This thesis aims to develop a more robust framework for understanding the management processes involved in Corporate Brand Communications. A review of the literature on corporate branding shows a growing body of conceptual work, but also highlights that much of the recent work in the field has not focused on the underlying processes involved in managing a corporate brand. There is, therefore, a clear need to understand how a corporate brand is defined, developed and communicated. This international study adopts a Participatory Action Research approach, grounded in Intervention Theory (Argyris, 1973), to develop an intervention framework based on the concept of privileged access' (Torbet, 1991). This methodological framework is tested on a pilot study and then adopted for the study of three separate organisations in the UK, France and the Netherlands to answer three distinct, but related Research Questions. Based upon the findings emerging from these studies, the researcher identifies a series of 'emergent management stages', and uses this empirical evidence to develop a new 'Six Conventions' framework for understanding the processes of nurturing and managing a corporate brand. The study makes an explicit contribution to the field by helping to 'join up' many of the existing, disparate conceptual models. It makes a further significant contribution by grounding the 'Six Conventions' framework in rich empirical data in a way that operationalizes the inherent management processes in a new and more robust manner than previous studies. These findings offer both new insight to academics, and a set of guiding principles and practices for managers engaged in managing brands at an organisational level, fulfilling the requirements of Participatory Action Research to generate both Propositional and Practical knowledge. A further methodological contribution is provided by demonstration of the potential that participatory approaches, utilising the concept of this privileged access', offer in contrast to traditional case research. This leads to the development of a new process to guide effective intervention studies of management processes.

The research examines the structure of consumer-brand `trust', and the concept's role within brand extension evaluation decisions, an association largely neglected within existing consumer brand extension literature. A review of the literature, which covered the interpersonal relations, psychology, sales management, source credibility, and relationship marketing areas, served to develop a list of thirty `trust-related' variables, which were hypothesised to split into a number of dimensions of trust. The variables and dimensions were screened and tested, initially, within four qualitative focus groups and a pilot quantitative survey of 108 respondents. The final research study, which utilised 411 respondentconsumers within the Tea, Coffee, Grocery Shops, Pens, and Internet Retail product/service categories, tested four research hypotheses. Findings related to Hypothesis 1, which postulated a six dimensional model of brand trust, found, instead, strong support for a four dimensional model of brand trust, based around the dimensions of Probity, Equity, Reliability and Satisfaction, reflecting and supporting both `affective' and `cognitive' elements of trust previously identified within the literature. The finding extends the work on consumer trust within the Relationship Marketing literature, where a definitive definition and conceptualisation of trust are yet to emerge. Findings related to Hypothesis 2, which postulated that brands with differing mean ratings on brand trust would correlate positively at statistically significant levels with differing mean ratings for brand extensions measurement responses, `likely to try' and `trust brand to provide', found clear support for the hypothesis. Findings related to Hypothesis 3, which postulated a positive correlation between brand trust, the dimensions of brand trust, and brand extension measurement responses, `likely to try' and `trust brand to provide', found statistically significant, though weaker, levels of association between `brand trust', `dimensions of brand trust' and brand extension measurement responses. The findings for Hypothesis 2 and 3, are felt to add a further dimension to the brand extension literature, where consumer-brand trust has largely been overlooked. Findings related to Hypothesis 4, which postulated that females, lesser educated, and older respondents would exhibit higher `brand trust', `brand trust dimension', and brand extension response variable measurements, found: strong support for gender type mediating the evaluation of brand trust and brand extensions; support for differences in age playing a role within brand trust; and limited support for educational level playing a role within brand trust and brand extension evaluation. These demographic findings, particularly relating to gender and age, extend both the literatures on consumer-brand trust and brand extension, neither of which had previously related to demography as a mediator.

