Enhancing Brand Equity and Reputational Capital With Enterprise-Wide Complementary Innovations

Abstract

In recent years, with rapid obsolescence and short product life cycles, many researchers are dissatisfied with limited product-based conceptualizations of brand equity. Brand values for innovative organizations like Hewlett-Packard, P&G, General Electric, Kodak, Xerox were built over multiple generations of products. In this paper we extend product-based branding to building a more comprehensive “reputational capital” first proposed by [@R21]. Product innovations and market orientation are integrated with organization-wide complementary competencies. Seven research propositions are postulated to include process innovations, quality promise, and intellectual property protection to build brand equity and reputational capital of an innovative organization. Implications for future researchers and practitioners are discussed.