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The Configuration of Organizational Images Among Firms in the Canadian Beer Brewing Industry*
Author(s) -
Lamertz Kai,
Heugens Pursey P. M. A. R.,
Calmet Loïc
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00520.x
Subject(s) - brewing , legitimacy , construct (python library) , organizational identity , field (mathematics) , business , exploratory research , knowledge management , identity (music) , marketing , public relations , industrial organization , sociology , computer science , organizational commitment , political science , social science , food science , aesthetics , chemistry , mathematics , politics , pure mathematics , fermentation , law , programming language , philosophy
We integrate the literature on organizational image management and neo‐institutional theory to arrive at a better understanding of how organizations routinely represent themselves positively in their external environment. Drawing on a cross‐sectional exploratory study of the website communications of 36 firms in the Canadian brewing industry, we investigate how these organizations construct essential and distinctive organizational images in reference to a map of identity attributes and image categories at the organizational field level. We conclude that organizational self‐categorizations explain the field‐level configuration of images we discovered by establishing legitimacy claims targeted at relevant stakeholders.