This thesis is an attempt to think through a number of questions arising from the intense circulation of Japanese brands in East Asia, which I call the East Asian Brandscape, and, in doing so, produces an innovative conceptual framework to understand brands and branding. The ubiquitous presence of American brands has been linked to Americanization, particularly Hollywood film’s global dominance, and is summarized in the phrase ‘trade follows the films’. Similarly, the East Asian brandscape has been linked to Japanization, an intense circulation of Japanese popular culture throughout the region, and may be summarized in the phrase ‘trade follows manga’. This Japanization discourse is based on the unsubstantiated assumption that the globalization of Japanese brands is closely linked to the presence (or the lack) of symbolic appeal of Japanese popular culture in a given market. This thesis investigates the largely understudied processes in which the globalization of Japanese brands is taking place in the context of Japanization through case studies on Japanese luxury cosmetics brands. In the first section, ‘analysis from outside’, the thesis draws out a contour of the East Asian brandscape, which is shaped by large multinational corporations such as L’Oréal, Shiseido, and Estee Lauder. In global capitalism, brands are routinely exchanged across national borders by these corporations in order to manage and thrive on local differences. Drawing on Appadurai, this thesis argues that we need to understand brandscape as the organization of otherwise disjunctive scapes, rather than in the image of the Americanization model. In the second section, ‘analysis from inside’, I explore the ways in which the branding is reformulated as the design and management of consumers’ experience in/through a great number of brand interfaces – material and immaterial – in which semantic and symbolic registers (such as Japan’s symbolic appeal) are engulfed in the overall affective ambience of brand experience. What is at stake in this reconfiguration, it is argued, is the unequal distribution of skills and finance resources across national borders required to global brand management, rather than distribution and consumption of national symbolic power. What emerge through the analysis of both outside and inside is a complex and contradictory relationship between Japanese brands and globalization that is no longer understood in a national framework.

Most recently in academic literature, over the past decade, it has been observed that the cultural approach to brand management represents a new school of thought. This has emerged from relational and community based brand perspectives: which chart the rising role, significance and influence in brand management of connected and savvy consumers. Furthermore, the researcher has identified that economic migrancy; the increase in multi-racial and multicultural relations, evident in childbirth; urbanism and urbanization; Globalization; conspicuous branded consumption; and Web2.0 continue to drive new methods and channels for information exchanges, collaboration and societal understanding. These in turn are shaping and changing the way in which branding, management and consumption are being understood and practiced. Brands have gravitated towards a position of offering individual and societal meaning. In doing so they have become cultural artefacts and language shapers. In tandem the conceptual argument for a brand being understood and used as a ‘human’ has grown in prominence. Collectively, these represent a global cultural phenomenon where the management of brands appears to be a cultural, diffused and self-defined practice. The purpose of this study was to examine this identified phenomenon in greater detail, from a brand management perspective. The aim was to investigate the nature of the relationship between culture and brands – to the benefit of brand managers. The method of qualitative investigation elicited iterated views from an international panel of academics and practitioners -­ in the form of a 16 month Expert Delphi Study. Through the Delphi process, they were encouraged to arrive at a consensus of opinions and understanding. Findings of this doctoral study suggest that culture and brands share strong relationship bonds, brought into existence by human desires. Equally, brands and culture both have the ability to influence each other. Furthermore, the successful management of brands requires a cultural approach, which mediates dynamic and complex networks of brand stakeholder relations. It was concluded that the understandings of brands, culture and management have to take into account: context, space and time – as porous boundaries of transience and transcendence. A new, grounded theoretical framework for brand management was developed - which took its inspiration from Aristotle’s Praedicamenta. In addition, alternative criteria for collecting and analysing biographical data were proposed.

There is common theme within the literature that a store represents the tangible and intangible values of the company's commercial and retail organisational philosophy. Given this, it could be considered as a brand, with all the associated competitive advantages that correspond to this entity. Operationally, a store's brand competitiveness can be viewed from the image it transmits and the impact it has in the minds of consumers. However, as markets and consumer tastes vary between countries, there have been calls for further inquiry into how the domestic store brand image, with its inherited competitive advantage, can be transferred abroad. A means for achieving this is via a standardised transfer strategy. In the international marketing literature, standardisation is referred to as the identical offering of the entire marketing mix in several different countries. Likewise, within the context of retail intenationalisation, standardisation is defined as the faithful replication of a successful domestic store concept abroad. Despite all the citations found within the wider literature on international retailing the notion of standardisation lacks of clear definition when concern upon the transfer of store brand image. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to provide an insight into the debate of store brand image standardisation in international retailing. From the limitations identified in the existing literature, a new research framework is proposed for examining store brand image standardisation. The framework includes the conventional 'Store Image per se' comparative process, where examination is undertaken from a store image attribute perspective between markets. In addition, two new elements are introduced. First, the comparative process of 'Relative Marketplace', where a comparison of the domestic and foreign store image is conducted within their relative markets. Second, the 'Store Image Dimension perspective', where the two comparative processes, 'Store Image per se' and 'Relative Marketplace', are examined after the store image attributes have been aggregated into broader dimensions. This proposed framework was employed to examine the store image transferability of the Spanish limited line food discounter DIA. Through a pluralist methodological approach of both qualitative and quantitative methods, a shopper survey was conducted in Spain (the home market) and Greece (a host market) to measure the company's store brand image between and within its marketplaces. From the juxtaposition of the three components of the proposed framework, the results indicate that store brand image standardisation should be examined from an 'Absolute,' and 'Relative' standpoint. Moreover, depending on the standpoint undertaken to examine the transfer of the store brand image, standardisation can be conceptualised in three ways. 'Absolute Standardisation': A standard to be applied by faithfully replicating the store's domestic image into a host market; 'Core Standardisation': A standard to be secured by faithfully replicating the store's domestic unique selling proposition, that satisfies the needs of global markets while maintaining intact the company's entire concept; and 'Relative Standardisation': A standard to be achieved by faithfully replicating the store's domestic positioning into the host market. It is argued that these three aspects of store brand image standardisation should not be viewed as distinctive concepts, but rather as a transitional process of two ends of the same continuum.

