Citation:
Brian Dunnion and Simon Knox, Understanding and Managing Corporate Brands: A System Dynamics Perspective. Irish Academy of Management Annual Conference 2004, 2-3 September, Trinity College Dublin.
Abstract:
Corporate brands are shrouded in a “fog of complexity” (Balmer, 2001). While
complexity, as a defining characteristic of corporate brands, cannot be
legitimately avoided this, we suggest, is not true of the fog. A focus on
constituent elements, indicative of reductionism, is evident in much corporate
brand theorising. Because corporate brands consist of connected elements, whose
interactions shape outcomes, they are complex systems. It is characteristic of
complex systems that they not reducible to their constituent elements. So we
suggest that, with corporate brands, the totality of the system must be properly
understood to be effectively managed (Hatch, 1997). We argue that System
Dynamics, previously unexplored in corporate brand theory, provides the holistic
approach called for in the literature (King, 1991; Hatch and Schultz, 1997;
Maklan and Knox, 1997). We take the view that corporate brands result from the
actions, and interactions, of many actors and that the mental models of actors,
in social systems, are determinants of their actions (Forrester, 1975). By
adopting a system dynamics perspective we can contribute to corporate brand
theory and practice. We can model the interactions of elements, organization
functions, and mental models involved in corporate branding. Such models can
lead to the development of new knowledge (Simon, 1999) and can enable the
translation of knowledge into action (Pfiffer and Sutton, 1999). We can navigate
through the current corporate brand fog (Knox and Bickerton, 2003) and, by
making cause and effect relationships explicit, change prevailing mental models
and behavio