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INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING STRATEGY
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals

Posted by: Paola Signori

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CALL FOR PAPERS SPECIAL ISSUE

“Redefining Corporate Brand Identity in the times of social media. A multistakeholder perspective”

Sinergie Italian Journal of Management

Guest Editors

Alberto Mattiacci, Paola Signori, Chiara Giachino

Deadlines

• Submission of full papers 15 November 2024
• Notification of peer review results 15 January 2025
• Submission of revised papers 15 February 2025
• Publication Issue May-August 2025 (online by the end of August)

Scope of the special issue

A corporate identity “provides the central platform upon which corporate communications policies are developed, corporate reputations are built and corporate images and stakeholder identifications with the corporation are formed” (Balmer, 2008, p.881).Therefore, a corporate brand identity encompasses specific values and features which represent an organization and its products offered to a market; moreover, to be relevant and contribute to the creation of a competitive advantage, it should be unique, verifiable, and truthful. The corporate brand identification represents an emotional attachment and a sense of belonging to the company (Cornilissen et al., 2007), consequently, it can differentiate the firm from its competitors in the eyes of its stakeholders (Balmer, 2013). A strong corporate identity should help the firm to win in the job market (e.g., attracting talents and engaging them in the firm’s values), in the financial markets (e.g., to effectively place bond issuance), in the product markets (e.g., to strengthen the intangible values of the value proposition) and so on and so forth.

Identity is one of the main elements of a firm and is usually determined by the vision of the founder(s), of its managers and/or its internal stakeholders in a broader sense. Nonetheless, the process leading to the definition of a corporate identity is undergoing a change, above all the emergence of the “purpose”. The purpose is a special case of a broader phenomenon where the increasing leadership of the external stakeholders shapes the corporate brand identity. A leading role to this shift is ascribed to the growth of social media and the new ways to communicate online, which increasingly represent a junction of the offline relationship between firms and customers due to its reach and accessibility (Kotler, 2017). As a result, firms must adapt to the new networked world, where control over corporate identity is only partially in their hands (Kotler et al., 2021). As a matter of fact, the newest generations (e.g., the first digital natives, the gen-why millennials) of social media users are influenced far more by their peers and their purchases than by established brand identities (Kotler, 2021). Digital platforms have led to the creation of communities that, allowing for an interaction between the firm, the consumers and all the stakeholders, can influence the identity of a corporate brand at various level (Devereux et al., 2017). For example, the rise of social media offers a new communication channel to employees and gives the possibility to people to collect more information on the company (Kissel and Buttgen, 2015). At this point, there is the risk to involve multiple elements not fitting correctly with the identity of the firm and not respecting what is called the corporate identity congruence (Flint et al., 2018; Signori and Flint, 2019).

Keywords: corporate identity; brand identity; social media; company purpose

Topics

This special issue is devoted to foster the academic knowledge on the way to unravel how companies define, communicate, and manage their corporate brand identities both through internal functions (i.e., marketing, human resource, corporate finance, strategy, etc.) and through the role played by external stakeholders (i.e., brand communities, financial communities, social media influencers, etc.) at the time of social media proliferation and at the beginning of a paradigmatic shift of globalization. Therefore, research that contributes to the understanding on how the identity of the company is changing while considering the implications for internal functions of the firm across different industries is welcomed.

Suggested topics are the following:

Marketing:

• From corporate identity to brand awareness, brand image and brand reputation, the role of multiple stakeholders
• The influence of social media on corporate identity (i.e., brand visual identity and brand communications in the context of photo-based and video-based social media)
• The role of corporate and brand identity in time of crisis management

Marketing, Human Resource management and operations:

• Different stakeholders of employer branding (e.g., attracting and managing potential talents vs. current employees, customers, business partners, etc.)
• The role of corporate identity in the process of talent acquisition (i.e., recruitment and selection) and the role of social media
• Employer branding and strategic human resource management in shaping competitive advantage

Marketing and Corporate finance:

• Strategic alignment of corporate identity with financial goals of the firm
• The role of corporate identity and storytelling in financial communication
• Corporate identity, brand identity and trust in financial relationships

Marketing, Strategy, and internationalization:

• Strategic corporate identity creation for international markets
• The role of influencers and communities in the co-creation of corporate identity
• The role of sustainability to identify vision, mission, and values of a company

This special issue welcomes qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches, strongly supported by management literature.

Some useful references

ABRATT R., KLEYN N. (2023), “The conscientious corporate brand: definition, operationalization and application in a B2B context”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 38, n. 10, pp. 2122-2133.

ABRATT R., MINGIONE M. (2017), “Corporate identity, strategy and change”, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 24, pp. 129-139.

AFRIDI S.A., AFSAR B., SHAHJEHAN A., KHAN W., REHMAN Z.U., KHAN M.A. (2023), “Impact of corporate social responsibility attributions on employee’s extra‐role behaviors: Moderating role of ethical corporate identity and interpersonal trust”, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, vol. 30, n. 2, pp. 991-1004.