Στην υπερπροσφορά των προϊόντων και υπηρεσιών, το σύγχρονο μάρκετινγκ προσφέρει ένα καθοριστικό εργαλείο με το οποίο ενισχύεται η εικόνα των προϊόντων, συμβάλλοντας στην τόνωση της σχέσης μεταξύ της επωνυμίας και του καταναλωτή, γνωστό ως «προσωπικότητα της επωνυμίας» (brand personality). Η έννοια αυτή έχει προσελκύσει τα τελευταία χρόνια το επιστημονικό ενδιαφέρον των επαγγελματιών του αθλητικού μάρκετινγκ σε μία προσπάθεια διαφοροποίησης των αθλητικών ομάδων. Η έννοια της προσωπικότητας της επωνυμίας των αθλητικών ομάδων, σύμφωνα με την βιβλιογραφία, είναι πολύπλοκη, δύσκολο να ορισθεί λόγω της φύσης της και δύσκολο να μετρηθεί λόγω της αδυναμίας δημιουργίας ενός αξιόπιστου και έγκυρου εργαλείου μέτρησης. Στόχος της παρούσας μελέτης ήταν να εξετάσει την εφαρμογή της εγκυρότητας και αξιοπιστίας του μοντέλου των Blank, Koenigstorfer & Baumgartner (2013) για την προσωπικότητας της επωνυμίας των ποδοσφαιρικών ομάδων της ελληνικής Super League. Επιπλέον, έγινε προσπάθεια εντοπισμού των ενδεχόμενων ομοιοτήτων και διαφορών ως προς τα χαρακτηριστικά της προσωπικότητας της επωνυμίας μεταξύ των άμεσων ανταγωνιστριών ομάδων της ελληνικής Super League. Τέλος, διερευνήθηκε ο βαθμός στον οποίο η προσωπικότητα της επωνυμίας επηρεάζει την καταναλωτική συμπεριφορά των φιλάθλων των ομάδων της ελληνικής Super League. Για τους παραπάνω λόγους πραγματοποιήθηκε έρευνα με την χρήση ερωτηματολογίων σε δείγμα 799 ατόμων. Τα κύρια συμπεράσματα της έρευνας ήταν η εγκυρότητα και αξιοπιστία της κλίμακας μέτρησης των Blank et al. για την προσωπικότητας της επωνυμίας της αγαπημένης ποδοσφαιρικής ομάδας της ελληνικής Super League, η οποία συγκροτείται από 3 βασικές διαστάσεις και της προσωπικότητας της επωνυμίας της σημαντικότερης αντιπάλου της ελληνικής Super League, η οποία αποτελείται από 2 διαστάσεις. / In the oversupply of products and services, modern marketing offers a crucial tool that enhances the image of the product, helping to boost the relationship between the brand and the consumer, known as “brand personality”. This concept has attracted in recent years the scientific interest of professionals in the sports marketing in an effort to diversify the sports teams. The concept of brand personality of sports teams, according to the literature, is complex, difficult to define because of its nature and difficult to quantify because of the inability to create a reliable and valid measurement tool. The aim of this study was to examine the application of the validity and reliability of the model of Blank, Koenigstorfer & Baumgartner (2013) for the brand personality of football teams in Greek Super League. In addition, an attempt was made to identify potential similarities and differences in the brand personality traits between direct rival teams of Greek Super League. Finally, the extent to which the brand personality influences the consumer behavior of Greek Super League team’s supporters is investigated. For these reasons, a survey was conducted using a questionnaire to a sample of 799 individuals. The main conclusions of the research was the validity and reliability of the measurement scale of Blan et al. (2013) of the brand personality of the favorite football team in the Greek Super League, which is composed of three basic dimensions of brand personality and the scale of brand personality of the most important rival in Greek Super League, which consists of two basic dimensions.

