Corporate social responsibility as a legitimation strategy in a merger

PurposeThe objective of the study is to explore legitimation dynamics in a public–private integration process and to gain insights on the specific role of CSR in triggering public–private logics.Design/methodology/approachCorporate social responsibility (CSR) is part of firms' strategy in gaining legitimacy from their stakeholders in a merger context. However, little is known about the role of CSR in triggering diverse dynamics from public or private logics during post-merger integration. This study aims at exploring the specific role of CSR in triggering such diverse logics. A qualitative research design based on a single case study of a public–private merger of two French listed companies in the urban planning sector was opted for. The analysis was pursued in real time from the signing of the agreement and then over two years.FindingsThe results show that public–private legitimation is a process that proceeds in stages. The authors emphasize the key factors that characterize it: align on external concerns: reflecting societal and institutional pressures (public legitimation); readapt to make sense internally in relation to the merger through managerial innovation (private legitimation) and CSR as a form of corporate self-storying: combining the social and societal aspects of CSR within the organization (hybrid legitimation). Three major actions were identified in activating a CSR legitimation strategy: identifying and responding to local needs; building a unified brand, culture, and employee commitment to the organization; and creating sustainable programs.Research limitations/implicationsThe first major contribution is linked to triggers influencing legitimation dynamics and in particular the role of CSR operating as a legitimation strategy in the merger integration process. A second theoretical contribution is linked to the evolutionary nature of the post-merger integration process. The processual study shows how stakeholder legitimacy demands can escalate and change over time.Practical implicationsFirst, three major actions were identified as key steps in activating a CSR legitimation strategy (identifying and responding to local needs; building a unified brand, culture, and employee commitment to the organization; and creating sustainable programs). These missions can be understood as key steps for managers in implementing CSR within an organization in a post-merger integration context. Second, this study increases our comprehension of legitimation as a dynamic micro-process. The different stages described in the study can be considered by the managers involved in the merger process as learning experiences to understand the complex phenomenon that is the integration process.Originality/valueThis study enriches the legitimacy-as-process perspective in providing insights on the specific role of CSR in triggering public–private logics.

Evolution of Starbucks’s Logo – A Sign of Corporate Culture Development

Based on the changes of Starbucks’s logo, this paper explores its role in the evolution of brand culture and the development of corporate culture, concluding that the change of the logo has further enhanced its brand culture without changes to its brand DNA. In addition, the change of the logo has promoted the development of the unique corporate culture of Starbucks.

The Effect of Cultural City on Regional Activation through the Consumer Reactions of Urban Service

Many countries have adopted culture policies such as the European Capital of Culture program to revitalize cities. Culture brings economic benefit to a city through creative industries as well as vitalizes cities by allowing excellent workforce to stay in the city. In order to achieve urban growth through culture, appropriate urban policies or services should be implemented. In addition, citizens should recognize the positive brand value of cities as a result of such policies. In this study, we considered the cultural city as one of city branding and studied how the cultural cities’ characteristics, urban services, and the city’s brand value had the effect on regional activation. Online survey was conducted from 18 September to 18 October 2019 with residents residing in Xi’an, China. In total, 345 valid questionnaires were received and analyzed. As a result of this study, the characteristics of the cultural city had positive effects on urban brand value and regional activation. Urban services had positive effects on cultural city characteristics, city brand value, and regional activation. City brand value had a positive effect on regional activation. This study contributes to the study of the cultural city and the field of public service, city brand, culture, and arts. City planners and leaders will be able to use the results of this study to establish city branding and urban revitalization policies through culture.

Fighting Visibility

Over the first twenty years of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s (UFC) history, the mixed-martial arts (MMA) promotion adamantly excluded female athletes and upheld sports media’s time-honored tradition of ignoring and undervaluing sportswomen. Yet, in the early 2010s, Ronda Rousey burst onto the MMA stage and convinced the UFC to include women, which ushered in a new fervor for female athletes in a male-dominated cultural milieu. The popularity of women in the UFC might suggest that female athletes in combat sports are breaking the barriers of a notoriously stubborn glass ceiling. However, as the first academic book analyzing the UFC as a sports media brand, Fighting Visibility urges advocates of women’s sports to consider the limits of representation for cultural change and urges caution against the celebratory discourse of women’s inclusion. Part cultural history of the UFC as a media juggernaut and part cautionary tale for the future of women as sports laborers, Fighting Visibility argues that the UFC’s promotion of diverse female athletes actually serves as a seductive mirage of progress that enables the brand’s exploitative labor practices. The UFC’s labor model disproportionately taxes female athletes, particularly women of color and gender nonnormative women, despite also promoting them at unprecedented levels. Fighting Visibility complicates a prevalent notion among sports scholars, activists, and fans that the increased visibility of female athletes will lead to greater equity in sports media and instead urges us to question who ultimately benefits from that visibility in neoliberal brand culture.

How did luxury brands do to overcome the COVID-19

2020 is destined to be a year written in history. There is an unprecedented global outbreak of plague. By December 2020, there have been more than 78 million cases in the world, and more than 17 million patients died. The epidemic not only causes huge casualties in the world, but also has a huge impact on the economic world, especially for the luxury industry since the interests of the luxury industry largely depend on physical stores, offline services and other physical profit-making methods. The social isolation caused by the epidemic will greatly affect the income of offline services. This paper will make a detailed analysis of how the luxury industry spent the epidemic from three aspects: raising the price, increasing brand online operation services, and strengthening brand culture and product innovation. This paper will point out the excellent enterprises and brands in the face of difficulties in the face of excellent adaptability, as well as the brand internal management personnel excellent economic mind and wisdom.

Innovation Design Research on the Apparel Tag from the Perspective of Advanced Design Technology

The visual communication design of the apparel tag is essential to ensure a good interaction mechanism between the consumer, the clothing and the enterprise. However, there is a serious phenomenon of homogenization, which shows that the apparel tag lack of innovation design. By analyzing the information displayed, the apparel tag is not only the carrier of information transmission but also the presentation of brand culture. With the development of advanced design technology, it is proposed that the apparel tag should be designed from the three orientations of personalized design, intelligent design and green design, which can completely realize the function of the apparel tag.

Branding the Geospatial Industry

This study situates geospatial technology within the platform economy and constructs its brand culture, making it visible as a for-profit business rather than a utility. A critical lens is turned on the macroscopic economic and micro-social processes of the geospatial industry that result in the hegemonic relations and discursive regimes that legitimize and naturalize a common geospatially equipped, data-driven world. The annual user conventions and platform marketing of Esri, the global market leader in geographical information systems (GIS), acts as a site to observe how an imagined geospatial community of practitioners and investors is constructed. Branded content is unpacked to understand how the company’s image-making cultivates power relations between the public at large while negating itself as gatekeeper. These symbolic processes and collective practices help influence the uncritical investment and growth of the geospatial industry.