Enduring or discrete? Organizational identity construction on social media

Karolina Mania, Aneta Kuźniarska, Monika Jedynak, Karolina Maria Woszczyna and Wojciech Czakon

Central European Management Journal, 2026, vol. 34, issue 1, 131-148

Abstract: PurposeDigital transformation impacts not only what organizations do and how they do it but also how they are perceived. Differently from prior research on digital transformation, our study focuses on organizational identity to understand how professional service construes their digital organizational identity.Design/methodology/approachWe purposefully select top 25 largest law firms operating in Poland, collect a dataset of 768 posts and examine this social media content first by coding, next by thematically structuring and finally through a frequency analysis. We identify the target stakeholders, the values, the social media awareness and topical coverage used by the firms in our sample.FindingsWe find that social media are used to engage both with external and internal stakeholders. Importantly, digital organizational identity construction on social media is a scattered and discrete process as compared to long-term, sustained and enduring processes observable for offline organizational identity.Originality/valueOur findings have vast ramifications for organizational identity theorizing and substantial managerial implications. We provide guidance on adequately shaping digital transformation through the lens of a digital identity professional service firms need to purposefully create.

Keywords: Social media; Organizational identity; Digital identity; Digital transformation; Professional service firms; Legal firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:cemjpp:cemj-10-2025-0338

DOI: 10.1108/CEMJ-10-2025-0338

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