ABSTRACT “Almost all places are in trouble, but some are in more trouble than others" Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) contend that all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies that perhaps frustrated by lack of pure strategy capacity to sell to governments, have fallen into the habit of i Sibonokuhle GUMPO - 34462481 pandering to this misconception and simply selling logos and slogans to any government prepared to buy them (Anholt, 2003). However faced with the urgent need to address the crippling impact of a negative image, countries like Zimbabwe cannot simply wait and expect things to turn out for the better. Kotler et al (1993) stress that places are not able to respond to negative images concerning their nations as quickly as negative perceptions are built, be it through media, word of mouth or other channels. As a result the importance of a pro-active response cannot be overemphasized. This study explores the current negative image of Zimbabwe and tries to define the root or source of this negative image. Having defined or spelt out what is thought to be the problem, the researcher than explores possible ways of how the stakeholders of Zimbabwe can rebrand their country reflecting on known success stories. Kotler et al (1993) contend that the central tenet of marketing places is that in spite of the powerful internal and external forces that buffet them, places have within their collective resources and people the capacity to improve their relative competitive positions. Zimbabweans in general believe that their situation has been sensationalised by the media and is not a reflection of what is on the ground. By adopting a proactive stance in rebranding their country, Zimbabweans will perhaps finally realise that when it comes to image, “being in possession of the truth is not enough, the truth has to be sold” (Anholt,all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies ABSTRACT “Almost all places are in trouble, but some are in more trouble than others" Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) contend that all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies that perhaps frustrated by lack of pure strategy capacity to sell to governments, have fallen into the habit of i Sibonokuhle GUMPO - 34462481 pandering to this misconception and simply selling logos and slogans to any government prepared to buy them (Anholt, 2003). However faced with the urgent need to address the crippling impact of a negative image, countries like Zimbabwe cannot simply wait and expect things to turn out for the better. Kotler et al (1993) stress that places are not able to respond to negative images concerning their nations as quickly as negative perceptions are built, be it through media, word of mouth or other channels. As a result the importance of a pro-active response cannot be overemphasized. This study explores the current negative image of Zimbabwe and tries to define the root or source of this negative image. Having defined or spelt out what is thought to be the problem, the researcher than explores possible ways of how the stakeholders of Zimbabwe can rebrand their country reflecting on known success stories. Kotler et al (1993) contend that the central tenet of marketing places is that in spite of the powerful internal and external forces that buffet them, places have within their collective resources and people the capacity to improve their relative competitive positions. Zimbabweans in general believe that their situation has been sensationalised by the media and is not a reflection of what is on the ground. By adopting a proactive stance in rebranding their country, Zimbabweans will perhaps finally realise that when it comes to image, “being in possession of the truth is not enough, the truth has to be sold” (Anholt, / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

Internet and Social Networking Services have made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger and consumer can easily ‘Google’ the cheapest airlines, find reviews and opinions online or look up the restaurant whose name was on the tip of their tongue (Sparrow et al., 2011). Organisations must focus on developing methods of reaching and servicing customers that appeal to a new generation and utilise the advantages of new media (Moutinho et al., 2011). Social networking services, (mobile) websites, location-based services, and group bargaining are among the most recent forms of brand building and reputation management used by organisations to appeal to their stakeholders. Considering reputation management as a strategic necessity of building and sustaining competitive advantage, this thesis applies the discourse of the postmodern branding, Integrated Marketing Communications and Brand Tribalism within the context of online tourism and hospitality. No previous study has covered and combined the fractured knowledge of reputation management, brand tribes and integrated marketing communications within the hospitality industry, and therefore this work is an original and systematic study of the possibilities and pitfalls of the research area. Combining non-participant netnographic method and semi-structured management interviews, 164 hotels and 43 restaurants from seven countries were studied with the aim to find evidence on four different problem settings; (a) the general challenges found in the hospitality SNS presence and activities; (b) the formation of an online tribe within the hospitality context; (c) the effect of peer reviews, tribal activism, and entertainment provision in SNS, and (d) the means and effects of managing SNS’s interactions and implementation of IMC into the reputation management process. The findings of this study suggest that the management of the hospitality reputation is continual, and requires resources and well-articulated integration to overall strategy and vision of managing strategic relationships. The study concludes that by adapting the recommended Ambient Reputation Management framework it is possible to expand the exposure, and enhance the general feelings towards the company and its products and services. Furthermore, the study postulates that providing entertainment and non-factual conversation topics, besides responding to customer needs, are the most effective stimuli in the brand-related engagement enhancement process. These findings enable management to define the service brand’s promise in terms of how the practical and emotional tenets should be blended to grow brand personality in the minds of potential stakeholders. Finally this study accentuates the generation of brand awareness through the growing rapport between the brand and the consumers towards the formation of a brand tribe, and materialisation of an active tribal loop; and that taking advantage of the web analytics from the actions to measure the resultant brand awareness is a key element of Ambient Reputation Management.

