Understanding Corporate Identity of SMES: Conceptualization and Preliminary Construction of Scale

Abstract

Globalization and integration of market has impacted Organizations in multiple ways. This has increased customers’ choices and degree of freedom and increased constraints on the organization in the context of business-to-customer (B2C) organizations. Corporate identity is important for consumer marketing for various reasons (see, He and Mukherjee, 2009). Organizations are pressed hard to meet changing customer expectations in a fiercely competitive environment. Further, it no longer remains the issue of just focusing on customer alone, other stakeholders like channel partners, investors are equally getting demanding. Under these conditions it becomes necessary for the organization not to be everything to everyone and loose its identity. Thus the notion of identity of an organization (corporate identity) becomes very important. Corporate identity(CI) is germane to all kind of organization irrespective of the size including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (Balmer, 2012). However, there is scarcity of empirical study on corporate identity (Melewar et al.,2005).This study constructs a reliable and valid scale of the corporate identity of SMEs in food processing sector (B2C) in India. India is one of the member countries of BRICS. BRICS members together have significance influence on regional and global affairs due to their huge market size, population, and land contribution in world GDP (BRICS Report, 2012). Therefore, India as a member of BRICS makes interesting context to this study. The interest population comprised only SMEs which meets the following selection criteria: (1) have an investment of above Rs 10 mn and below Rs 100 mn in plant and machinery (MSMED Act, 2006) or have a upper cut-off Rs 1,000 mn turnover (D&B India, 1996) (2) The organization is engaged in manufacturing and marketing of some kind of branded products in B2C segment (3) Have a legal existence either as proprietary, partnership, private limited or limited organization. The food processing sector in India is a rapidly growing sector and SMEs constitute a significant portion in terms of number of units as well as output and employment generation. Some estimates suggest that 33% of food processing sector organizations come under SMEs. Indian food processing industry is widely recognized as a ‘sunrise industry’ (NIFTEM, 2012) because of its huge growth potential. The processed food segment of the food sector in India consists of a variety of items like: Dairy products, Fruits and vegetables, Grains, Meat and Poultry, Sea food, Packaged/convenience food and Packaged drinking water/beverages. Present study comprises of representation from SMEs of all segments except sea food. This study reviews and refines the concept of corporate identity and describes the procedures for initial development and testing of an instrument that captures the essence of corporate identity in SMEs.