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Measuring corporate personality: A critical review and new insights

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Abstract

This article aims to explore the perceived ‘personality’ of marketing objects and reveal new insights in the search for universal dimensions of corporate personality traits. A critical review of the literature sheds new light on the theoretical and methodological reasons for discrepancies in previous research results. In order to verify the reasons for the discrepancies, multi-stage qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted by applying a theoretically and methodologically well-grounded psycho-lexical procedure and multilevel approach. The comparison between our results and the results obtained in previous studies enabled identifying four universal personality dimensions in the perception of companies: Innovativeness/Enterprise, Openness to Others, Stability and Machiavellianism. Newly developed scales enable the measurement of these dimensions on both a company (for between-company comparisons) and an individual (for between-customer within-company comparisons) levels.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by NCN (Grant No. DEC-2013/10/M/HS6/00475), KUL (Grant No. 1/6-1-15-05-01-6753).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Raclawickie 14, 20-950, Lublin, Poland

    Oleg Gorbaniuk & Wiktor Razmus

  2. Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Zielona Góra, al. Wojska Polskiego 69, 65-762, Zielona Góra, Poland

    Oleg Gorbaniuk

  3. Department of Marketing, Human Resources, and Management, School of Management, Purdue University Calumet, 2200 169th Street, Hammond, IN, 46323-2094, USA

    Kasia Firlej

  4. mFinanse S.A., Warszawa, Poland

    Agnieszka Lebiedowicz

  5. Rossmann SDP sp. z o.o, Łódź, Poland

    Maciej Leszczyński

Authors
  1. Oleg Gorbaniuk
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  2. Wiktor Razmus
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  3. Kasia Firlej
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  4. Agnieszka Lebiedowicz
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  5. Maciej Leszczyński
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Correspondence to Oleg Gorbaniuk.

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Gorbaniuk, O., Razmus, W., Firlej, K. et al. Measuring corporate personality: A critical review and new insights. J Brand Manag 24, 423–438 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-017-0042-8

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