Corporate identity and image

The competitiveness of a company results from numerous factors, both tangible and representational, which constantly influence each other. In today’s business landscape, intangible factors have become increasingly important. A company’s identity serves as the glue that enables organizations to navigate ever-changing and unstable environments. It allows companies to evolve rapidly while maintaining distinctive and recognizable traits that strengthen relationships with stakeholders, influencing and stabilizing their perceptions of the organization. Understanding and proactively managing these intangible aspects enhances corporate strategizing, particularly by revealing the crucial role that explicit discussions around these elements play in shaping strategic decisions.

This course equips students with the knowledge to understand the significance of an organization’s identity, corporate branding, image, and social judgments—particularly reputation—in management and corporate strategy development. It provides both theoretical insights and analytical tools to navigate and influence these critical areas for effective strategy formulation.

In presence

This course is primarily conducted as a laboratory and is designed to expose participants to close-to-reality thinking and practical experiences. Students will work with startups and will be asked to contribute to the reflection on their business models through a progressive analysis of the startup corporate brand, benchmark companies’ corporate identities and images, and the potential social evaluations directed toward the startup.
This work will culminate in the development of a pitch that articulates the startup’s business model through compelling communication. The objective is to elevate students’ business acumen by embedding it with deeper interpretive significance.
To facilitate the laboratory work, a flipped-classroom approach will be adopted. Students are expected to read the lecture materials in advance so that in-class time devoted to lecturing can be limited to discussion of the assigned readings, thereby freeing up time for group work and interaction with startups.
Students are therefore expected to actively prepare before class, work in groups on assignments (work-out units) both during and outside class sessions and interact professionally with the startups.

Each student's evaluation will be based on the following criteria:

• Team’s work-out activities: 50% (Individual grades may be penalized for "free-rider" behavior in teams)
• Final Exam: 50%

The course is considered passed if the student achieves an overall sufficient grade, calculated as the weighted average of the components listed above.

Excellent participation and contribution to discussions in class will be rewarded with up to 0.5 bonus points towards the final grade.

In cases of free-riding behavior or insufficient contribution to team work, the course instructor reserves the right to apply an individual assessment of the student.