PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and measure employees' perception of actual and desired corporate ethical values as a component of corporate identity within a major UK financial institution, against a comparison with their employees' own individual ethical values.Design/methodology/approachThe multi‐method case study uses a mix of secondary data analysis, key interviews and 245 employee questionnaires. The financial institution is selected as it is identified as being in the process of instigating what may be termed a “monolithic” corporate branding strategy while using a “top down” communication approach across its various operations in the UK.FindingsThe paper shows that employees' perceive managements' ideal identity to be significantly different to the operational reality that “is” the company, especially in relation to ethical values. These gaps also vary between major divisions within the organisation, as well as between differing staffing levels, adding empirical support to existing theories that corporate identity and corporate brand management will need to take into account many sub‐cultures within any large organisation, as well as the individual values of its employees, and that a top down communication programme that fails to take this into consideration will face many difficulties.Originality/valueThis empirical based case study research focuses upon a comparison between internal perceptions of actual and ideal corporate values as part of the corporate identity, in comparison to employees' own individual values has been largely overlooked within the corporate identity and branding literatures to date.

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Purpose -Extant research downplays the influence of children under the age of eight on food-related decision making and consumption within families. This paper seeks to address this issue.Design/methodology/approach -Utilising novel techniques to elicit responses, the research employed focus group and interviews of a sample of children aged between three and eight years and a sample of their parents.Findings -The exploratory findings of this study suggest that younger children apply effective if less sophisticated pestering techniques than older children, and play a significant role in determining family food consumption. They demonstrate a purposeful and directed pursuit of food brands and products, along with an awareness of the purpose of promotion and a desire to use a number of persuasive techniques in their dealings with parents. This contradicts some of the existing thinking that younger children in the 3-8 year age group have little/less influence on purchasing food.Originality/value -This research offers a number of contributions in that it presents the views of both children and parents, and uses novel techniques through visual representations of feelings and emotions to elicit findings.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to help answer "To what degree can creative employees be encouraged or motivated to align with a leader's creative vision and what issues may be faced along the way?" The management and communication of vision in relation to the organisational brand within the creative industries can face many unique challenges. Design/methodology/approach -As much of the existing creativity literature at an organisational level is not empirically based, a rigorous, inductive and exploratory case study approach was employed to explore emergent issues relating to the management and communication of the brand within creative small to medium-sized organisations. Recent research attempts to uncover the link between organisational creativity and the brand are reviewed. The inductive case study approach undertaken is discussed. This incorporates interviews and thematic analysis with the aid of various qualitative data software packages. Findings -The inductively generated themes uncover interrelating issues of relevance to owners and managers relating to: vision and alignment; creative growth; creative evaluation and rewards. The themes also help to draw attention to some of the potential barriers to achieving a desired or effective creative brand. Originality/value -It can be argued that by taking an exploratory and inductive approach, a wide number of potential effects on creativity and the ensuing brand have been identified. Practitioners within the creative industries can potentially benefit from the observations because they are empirically based rather than being purely theoretical, and focus on both employees and clients. These also appear to go beyond the themes identified within previous studies within these same creative industry sectors. The investigation and reflections may act as a useful starting-point for further research into the formation and management of a creative brand.

is a lecturer in marketing and consumer behaviour in the School of Management and Languages at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK. Amanda Linakeris a media planner/buyer with MediaCom Direct in London and negotiates the strategic media needs for a variety of multinational companies including Sky and the British Red Cross.Nigel P. Grigg is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Organisational Excellence Research at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. AbstractShopping is not always 'fun' and is not always 'therapeutic', yet, the negative aspects and motivations for this behaviour have received little attention. Consumers often may be dependent upon shopping activity to satisfy personal needs, such as emotional repair and self-image, which are far removed from the acquisition and use of products. Not only may this dependence be dysfunctional in that it signals an individual's inability to control their shopping behaviour but also it may be symptomatic of more serious problems, such as compulsive and even addictive shopping. This paper explores this shopping dependence in the context of fashion clothing consumption. Male consumers are considered, with sexual orientation employed as an indicator of behaviour. Data from a survey of 225 homosexual and 225 heterosexual UK males suggest that homosexual males display clothes shopping dependence, and at a level that is significantly stronger than for heterosexuals. Younger males show a greater tendency to display such behaviour, with dependence declining with age for both groups. Managerial and research implications are considered.