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This study aims to use place identity theory to examine the concept of physical environment design (PED) and its effects on consumers’ emotional well-being (EWB) dimensions such as sensorium, behaviour and happiness.

The authors used a qualitative approach. Thirty interviews were conducted among participants drawn from the city of London, which is one of the flourishing and world’s most famous international trade centre, providing paramount access to the global market. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.

The findings suggest that PED is defined precisely using the terms like atmosphere, appealing, attractive, impressing, inviting, ambient, compelling and design cues. The findings also suggest that PED has a positive effect on consumers’ sensorium, behaviour and happiness. However, these effects are lower when the retail stores have unwelcoming themes than when they have mesmerising PED. The different names can also be advantageous, specifically when online shopping dominates today’s retail industry. The findings also illustrate that the theoretical model used in this study is valid and suggest that PED has positive effects on consumers’ sensorium, behaviour and happiness.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, while other authors tried to identify the effect of PED on consumers buying behaviour, this study is the first one to show how PED effects consumers’ sensorium, behaviour and happiness. The results of personal interviews highlight the importance of design elements and a gap in the application of novel elements to improve consumers’ sensorium, behaviour and happiness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate student corporate brand identification towards three closely‐linked corporate brands: a UK university, a leading UK business school and an overseas collaborative partner institute in Asia.

The paper uses a theory‐building case study within the phenomenological/qualitative research tradition.

The strength of student identification with a corporate brand is predicated on awareness, knowledge and experience of a brand. The data revealed three types of corporate brand identification. This reflected different modes of student affiliation with the three institutional brands. These student relationships were categorised as follows: brand member (a contractual/legal corporate brand relationship); brand supporter (a trusting corporate brand relationship); and brand owner (a proprietorial corporate brand relationship). In explaining the above, the above states are viewed in terms of a corporate brand identification management hierarchy which reflects different approaches to the management of corporate brands. These are categorised as legalisation, realisation and, finally, (brand) actualisation. Senior managers should strive for brand actualisation.

The insights from a single, exploratory, case study might not be generalisable.

The paper conceptualises that a bureaucratic/product approach to corporate brand management is more likely to result in low brand identification (legalisation); that a diplomatic/communications management approach is more likely to result in moderate brand identification (realisation) and, finally, that a custodial/brand values and promise management approach is more likely to result in high brand identification (brand actualisation). These categorisations can have a utility in ascertaining the effectiveness and philosophical underpinnings of corporate brand management.

The paper examines multiple student identification (towards a university, business school and a non degree‐awarding overseas institute).

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to examine how corporate identity (one of the elements of Balmer's 6Cs of corporate marketing) could be better understood, whilst also addressing how the deconstruction of one of the other elements (i.e. communications: corporate advertising) could provide deeper insight into what corporate identity truly means.

This paper examines various theoretical approaches which have compartmentalised the meaning of corporate identity. It also highlights how these compartments interrelate. The paper introduces the semiotic method and illustrates how this method could deconstruct firms' perception of corporate identity.

Two conceptual models and a semiotic method process were contributed. The first model reveals three main constructs of corporate identity, namely symbolism, behaviour, and corporate communications, and the second model reveals the corporate personality construct. The semiotic method reveals the positioning of corporate identity as a corporate personality construct.

This paper provides a better understanding of the meaning of corporate identity by developing two conceptual models and a semiotic method. The conceptual models provide an analysis of how various theoretical approaches which have compartmentalised the meaning of corporate identity interrelate. The semiotic method provides a stage‐by‐stage process of how a firm's perception of corporate identity is deconstructed. The conceptual models and the semiotic method give a better understanding of the meaning of corporate identity.

The purpose of this paper is to present a compendium of small research studies that have been conducted in Malaysia. Issues of branding and its related constructs have gained widespread recognition amongst practitioners and academics in this country.

Inter alia, this paper examines six facets of branding across different industries and contexts. The first study examines issues of branding in the Islamic financial services. The second paper investigates airline brand reputation. The third paper explores employer branding in the context of hotels. The fourth study explicates online brand personality in the banking sector. The fifth project evaluates the aspect of brand loyalty in the telecommunication industry and the final paper unfolds the industrial brand loyalty and ethical brand.

The paper highlights six findings across six different industries in Malaysia.

The paper gives a Malaysian perspective on branding in Asia.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, propositions in an existing conceptual framework are empirically explored to note whether and how brand meaning gaps exist for internal and external stakeholders of a focal brand. Second, a typology of brand meaning gaps, characterised by meaning assonance and valence, offers new insight for brand management strategy.

The authors use case study methods to explore the research propositions about brand meaning gaps among stakeholder groups. The focal firm is The Black Dog Company of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts in the USA. Data from brand owners (internal stakeholders) and consumers (external stakeholders) are collected using in-depth interviews, observation, document analysis, and an online survey that includes a picture association task. Further inductive analysis of secondary data helps develop the typology of brand meaning gaps and dynamics.

The research propositions are supported. Brand meaning gaps exist between internal and external stakeholders, and they exist among two external stakeholder groups. Brand meaning for owners, primarily defined as family heritage, is largely unknown to consumers. Among consumers, brand meaning for stakeholder group 1 is “coastal New England”; brand meaning for group 2 is “dog lovers.” Although multiple brand meanings exist for stakeholders, the meanings are relatively assonant (harmonious) and positively valenced. The findings regarding the polysemic nature of brand meaning are useful to brand managers seeking to leverage offerings to multiple target markets. These findings, along with additional secondary data, serve as the basis for a typology of brand gaps and dynamics characterized by assonance and valence. Four types of meaning gaps may lead to situations where brands are beloved, on-the-cusp, hijacked, or facing disaster.

This work addresses calls from the literature to empirically explore brand meaning among multiple stakeholder groups.

The purpose of this paper is to describe company renaming as a process among small firms, including the events and actors in and the reasons for company renaming.

The study presents an interpretative narrative process research approach. The empirical part is conducted as an instrumental multiple case study of six cases.

Company renaming is a long-lasting, complex, iterative and management-centric process among small firms. The process consists of six main events that are conducted more or less simultaneously but which need to be further divided into sub-events in order to reveal their order. The reasons for renaming are that the current company name is difficult to use or it is less known than the name of the company's well-known product among stakeholders.

The existing research on branding from the viewpoint of organisational change has been scarce. The study suggests that also other reasons than change in the organisation or in its environment may cause corporate rebranding. The empirical data from a specific contest, the B2B software industry, may limit the statistical generalizability of the results.

For small business managers, the study suggests actively involving stakeholders to the process. The new name can be developed cheaply, but the process can be long. For ensuring a shorter process, costs need to be accepted.

The use of interpretative narrative process research approach and an instrumental multiple case study provide methodological contributions to the field of corporate rebranding.