Firm Identity Research Articles

Exploring the Role of Religious Rituals in Family Firm Identity Work: An Ethnographic Study

Exploring the Role of Religious Rituals in Family Firm Identity Work: An Ethnographic Study

Insights from the COVID-19 perspective on the necessity of corporate social responsibility in times of crisis in the context of Pakistan.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a notable increase in global awareness among businesses and consumers regarding environmental preservation and health concerns. The degree to which individuals identify with an organization is influenced by the appeal of its organizational identity, which aids in fulfilling important self-definitional needs. Nevertheless, there remains a limited understanding regarding the underlying factors that contribute to the phenomenon of firm identity attraction (IA) within the framework of consumer-business interactions. This study presents a validated framework that examines the antecedents of identity attraction, with COVID-19 being considered as a moderator. The framework is developed based on established theories of social identity and organizational identification. The study in Pakistan's cities utilized a questionnaire survey as its primary research method, while the findings were evaluated through the application of structural equation modelling. The results of our study indicate that the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm Identity Attraction (IA) is significantly more pronounced. Although the impact of COVID-19 on the intention to purchase remains unaffected, it does play a favorable role in moderating the influence of CSR on the attraction towards brand.

Accessible Education for Muslim Learners with Disabilities: Insights from Two Case Studies

This qualitative research studied the perceptions of Muslim Learners with Disabilities (MLWD) and key informants regarding access to education utilizing case studies and thematic coding. MLWDs strongly identified with their faith as an important feature of identity. Participants were framing disability using the Islamic and the bio-medical perspectives which affirmed the synchronization of Islam with science as well as the affirmation model of disability which viewed persons with disabilities as active participants who constructed their own definitions of disability. Important elements in gaining greater access to education are: having a firm identity, parental attitudes, involvement in the child’s education, having sufficient funds, and providing a nurturing home and community. However, having grit can offset a low parental level of education, low socio-economic status, and low home and community support so that MLWDs can have greater access to education.

Adolescent mental well-being, religion and family activities: a cross-sectional study (Northern Ireland Schools and Wellbeing Study)

ObjectivesIn this study, we seek to explore the relationship between adolescent mental well-being, religion and family activities among a school-based adolescent sample from Northern Ireland.SettingThe Northern Ireland Schools and Wellbeing...

Ceasing to communicate public family firm identity: the decoupling of internally experienced and externally communicated identities

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore how the family firm identity is affected when it is no longer publicly communicated.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach was used to follow a third-generation family business, a large Swedish home electronics firm that acquired a competitor and, initially, continued using its family firm identity after the acquisition. This study longitudinally tracks the company and its owning family using archival data combined with interviews.FindingsThe case company decided to stop communicating their identity as a family business. Such a move initially appears counterintuitive, since it potentially threatens the family firm identity and leads the firm to forgo other advantages, e.g. in branding. However, the decision was based on arguments that were rational from a business perspective, leading to a decoupling of family and firm identity.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by showing a decoupling of internally experienced and externally communicated identities. It further contributes to the understanding of the family firm identity concept.

Anything but Sony! Meshworking, identity multiplicity and the emergence of portable music players

This article explores the temporal processes through which firm identity emerges over time, and how the becoming of a firm's identity orients actors towards specific strategic pathways. Drawing on a historical case study of Sony and its development of consumer music technologies from the Walkman to digital music players (mp3), we present an alternative, processual framing of network relations through the ever-extending tangle of the meshwork. By introducing a meshwork-lens to the question of identity in business networks we emphasise the importance of a dynamic and complex identity multiplicity in shaping the action not only of the firm itself, but also in giving rise to the conditions for others to thrive. In doing so, we advance a processual approach to business networks and address the relatively undertheorized understanding of the temporal dynamics of identity in the IMP literature.

