Business Identity Research Articles

Social Enterprises and the Timing of Conception: Organizational Identity Tension, Management, and Marketing

Nonprofit organizations that engage in social enterprises can have difficulty reconciling the social service and business identities of their organization. In this exploratory qualitative interview study, we examine how social enterprises affect this organizational identity tension and how executive directors of nonprofits manage these multiple identities. Findings suggest that identity tension varied dependent upon the timing of conception of the social enterprise. Nonprofit leaders used different approaches to identity management and identity marketing for social enterprises: after conception and social enterprises: at conception. Initial guidance is provided about how nonprofits engaged in social enterprises can manage identity tension issues.

Narratives: a powerful device for values transmission in family businesses

PurposeThis paper seeks to shed light on how core values are successfully transmitted in family businesses via narratives.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative‐interpretive approach is used. Data were collected through in‐depth interviews made to 17 family members from three family businesses of different ages, sizes, industries, and generations in control. The richness of these interviews, besides its depth and length, emerges from the complete picture formed by the comparison of the stories told by different generations.FindingsResults suggest that narratives are a powerful device for transmitting values through generations. By telling stories, family businesses are able to build identity and shared meanings which led to successful performance in terms of revenues, reputation, shared identity, and continuity of the family business history.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is exploratory. Further studies focusing on failure in transmitting values could enhance and expand emerging results. Deepening on values transmission may be a key research opportunity for general conceptualization.Originality/valueThe paper raises interesting issues for the family business literature within the context of values, an important yet understudied topic in the field. It also contributes to narrative theory by highlighting the usefulness of narratives as a vehicle for values transmission.

North American Willow Cut-stem Growers: A Survey of the Business Identities, Production Practices, and Prospective for the Crop

To assess the current state of willow (Salix) cultivation for specialty cut flower production, a mail survey following the tailored design method polled willow growers in North America (n = 52). The instrument posed questions on business identity and cultural practices, including plant spacing, fertilization, irrigation, and pruning methods. A 69% response rate was achieved. The general grower profile was of a specialty cut flower producer with multiple years of experience growing willows. For the majority of respondents, willow was a supplemental source of income, complementing a larger product selection of woody and herbaceous species for cut flower production with annual sales for the crop of less than $25,000. The majority of producers had a generally positive outlook on this crop as growers expressed strong support for the importance of willow in their product selection, for customer satisfaction, as well as for future intentions to increase production acreage, and even to extend seasonal markets. However, the non-scientific nature of willow production was revealed by wide variations in basic cultural practices and by very limited use of scientific plant names by the growers and frequent inability to accurately identify their selections, as well as the identification of growers' own personal experience as a main source of knowledge. The results of this survey helped researchers to identify a set of questions to improve the understanding of the fundamentals of willow production through the development of precise commercial production practices, standardization of variety names, and stimulation of further development of this crop through market expansion.

Family business leadership transition: How an adaptation of executive coaching may help

AbstractWithin the traditional business organizational climate in which an executive coach operates, the identity of ‘the coached’ (coachee) can be quite clearly differentiated from the business identity. This is not the case within the world of family business, where the incumbent family business leader, the successor, the business and the family culture, are interwoven. This unique feature of family business means that, for executive coaching to be effective within the family business environment, a radically different approach to that used in traditional business environments must be adopted – namely, the consideration of what generally are thought of as noneconomic variables. This article represents a first attempt to effectively address the key and unique variables executive coaches need to know to work within the family business environment.

Family business leadership transition: How an adaptation of executive coaching may help

AbstractWithin the traditional business organizational climate in which an executive coach operates, the identity of ‘the coached’ (coachee) can be quite clearly differentiated from the business identity. This is not the case within the world of family business, where the incumbent family business leader, the successor, the business and the family culture, are interwoven. This unique feature of family business means that, for executive coaching to be effective within the family business environment, a radically different approach to that used in traditional business environments must be adopted – namely, the consideration of what generally are thought of as noneconomic variables. This article represents a first attempt to effectively address the key and unique variables executive coaches need to know to work within the family business environment.

Images of Government, Business, and Citizen Identity in the United States

AbstractThis paper presents a country profile of the United States using data from the AsiaBarometer (2008) survey. I first examine how citizens see themselves, their government and big business. My findings show that Americans remain ambivalent toward politics, their government, and big business. Citizens overwhelmingly support democracy as a political system and are satisfied with a broad range of specific democratic rights, but, at the same time, they complain about the workings of their democratic system, policy output, and many distrust government and big business. I then examine the role citizens play in politics, analyzing who participates and why.

Contractual and relational family firm governance: Substitution or complementarity?

