Concluding remarks
The corpus of knowledge on corporate identity is beginning to reach maturity.
Management academics are showing a renewed interest in the area who, in
addition to marketers, include those undertaking research in organizational
behaviour, human resources, strategic movement, graphic design, public
relations and communication studies.
The multidisciplinary character of the area has long been recognized by
consultancies who employ the skills of experts drawn from different disciplines.
This multidisciplinary approach may also be usefully applied by management
academics in order to provide knowledge that is based on a more intense
dialogue and greater cross-disciplinary research. Marketing has the potential to
make an important contribution in this respect since marketing is expanding
into new areas which have direct and indirect links to corporate identity such as
social marketing, marketing of services and the recent interest in corporate
branding.
Several areas deserve the attention of empirical research, including an
explanation of the corporate identity formation process. Another is applying
the techniques of the corporate identity management to related areas, i.e.
generic identities (banks, building societies), national identities (Scotland as a
brand) and professional identities (solicitors, teachers, dentists). The impact of
strategic alliances on corporate identities is also likely to be a fruitful area of
research and is also highly topical.
Future research in corporate identity is likely to benefit from an
interdisciplinary approach. The authors predict that in time there will be a large