Theoretical implications and future research

serve to provide new insights into the suggested positive features of organisations

characterised by hybrid strategic orientations (logics) (cf. Urde et al., 2013). As a last remark, the aggregated contribution of this paper is thus found in its empirically grounded

explanatory accounts for how brand orientation may relate to development and change of firm capabilities. Extant studies, suggesting positive relationships between brand orientation and superior competitiveness or performance, have largely been based on variance model research designs (Bridson and Evans, 2004; Ewing and Napoli, 2005; Gromark and Melin, 2011; Napoli, 2006; Wong and Merrilees, 2007; 2008). This has left the processes by which resources and capabilities are deployed around (corporate) brand identities ‘black boxed’

(Kraaijenbrink et al., 2009). By applying a process-based research design (e.g. Van de Ven, 2007), this paper makes a major contribution to opening this black-box with insights useful to advance our understanding of the organisational mechanisms by which brand oriented logics in interplay with market oriented logics shape firm innovation capabilities for sustaining competitive advantages.

research. The thesis contributes by integrating the competence-based perspective’s inherent dynamic, systemic, holistic and cognitive cornerstones for theory development (cf. Sanchez, 2008), which the above presented contributions and empirical findings reflect. The

conceptual work and empirical findings presented in these four papers pose several theoretical implications to further research into corporate brand orientation from a design–

innovation perspective.

First, a competence-based perspective on corporate brand orientation research implies that brands can be viewed and examined as important resources, which firms may use for

implementing value-creating strategies. However, reflecting a systemic view of the firm, brand resources are not solely capable of ensuring sustainable competitive advantages as implied by the extant literature’s many references to the resource-based view and the notion of brands as strategic resources (cf. Balmer and Gray, 20003; Barney, 1991). In this respect, it is not to be questioned as to whether brands form an important part of firms’ resource bases, but that they must be complemented with management processes that coordinate the use of brand resources along with other resources to develop capabilities that support the strategic logic of competing on brands for long-term competitiveness (cf. paper 2).

Importantly, with the rejection of brands as strategic resources¹ (cf. Barney’s (1991) VRIN framework), the competence-based view’s focus on capabilities implies new routes for focusing on the role of brands in relation to firm competitiveness. This specific focus on capabilities is addressed by the thesis’ empirical papers, which suggest that future research should focus on corporate brand orientation as an expression of a culturally embedded strategic logic of organisations, which provides an operative rationale for coordinating all its

1For the sake of clarity it should be noted that paper 2 and paper 3 use the term ‘strategic resources’ in relation to brand when referring to its role as a strategic logic; that is, when brand identity provides a competitive rationale for how to structure management processes of decision-making and the coordination of resources to develop and implement brand-supportive capabilities.

internal and external resource availabilities, here included the brand, in an on-going

interaction with all stakeholders to develop capabilities that support the goal of protecting the core meaning of the corporate brand identity.

Second, within this thesis the nature and development of corporate brand oriented

capabilities have been examined from a design and innovation management perspective with implications for theory concerned with the under researched nexus between brand

(orientation) and innovation capabilities (e.g. Hultink, 2010). Informed by the competence-based perspective, contributions are made with respect to how corporate brands may help frame and implement innovation strategies in relation to the dynamics of the market. In this respect the insights provided by studying the case of Bang & Olufsen suggest that brand vision plays an important role in directing market-driving innovation strategies and

implementation characterised by high uncertainties of outcomes. Furthermore, in paper 4 the Bang & Olufsen brand was found to provide organisational actors with knowledge structures (schemas) highly valuable to make sense of ambiguous issues arising from dynamic shifts in the market to which outside-in (market oriented) routines did not suffice to guide decisions for moving forward. These findings suggest positive long-term performance benefits of brand oriented logics with regards to organisations operating in market contexts in which firm capabilities in reconfiguring their innovation capabilities are crucial to the long-term

protection of the (corporate) brand identity. However, further case studies should be carried out across different industries that importantly reflect a dynamic perspective on firms’

environments in order to further explore the theoretical propositions that these findings offer in order to move towards a more general understanding of brand oriented logics in turbulent business environments.

