Corporate Brand Identification and Corporate Brand Management: How Top Business Schools do it

Abstract

This article reveals an a priori link between the effective management of corporate brands and the strength of corporate brand identification by customers and stakeholders. The article introduces a model of corporate brand management and corporate brand identification. This research, undertaken within leading business schools, resulted in three propositions: (PI) corporate brand management is analogous to strategic general management and involves nine connate activities – adapting, communicating, embracing, endorsing, investing, leading, maintaining, reflecting, and supporting; (P2) a stakeholder and values approach is more likely to result in there being a strong corporate brand identification on the part of students; (P3) an institutional and functional approach to corporate brand management results in weak/indifferent corporate brand identification by scholars. The pivotal importance of corporate brands to contemporary organisations and to their policy advisors, are illustrative of the saliency of this study. This inductive study draws on insights from policy makers and scholars in top business schools. This article throws light on why and how general managers should accord importance to corporate brand management. In broader contexts, leading business schools are regarded as repositories of best practice in terms of scholarship in business administration and, in terms of operations, general management per se. As such, this study has an especial significance for general management of corporate brands among contemporary organisations.