Organizational and corporate identity revisited: Towards a comprehensive understanding of identity in business

ABSTRACT: Purpose – This paper provides a comprehensive and integrative review of academic literature analyzing identity in business. The literature review proposed by the authors helps clearing up theoretical and practical understanding of this concept. Design/methodology/approach – A review of existing literature in organizational behavior and marketing fields is proposed to clarify the meaning of organizational and corporate identity. On the basis of this review, the authors also identify an integrative perspective proposed for managers to identify and effectively manage all dimensions of their business identities. Findings – Literature on the identity of businesses is extensive and blurred, failing to provide useful guidance for practitioners to manage this concept. A new approach proposes understanding this kind of identity as a global concept that integrates proposals from diverse research fields in order to take advantage of cross-fertilization. Practical implications – This research allows identity and communication managers to understand dimensions of business identity for a more effective management of this concept in their organizations. Originality/value – The line of research that proposes an integrative multidisciplinary approach to the study of identity in business is quite new and, as so, it still needs further contributions to clarify this nascent domain. In this paper, the authors also classify previous studies on business identity according to the theoretical approach they assume just as no other research has done before. Borra

Corporate reputation past and future: a review and integration of existing literature and a framework for future research

The concept of corporate reputation is steadily growing in interest among management researchers and practitioners. In this article, we trace key milestones in the development of reputation literature over the past six decades to suggest important research gaps as well as to provide contextual background for a subsequent integration of approaches and future outlook. In particular we explore the need for better categorised outcomes; a wider range of causes; and a deeper understanding of contingencies and moderators to advance the field beyond its current state while also taking account of developments in the macro business environment. The article concludes by presenting a novel reputation framework that integrates insights from reputation theory and studies, outlines gaps in knowledge and offers directions for future research

Consumer–brand identification revisited: An integrative framework of brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image and their role for brand loyalty and word of mouth

Consumer–brand identification has received considerable attraction among scholars and practitioners in recent years. We contribute to previous research by proposing an integrative model that includes consumer–brand identification, customer satisfaction, and price image to investigate the interrelationships among these constructs as well as their effects on brand loyalty and positive word of mouth. To provide general results, we empirically test the model using a sample of 1443 respondents from a representative consumer panel and 10 service/product brands. The results demonstrate that identification, satisfaction, and price image significantly influence both loyalty and word of mouth. Moreover, we find significant interrelationships among the constructs: Identification positively influences both satisfaction and price image, which also increases satisfaction. By disclosing the relative importance of three separate ways of gaining and retaining customers, this study helps managers more appropriately choose the right mix of branding, pricing, and relationship marketing. From an academic point of view, our research is the first to explicitly examine the effects of the concept of identification for price management and to integrate variables from the fields of branding, relationship marketing, and behavioral pricing, which have separately been identified as particularly important determinants of marketing outcomes

Belongingness in early secondary school: Key factors that primary and secondary schools need to consider

© 2015 Vaz et al. It is unknown if, and how, students redefine their sense of school belongingness after negotiating the transition to secondary school. The current study used longitudinal data from 266 students with, and without, disabilities who negotiated the transition from 52 primary schools to 152 secondary schools. The study presents the 13 most significant personal student and contextual factors associated with belongingness in the first year of secondary school. Student perception of school belongingness was found to be stable across the transition. No variability in school belongingness due to gender, disability or household-socio-economic status (SES) was noted. Primary school belongingness accounted for 22% of the variability in secondary school belongingness. Several personal student factors (competence, coping skills) and school factors (low-level classroom task-goal orientation), which influenced belongingness in primary school, continued to influence belongingness in secondary school. In secondary school, effort-goal orientation of the student and perception of their school's tolerance to disability were each associated with perception of school belongingness. Family factors did not influence belongingness in secondary school. Findings of the current study highlight the need for primary schools to foster belongingness among their students at an early age, and transfer students' belongingness profiles as part of the handover documentation. Most of the factors that influenced school belongingness before and after the transition to secondary are amenable to change

“As a Parent You Become a Tiger”: Parents Talking about Bullying at School

Bullying at school can be a distressing experience for children. It is also likely to be distressing for their parents. In spite of this, research in the field of school bullying and peer victimisation has tended to overlook the experience of parents when their child is bullied. This study explored school bullying from the parent’s perspective. Twenty-one parents took part in semi-structured focus groups and interviews to share their experiences. Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts identified two main themes: ’perceived institutional factors’ and ’being a good parent’. It was found that parents viewed their principal role as protecting their child; they referred to this as an instinct and fundamental to them being a good parent. However, during their attempts to help their child, many parents talked about difficulties working with schools and this triggered frustration and distrust towards teachers. The findings highlight the importance of communication between parents and teachers and ensuring that parents are kept informed of progress when teachers are trying to address the problem. Additionally, the findings indicate that parents may hold different views to teachers about their role in school bullying situations. This would suggest that parents looking at the situation from the teacher’s perspective, and vice versa, could help to build better parent-teacher relationships when tackling school bullying

