Mobile Edition
Print
Get the Mag
Weekly UpdatesSome companies invest large amounts of money in corporate art collections. One of the reasons for this investment may be that works of art can be used to communicate corporate identity. The aim of this study was to explore whether people are able to align a work of art with a given corporate identity. Forty-six participants rated the fit of eight works of art with four different corporate identities of existing companies. The results showed that participants agree strongly with respect to whether a work of art was aligned with a specific identity. That works of art can be recognized as aligned with a company's identity has important implications for companies that use reproductions of works of art to decorate their walls insofar as customers may take the art as a symbol of the company's identity.
Keywords: corporate image; corporate identity; corporate art collections; corporate social responsibility; corporate communication
**********
On January 17, 2002, the Dutch national newspaper De Volkskrant carried a front-page story stating that as a result of its disastrous financial situation, the Dutch telecommunication company KPN Telecom had decided to stop acquiring works of art for its art collection and fire 8 of the 10 staff members responsible for the conservation of the art collection ("Bezuinigingen KPN," 2002). In the months prior to this article, KPN Telecom had decided on the largest round of layoffs in the Netherlands for the past 20 years. The fact that the company had reduced the costs for its art collection, deciding not to expand instead of selling the collection, showed the importance the company attached to keeping its collection. Other figures show that KPN Telecom is not the only Dutch company with an interest in art. In 1998, companies were responsible for 20% of sales on the Dutch art market. In the newspaper article about the matter, art dealers were quoted as saying that approximately half of their sales were made to companies.
The newspaper article about the event raises an interesting question: Why would companies that try to maximize their profits and minimize their expenses spend large amounts of money on the collection and preservation of works of art? The next section of this article presents several reasons why companies might purchase art. The discussion about why companies might acquire artwork raises another important question about the extent to which art could be aligned with a company's identity. Following this discussion, the article reports on a study that sought to address the latter question.
POSSIBLE REASONS WHY COMPANIES BUY ART
We maintain that a company's interest in buying art could be explained by reference to the concept of corporate social responsibility and the need for a positive image. Corporate social responsibility refers to the concept that "business has an obligation to society that extends beyond its narrow obligation to its owners or shareholders" (Carrel I, 1997, p. 593). Carroll (1999) identified four components of corporate social responsibility: (a) economic (i.e., the business's responsibility to make a profit), (b) legal (i.e., the business's duty to obey the law), (c) ethical (i.e., the business's responsibility to respect the rights of others and to meet the obligations placed on them by society that ensure these rights), and (d) philanthropic (i.e., activities that support the broader community). Maignan (2001) shows that consumers distinguish these same four components but that they regard the economic component as fundamentally different four the legal, ethical, and philanthropic components.
Philanthropic social responsibility can take several forms. In two studies, corporate Web sites have been analyzed with respect to what companies disclose about the corporate social responsibility activities they carry out (Maignan & Ralston, 2002: Snider, Hill & Marlin, 2003). In both investigations, investing in arts and culture was found to be one of the issues mentioned by these companies as a form of corporate philanthropy. Collecting art can be considered fulfilling a company's social responsibility in several ways. First, a company can play the role of a contemporary Maecenas. It can assist young artists in developing their careers by buying their art. In this way, companies increase a society's cultural richness. Second, a company may provide the society with an opportunity to enjoy these works of art. Several companies organize exhibitions or lend parts of their collections to museum. In this way, people can enjoy these works, which might otherwise have fallen in the hands of private owners or never even have been created.
Corporate philanthropic activities such as these can be regarded as the business equivalent of noblesse oblige. However, it is possible that companies employ these activities to further their own (economic) goals, aptly phrased by Seifert, Morris, and Bartkus (2003, p. 196) as "doing good in order to do well." Evidence for a relation between displaying corporate philanthropic activities and corporate financial success is mixed. Seifert et al. report neither a negative nor a positive effect of corporate philanthropy when comparing the financial success of pairs of companies that were similar except for the extent to which they had spent money on philanthropic activities. Simpson and Kohers (2002), on the other hand, report a positive relation between social responsibility activities and financial success when analyzing a sample of companies from the banking industry. Maignan (2001) reported that consumers in her survey indicated a higher willingness to buy products from responsible companies. The question raised then is how philanthropic activities can enhance a company's success. Improvement of the company's image has been suggested as the answer to this question.
