Corporate branding between corporate, stakeholders, and society

This chapter provides an overview of the evolving debate on corporate branding with the aim to offer a more dynamic understanding of the concept by identifying and integrating three main theoretical perspectives. The first perspective is centred around the company that is considered the locus of creation and control of corporate brand. The second perspective is centred around the relationships between the company and its stakeholders and introduces the concept of co-created corporate branding. The third perspective adopts a Corporate Social Responsibility viewpoint and conceptualizes branding as resulting from the interaction between the company and the society. These three perspectives are to be seen as complementary and additional research should be carried out to outline an integrative framework, emphasizing less the actors and more the processes surrounding corporate branding formation.