Beyond the uniqueness paradox in corporate identity research: A Social Identity perspective

In an increasingly crowded marketplace, scholars have argued that a distinctive corporate identity can provide a valuable source of differentiation for the corporate brand. However, researchers have been repeatedly... [ view full abstract ]

In an increasingly crowded marketplace, scholars have argued that a distinctive corporate identity can provide a valuable source of differentiation for the corporate brand. However, researchers have been repeatedly confounded by the ‘uniqueness paradox’; they have found that organisational claims to uniqueness, such as those expressed in organisational stories and mission statements, are rarely unique.
The objective of this study was to address the uniqueness paradox through the lens of Social Identity Theory. We did this by conducting a comparative case studies of seven organisations, asking employees in each organisation to complete an open-ended questionnaire about the identity of their own organisation.
We found that uniqueness was manifest in three ways: in the specific attributes used to describe the organisation, in the values assigned to those attributes by the organisation’s employees, and in the pattern of connections that bound the attributes into a coherent whole.
These results suggest that the uniqueness paradox may be attributed to previous researchers’ tendency to focus on broad organisational traits and values, rather than specifics. In doing so they should help researchers and managers alike to move beyond the uniqueness paradox, to better understand and communicate the distinctiveness of each organisation’s corporate identity.