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The impact of the corporate identity mix on corporate reputation

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Abstract

The concepts of corporate identity (CI) and corporate reputation (CR) receive extensive investigation within their separate domains. Recent strategic marketing literature calls for these two fields of study to be brought closer together. This article answers this call by developing a five-construct research model with four hypotheses. The model proposes that the corporate identity mix (CIM) plays a distinct and independent role in driving CR alongside daily experiences of business operations (BO). Furthermore, the model proposes that the impact of CIM on CR is mediated through corporate brand beliefs. The study is based on the professional service sector and assesses the model and hypotheses using data collected from a questionnaire completed by 126 customers. Partial least squares structural equation modelling technique is used to analyse the data. Results indicate that customer experiences of the CIM and daily BO of the organization have independent and significant impacts upon the development of CR. As a further contribution, the study operationalizes, and provides new measure of, the CIM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henley Business School at the University of Reading, Henley on Thames, RG9 3AU, Oxon, UK

    Kevin Money, Susan Rose & Carola Hillenbrand

Authors
  1. Kevin Money
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  2. Susan Rose
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  3. Carola Hillenbrand
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susan Rose.

Additional information

1(PhD) is an associate professor at Henley Business School and Director of the John Madejski Centre for Reputation. He teaches on the MBA programme and is a mentor and tutor on Henley's Advanced Management Programme. He also supervises DBA and PhD Research Associates. Money is a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute, which is a think-tank and development centre managed by the National School of Government. He is a chartered psychologist, a member of the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis and a licensed NLP practitioner. He is also a trustee of the Safer South Africa Trust (UK) and an academic member of the board of EABIS. He has acted as a consultant to major companies and voluntary organizations in the United Kingdom, USA and South Africa.

2(DBA) is an associate professor in Marketing Management at Henley Business School where she is involved in both teaching and researching in the fields of strategic marketing, branding and consumer behaviour. She is also the Associate Head of the School of Management at Henley responsible for Post Graduate Professional Programmes including the Henley MBA. She is a researcher within the John Madejski Centre for Reputation focusing on customer-brand relationships and the link to reputation. Her extensive business experience is within the fields of marketing and brand management, communications and marketing research across a wide range of industry sectors. Rose is a consultant in the areas of branding and consumer behaviour where she has acquired experience in brand investigation and strategy formulation.

3(PhD) holds the position of Lead Researcher in the John Madejski Centre for Reputation at Henley Business School overseeing a variety of international and large-scale research projects in the profit and not-for-profit sector. She holds a PhD in Applied Organizational Psychology from Brunel University. Her key areas of professional expertise are in reputation, corporate responsibility, the psychological foundations of successful organizational relationships and multivariate statistics. Hillenbrand is also the Subject Area Leader for the subject of Reputation and Relationships on the Henley MBA programme and has been responsible for the development of materials and teaching of the subject on MBA and corporate programmes. In addition, she teaches statistics and multivariate data analysis on both the MBA and the doctoral programme. She is a certified coach, a licensed NLP practitioner and a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society.

Appendix

Appendix

Full list of items and measurement information

See Tables A1 and A2.

Table A1 Formative indicators
Full size table
Table A2 Reflective indicators
Full size table

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Money, K., Rose, S. & Hillenbrand, C. The impact of the corporate identity mix on corporate reputation. J Brand Manag 18, 197–211 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2010.31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2010.31

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