Towards a Socio-Cognitive View on Digital Platform Firms: An Organizational Identity Perspective

In this paper we induce novel theory on the idiosyncratic nature and consequences of organizational identity in digital platform firms—i.e., intermediaries enabling interaction between market sides—such as Uber or Airbnb. Specifically, based on an inductive multi-case study, we distill four archetypes of organizational identities of digital platform firms, characterized by organization members’ idiosyncratic construals of their firm’s domain identity, i.e., traditional or transformative, and role identity, i.e., facilitator or connector, respectively: traditional facilitator, transformative facilitator, traditional connector, and transformative connector. We further induce nomological propositions as to how identity-infused patterns of interpretation render these firms to differ regarding their predominant multi-sided customer understanding and organizational structure as well as the openness of their platform design. Overall, we contribute by introducing a socio-cognitive perspective of digital platform firms, which enhances and challenges the so far predominantly transactional view on this central phenomenon of the digital economy, and show how this perspective opens up new ways to describe and explain differences between digital platforms. In particular, our organizational identity lens and thereon based theoretical framework provide hitherto unexplored cues into explaining interfirm variance in central elements of digital platform structure and patterns of behavior. Keywords: Digital platform; digital transformation; ecosystem; organizational identity; multi-sided market

Untangling Goal Tensions in Family Firms: A Sensemaking Approach

AbstractWhile economic and non‐economic goals may converge in the long term, they often lead to tensions for organizational decision‐makers in the short term, especially in family firms that place much emphasis on family‐related goals. We draw on a sensemaking approach to investigate such potential tensions in the decision‐making of family firms. Based on a qualitative analysis of 59 interviews, 501 items of archival data and 39 observations from eight private Irish firms, we explore the perceived goal tensions of family firm decision‐makers as they seek to balance economic and non‐economic goals. We identify three sensemaking mechanisms – ensuring continuity in the family firm, preserving family cohesion, and delegating responsibilities to trusted advisors – that assist family firm decision‐makers in managing these goal tensions. Moreover, we identify that sensegiving based on three different values – sense of commitment, community embeddedness, and family firm identity – helps family firm decision‐makers to justify and communicate their decisions. Our model contributes to a more granular understanding of the management of goal tensions and of decision‐making in family firms by going beyond the question of whether family firms prioritize economic or non‐economic; instead, it reveals concrete processes showing how firms balance and aim to incorporate both goals. Furthermore, we advance knowledge on sensemaking in family firms by revealing how sensemaking can explain idiosyncratic family firm behaviour and by showing how family firm decision‐makers use specific values when ‘giving sense’ to justify their decisions.

Family Business and Creation of Brand Communities

Background: Brand management is an important factor in every business, especially in family businesses. Through brands, firms can build and communicate their reputation with their stakeholders. For family businesses, revealing the family identity in branding influences both the internal and external stakeholders of the family businesses. There is a lot of evidence that shows the relationship between family businesses and their stakeholders, but limited studies are showing how these family business branding creates a community among its stakeholders. Purpose: The focus of the paper is to identify the variables that influences how family business branding creates communities among its different stakeholders, considering all stakeholders such as customers, employees, suppliers, and society holistically. Methods: The study used a secondary data collection approach based on the family business perspectives found in existing literature on how family businesses contribute to the creation of a community and influence the formation of a brand community. Results: Different studies show the connection between these revelations of family brand identity and the impact on the creation of a community among its stakeholders. Family firms differ from other non-family businesses in the creation of a family firm identity, bringing trust, reputation, image, authenticity, and integrity and influence behavior among internal and external stakeholders.

Determinants of Accounts Level and Entity Level Key Audit Matters: Further Evidence

ABSTRACT We examine firm-specific factors (firm life cycle, firm size, complexity, litigation risks, intangible intensity), audit-specific factors (audit firm, audit fee, non-audit fee) and auditor-specific factors (auditor’s experience, specialization, gender and accounting degree), as determinants of the number of KAMs, account-level KAMs (ALKAMs), and entity-level KAMs (ELKAMs) for a sample of Australian firms. Our findings suggest that KAMs’ disclosure varies based on client firm-specific characteristics, audit firm-specific characteristics and audit partners’ characteristics. We find that firms’ life cycle, size, complexity, intangible intensity, audit firm identity, audit fees, auditors’ specialization, experience, gender and accounting degree affect the number and types of KAMs’ disclosure. Our findings negate the concern of stereotyping in KAMs disclosures and suggest that KAMs’ disclosure varies based on many contextual factors. Our findings have important implications for audit firms, corporate boards, investors and regulators.

