguish and quantify the relationship, if any, between corporate real estate strategy and the identified financial performance indicators. The independent variables were the CRE strategies employed and the dependent variable was the share price. The methods used in this study have been applied before in European and Asian studies; this assisted in ensuring that validity and reliability was achieved.
Findings
The study finds that the most used strategy by firms (47%) is that which facilitates production, operation and service delivery. The Consumer Goods, Healthcare and Telecommunications sectors appear to demonstrate the highest level of alignment. Return on Shareholder Funds has a strong significant positive correlation with share price. Flexibility as a corporate real estate strategy also has a significant positive coefficient, which indicates a positive relationship with share price.
Research limitations/implications
Although consistent with results of studies conducted in Europe and Asia, the results of this research may not be applicable to privately held non-listed firms, state-owned enterprises, non-profits and educational institutions. This study also ignores the dynamic external environment in which firms operate and the necessity of firms adjusting their corporate real estate strategy to their changing business strategy.
Practical implications
These results suggest that the incorporation of corporate real estate strategy in the firms’ corporate strategy formulation has the potential to enhance shareholder value for South African firms. Real estate developers, landlords and owner occupiers would benefit from better understanding the strategic requirements of corporations to ensure that the solutions they provide increase the likelihood of maximizing shareholder return.
Originality/value
The role of corporate real estate strategy in the firms’ corporate strategy formulation has the ability to enhance shareholder value. This research adds to the scant literature on corporate real estate management in South Africa.
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