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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.

This research is based on both pertinent literature and a recent grounded theory case study on the interplay between identity and strategy,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

This paper outlines quality criteria for professional strategy communication, helping practitioners to improve their activities and contribute to organizational goals.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Corporate controls are mechanisms that corporations use to ensure that the processes and/or outcomes of their business units meet corporate expectations. Challenges in measurement of corporate controls have led many researchers to operationalize them as part of the more ambiguous corporate effects construct, instead of addressing them separately. The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of “fit” between corporate control mechanisms and business unit strategy in performance of business units.

The authors use ordinary least squares regression analysis on data collected between 2010 and 2012 from surveys from managers of 142 Iranian corporations and 1,822 of their subsidiaries. The authors also use financial and market data collected by an IDRO division and accessed through partnership in a joint project.

The authors found that while the fit between business unit strategy and corporate controls has a significant effect on business unit financial performance, it does not have a similar effect on market performance. The findings demonstrate that when business unit managers perceive that they are subject to a balance of strategic and financial controls with a slightly greater emphasis on strategic controls, then business units have higher financial and market performance, although the difference in financial performance is not significant.

The authors find that the misfit between corporate controls and business strategies in such cases could negatively affect the performance of the business unit. However, this research also contributes to a better understanding of the importance of strategic controls to the successful performance of business units. The findings show that while the fit between controls and strategy is most critical for achieving financial performance in business units that pursue product leadership, strategic controls play a more prominent role than financial controls in achieving higher financial or market share performance for all business units.

The findings of the propositions in this research would discourage corporations with tight financial control from engaging in acquisition of businesses considered to be product leaders in their relative product markets.

Past research focusing on the fit between corporate-level factors and business-level factors and their role on business performance are largely limited to conceptual work. The limited empirical studies completed in the past generally reduce control mechanisms to lack or absence of autonomy. This shortcoming has been mainly due to difficulties in measurement of control mechanisms. The empirical study overcomes these barriers and in doing so, reveals surprising findings related to the effectiveness of different control mechanisms.

This study aims to expand the knowledge on strategy and alignment by exploring how executives and strategists can manage alignment between corporate and business strategy to leverage synergies, from a corporate strategy perspective, without limiting local responsiveness, from a business strategy perspective.

The study is characterized by privileged access and richness of data. A case study design was used to explore the results. Data include interviews, observations in workshops, material produced in workshops and personal field notes.

The study provides insights about how alignment between corporate and business strategy can be managed to balance requirements on both corporate and business strategy. To do so alignment needs be understood and managed based on its contribution to the competitiveness of the firm. In addition, alignment encompasses two dimensions: direction of alignment (which can be vertical and horizontal) and relation of alignment (which can be numerical and non-numerical). This leads to four different types of alignment.

Explorative case studies yield results less generalizable. Future research is thus encouraged to confirm or contradict the results of this study.

When formulating strategy, executives and strategists need to consider what type of alignment is appropriate for what parts and elements of the strategies (e.g. goals and activities) to gain competitive advantage. By using different types of alignment, it is possible to balance the need for both corporate synergies and business responsiveness.

This study fulfils an identified need to study what alignment between strategies on different organizational levels encompasses and the potential risks of alignment.

The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This article examines how responsibility and strategy can and should be connected in a business organization.

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.

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.

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.