Strategically leveraging corporate social responsibility

orporate social responsibility (CSR) is changing the rules of branding but it is unclear how. While the literature offers a range of approaches seeking insight to how to manage CSR-related issues, practitioners are left in a state of confusion when having to decide on how to tackle CSR in a way that benefits both the corporate brand and society at large. based on qualitative empirical research, this article offers a framework for companies to address CSR and their brands strategically, whether as entrepreneurs, performers, vocal converts, or quietly conscientious. We define these categories according to the level of involvement, integration, and the key initiator of the CSR focus. This article concludes with suggestions practitioners should keep in mind when aiming to balance stakeholder tensions and to achieve consistency in their corporate branding and CSR efforts

Corporate brand strategy formation: Brand actors and the situational context for a business-to-business brand

Prior literature on corporate branding in the business-to-business (B2B) context fails to provide insight into the dynamics of corporate brand strategy formation, despite the critical need for industrial organizations to move beyond a traditional understanding of brands. This article examines the corporate brand strategy formation of a European-based industrial organization by drawing on strategy-as-practice research and thereby identifying the brand actors who participate in corporate brand strategy formation, the construction of manifestations that subject the brand values to experience, and the situational context—all within a single, ongoing, recursive interaction process

The role of social interactions in building internal corporate brands: Implications for sustainability

This article examines internal brand building, which is defined as the alignment of a corporation and employees around a brand. The notion of social interactions may provide a valuable perspective on brand-related interactive space, in which top management communicates brand-related information to employees and employees share brand-related information. Depth interviews, observations, and documentary analysis reveal how a social interaction-based, internal, brand-building process influences employees’ actions and perceptions of the branded environment. Social interactions might generate brand commitment and shared brand beliefs in certain conditions. These findings have key implications for sustainability

Verändert Covid-19 die Akzeptanz virtueller Lehrformate in der Hochschulausbildung? Implikationen für die Hochschulentwicklung

Obwohl zum Teil großzügig finanziell gefördert, war der Einsatz von digitalen Medien an Hochschulen im deutschsprachigen Raum vor der Covid-19-Krise sehr beschränkt. Die Gründe dafür sind vielfältig, darunter auch mangelnde Akzeptanz seitens der Lehrenden, aber auch der Studierenden. Einschränkungen der persönlichen Kontakte durch Covid-19 erfordern die Nutzung virtueller Lehr- und Lernformate. In diesem Beitrag wird auf Basis der Diffusionstheorie von ROGERS (2003) der Einfluss der Covid-19-Krise auf die Akzeptanz digitaler Lehr-Lernformate bei Lehrenden und Studierenden analysiert. 25 Studierende sowie acht Lehrende wurden interviewt und mithilfe der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse wurden neue Erkenntnisse und Handlungsempfehlungen für die Hochschulentwicklung abgeleitet

Reflections on the PhD process: the experiences of three survivors

In the literature it is possible for doctoral candidates to find a broad range of guidelines on how to write a successful doctoral thesis. For example, in 1999 the Australasian Marketing Journal published an article on a structured approach to presenting doctoral theses, with an in-depth examination of the sections that are expected to appear in a doctoral thesis (Perry 1999). The Marketing Review is currently printing a series of four articles on general guidelines on how to undertake a research project (Baker 2000a, 2000b, 2001a, 2001b). Candidates are often struggling with their theses one reason being that they find it difficult to present their research findings, and the efforts made by Perry and Baker are thus to be applauded; and the articles should serve both to motivate and guide candidates. The present article, however, focuses on what the authors consider to be one key, fundamentally unresolved, issue surrounding the Perry and Baker articles: the process of actually getting to the point of presenting the research findings in a doctoral thesis. The authors first share with the reader their personal experiences of going through a typical doctoral programme before offering their best pieces of advice. Overall, the list of dos and don'ts can help candidates to get on top of their doctoral research instead of the doctoral research getting on top of the candidates

Serving multiple masters : the role of micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities in addressing tensions in for-profit hybrid organizations

Regular for-profit companies might claim social and environmental goals, beyond their primary economic objectives, but sustainability-driven for-profit hybrids explicitly design and implement their organizational activities to pursue social, environmental and economic goals equivalently, which typically generates tensions, inherent to their hybrid nature. The ability to address these tensions is key to these organizations’ success, yet the manner in which they do so remains poorly understood. In this case-based qualitative study, the authors explicate how specific individual and collective practices contribute continuously to alleviating hybridity-related tensions among for-profit hybrids and allow them to achieve success. With a micro-foundational perspective on for-profit hybrids’ dynamic capabilities, this study’s findings identify four central, dynamic capabilities of for-profit hybrids, supported by respective sets of micro-foundations. Nine of these micro-foundations contribute specifically to addressing central tensions, to different extents. This study thus highlights how for-profit hybrids embrace hybridity-related tensions to foster the creation of sustainable value.Forschungsförderungsfonds (FFF) der Universität Liechtenstein and the Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, the U.S.https://journals.sagepub.com/home/osshj2019Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS

Strategisches Handeln von Startups im Kontext der Mediatisierung

Junge Gründer und Start-ups müssen sich in einer schnell wandelnden und mediatisierten Wettbewerbsumwelt behaupten. Ihr Handeln wird geprägt von sozialen Netzwerkmedien wie Facebook, LinkedIn oder Instagram. Um auf diesen Medien-plattformen erfolgreich zu sein, müssen Markenführung und Markenkommunikation strategisch verankert sein. Der Aufsatz präsentiert daher eine qualitative Analyse empirischer Daten aus dem Kontext des Start-up-Incubator neudeli der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar und verdeutlicht, dass die Mediatisierung grundlegend in die strategische Entwicklung der Marke von jungen Gründern und Start-ups eingreift. Die Studie verdeutlicht das Verständnis strategischer Markenführung in mediatisierten Kontexten und zeigt, dass drei idealtypische Praktiken zur Markenführung und strategischen Entwicklung beitragen: 1) Bürokratische Medienarbeit, 2) Mediale Kreativarbeit, 3) Netzwerkarbeit durch Medien