There is a paucity of literature regarding the construction and operation of corporate identity at the stakeholder group level. This article examines corporate identity from the perspective of an individual stakeholder group, namely, front-line employees. A stakeholder group that is central to the development of an organization's corporate identity as it spans an organization's boundaries, frequently interacts with both internal and external stakeholders, and influences a firm's financial performance by building customer loyalty and satisfaction. The article reviews the corporate identity, branding, services and social identity literatures to address how corporate identity manifests within the front-line employee stakeholder group, identifying what components comprise front-line employee corporate identity and assessing what contribution front-line employees make to constructing a strong and enduring corporate identity for an organization. In reviewing the literature the article develops propositions that, in conjunction with a conceptual model, constitute the generation of theory that is recommended for empirical testing.

General Managers' are presented with an extensive opportunity to innovate and gain market advantage from front-line employees (FLEs) and consumers working together to exchange services and co-create value. To do this General Managers need to understand more about what influences the content and quality of FLE and consumer service exchanges? What predisposes FLEs to commit to service exchange and value co-creation? And what organisational phenomena can General Managers use to influence this predisposition? This paper presents results from an empirical research study of FLEs employed by a firm that provides installation, servicing and emergency services to domestic households across the UK. The study reveals the importance of the firm's corporate brand in its influence upon FLE's sense of membership and attachment to a firm (organisational identity) and the consequent effect of this on their pre-disposition for service exchange (organisational commitment), i.e. whether FLEs want to remain in their role because they feel they ought to, want to or they have too much to lose by leaving.

PurposeThe category captain system (CC) of retailer category management (RCM) is established, accepted, and widely adopted. The paper empirically assesses the application of this system in building collaborations between retailers and their suppliers to generate growth following COVID-19. This study applies service-dominant logic (S-D logic) to RCM and establishes the current ‘practical’ application of the five axioms of S-D logic within the CC system.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers adopted a qualitative research design which examined both category managers and retail buyers currently involved in the CC system, using thematic analysis of transcripts from 25 practitioner participants.FindingsThe study reveals service is not a fundamental basis of exchange in the CC system. Value is uniquely, independently, and separately created by the retailer that significantly restricts the scope of the category service eco systems and the opportunity to innovate through value co-creation.Practical implicationsSignificant change is required to realise value co-creation and innovation applying S-D logic to RCM. The study indicates there is potential to start this change by the formalisation of wider informal category relationships between non-captain suppliers and retailers through consumer insight technology, and by aligning suppliers and retailers to make more effective and sustainable trading decisions.Originality/valueThe study indicates that certain elements of the CC system proposed by the literature's games-based theoretic models, are not applied in practice. The lived experiences of practitioners suggest informal ways of by-passing the formal system using S-D logic.

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