ABSTRACT “Almost all places are in trouble, but some are in more trouble than others" Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) contend that all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies that perhaps frustrated by lack of pure strategy capacity to sell to governments, have fallen into the habit of i Sibonokuhle GUMPO - 34462481 pandering to this misconception and simply selling logos and slogans to any government prepared to buy them (Anholt, 2003). However faced with the urgent need to address the crippling impact of a negative image, countries like Zimbabwe cannot simply wait and expect things to turn out for the better. Kotler et al (1993) stress that places are not able to respond to negative images concerning their nations as quickly as negative perceptions are built, be it through media, word of mouth or other channels. As a result the importance of a pro-active response cannot be overemphasized. This study explores the current negative image of Zimbabwe and tries to define the root or source of this negative image. Having defined or spelt out what is thought to be the problem, the researcher than explores possible ways of how the stakeholders of Zimbabwe can rebrand their country reflecting on known success stories. Kotler et al (1993) contend that the central tenet of marketing places is that in spite of the powerful internal and external forces that buffet them, places have within their collective resources and people the capacity to improve their relative competitive positions. Zimbabweans in general believe that their situation has been sensationalised by the media and is not a reflection of what is on the ground. By adopting a proactive stance in rebranding their country, Zimbabweans will perhaps finally realise that when it comes to image, “being in possession of the truth is not enough, the truth has to be sold” (Anholt,all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies ABSTRACT “Almost all places are in trouble, but some are in more trouble than others" Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) Kotler, Haider & Rein (1993) contend that all places are in trouble now, or will be in the near future. The onset of globalisation of the world's economy, country political dynamics and the accelerating pace of technological changes are some of the forces that require all places to learn how to compete on the world arena. Porter (1990) states that the framework for understanding a company’s sources of competitive advantage can be extended to the level of nations. It is basically concerned with the question as to why some nations succeed in global competition when others fail. Nations must learn how to think more like businesses if they are to survive and should begin by identifying their competitive advantages and building on them. As countries compete for inward investment, tourism and export of goods and services- success or failure can accurately be chartered, and questions of reputation, image, identity and hence marketing and branding become central to the competitive edge (Olins, 1999). Faced with the challenge of a negative image, a country must adopt a proactive stance to correct this image. This is where the question of country branding comes in. Branding a country for many is misconstrued and interpreted to simply mean designing a new logo for their country and possibly a slogan to go underneath it. However country-banding proponents highlight that there is a difference between nation branding and tourism promotion. It helps even less that there are so many communications agencies that perhaps frustrated by lack of pure strategy capacity to sell to governments, have fallen into the habit of i Sibonokuhle GUMPO - 34462481 pandering to this misconception and simply selling logos and slogans to any government prepared to buy them (Anholt, 2003). However faced with the urgent need to address the crippling impact of a negative image, countries like Zimbabwe cannot simply wait and expect things to turn out for the better. Kotler et al (1993) stress that places are not able to respond to negative images concerning their nations as quickly as negative perceptions are built, be it through media, word of mouth or other channels. As a result the importance of a pro-active response cannot be overemphasized. This study explores the current negative image of Zimbabwe and tries to define the root or source of this negative image. Having defined or spelt out what is thought to be the problem, the researcher than explores possible ways of how the stakeholders of Zimbabwe can rebrand their country reflecting on known success stories. Kotler et al (1993) contend that the central tenet of marketing places is that in spite of the powerful internal and external forces that buffet them, places have within their collective resources and people the capacity to improve their relative competitive positions. Zimbabweans in general believe that their situation has been sensationalised by the media and is not a reflection of what is on the ground. By adopting a proactive stance in rebranding their country, Zimbabweans will perhaps finally realise that when it comes to image, “being in possession of the truth is not enough, the truth has to be sold” (Anholt, / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

