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To investigate empirically the salience, and significance, of generic identity (industry‐wide identity) within the British Building Society Movement.

A qualitative, explanatory study drawing on the principles of grounded theory/case‐study research design.

The study confirmed the survival/existence of an industry‐wide identity and found this identity type to be of considerable significance and strength. The antecedents of the industry's identity were shown to be a common historical legacy; strong industry culture; effect of regulation; and industry responsiveness to threats. The study builds on the earlier work of Balmer regarding generic image and identity and confirms the salience of the “historicity” of identity articulated by Moingeon and Ramanantsoa. It broadly supports Albert and Whetten's categorisation of identity except with regard to enduringness. In this regard the research found Gioia's notion of adaptive instability to be salient.

The management of generic identity is of crucial importance. Changes of corporate identity need to take account of the generic identity.

The first major empirical study of generic identity and, as such, the first empirical study of industry identity within the financial services sector.

Identity is often used in wine territory narratives but its meaning is rarely explored with industry actors. This paper aims to present the development and application of a four-step iterative process for engaging an industry in a complex and deep reflection about its shared identity: understanding identity; identifying commonalities and differences; developing a shared narrative and sharing best practice.

The authors have engaged with over 50 wineries between 2016 and 2018 on the identity of the British Columbia wine territory through workshops, interviews and other conversations. Complementary methods include documentary review and observations.

The work shows the applicability of the four-step process. Success depends on building relationships with and across the industry; creating independent, safe learning environments and facilitation by an independent party; allowing for feedback between the steps, continuous reflection and reiteration of steps and making the time for complexity.

The application of the process in British Columbia shows that success depends on building relationships with and across the industry; creating independent, safe learning environments and making the time for complexity.

The paper presents the application of a unique process for industry to explore the identity of a wine territory. It focuses on British Columbia, about which little has been written. Through the process, the industry can better understand identity, what it is, why it matters and how it impacts businesses. The paper’s insights can inspire researchers and industries in their thinking and practice about identity.

This paper aims to introduce an identity fit perspective adding to the understanding of the Nordic gender equality paradox of top managing positions using a Danish sample as case.

In total, five hypotheses concerning identity perception of top managing positions and the relationship with own identity and type of industry were tested through a correlational research design utilizing a cross-sectional survey methodology. A total of 1,054 women aged 18–60 participated in the survey.

The analysis revealed a strong masculine perception of a top managing position whereas women's own identity perception was much more diverse. The more masculine a woman perceives herself to be, the more motivated she is to climb the career ladder. Type of industry moderates the relationship between identity fit and motivation for top positions, but only for the masculine traits. The relationship between identity fit and motivation is stronger for women in high masculine industries.

Apart from being the first study of identity fit in a Nordic setting, this study contributes to the identity fit theory by employing a semi-objective fit approach exploring identity fit on an industry level, including female-dominated industries, as well as examining identity fit in relation to motivation to pursue a top managing position.

Organizations are sites where identities are constructed and maintained and a substantial literature points at identity work as being of central importance for managerial practice. Identities are often fragile and contingent constructs, shifting over time and as the actor moves between assignments, being bound up with professional and occupational ideologies, norm and beliefs. The purpose of this paper is to report a study of how construction workers build their occupational identities on the basis of a combination of identification with their work and the quality they deliver benefitting the end‐user and what Elsbach and Bhattacharya call disidentification, i.e. a critique of the construction industry.

A study of identity work in the construction industry suggests that identities are based on three interrelated processes, the enactment of normative beliefs of ideal selves, the recognition of the accomplishments in the present construction project work, and the disidentification with the construction industry articulated in storytelling practices.

Construction workers’ identities are thus a patchwork, stitching together a variety of heterogeneous resources. This makes identity work an ongoing social process influenced by both the material conditions of the actual work and norms, beliefs, and aspirations.

The paper contributes to the identity literature by emphasizing that identities are irreducible to either material conditions, norm and beliefs, or narrative accounts but are simultaneously drawing on all these resources.

The purpose of this research is to explore how an industry is represented in multimodal public media narratives and to explore how this representation subsequently affects the formation of public sense-giving space during a persisting crisis, such as a pandemic. The question asked is: how do the use of multimodality by public service media dynamically shape representations of industry identity during a persisting crisis?

This study made use of a multimodal approach. The verbal and visual media text on the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic that were published in Finland by the public service media distributor Yle were studied. Data published between March 2020 and March 2022 were analysed. The data consisted of 236 verbal texts, including 263 visuals.