Hooghiemstra (2000) has pointed out that reporting on a company's social responsibility activities can be regarded as a form of corporate communication that aims at improving the company's public image. Companies with a positive image are more successful in attracting consumers, shareholders, and talented employees (Argenti, 1998: Argenti & Forman, 2002). Especially in markets where products of different competitors are functionally equivalent, a positive image may provide an important competitive advantage. As a result, companies often attempt to create a positive image.
Birkigt and Stadler (1986) developed a model for the factors that influence a company's image that has proven influential in theorizing about corporate identity and image (see, e.g., van Riel, 1995). Birkigt and Stadler define a company's image as the perception of the company's identity by the different target groups. The identity consists of four components: personality, communication, behavior, and symbolism. The personality component constitutes the core of a company's identity. It represents the values that are considered to be important by the company. As with a person, this personality cannot be assessed directly. We learn about people's personality (and their values) by what they tell us about themselves (communication), the way they act (behavior), and the way they dress (symbolism). A company's image is construed by people in a similar way. People infer which values are important to a company by taking its (corporate) communication into account (e.g., when a company boasts about the reliability of its products), but also by the way it acts (e.g., how it responds to complaints) and the symbols it uses (e.g., its logo or the architecture of its head office).
What a company communicates about itself, the way it acts, and the symbols it chooses to represent its personality are some of the instruments used to achieve a positive image. However, a company cannot control or orchestrate the perception of its identity completely. Other factors may also affect the perception of identity. One such factor, for instance, is publicity. Renkema and Hoeken (1998) showed that negative newspaper publicity had a strong and lasting negative effect on a company's image. Therefore, in research on business communication, several studies have been conducted about ways in which companies could use communication to safeguard their images, especially in crisis situations (Benoit & Czerwinsi, 1997: Cowden & Sellnow, 2002: Stevens, 1999: Tyler, 1992).
To our knowledge, no research has been conducted on the question of how a company's art collection could be used to influence a company's image. There appear to be at least two options. First, collecting art could be considered as a type of behavior through which the company can express the importance it attaches to values such as beauty and refinement. It can be used to project the image of a civilized, sophisticated, art-loving company. In this case, the specific works of art that are part of a company's collection are less important than the fact that it has a collection. The opposite holds true for the second way in which an art collection could be used to influence the company's image. There are art consultants who claim that (a collection of) works of art could be used to express a company's core values. Consider the following fragment found on a Web site from such a company (translated into English):
If art is used in the latter way to improve a company's image, then the issues about who is the artist and what the work of art represents become relevant. Perhaps companies holding more traditional values might chose more figurative works of art from reputable artists, whereas companies that are more trendy and modern may prefer more abstract works, perhaps from less well-known artists. In this way, works of art are used as symbols of the company's identity. (1)
The idea that a company's core values can be represented in a visual way is not new. In fact, Argenti (1998) defines identity as "the visual manifestation of the company's reality as seen in the company logo, its building, its stationery, and even in employees' uniforms" (p. 56). In particular, the use of a company's logo to represent a company's core values has attracted much attention. Jenkins (1991), for instance, has written a monograph with the telling subtitle "Visualising the Corporate Message." He discusses the way in which the visualization of a name, the logotype, the symbol, color, and so forth can be used to create a fitting visual identity. Argenti and Forman (2002) note that symbols such as logos "constitute a powerful dimension of the identity picture. The visual manifestations receive an inordinate amount of attention because of our increasing focus on the visual" (p. 78). A similar position is taken by Olins (1989), who claims that it is primarily visual elements that can increase short-term attachment to an organization. Claims such as these have given rise to empirical research on the factors that contribute to the appreciation of a logo (Garber & Hyatt, 2003: Pimentel & Heckler, 2003).
FEED