Third, as noted by Beverland et al (2010), (corporate) brand identities may be divided into different archetypes with general implications for how to approach innovation in support of a

given brand. Although these descriptive accounts provide a valuable initial treatment of brand and innovation management relationships, insights into management processes, decision-making, coordination of resources and development of such ‘brand-based’

innovation capabilities remain largely left out in the literature. With implications to further theory building concerned with the interplay between brand orientation and innovation capabilities, this thesis extends these insights as a contribution to the brand orientation literature by examining corporate brand identities as strategic logics, which from a systemic view of the firm, inform and guide design and innovation management processes, decision-making and coordination of resources. This approach holds great potential for future competence-based research into brand and innovation management, which importantly allows for examining the role of brands ex ante to processes of innovation as complementary to the general ex post focus on how to brand innovations (e,g. Aaker, 2007). For example, with regards to firms operating in design-intensive industries, the study undertaken in paper 3 provides findings into two different ways of structuring collaborative innovation capabilities by virtue of corporate brand identities. In this study, such capabilities were characterised by patterns of routines, which aimed at continuously attracting human resources (designers) with the best fit to the design and innovation values embedded in the respective corporate brand identities. Reflective of this systemic, cognitive and holistic approach to theory development, further research may be carried out across other industries to further strengthen our

understanding of how brand oriented logics impact on firm capabilities directed towards competing in resource markets for protecting corporate brand identities.

Moreover, the study in paper 3 presents findings from an evolving market context why further research may contribute by extending this study’s focus into contexts of highly dynamic and rapidly shifting markets, for example the high-tech or high-fashion industries, to further explore how brand oriented logics affect collaborative innovation capabilities.

Fourth, the findings in paper 4 have numerous implications for directing further research into exploring how firms approach the coordination of resources when existing capabilities for protecting the corporate brand identity, through continuous delivery on the brand’s core promise, are confronted with uncertainties resulting from dramatic changes in firms’

environments. Mindful of humans’ cognitive limitations it has been suggested that firm competitive advantage may rest upon organisational decision-makers’ ability to strategically shift between the deployment of strategic logics for aligning processes and capabilities to shifting goals of the firm (e.g. Sanchez and Heene, 1996). However, little knowledge exists on how organisations approach such alignments around their corporate brands and why such alignments may or may not take place. In paper 4 contributions are made with respect to these issues with findings into the value of being able to shift between brand and market oriented logics in order to adapt innovation capabilities to shifts in the environment. The paper’s approach to examining the flux and duality between brand and market oriented logics breaks new ground for future research into the underlying mechanisms of how brand

orientation, as a cultural structure of organisations, relates to brand orientation from a

behavioural perspective (Urde et al., 2013). By examining brand orientation as a centrifugal, rather than a centripetal, cultural structure of organisations (Balmer, 2013), this paper’s approach holds great potential for future competence-based research into the why and when such brand oriented logics are deployed and how they manifest in organisational capabilities.

As the paper advocates, future research should acknowledge that brand oriented logics, as they affect management processes, decisions, and the use of resources to refine or

reconfigure firm capabilities, will unfold dynamically in relation to environmental change and contingencies. Adopting this approach, future research may shed additional light on how brand orientation as a management strategic logic adds value to organisations from a strategic flexibility perspective on firm long-term competitiveness (March, 1991; Sanchez, 2008).

Fifth, the contributing findings of this paper were reached by looking at how logics and their embedded schemas, identities and goals affected change across different management levels as a process of corporate brand orientation. Future case studies could deploy similar research designs since (corporate) brand orientation at this stage of research is poorly

understood from a process and ‘multi management levels’ perspective. As a natural extension of such studies, further research should integrate a holistic approach to corporate brand orientation by examining cross-functional processes; this may pose an interesting, yet challenging, path for advancing a competence-based perspective in the field. Furthermore, future research could examine these mechanisms in relation to for example employee recruitment capabilities in order to explore when and how brand and market oriented logics affect human resource strategies and implementation in order to further strengthen our insights into how corporate brand orientation unfolds in relation to environmental contingencies; exogenous as well as endogenous.

Finally, the thesis’ focus on corporate brand orientation has implied a strong empirical focus on how organisational decision-makers approach design and innovation management processes and capabilities in relation to corporate brand identities. This focus has left the voices of customers or consumers largely beyond the scope of the research presented. Further research should therefore aim to incorporate such stakeholders as important data sources in the research design. For instance, such research designs could apply quantitative or mixed methods to examine the actual stakeholder brand perceptions and meanings arising and changing over time in relation to how firms approach the management of innovation capabilities. Such studies may also integrate longitudinal performance measures, which would be useful to set up research designs capable of shedding light on the pros and cons of different approaches to orienting capabilities around the corporate brand identity. For

example, pertaining to the findings of paper 3 (Chapter 7), what are the long-term benefits of

focusing design capabilities around maintaining a high degree of consistency versus novelty with regards to expressing the corporate brand identity? In the same spirit, further research into the role of corporate brands, which rely on external stakeholders for innovation as a core competence (cf. paper 3) should incorporate data from such stakeholders to build stronger insights into how corporate brand identities play a role (as a firm resource) in attracting the (firm-subjective) best available suppliers of creative capital.