Three narratives were identified– victim, servant and survivor – that construct power relations and depict the identity of the restaurant industry differently. It was argued that multimodal media narratives hold three meaning making functions: sentimentalizing, juxtaposing and nuancing industry characteristics. It was also argued that multimodal public service media narratives have wider implications in possibly shaping the future attractiveness of the industry and organizational members' understanding of their identity.

This research contributes to sensemaking literature in that it explores the role of power – explicitly or implicitly constructed through media narratives during crisis. Furthermore, this research contributes to sensemaking literature in that it shows how narratives take shape multimodally during a continuous crisis, and how this impacts the construction of industry identity.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Senior company management can use the categorisation discussed in this paper as a starting point for development of corporate identity management strategies.

Recategorisation of Melewar's corporate identity dimensions, which help define corporate identity concept in measurable terms.

The purpose of this paper is to broaden the conversation about the link between identity and employability by investigating how identity can function as a type of career capital. Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1990) theory of practice and Côté’s (2016) identity capital model, the authors introduce the concept of identity capitalization and elaborate on the career practices people engage in to convert identity into career capital based on studies of careers in the creative industries.

The conceptual development is based on an examination of studies of careers in the creative industries. The authors move beyond a single idiosyncratic occupational setting and offer insights about how individuals acquire, accumulate and deploy identity capital in response to varying occupational demands and institutional norms.

The authors identify three patterns of work – display work, authenticity work and personation work – that creative professionals use to harness identity as career capital to enhance their employability. The authors find that both the demand for authenticity and the existence of social inequalities in the creative industries present challenges for the acquisition, accumulation and deployment of identity capital.

The ability to harness one’s identity for career capital has become increasingly important for career actors in the face of a challenging labor market. This paper provides a conceptual understanding of the process of identity capitalization and presents concrete career practices in real-world settings. It also offers practical advice for individuals wishing to capitalize on their identity to maximize career opportunities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine artists’ experiences of involuntary career transitions and its impact on their work-related identities.

Semi-structured interviews with 40 artists in the Netherlands were conducted. Self-narratives were used to analyze the findings.

Artists who can no longer make a living out of their artistic activities are forced to start working outside the creative realm and are gradually pushed away from the creative industries. This loss of their creative identity leads to psychological stress and grief, making the professional transition problematic. Moreover, the artistic community often condemns an artist’s transition to other activities, making the transition psychologically even more straining.

This study provides in-depth insights into how artists deal with changes in their work-related identities in the light of involuntary career transitions.

Explores the implications of Midland Bank’s attempts in the mid‐1980s to adopt an endorsed corporate identity strategy and to brand its personal financial services. Sets out the reasons why banks have traditionally applied monolithic identity systems and eschewed explicit branding, and presents Midland’s reasons for challenging that paradigm ‐ chiefly the nature of its group structure and its desire to segment its personal market more effectively. While the Midland approach was not a commercial success, it provides some general lessons which help to inform corporate identity theory in general and financial sector identity and branding theory in particular. These include the need for identity to be contingent on strategy, the importance of “soft” as well as “hard” identity features, the conflicts between different identity systems (e.g. firm‐specific versus industry‐generic) and the problems of applying branding theory to products which are in essence no more than contracts.

There is little doubt that organizational identity – that which is central, distinctive, and enduring about an organization – mediates in adaptive processes. Exactly how this mediation takes place, and whether it is favorable or unfavorable to adaptation, must still be fully established. The purpose of this paper is to add to the literature on identity and adaptation by exploring the relationship between these two constructs in family firms operating in an emerging economy. Based on measures of strength of identity, the authors examine how identity affects the adaptive processes of issue identification, strategic impulse definition, and implementation, where the authors look at pace of adjustment.

Longitudinal and comparative case studies were conducted of polar types presenting two pairs of organizations in two separate industries. These organizations faced the challenge of founder succession and a radical shift in macroeconomic conditions over a period of three decades. Through these four cases the authors hope to provide clear pattern recognition of strength of identity and adaptation – and of the relationship between these two constructs – in the face of severe internal and external shocks. The approach seems adequate in the larger context of inductive theory development and particularly suitable to the exploration of theoretical constructs, as it allows the researcher to unravel the underlying dynamics of path dependencies and/or evolutionary processes.

It is found that strong‐identity organizations are able to foresee relevant changes in their industries, define adequate strategic responses, and implement them in an evolutionary (i.e. smooth) manner. Conversely, loose‐identity organizations misread industry trends, incur strategic paralysis, and must eventually enforce revolutionary (i.e. violent) changes in order to ensure survival.

The paper addresses a critical issue for the advancement of organizational theory: the relationship between organizational identity and adaptation in emerging economies. In addition, it has important practical implications for managers doing business in turbulent environments. It makes a sound theoretical contribution and has important managerial implications.