Brands in Action: Understanding Corporate Branding Dynamics from an Action Net Perspective

Collaborative, action-centric views that perceive brands as fluid, dynamic, and enacted by multiple stakeholders increasingly gain ground in branding theory and practice. While agreeing that actions are at the core of branding processes, corporate branding literature provides little conceptualization of the role of action. Adopting an action net perspective, this chapter theoretically conceptualizes and empirically illustrates the role of narrative action as both driving force and stabilizing element of corporate brands. Three empirical branding contexts provide exemplary insights into how brand-related actions and connections between them (de)materialise across time, space and different spheres. The chapter advances stakeholder-oriented corporate branding theory and practice by demonstrating how corporate brands form, change and develop in dynamic action nets and how heterogeneity and instability foster dynamic brand identity construction.