A brand within a brand: an integrated understanding of internal brand management and brand architecture in the public sector

Branding in the public sector is emerging as an interesting area of research, as diverse organisations find themselves using branding principles to promote a consistent, clear brand. However, very little is known how public organisations could, or should, manage their brands. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to explore brand management processes in the public sector, and its implication for brand architecture, from an employee perspective. With a qualitative approach, the study argues that branding is important not only for the organisation, but also for individual departments. Further, unlike branding in the private sector, public organisations may be more concerned with supporting a positive perception and organisational attractiveness rather than a unique and differentiated brand. This may have implications for brand architecture. By allowing individual departments to manage their brand with support from organisational structures that provide alignment and focus, organisations can form a brand architecture that supports a strong organisational brand and employee brand commitment

Sand fly synthetic sex-aggregation pheromone co-located with insecticide reduces the incidence of infection in the canine reservoir of visceral leishmaniasis: a stratified cluster randomised trial

The predominant sand fly vector of the intracellular parasite Leishmania infantum, that causes human and canine visceral leishmaniasis in the Americas, is Lutzomyia longipalpis. Dogs are the proven reservoir. Vector control tools to reduce transmission suited to this predominantly exophilic vector are lacking. Insecticide-impregnated dog collars protect dogs against infectious bites from sand fly vectors, and result in reductions of new infections in both dogs and humans. However, collars are costly for endemic communities, and alternative approaches are needed. Recently the bulk synthesised sex-aggregation pheromone of male Lu. longipalpis was shown to attract large numbers of conspecific females to lethal pyrethroid insecticides, indicating the potential for use in a vector control application. This study, conducted in Brazil, evaluated the efficacy of this novel lure-and-kill approach to reduce seroconversion and infection incidence with L. infantum in the canine reservoir, in addition to measuring its impact on household abundance of Lu. longipalpis. Deployed in 14 stratified clusters, the outcomes were compared to those attributed to insecticide impregnated collars fitted to dogs in another 14 clusters; each intervention was compared to 14 clusters that received placebo treatments. The beneficial effects of the lure-and-kill method were most noticeable on confirmed infection incidence and clinical parasite loads, and in reducing sand fly abundance. The overall effect of the two interventions were not statistically dissimilar, though the confidence intervals were broad. We conclude that the novel low-cost lure-and-kill approach should be added to the vector control toolbox against visceral leishmaniasis in the Americas

[[alternative]]A case study of local financial holding companies' brand strategy.