This doctoral research aims to investigate the reputation building process of companies and to examine the applicability of western-developed theories about the uses of corporate reputation in a non-western context. It is the first study that synthesises three theories (value creation, strategic resources and corporate communication) to examine the strategic consequences of the uses of corporate reputation. Corporate reputation is an attribute or a set of attributes ascribed to a firm and inferred from the firm’s past actions. It is the belief of market participants about a firm’s strategic character (Weigelt and Camerer, 1988). Also, corporate reputation is the public’s cumulative judgement of a firm over time (Roberts and Dowling, 2002). The review of theoretical literature indicates the uses of corporate reputation by business organizations can be theorized along six dominant paradigmatic perspectives: 1-public relations; 2-marketing; 3-management, 4-economic; 5-sociological; 6-finance and accounting. The uses of corporate reputation in these six paradigms are comprehensively discussed. The objective of this study is to establish the use of corporate reputation in the development of brand image strategy. A review of the uses of the concept of corporate reputation is discussed in detail in chapter 2. The review of the literature also identified a research gap by showing that scarce research has been conducted on how these three main functions (value creation, strategic resources and corporate communication) affect a company’s brand positioning strategy. The following research question thus is proposed: How do (Taiwanese pharmaceutical) companies use their corporate reputation to develop a brand image strategy? The research hypotheses based on three theories (value-based theory, resource-based theory and integrated marketing communication theory) appear in Chapter 3. The research question is constructed theoretically, and then a conceptual model, which begins with three antecedents of corporate reputation and simultaneously illustrates the outcomes of their use, are discussed. The construct of the uses of corporate reputation has three dimensions: value creation, strategic resources and corporate communication. Each of these three dimensions includes several items. The items were proposed based on the previous researchers’ summaries and the qualitative interview. The researcher will then depict the proposed research conceptual framework and a number of hypotheses that will be further investigated and tested. Then the quantative study was completed by providing the data analysis and the results were explained. A multi-stage procedure was involved in this research. First, data examination and screening to prepare for subsequent quantitative analyses and then the descriptive statistics were presented. Second, a reliability test was performed on measurement scales to ensure that they achieve an acceptable level of reliability for further analysis. The resulting solutions were then re-assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, PLS (Partial Least Squares) was used to test the hypothesized relationships between the research constructs as postulated in the conceptual model, and to assess the overall goodness-of-fit between the proposed model and the collected data set. The researcher then discusses the validation of the measurement model and the research findings. The findings are then further discussed in terms of the contribution to marketing theory and relevance to marketing managers. Then the items of adapted scales were subjected to several rounds of adjustments and were finally found to possess acceptable measurement properties. Reliability and construct validity tests indicated that all scales satisfied widely accepted criteria such as the minimum reliability of 0.7. The results of scale purification will be discussed. And an evaluation of the research hypotheses and their significance are summarized, the findings of all hypotheses testing will be reviewed and compared with previous research. According to the research findings, the hypotheses that value creation, as one dimension of corporate reputation, has a positive impact on brand segmentation, brand differentiation and brand positioning are all accepted. The hypotheses that strategic resource, as one dimension of corporate reputation, has a positive impact on brand segmentation and brand differentiation are rejected. However, the hypothesis that strategic resource, as one dimension of corporate reputation, has a positive impact on brand positioning is accepted. The hypotheses that corporate communication, as one dimension of corporate reputation, has a positive impact on brand segmentation and brand differentiation are both accepted. The hypothesis that corporate communication, as one dimension of corporate reputation, has a positive impact on brand positioning is partially supported. Finally, the hypothesis that the (see in Table 5.18) moderating effect of price policy on corporate reputation has a positive impact on brand image strategy is partially but negatively supported. This thesis makes a significant contribution to the study of corporate reputation of firms in the Taiwanese pharmaceutical industry from the robustness of the qualitative and quantitative data collection.