Partly True and Partly Rhetorical: Conceptualizing Firm Images of Authenticity

Abstract

Most research on authenticity has focused on consumer perceptions of the consequences of authenticity (e.g., prestige, production methods, or provenance), leaving the within-firm factors that contribute to an organization’s image of authenticity poorly understood. Drawing on Beverland’s (2005) proposal that authenticity is based on projecting an image that is “partly true and partly rhetorical” (p. 1008), our paper proposes a conceptualization of authenticity based the competitive advantage (CA) that results from alignment between firms’ innovation capacity (IC) and corporate identity management (CIM). Our results show that differences between high- and low-levels of IC interact with CIM (i.e., mission and values, corporate communications and visual identity) to explain differences in CA across firms. Employing data from the architecture context, our findings suggest that when high-IC firms are able to combine their superior creative capabilities with strong CIM processes (i.e., employing ‘partly true and partly rhetorical’ capabilities to convey authenticity) they are able create a powerful competitive advantage, thereby differentiating themselves from inauthentic competitors, even those who have made investments in similarly high levels of CIM.