Conceptualizing the Roles of Founder Personality Traits in Startups' Construction of Brand Identity

Abstract

Founder personality traits (FPT's in short) play unique roles in a start-up organization's brand identity construction (BIC in short) and hence merit more research attention (Miller 2015). Here, startup FPT's are theorized to play three different roles that give rise to three different startup brand identities because of start-ups' BIC.The first role played by startup FPT's is an indirect one that gives rise to a startup brand identity called a sticky identity. In order to build the sticky identity, we propose that startups focus on innovative product features regardless of FPT. The second role played by startup FPT's is a long-term-oriented direct one that gives rise to a startup identity called a static identity. In order to build the static identity we propose that startups with joiner-cultured FPT's focus on long-term gains such as loyalty. The third role played by startup FPT's is a short-term-oriented direct one that gives rise to a startup identity called a fluid identity. In order to build the fluid identity we propose that startups with non-joiner cultured FPT's focus on short-term gains such as transient, sporadic, but profitable transactions.

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