Why Business School Managers are a Key Corporate Brand Stakeholder Group

This study focuses on senior management cognitions of corporate brand building within leading (Financial Times-ranked) British business schools. The study reveals stakeholder theory to be highly apposite for corporate brand management and, importantly, confirms the pivotal role of senior managers in terms of corporate brand building and custodianship. The cognitions of senior business school managers confirmed the orthodox approach to corporate brand building and management where a multidisciplinary, service-focused, strategic-orientated, and organizational-wide commitment is stressed. The Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (1997) tripartite typology of stakeholders (power, legitimacy, and urgency) is broadened in order to include necessity and responsibility, which are highly germane for senior managers. The instrumental insights of this study demonstrate that in managing a corporate brand, senior managers should focus on organizational activities, institutional attitude, senior management advocacy, and adherence on the part of organizational members.