Firm identity and image: Strategic intent and antecedents to sustainability reporting

A firm’s strategic intent is often communicated through its vision, mission, and values statements. By linking sustainability with strategic intent (Galpin, Whittington, & Bell, 2015), firms seek to portray to their stakeholders (Ali, Frynas, & Mahmood, 2017; Papoutsi & Sodhi, 2020) that sustainability is a core part of their long-term goal. But there is limited research about whether publicly avowed sustainability messaging matches firms actual conduct reflected in their sustainability reports (Amran, Lee, & Devi, 2014). Content analysis of the vision, mission, and values statements of firms comprising the S&P/TSX composite index in 2020, and regression modelling tested whether firms’ that communicate their corporate social responsibility intentions, sustainable image, and sustainable identity in their vision, mission, and values statements are also more likely to engage in sustainability reporting. We find that firms were more likely to report, and at greater levels, on their sustainable activities when they message their strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) intent. However, including external stakeholders when messaging about their CSR intent has a greater effect than the inclusion of internal stakeholders suggesting these firms are keener to portray a sustainable image than creating a sustainable identity. This result has implications for the successful implementation of sustainability strategies by these firms

Family ownership, family identity of CEO, and accounting conservatism: evidence from Taiwan

ABSTRACT This study investigates how variations in family ownership configurations and family identity of the CEO affect family firms’ accounting conservatism in the East Asian economy, Taiwan. To address this objective, this study extends the traditional agency perspective and employs a socioemotional wealth framework. Findings document that family ownership is positively associated with family firms’ accounting conservatism, whereas the degree of disparity between family cash flow and voting rights is negatively related to accounting conservatism. Additionally, family firms with a founder CEO are more likely to report conservatively than those with a descendent CEO. Our study expands the growing literature on how family owners’ corporate governance features affect financial reporting decisions.

The role of tradition for food and wine producing firms in times of an unprecedented crisis

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is twofold. First, the study will investigate the importance of tradition for businesses operating during the COVID-19 crisis, notably, as a valuable proposition and strategy. Second, the study seeks to advance theoretical understanding, proposing two frameworks based upon emerging dimensions, the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey gathered the views of 107 predominantly micro and small-scale owner-manager and family-owned firms involved in the food and wine sector. These participants are based in Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries in the crisis.FindingsThree fundamental dimensions emerge from the findings. The first, “embedded advantage”, concerns firms' more direct involvement and tradition-related actions. The second, “active advantage”, highlights the already established value of tradition, for example, through firm identity gained, well-established roots and firm culture. The third dimension, “strategic fusion”, underscores the importance of upgrading the business model, where innovation complements tradition strategically.Originality/valueThe study's revealed dimensions provide new conceptual perspectives to understand tradition in the context of firms confronting an unprecedented event. The first proposed theoretical framework illustrates that firms appear to mainly rely on tradition as the fundamental pillar of their overall strategy. Additionally, other firms engage in actions to consolidate tradition's strategic significance, while others embrace innovation to further strengthen their competitiveness. The second framework emphasises relations between these dimensions and key attributes associated with the two adopted theoretical foundations, where the need to “reconfigure tradition” clearly emerges.

Segmental Volatility in Ethnically Divided Societies: (Re)assessing Party System Stability in Southeast Europe

AbstractThis article examines the role of ethnicity and ethnic parties as stabilizing factors in Southeast European party systems. It compares two ethnically divided countries in Southeast Europe: Bosnia and Herzegovina, where ethnic identities that form the political cleavage are firm, and Montenegro, where they are malleable. Theoretically, it addresses the debate between scholars who either find stability or instability in East European post-communist party systems. The article traces the role of ethnicity in the formation and development of electoral contests and compares the two cases by utilizing measures of block volatility, based on analysis of official electoral data. We argue that party systems in ethnically diverse countries are stable at the subsystems level, but unstable within them. In BiH, firm ethnic identity stabilizes the party system by limiting competition between blocks, leading to closure. Malleable ethnic identity in Montenegro opens competition to non-ethnic parties seeking to bridge ethnic divisions, leading to more instability. We find that party system dynamics in ethnically divided new democracies depend on identity rigidity and cleavage salience, in addition to levels of heterogeneity.

Beyond the circular economy theory: Implementation methodology for industrial SMEs

Purpose: The circular economy has multiple benefits and opportunities to achieve sustainability and a better future for the next generations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a methodology that guides step-by-step any industrial SMEs in the transition from the linear to a circular model. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a crucial role in the sustainable development transition, considering that they represent most of the world's companies.Design/methodology/approach: To develop this methodology, two research techniques were used: a focus group and storyboarding.Findings: The resulting methodology, called Ecopyme, comprises five steps: 1) Firm identity, 2) Diagnosis, 3) Planning, 4) Get the ball rolling, and 5) Assessment and feedback. In addition, two key criteria that must be included in the whole process were identified: value creation in the firm through a circular economy and organization commitment from the top management to the staff.Research limitations/implications: The Ecopyme methodology has two limitations: It does not propose either implementation tools or involve consumers and actors at the meso (e.g., Eco-industrial parks) and macro (e.g., cities, provinces, countries) levels.Practical implications: This study will help policymakers understand the SMEs' perspective and remove barriers that may hinder the paradigm shift. The methodology is also a useful tool for consultants and entrepreneurs to incorporate the circular economy (CE) principles into their business.Originality/value: In the CE literature, little attention has been paid to proposing a structured methodology to implement CE in SMEs. Thus, the study provides a step-by-step methodology that guides any industrial SMEs to transition from linear to circular. Also, it provides additional evidence concerning the importance of human commitment in changing firms' paradigm because people can encourage the adoption of responsible production practices if firms commit CEOs, sustainability managers, and staff.

Social Perception and Urbanscape Identity of Flagship Cultural Developments in Szczecin (in the Re-Urbanization Context)

A growing number of urban interventions, such as culture-led regeneration strategies, has emerged alongside growing awareness of the concept of re-urbanization. These interventions evolve to create a holistic urban vision, with aims to promote social cohesion and strengthen local identity as opposed to traditional goals of measuring the economic impact of new cultural developments. Szczecin’s, Poland urban strategy is focused on the expansion of culture—a condition for improving the quality of life and increasing the city’s attractiveness. This article assesses the potential for re-urbanization of Szczecin’s flagship cultural developments. Questionnaire surveys and qualitative research methods were used to assess the characteristics that distinguish cultural projects in the formal, location-related, functional, and symbolic layers, as well as examining their social perception. The results show that the strength of these indicators of urbanscape identity affects how the cultural developments are assessed by the society. Semiotic coherence and functional complexity of the structures have a significant impact on the sense of identification, while their monumentality and exposure contribute to the assessment of the impact on their surroundings. A development with a firm identity, embedded in the city’s tradition not only preserves the cultural heritage of the city but also makes inhabitants feel association with the new project.

Do Firms Exploit Mispricing of Their Stock in Their Financing Decisions? Evidence from the Share Lending Market

Short sale constrained stocks are overpriced on average. I use borrowing fees, utilization, and IHS Markit’s DCBS measure as proxies for overpricing. I show that the likelihood that a firm conducts an SEO increases with measures of short sale constraints associated with overpricing even after adjusting for firm identity, excess cash, firm age, and past stock returns. Stocks underperform after an SEO if but only if they were short sale constrained. Firms are far more likely to repurchase shares if the stock is not hard-to-borrow. When firms repurchase hard-to-borrow shares, the firm is usually right and shorts are usually wrong.

Econometric Methods in Staples

Econometrics played a major role in the investigation and litigation of the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) successful challenge to the proposed merger between two office superstore chains, Staples and Office Depot. Our goal in writing this essay is to describe the econometric issues at stake in evaluating the FTC's central claim that the price charged by office supply superstores was related to the number and identity of superstore firms participating in the market. Similar statistical models were relied upon by the FTC and the merging firms to analyze pricing. Our discussion of these models highlights the advantages and disadvantages of alternative approaches to analyzing a panel data set: cross-sectional estimates versus fixed effects estimates. We also describe and evaluate modeling choices that appeared to have substantial influence on the empirical results.

The CEO identity of sovereign wealth funds and target firms' performance

The impact of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) on target firms' performance is unclear. Previous empirical studies find conflicting evidence, with some documenting a positive impact and others finding a negative impact on target firms' performance. In contrast to previous researchers, we include in the sample both listed and unlisted targets and reconsider the classification of political influence on SWF managerial decisions, observing the identity of the CEO rather than using the Truman score. We identify a 'political CEO' as such if s/he is a political officer or a former political officer or if s/he belongs to the same family as a political officer. Using a sample of 226 deals, we find evidence of an impact of SWF investments on target firms' performance. The presence of a political CEO has a positive impact on target firms' profitability, showing that closer ties to political power play an important role.

The CEO identity of sovereign wealth funds and target firms' performance

The CEO identity of sovereign wealth funds and target firms' performance