Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Business Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres
Technology, brand and people: Branding, identity, image and reputation in the emerging
technology-mediated world
1. Editorial
Brand management is increasing in importance among academics
and practitioners, especially in the light of continuing trends and dif-
fusions of new technologies (i.e., social media, mobile apps, augmented
reality, artificial intelligence among others). Indeed, new technologies
can enhance the corporate marketing communications (Passavanti,
Pantano, Priporas, & Verteramo, 2020). For instance, artificial in-
telligence might lead to more personalized forms of engagement with
consumers (Kumar, Rajan, Venkatesh, & Lecinski, 2019); celebrities and
influencers in social media might enhance brand credibility and influ-
ence consumers buying behaviours (Hussain, Melewar, Priporas,
Foroudi, & Dennis, 2020; Stubb & Colliander, 2019); while the usage of
certain mobile apps and functionalities might change the way brands
build relationships with consumers (Vazquez, Dennis, & Zhang, 2017).
New platforms and the increasing connections among channels
created by emerging technologies to engage with consumers lead
companies to constantly seek the best practices to consistently com-
municate their identity, image and reputation through different sys-
tems, handling simultaneously customers and other stakeholders.
Similarly, past studies solicit new strategies to innovate in corporate
brand management to get value from corporate brand associations and
their transfer within the firm’s brand (Brexendorf & Keller, 2017; Lee,
O’Cass, & Sok, 2016). Thus, innovation orientation, including the use of
new technologies to support corporate branding, image, identity and
reputation can be the key to achieve superior brand performances.
The guest editors hosted the 4th International Colloquium on
Corporate Branding, Identity, Image and Reputation (COBIIR 2018) in
Calabria (Italy) on the 3rd and 4th September 2018, aiming to address
important research gaps. The colloquium and this special issue include
a number of cutting edge papers examining current and future trends in
branding, identity, image and reputation as prompted by the growing
usage of new technologies.
We are delighted to have been able to handle over 40 papers
through the review process and to accept the final nine included in this
special issue from researchers across the world. This global interest and
support reinforces our conviction that there is a need to discuss, debate
and dissect current issues surrounding corporate branding, identity,
image and reputation. A congruence of themes on corporate branding,
reputation and identity linked to the adoption of these technologies will
be discussed. In particular, papers included in this special issue examine
organizations’ abilities to link and articulate their identity through
various managerial practices, create and constantly attempt to influ-
ence the impressions of their corporate body among their various
constituencies and stakeholder groups, use their employees and
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.031
0148-2963/ Crown Copyright © 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
managerial cognitive capabilities to deliver and strengthen their cor-
porate brands, measure the impact of corporate identity and reputation
on corporate performance, and study how customers seek to engage
with an organization, especially in the light of new technologies.
This collection of papers incorporates current thinking and devel-
opments by both academics and practitioners, combines a compre-
hensive theoretical foundation with practical insights, and provides
insights to assist managers in their daily decision making and long-term
brand decisions.
Among the submissions, we selected the nine papers representing
highest quality submissions engaging qualitative and quantitative em-
pirical research that explores new trends and directions of branding,
organizational identity, image and reputation in the light of the effects
of new technologies.
In the first paper, Gromark (this issue) provides in-depth insight
about the dynamics of company transformation from the market or-
ientation to brand orientation, by evaluating the case of a large Swedish
public primary care organization during a turbulent marketization
process. Syrjälä et al. (this issue) highlight the extent to which gami-
fication may enable brands to interact with consumers in their everyday
lives and boost consumer brand engagement, by focusing on the case of
food packaging.
In the third paper, Porcu, del Barrio-Garcia, Kitchen, & Tourky (this
issue) investigate the adoption of a collaborative culture that positively
affects Integrated Marketing Communication, and to a greater extent
than a controlling culture, revealing its beneficial effect on brand
competitive advantage. Subsequently, Strandberg, Ek Styven and
Hultman (this issue) provide a deeper understanding of the of the re-
lationships between place image, self-congruity, place attachment, and
positive word-of-mouth among residents and visitors of a place. Simi-
larly, Priporas, Stylos, Kamenidou (this issue) reveal that the relation-
ship between residents’ overall satisfaction and their engagement with a
city’s social media accounts is moderated by the effect of economic
crisis on residents’ personal daily routine. In this vein, Singh, Crisafulli,
Quamina, & Xue (this issue) evaluate the role of social media influen-
cers in enhancing brand image after corporate crisis communication.
Subsequently, Giglio, Pantano, Bilotta, & Melewar (this issue) shed light
on the significant non-textual part of elements of consumers’ posts on
social media, which cannot be explored through traditional methods
such as content analysis.
In the eighth paper, Pedeliento, Andreini, and Veloutsou (this issue)
evaluate members’ integration, participation and commitment to con-
sumer-run and company-managed communities. In particular, con-
sumer-run communities stimulate higher levels of integration, partici-
pation and commitment than do company-managed communities.

Finally, Pizzi, Vannucci and Aiello (this issue), evaluate the extent to
which individuals exposed to a virtual-reality-based retail environment
perceive higher levels of presence than those exposed to a more tradi-
tional, physical store environment, resulting in a positive change in
value perceptions, and ultimately leading to higher patronage inten-
tions and word-of-mouth referral.
To conclude, this special issue has highlighted the interaction be-
tween technology, brand and people in the context of identity, image
and reputation in a technology driven environment. The guest editors
thank Naveen Donthu, editor-in-chief, for inviting this special issue and
for his unstinting support and guidance. We sincerely thank all of the
participants of the colloquium and all of the authors who submitted
papers to the special issue. We also thank all of the reviewers of the
special issue for their time and penetrative comments to a rigorous
review process and their unwavering support and patience for the
eventual development of the papers of the special issue.
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Guest editors
⁎
Eleonora Pantano
University of Bristol, UK
E-mail address: e.pantano@bristol.ac.uk.
Charles Dennis
Middlesex University, UK
E-mail address: c.dennis@mdx.ac.uk.
T.C. Melewar
Middlesex University London, UK
E-mail address: t.c.melewar@mdx.ac.uk.
⁎
Corresponding author.