Purpose – This paper investigates what organisations perceive as the essential components of corporate identity concept and their contents. It proposes an operational definition of corporate identity on the basis of the practitioners' views. Design/methodology/approach – The information was gathered through 32 in-depth interviews with managers from different organisations (mainly multinational companies) and an analysis of corporate literature and web sites. The initial analysis is based on a multidisciplinary categorisation developed by the first author, which facilitated the systematic analysis of a wide range of components (e.g. corporate communication, corporate design, corporate culture etc.) associated with corporate identity. Findings – The study shows that there is a considerable divergence in opinions concerning the fundamental components of corporate identity among practitioners. Most interviewees heavily associated identity with the areas of corporate design, communication, behaviour and strategy whereas there was no unanimous agreement as to whether or not corporate culture was a product or determinant of corporate identity. Research limitations/implications – Developing sub-items and their measures for each dimension presented in the proposed definition and examining the possible relationships between them might be the further step. Also additional empirical research which considers consequences of corporate identity management in relation to company performance indicators could enhance overall understanding of the concept. Practical implications – Senior company management can use the categorisation discussed in this paper as a starting point for development of corporate identity management strategies. Originality/value – Recategorisation of Melewar's corporate identity dimensions, which help define corporate identity concept in measurable terms.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the corporate identity concept. This investigation initially provides a brief review of the literature and clarification of the various components of the corporate identity concept. Then, through a series of in-depth interviews with 32 individuals from twenty different organisations in different industries, it aims to develop an understanding of the benefits organisations believe can be derived from a strong identity. The study shows that many practitioners and academics believe that a virtuous corporate identity is pivotal to their success. Many interviewees stated that the benefits of a strong and positive corporate identity could boost employee motivation, increase the ability of the organisation to recruit and retain high quality employees, provide a strong base for organisational culture in the event of mergers and acquisitions, increase transparency of business practices, bring competitive advantage, help to develop better relationships with other businesses and aid investment into the company. The study recommends that businesses should try to develop systematic methods of measuring and managing their corporate identity.

Purpose – By drawing on theories of social identity, attraction, social comparison and consumer identification, this research seeks to examine how consumers' perceptions of other customers of an organisation (the other customer effect) may have an influence on corporate image and consumer-company identification. This study aims to test a model integrating these constructs in two contexts, i.e. products and services. It also seeks to investigate the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of a favourable corporate image in order to provide more insights to the argument that a corporate marketing approach helps to enhance marketing performance. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of a convenience sample of 383 adult consumers is conducted. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is employed in order to test the proposed model. An alternative model is examined both in products and in services contexts. Findings – The results indicate that perceptions about other customers influence customers' affective and behavioural reactions towards a company for both products and services. This finding suggests that corporate-level marketing activities aiming to increase interaction among consumers lead to favourable corporate image and higher consumer-company identification and hence desirable marketing outcomes. Furthermore, results show that for services the other customer effect is more prominent than for product offerings. Originality/value – This study extends the concept of other customer effect to the context of corporate image and consumer-company identification studies. It provides evidence that shifting towards corporate-level marketing gives organisations another avenue for gaining a distinct position in the minds of consumers. Furthermore, by addressing both service and product contexts, it shows that other customer effect may exist beyond services studies.

This study explores the relationship between value co-creation (VCC), guests’ perceived justice and guests’ enjoyment. Cognitive appraisal theory and justice theory are used to explain these relationships. Different dimensions of VCC such as knowledge sharing, equity, interaction, personalization, experience and relationship are investigated in this study. Partial least square Structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses using data from 365 hotel guests recruited through Prolific. VCC has a positive relationship with guests’ enjoyment through two mediators, the perceived distributive and the interactional justice. This study contributes to the literature of VCC by proposing justice theory as a cognitive process that can partially explain guests’ enjoyment when they adopt an active ‘working' role to undertake value-creating activities.