Corporate identity is not a new phenomenon, but rather has engaged practitioners and academics for the past decades, leading to a vast variety of models to emerge. Contrary to previous research, this PhD thesis investigates corporate identity in two unique contexts: micro-organisations, which in recent years have gained greater attention, and the green slow-fashion industry, which is a hot topic and has mainly been explored from an arts and humanities perspective and not from a marketing/management point of view.
This thesis focuses on four carefully selected case studies and takes on a multi methods research methodology, which includes qualitative (employee shadowing, social media analysis, semi-structured interviews, and semiology) and quantitative (questionnaires) elements. To further validate the research findings and to gain a better understanding of the industry, semi-structured interviews were also conducted with experts in the field.
The findings indicate that although there are similarities across the various models of corporate identity, they differ dramatically in some of their components, which led to the creation of a new framework: The Micro-Identity Model. Three distinctive features of the Micro-Identity Model are: firstly, it is closely linked to a micro-organisation’s organisational processes; secondly, the central role of the owner-manager within the new model, who creates the identity from the inside out as a bottom-up approach. Lastly, communication is no longer seen as simply a component of a micro-company’s identity, but rather, the underlying essence of it. Moreover, the findings established that within the two contexts of this PhD research, standardisations (e.g. Fair Trade, GOTS) are seen as unimportant.
The main theoretical contributions of this study focus on providing a new corporate identity framework, the mapping of a micro-company’s organisational processes, and an interpretation of sustainable fashion. The key methodological advancement lies within utilising social media analysis and employee shadowing within the area of corporate identity. In terms of policy implications, this research brings forward suggestions in the area of eco-labelling and in terms of providing guidance for micro-organisations operating in the green slow-fashion industry.