碩士[[abstract]]整併已成為國內金融業的一項趨勢。根據2003商業週刊登載的「金控品牌調查」民調顯示，56%的民眾不了解金控本身的意涵，23%自稱知道金控的民眾有高達 67%不瞭解金控所提供的服務範圍。對此，金控品牌經營與整體形象的傳達仍有許多發展空間。同時員工則是影響消費者滿意度與金控品牌認知的重要來源，故金控與其子公司的品牌形象應是息息相關的。 本研究之研究目的為：(1).了解消費者對金控的認知途徑、對金控之企業形象、品牌知名度及品牌個性。(2).比較金控及各子公司之品牌資產內容，以了解各家金控的競爭優劣勢，以及在消費者心目中的定位及差異。(3).藉由了解金控的整體服務品質、產品特色、企業形象及客戶品牌忠誠來建構並發展金控品牌之核心價值。 研究發現金融大環境現況，消費者對金控概念與金融集團形象認知有限，最直接聯想通常從銀行來。消費者與大部份金融集團的認知來源主要來自實體在通路與人員產品服務的互動、電視報紙消息與家人朋友。普遍來說，商品與服務相關的特性被消費者視為理所當然的要素，然而真正讓品牌形象與資產表現差異化的在於前瞻性與公益參與的表現。金控與金融集團中以中國信託金控的知名度及品牌資產皆最高，大量廣告的溝通與強大銀行體系的支援應是主要原因。由於金控公司本身概念模糊，金控公司的品牌資產與銀行之外的子事業品牌資產相關性低。因此銀行應是未來金控概念溝通的重要平台，同時也會是金控公司競逐的主要戰場。 對個案金控公司品牌資產的提升的建議應採雙向建構的方式，即向下強化產品定位與價值，增加顧客接觸的廣度與深度，尋找能吸引與留住顧客的產品服務及品牌價值。向上創造品牌認同，提升知名度及能見度，尋找質量效益高的媒體曝光、活動與佈局通路。經營策略方向為發展明確品牌定位，朝著公益親切及前瞻創新邁進。在公益親切上的具體做法為提升顧客導向的產品與服務、用心關圜的親切服務、增加所屬之四大基金會的運作與聲量及公益活動與議題的參與。在前瞻創新上的具體做法為利用顧客滿意度評比、財報經營體質的追蹤來建議穩健專業的形象、新商品的概念、服務方式的創新、採國際標竿、海外公司營運、海外投資組合等、公司治理、人才培養、專業性強化等。[[abstract]]Financial consolidation has become one of the most important trends in the domestic financial industry. According to the result of the “Financial Holding Company Brand Survey” conducted by “Business Week” in 2003, 56% of the respondents did not understand the meaning of financial holding company and among the 23% respondents who claimed to know it, there was 67% of them did not understand the scope of service a financial company provides. In consequences, for the financial holding companies, there are rooms for improving the entire brand images as well as enhancing the brand management. Meanwhile, employees in the financial holding company is one of the factors that affect the overall customer satisfaction so that the brand image of the financial holding company is strongly related to those business units under the financial holding structure. The objectives of this research are as follows: 1. To understand consumers’ attitude towards financial holding company through their channel of recognition and their evaluation of brand images, awareness and personalities. 2. To compare the contents of the brand equities of different financial holding companies and their business units to further understand their competitive advantages/disadvantages, brand positioning and the differences. 3. To establish and develop the core brand value of a financial holding company through understanding its overall service quality, product feature, corporate image and customer brand loyalty. The result of this research reveals that consumers have limited knowledge regarding the concept of financial holding companies or financial groups while the awareness linkage usually comes from the banking service. The consumers’ knowledge sources of financial groups are mainly from the persons providing product services at distribution channels, information from the television and newspapers and friends and family. General speaking, when it comes to the equity of a brand, consumers assume there’s great relativity between the brand and its product and service but what makes the brand image and equity stand out are the performance of forward-thinking and corporate citizenship of a brand. Among financial holding companies and groups this research covers, Chinatrust Financial Holding Company is identified highest in terms of brand awareness and equity mainly due to the considerable exposure of advertisements and the strong support from the banking arm. The concept of financial holding itself is rather vague for the consumers so that the brand equity relativity between financial holding company and the business