An Exploratory Study on the Impact of Organizational Learning on Corporate Branding

Abstract

This research brings together the concepts of corporate branding and organizational learning in order to develop the competitive advantage of an organization. Corporate brand management has increasingly been seen as a strategic key issue from the point of view of shareholders / owners, top management and other stakeholders. This is due to the fact that in the ever increasingly turbulent, dynamic and competitive markets, corporate brands are ways of creating trust, stability, and differentiation in the market. Organizational learning prioritizes the creation and acquisition of new knowledge, and emphasizes the role of people in the creation and utilization of that knowledge. In this way, organizational learning presents an important route to performance, success and competitive advantage for the organizations. The strategic marketing literature reflects a growing interest in the role of competitive environment on a firm's marketing strategy and performance. Drawing on organizational learning theory and strategic choice theory, it is argued that a firm's strategic adaptation occurs through managerial perceptions of its corporate identity, which then contributes towards its corporate branding. The focus of this research paper is on exploring the impact of organizational learning on corporate branding of the firm. While the importance of these issues has been widely accepted, to date the linkages between organizational culture, learning, corporate branding and corporate identity have scarcely been examined together in the literature, particularly from an empirical perspective. There is some evidence that organizational learning is associated with employee commitment to enhance the corporate brands, but only a few studies have focused on the effect of culture and learning on corporate identity and corporate branding. This research paper explores the relationship between the two broad concepts, with empirical research on data collected from 5 retail organizations within the UK market.