When corporate brands tell stories: A signalling theory perspective

Abstract

If corporate stories for branding are retrogressive and asymmetrical, it causes negative internal stakeholders’ corporate brand perceptions. This is usually accompanied by many organisational situations when untruthful corporate stories for branding are shared. Due to this, there are Signalling theoretical and literature gaps existing related to corporate storytelling for branding and its influence on internal stakeholders’ corporate brand perceptions. The current article attempts to empirically substantiate the notion that there is a nexus between corporate storytelling for branding constructs and internal stakeholders’ corporate brand perceptions.A nomothetic quantitative explanatory research design with a positivist paradigm was applied to test relevance of Signalling theory in corporate storytelling for branding, internal stakeholders’ emotional attachment levels and corporate brand perceptions. Data were collected through physical self-administered survey, resulting in 335 responses from six selected companies listed on Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), in six industrial sectors. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was applied to test the hypotheses.Results indicated that there is a robust positive link between corporate stories for branding constructs such as corporate activities, corporate values, corporate associations, corporate personality and emotional attachment with internal stakeholders’ corporate brand perceptions. Nexus between variables of corporate stories for branding and Signalling theory elements depicted relationship to internal stakeholder’s corporate brand perceptions.This research study depicted a vital connection between theoretical proposition(s) and the operationalisation test of evaluating corporate storytelling for branding and Signalling theory. Fine-grained quantitative analysis developed in the study creates room for extended integrative thinking and transdisciplinary research in storytelling, branding and marketing. It also contributes to theory, practice and future research directions.Psychologically, organisations need to consider internal stakeholders’ concerns on information related to corporate stories for branding. This is important in carving positive corporate brand perceptions and emotional attachment of internal stakeholders. Researchers are encouraged to consider alternative mechanisms to examine corporate storytelling for branding as necessary dynamic stance within a longitudinal research design.

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