In this paper we argue that substantial weaknesses in corporate governance structures may be responsible for the pervasive failure of family firms to survive into the next generation. Aiming to improve extant knowledge on governance of family-owned enterprises that might boost their prosperity and longevity, we advance an integrative conceptual model which builds on boundary theory premises and accounts for the interdependencies among multiple governance arrangements. In particular, we suggest that the choice of an optimal governance configuration is dependent upon the way family firms manage the boundaries between their family and business identities. By combining contractual and relational devices of family firm governance into a single study, our model seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate in the literature regarding the existence of substitution effects and complementarity between alternative governance mechanisms.

Family Business, Identity Conflict, and an Expedited Entrepreneurial Process: A Process of Resolving Identity Conflict

Drawing on Identity Control Theory (ICT) and the literature on social identity, we offer a model of the dynamics associated with competing family and business identities brought into conflict by “family–business” events. We introduce the notion of the family–business role as a distinct identity functioning at the intersection of family and business identities. This meta–level identity “manages” conflict between the family and the business identities, and is formulated and transformed within the family structure. To illustrate the dynamics of the family–business meta–identity, in this article we focus on entrepreneurial opportunities as potentially identity conflict–triggering events and illustrate how and with what impact the meta–identity works to resolve identity conflict at the intersection of family and business so as to expedite the entrepreneurial process. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our model.

Family business leadership transition: How an adaptation of executive coaching may help

Within the traditional business organizational climate in which an executive coach operates, the identity of ‘the coached’ (coachee) can be quite clearly differentiated from the business identity. This is not the case within the world of family business, where the incumbent family business leader, the successor, the business and the family culture, are interwoven. This unique feature of family business means that, for executive coaching to be effective within the family business environment, a radically different approach to that used in traditional business environments must be adopted – namely, the consideration of what generally are thought of as noneconomic variables. This article represents a first attempt to effectively address the key and unique variables executive coaches need to know to work within the family business environment.

The Political Roots of Small Business Identity

A divided and largely hapless small business lobby failed to advocate effectively on behalf of small firms in the post-New Deal era. While interest-group scholars have accepted collective action-based arguments for patterns of under-mobilization, this article challenges conventional wisdom by examining historical and institutional causes of small business political fragmentation. It shows a fractured small business community emerging out of the populist era, and subsequent policy developments institutionalizing divisions and rivalries among competing factions. During the New Deal, when opportunities arose to forge a new consensus among small business groups, policymakers instead followed old scripts and reinforced received identities. Consequently, small business never came to occupy an important space in the post-New Deal political order.

Reinventing human resource management: Business partners, internal consultants and the limits to professionalization

The status of human resource management (HRM) and its standing as a managerial profession has been a recurring concern for practitioners over time. In recent years, a normative discourse has developed which asserts that the path to improved status for HR `professionals' involves reinvention of their role as `business partners' and `internal consultants' promoting enterprise competitiveness. This article examines how HR managers interpret this new role and whether the internalization of this model results in an increase in professional identity. The findings suggest that while many gain greater self-esteem and organizational status from the identity and role of business partner/internal consultant, this does not equate to a broader identity as a member of an HR `profession'. Two developments are central here. First, the focus on the business partner/ internal consultancy role has served to undermine any pretence to a unitary and cohesive occupational identity, as the bifurcation between routine transactional and strategic transformational activities encourages competition within the HR profession between different sub-groupings. Second, this strategy of redefinition has reduced the entry barriers demarcating HR activities and facilitated the entry of new occupational groups and rival managerial specialisms.

Governing by Managing Identity Boundaries: The Case of Family Businesses

In this paper we illustrate how boundary theory can be a useful perspective to understand the dynamics of family businesses. We integrate insights from the family business literature with the work–family and identity boundary literatures to describe degrees of integration between the family and business identities in family firms and outline contingencies that influence this integration. We also develop the notion of “differential permeability” as a state of being both integrated and segmented on various aspects of identity and articulate costs and benefits to this state, as well as to high integration and high segmentation. Finally, we invoke the research on “boundary work” as a means of managing family business boundaries and conclude by outlining additional avenues of research that stem from using such a boundary theory lens.

Branding the business marketing offer: exploring brand attributes in business markets

PurposeThe paper seeks to provide a framework identifying key attributes that business marketers can use to build a strong brand identity.Design/methodology/approachThe article is theoretical with case examples.FindingsDrawing upon the business marketing offer, five potential strategies for building brands in business markets are outlined.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies a contingent approach to brand identity in business markets.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to identify a relationship between positioning, the buying process and brand identity in business markets.