BALMER J.M. (2008), “Identity based views of the corporation: Insights from corporate identity, organisational identity, social identity, visual identity, corporate brand identity and corporate image”, European journal of marketing, vol. 42, n. 9/10, pp. 879-906.

BALMER J.M.T. (2013), “Corporate brand orientation: what is it? What of it?”, Journal of brand management, 20, pp. 723-741.

BATTISTI E., NIRINO N., LEONIDOU E., SALVI A. (2023), “Corporate social responsibility in family firms: Can corporate communication affect CSR performance?”, Journal of Business Research, vol. 162, p. 113865.

CHOI W.J., WINTERICH K.P. (2013), “Can brands move in from the outside? How moral identity enhances out-group brand attitudes”, Journal of Marketing, vol. 77, n. 2, pp. 96-111.

CORNELISSEN J.P., HASLAM S.A., BALMER J.M. (2007), “Social identity, organizational identity and corporate identity: Towards an integrated understanding of processes, patternings and products”, British journal of management, vol. 18, n. S1-S16.

D’AMICO S. (2023), “Il corporate re-branding: un’analisi sistematica della letteratura e la proposta di un’agenda di ricerca”, Micro & Macro Marketing, published online 01/10/2023, pp. 1-29.

DEVEREUX L., MELEWAR T.C., FOROUDI P. (2017), “Corporate identity and social media: Existence and extension of the organization”, International Studies of Management & Organization, vol. 47, n. 2, pp. 110-134.

ESSAMRI A., MCKECHNIE S., WINKLHOFER H. (2019), “Co-creating corporate brand identity with online brand communities: A managerial perspective”, Journal of Business Research, vol. 96, pp. 366-375.

FLINT D.J., SIGNORI P., GOLICIC S.L. (2018), “Corporate Identity Congruence: A meaningsbased analysis”, Journal of Business Research, vol. 86, pp. 68-82.

HEIDE J.B., BELL S.J., TRACEY P. (2023), “Who we are and how we govern: the effect of identity orientation on governance choice”, Journal of Marketing, vol. 87, n. 1, 45-63.

IGLESIAS O., MINGIONE M., IND N., MARKOVIC S. (2023), “How to build a conscientious corporate brand together with business partners: A case study of Unilever”, Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 109, pp. 1-13.

KISSEL P., BÜTTGEN M. (2015), “Using social media to communicate employer brand identity: The impact on corporate image and employer attractiveness”, Journal of Brand Management, 22, pp. 755-777.

KOTLER P. (2017), Marketing 4.0: dal tradizionale al digitale, Hoepli, Milano.

KOTLER P., PFOERTSCH W., SPONHOLZ U. (2021), H2H marketing: The genesis of humanto-human marketing, Springer, Cham.

LOUREIRO S.M.C. (2023), “Overview of the brand journey and opportunities for future studies”, Italian Journal of Marketing, vol. 2023/2, pp. 179-206.

MINGIONE M., BENDIXEN M., ABRATT R. (2020), “Uncovering the sources of brand authenticity in the digital era: evidence from an Italian winery”, Sinergie Italian Journal of Management, vol. 38, n. 1, pp. 181-205.

ORAZI D.C., SPRY A., THEILACKER M.N., VREDENBURG J. (2017), “A multi-stakeholder IMC framework for networked brand identity”, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 51, n. 3, pp. 551-571.

PARRIS D.L., GUZMÁN F. (2023), “Evolving brand boundaries and expectations: looking back on brand equity, brand loyalty, and brand image research to move forward”, Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 32, n. 2, pp. 191-234.

SHANKAR A., KUMAR A., BEHL A., PEREIRA V., BUDHWAR P. (2024), “You or an imposter? How to protect brand identity in a business-to-business context?”. Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 116, pp. 93-105.

SIGNORI P., FLINT D.J. (2020), “Revealing the unique blend of meanings in corporate identity: An application of the semiotic square”, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, vol. 28, n. 1, pp. 26-42.

TALAEI-KHOEI A., YANG A.T., MASIALETI M. (2024), “How does incorporating ChatGPT within a firm reinforce agility-mediated performance? The moderating role of innovation infusion and firms’ ethical identity”, Technovation, vol. 132, p. 102975.

To submit papers to the special issue please follow instructions described at the following link:

On the same page guidelines and template to layout papers are indicated.

Peer review process

The review process is described here:

Publication in Sinergie Italian Journal of Management

This special issue is proposed by SIMA’s “Marketing” Thematic Group. A selection of the papers will be included in a Sinergie Italian Journal of Management Special Issue in May/August 2025. Sinergie is a peer-reviewed academic publication focusing on the main trends in management studies (ISSN: 0393-5108 Quarterly journal Printed from: 1983. Online from: 2001) Sinergie has been accepted for inclusion in SCOPUS, Elsevier June 14Th, 2021 and is ranked by AIDEA list (rank A).

Publication in Sinergie Italian Journal of Management is free of charge.

SINERGIE – Fondazione CUEIM
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Email redazione@sinergieweb.it

The authoritative version of this manuscript can be found here: