Performative corporate brand identity in industrial markets: The case of German prosthetics manufacturer Ottobock

Samuel Kristal, Carsten Baumgarth and Jörg Henseler

Journal of Business Research, 2020, vol. 114, issue C, 240-253

Abstract: The assumption that corporate brand identity is an internal creation is increasingly challenged by recently published research, which discusses identity as an ongoing social process of co-creation. The majority of the resulting insights relate to business-to-consumer brands and the relevance of brand identity co-creation to business-to-business branding remains largely undiscovered, even though the notions of interrelation between company and stakeholders are more intense in industrial settings. The purpose of the paper is to understand how a company and its corporate culture, behaviour, brand management and communication approach have to change over time to allow for corporate brand identity co-creation. This paper explores the individual case of a world-leading German prosthetic-technology company. Analysing the branding process over the period 1988 to 2018, we identified four phases in the transformation of corporate brand identity from internally governed to a nested system of identities.

Keywords: Corporate brand identity co-creation; Performativity theory; Business-to-business branding; Case study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:114:y:2020:i:c:p:240-253

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.04.026

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