units other than banks can be quite low. Therefore, competition between banks will be much more fierce and a bank should play the role of mass communication platform in a financial holding company. For each individual financial holding company, it should adopt a two-way approach to enhance the brand equity, which means to increase the depth and breadth of customer contacts for customer acquisition and retention through improving the product positioning and value. On the other hand, a company should improve its brand awareness and visibility to create brand identification through effective media exposure, event and channel allocation. The brand management strategy is developing a clear brand positioning through forging ahead towards charity & friendliness and forward thinking & innovation. On the aspect of charity & friendliness, the practices should focus on developing more customer-oriented products and services, providing tentative and caring services, increasing the events and exposure of charity funds and participating in charity events and issues. On the aspect of forward thinking & innovation, the practices should focus on customer satisfaction study, financial report tracking, new product concept, service innovation, international standard benchmark, overseas expansion and investment portfolio, corporate governance, talent nurturing and professionalism.[[tableofcontents]]表目錄 III 圖目錄 V 第壹章 緒論 1 　　第一節 研究背景與動機 1 　　第二節 研究目的 2 　　第三節 研究流程 3 第貳章 文獻探討 5 　　第一節 品牌及品牌權益 5 　　第二節 品牌識別 13 　　第三節 品牌定位 17 　　第四節 品牌個性 19 　　第五節 品牌形象及忠誠度 22 　　第六節 服務品質 25 　　第七節 金融控股公司 28 第參章 研究設計 35 　　第一節 研究觀念說明 35 　　第二節 操作性定義及變數衡量 37 　　第三節 研究方法 40 　　第四節 問卷設計 44 　　第五節 研究步驟 46 第肆章 資料分析 49 　　第一節 樣本分析 49 　　第二節 個案金控與其子公司品牌關聯 57 　　第三節 金控品牌之核心價值 65 第伍章 結論與建議 69 　　第一節 金控整體分析 69 　　第二節 對個案金控未來品牌經營之建議 71 　　第三節 研究限制及後續研究方向 74 參考文獻 75 附錄一 問卷 80 附錄二 金控或金融集團品牌調查 99 附錄三 金控各子事業品牌調查 110 附錄四 個案金控公司子事業部品牌資產 128 表目錄 表 2-1 五大品牌個性要素20 表 2-2 金融控股公司31 表 2-3 十四家金控版圖32 表 3-1 抽樣分配表42 表 4-1 居住地區及性別之樣本資料分析 50 表 4-2 年齡及婚姻狀況之樣本資料分析 50 表 4-3 家庭型態及工作狀況之樣本資料分析50 表 4-4 教育程度之樣本資料分析51 表 4-5 月平均收入之樣本資料分析51 表 4-6 受訪者金融商品使用狀況53 表 4-7 金控及子事業之問卷各構面之信度分析 53 表 4-8 金控或金融集團品牌資訊來源分析54 表 4-9 金控知名度來源 55 表 4-10 金控及金融集團品牌個性 56 表 4-11 個案金控公司暨其主要子公司品牌表現61 表 4-12 各子事業部品牌資產來源 64 表 4-13 個案金控公司內部員工及重要客戶訪談結果66 表 5-1 個案金控公司SWOT分析 71 表 5-2對個案金控公司未來品牌經營之建議 73 表 A-1 金控知名度分析 99 表 A-2 金控廣告知名度分析 100 表 A-3 金控LOGO知名度 101 表 A-4 金控廣告認知分析 102 表 A-5 金控或金融集團品牌資訊來源分析103 表 A-6 金控知名度認知來源-子事業部 104 表 A-7 金控或金融集團企業形象重要因素分析 104 表 A-8 金控或金融集團企業形象分析 105 表 A-9 金控及金融集團產品服務品質重要因素分析107 表 A-10 受訪者對金控及金融集團產品服務品質的看法108 表 A-11 金控及金融集團品牌個性109 表 B-1 銀行子事業主要競爭者知名度分析 110 表 B-2. 銀行LOGO知名度111 表 B-3 受訪者對銀行的推薦意願 111 表 B-4 銀行子事業企業形象分析113 表 B-5 銀行子事業產品/服務品質分析 114 表 B-6 證券子事業主要競爭者知名度分析 115 表 B-7 證券LOGO知名度116 表 B-8 受訪者對證券的推薦意願116 表 B-9 證券子事業企業形象分析117 表 B-10 證券產品服務品質分析118 表 B-11 壽險子事業主要競爭者知名度分析119 表 B-12 壽險公司LOGO知名度 120 圖目錄 圖 1-1 研究流程圖4 圖 2-1 品牌在金融服務角色的四個層面6 圖 2-2 AAKER品牌權益構面圖7 圖 3-3 KELLER 品牌知識構面圖10 圖 2-4 顧客基礎之品牌權益金字塔(BRAND EQUITY PYRAMID) 12 圖 2-5 品牌識別六稜形構面 14 圖 2-6 定位 17 圖 2-7 金融控股公司架構 29 圖 2-8 國泰人壽品牌識別與意涵33 圖 2-9 兆豐金控品牌示意圖 34 圖 3-1 研究觀念說明36 圖 3-2 金控品牌層級架構48 圖 4-1 個案金控公司關係企業組織圖 59 圖 4-2 個案金控公司品牌資產圖 63 圖 4-3 個案金控公司品牌層級架構 68 圖 A-1 金控及金融集團整體評價106 圖 A-2 受訪者對金控及金融集團產品使用意願106 圖 A-3 受訪者對金控及金融集團相關發展興趣107 圖 B-1 受訪者對銀行往來狀況分析112 圖 B-2 受訪者對銀行品牌忠誠度分析115 圖 B-3 受訪者對證券往來狀況分析 117 圖 B-4 受訪者對證券品牌忠誠度分析119 圖 B-5 受訪者對壽險公司往來狀況分析 121 圖 B-6 受訪者對壽險品牌忠誠度分析123 圖 B-7 受訪者對產物公司往來狀況分析 125 圖 B-8 受訪者對產險公司品牌忠誠度分析 127 圖 C-1 個案金控銀行子事業品牌資產128 圖 C-2 個案金控證券子事業品牌資產129 圖 C-3 個案金控人壽子事業品牌資產 130 圖 C-4 個案金控產險子事業品牌資產131[[note]]學號: 794450287, 學年度: 9