The Dilemma of Growth: Understanding Venture Size Choices of Women Entrepreneurs

In recent years the number of women‐owned firms with employees has expanded at three times the rate of all employer firms. Yet women remain underrepresented in their proportion of high‐growth firms. A number of plausible explanations exist. To develop richer insights, a two‐stage research project was undertaken. A mail survey was sent to a sample of female entrepreneurs to assess motives, obstacles, goals and aspirations, needs, and business identity. Based on the survey results, follow‐up, in‐depth interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs, selecting equally from modest‐growth and high‐growth ventures. In terms of quantitative findings, growth orientation was associated with whether a woman was “pushed” or “pulled” into entrepreneurship, was motivated by wealth or achievement factors, had a strong women's identity in the venture, had equity partners, and believed women faced unique selling obstacles. The qualitative research made clear that modest‐ and high‐growth entrepreneurs differ in how they view themselves, their families, their ventures, and the larger environment. The results of both stages suggest that growth is a deliberate choice and that women have a clear sense of the costs and benefits of growth and make careful trade‐off decisions.

The moral advantage: how to succeed in business by doing the right thing

Introduction: Purpose and Success in Business 1. Leading Lights 2. The Moral Advantage 3. Moral Imagination: Acts of Creation 4. Moral Imagination: Role-taking, Empathy, and the Golden Rule 5. Real Ethics 6. Real Philanthropy 7. Forging a Moral Identity in Business

New public management reform and the construction of organizational identities

An underlying and fundamental aim of the new public management (NPM) reform program is to transform the organizational identity of public organizations into a business‐like identity. In this paper the construction of organizational identity as an effect of NPM initiatives is analyzed from a sensemaking perspective. The study draws on data from a two‐and‐a‐half‐year study of the introduction of NPM at the public health care authority in the region of Värmland in Sweden. It is concluded that NPM creates heterogeneous, conflicting and fluid organizational identities rather than the uniform and stable business identity it is supposed to.

Corporate identity, corporate branding and corporate marketing ‐ Seeing through the fog

Outlines 15 explanations for the fog which has enveloped the nascent domains of corporate identity and corporate marketing. However, the fog surrounding the area has a silver lining. This is because the fog has, unwittingly, led to the emergence of rich disciplinary, philosophical as well as “national”, schools of thought. In their composite, these approaches have the potential to form the foundations of a new approach to management which might be termed “corporate marketing”. In addition to articulating the author’s understanding of the attributes regarding a business identity (the umbrella label used to cover corporate identity, organisational identification and visual identity) the author outlines the characteristics of corporate marketing and introduces a new corporate marketing mix based on the mnemonic “HEADS”[2]. This relates to what an organisation has, expresses, the affinities of its employees, as well as what the organisation does and how it is seen by stakeholder groups and networks. In addition, the author describes the relationship between the corporate identity and corporate brand and notes the differences between product brands and corporate brands. Finally, the author argues that scholars need to be sensitive to the factors that are contributing to the fog surrounding corporate identity. Only then will business identity/corporate marketing studies grow in maturity.

A Grounded Theory Model of the Ideal Business Image for Women

Recent changes in women's business identities present an opportunity to explore the social meanings conveyed by dress in a specific and changing context. Using a grounded theory approach, interview data from twenty‐four business women were analyzed for recurrent themes. These women felt they could choose from a variety of dress images in order to express appropriate or socially acceptable meanings, including credibility and competence in business. A dynamic, multi‐dimensional model of the meanings comprising an “ideal” image for business women is proposed. These meanings include conservatism, fashion, masculinity, femininity/sexuality, creativity, and conformity. The meanings are conceptualized as approximately opposing forces causing tensions, thus requiring conscious balancing by business women. Each meaning has an extreme which can endanger the credibility of the wearer. The balance of meanings is mediated by several contextual factors.

The Platform Organization: Recombining Strategies, Structures, and Surprises

The global technology strategy of Olivetti, a leading European computer firm, is analyzed over the last decade in order to illustrate how high-tech firms undergo transformations which not only tend to destroy their best core competencies, but also affect their very business identity. Task uncertainty is so pronounced that conventional ways of looking at the organizational structures and processes, such as the transaction costs approach or the strategy-structure link, need to be amended in favor of a more dynamic perspective. Such a perspective looks at organizations as platforms, or contexts, out of which specific structures arc extracted, tried out and discarded in a pragmatic manner. A platform is a meta-organization, a formative context that molds structures, and routines shaping them into well-known forms, such as the hierarchy, the matrix and even the network, but on a highly volatile basis. Hence, the platform organization may appear to be confused and inefficient but its value lies in its readiness to sport whatever organizational form is required under the circumstances Platforms are characterized by surprises, and organization members, no matter how they see them-selves after the fact, are busy improvising and tinkering. Drawing on similar studies carried out in Silicon Valley, one can draw the conclusion that high-tech firms can survive if they are smart at doing what “savages do daily,” i.e., bricolage.

Trends, symbols and brand power in global markets: The business anthropology approach

Brand image is no longer a marginal dimension of business, but the very core of business identity and strategy. With a world culture evolving, customers everywhere respond to images, myths, and metaphors that help them define their personal and national identities and relationships within a global context of world culture and product benefits.