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A generic model is developed to systematise research to build case studies on the shaping of corporate identity. In embedding the model with a case, we discuss how a firm sited both in Singapore and Indonesia perceives identity to be inherently part of communciation strategy.

Pressures have increased for both profit and non‐profit organisations to become “innovative organisations”. This study has revealed the grounded theory of perpetual challenging as a process for enhancing organisational creativity. Perpetual challenging refers to the ways through which creative organisations enhance their employees’ internal drive to perceive every project as a new creative challenge so that their individual contribution is maximised and an innovative solution can arise. Perpetual challenging has four sub‐core variables, namely adventuring, overt confronting, portfolioing and opportunising. A grounded theory approach was used in order to conceptualise the behaviour of employees under investigation. The perpetual challenging process has implications for both academics and practitioners since it explains how creative organisations should develop chaotic situations in their workplace environment to enhance the intellectual capital within the organisation, which will yield the competencies and capabilities for improved performance.

This paper examines corporate identity on three different levels: regional; national and industrial. It then empirically integrates corporate identity with strategy within ASEAN corporations. Multi‐leveled analyses are drawn from statistical results obtained from an already established database of 109 ASEAN public‐listed companies. It seeks to relate corporate identity to the anatomy of strategic planning within major corporations in the ASEAN region.

This paper is a grounded theory study of how a recently merged bank remodelled its relationships with its smaller corporate clients. The bank redesigned its relationships with these clients in three main ways by supporting, terminating or neglecting. In the post‐merger aftermath there is only one of the parties which emerges as being in the ascendancy. Clients of the organisation, in this study, were treated very differently according to whether they were clients of the ascending or descending partner in the post‐merger context.

Proposes that the understanding of innovation, as so far revealed by academics, has only given a limited insight into what really happens when people innovate. Previous studies have researched innovation using perspectives and methodologies which were unable to reveal what people actually do when they are innovating. This is because these other studies have chosen a level of analysis which is too far removed from the activities carried out by innovators. To examine innovators more closely a “grounded theory” approach has been used. By using a combination of participant observation, individual and focus group interviews, over an extended period of time, the detail of the innovator′s behaviour has been revealed. These insights are known as basic social processes which reflect the ideologies, beliefs, and values which drive innovators. The three basic social processes revealed by this research are, ambiguity, transformation and reflexivity. Although the context of these research findings is situated in a Swedish opera company, called Folkoperan, the findings are likely to be of interest to anyone involved in research into innovation since basic social processes are never limited to specific research contexts. Also explains the nature of the unorthodox incorporation and sophisticated relationships Folkoperan had with the financial community.

As structural changes, new market entrants, new technologies and increasing customer demands gather momentum, retail banks are under pressure to reduce their cost structures so that they can remain competitive. The banks are in danger of over reacting to these new pressures by neglecting the strategic value of their own institutional stature. Even though there is growing evidence that retail customers are not very happy with the services that banks deliver, customers still trust their banks as a safe and secure place to keep their money. They do so because of the bank’s institutional stature rather than their sophistication in customer service. The implications of this paper for both academics and practitioners are that many banks may be overlooking the importance of institutional stature as an important service differentiator and industry entry barrier.

This paper aims to highlight the nature of strategic learning in Bollywood, India's Hindi Film Industry. Film making is an art that requires continuous learning as a prerequisite to creativity and innovation. Improved competitive performance goes beyond operational organisational learning into strategic learning. This research investigates the extent to which strategic learning, as opposed to operational learning, is taking place within film making organisations operating in the Bollywood setting.

The research was conducted through two descriptive case studies of production houses in Bollywood using semi‐structured observations and interviews with producers and directors in the case study sites. Data are analysed using techniques of interpretive “illuminative evaluation”.

The research suggests that the current frame of film making at Bollywood is stuck in a learning trap, in that organisational learning tends to be adaptive not generative and leads only to technical innovation. There has been no change in the paradigm of film making from one rooted in the past and the present, in terms of India's history, social and political context, to one looking to the future. For this paradigm shift to take place a future vision is proposed in the form of strategic learning and innovation, allowing Bollywood to go beyond the domestic Indian market and make a contribution to world cinema by breaking away from its current formulaic approach to film making. These findings also have implications for other management learning and practice contexts.

Although this research is limited to Bollywood, it has implications which potentially go beyond it in the form of a new frame as described above, and also for the organisational learning literature which has tended to focus on learning in general, rather than differentiating between operational learning and strategic learning; whereas operational learning can improve production processes, strategic learning depends upon creativity and innovation as the basis of improved competitive performance.

The paper concludes that the research site is trapped within its current frame of learning and, in order to break away from it, it must embrace strategic learning to move beyond the traditional loops of organisational learning. The practical implications of the paper lie in furthering the understanding of the nature of strategic learning in a creative industry, which may, in turn, shed new light on strategic learning within similar contexts.

The originality of the research stems from the focus on strategic learning and a new site for its exploration in the form of the Bollywood setting. Furthermore it extends understanding of the organisational factors affecting the status of strategic learning in organisations.

The purpose of this viewpoint is to analyze and interpret the author’s career as a researcher in marketing.

This viewpoint applies case theory (Gummesson, 2017a), in which the author is the case.

One should respect the difficulty of understanding the complex and dynamic world of marketing and not be fooled into premature generalizations and reverence to established theory.

The emphasis is on marketing as a revenue-generating activity through interaction in the network of complex relationships; the need for less ritualistic research methodology; and the orientation toward theory generation, decision-making, implementation and achievement of desired results.