The Naming of Corporate eBrands
This chapter examines whether classical brand naming concepts are sustainable for entrepreneurial firms in the Net Economy. A prior study of Kohli and LaBahn (1997) covers the formal brand naming process and gives insights into brand name objectives and criteria. To follow the research purpose, their findings have been adapted to entrepreneurial firms in the Net Economy. Three hundred nineteen e-entrepreneurs located in German business incubators were analyzed for their brand naming process. The availability of an appropriate domain name is found to be a basic driver for deciding on a brand name. The domain name influences the course of action during the naming process. Two groups were found that significantly differ in proceeding with the naming process. One group of e-entrepreneurs follows the traditional process of Kohli and LaBahn (1997), whereas the other group follows a new approach giving more emphasis on the domain name. Here, the process shows to be iterative in nature instead of a step by step procedure.