Identity, Competitors & Distinctiveness: Who Are We? Who Are They?

Abstract

Organizational identity has emerged as an important theoretical concept. However, our understanding of distinctiveness is inadequate since this aspect of organizational identity has received limited research attention. Accordingly, this paper reports the results of a qualitative study designed to explore how managers construe their organization’s identity distinctiveness. Based on this study’s findings, this paper furthers our knowledge of organizational identity by presenting a theoretical model depicting how identity distinctiveness is construed. Overall, the results of this study suggest that managers construct an internal story – via markets, competencies and intangible identity attributes – which they believe both legitimates and distinguishes their organization