Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Conference Track

General Papers

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present Interactive Network Branding (IN-Branding) and discuss its main constituents through the actor-resource-activity (ARA) model of business relationships. As a theoretical background the paper presents traditional ARA model of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group. In the same manner, the importance of IN-Branding for business relationship development is elaborated. The Pyramid of IN-Branding, as a new theoretical framework, advocates the merge between business network and corporate branding literature. The actor layer of IN-Branding pyramid is presented by individual human actors, the resource layer through their social network relationships, while activity layer is acknowledged through interactions, as strategic activities of individual actors. This paper is the first attempt to link one of the business network models with corporate branding. It builds understanding of the key concepts and mutuality of two distant but important business paradigms, and thus provides unique conceptual and managerial implications.

About the Authors

Nikolina Koporcic is a PhD Candidate in International Marketing at School of Business and Economics, Åbo Akademi University, Finland. She completed her M.Sc. degree in Marketing at the J.J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia. Her doctoral research is in the area of corporate branding and business networks. In particular, she is studying the importance of Interactive Network Branding for business relationships.

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Digital Commons@Georgia Southern License

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