The effects of perceived corporate brand personality on individuals' exploration and exploitation orientations: the moderating role of self‐brand connection

Our knowledge is limited regarding the psychological antecedents of individuals’ exploration and exploitation in general and regarding the identity-related antecedents in particular. The corporate brand of the organization we work for is an important element of our collective identity, and the way we perceive the corporate brand personality of our organization affects how we define ourselves. In this paper, using data from 417 individuals working in sales-related jobs and taking the behavioural strategy perspective, we examine the effects of perceived corporate brand personality on the individuals’ identities and, therefore, strategic tendencies. More specifically, we find that the responsibility and activity dimensions of the corporate brand make the corresponding aspects of employees’ identities more salient and affect their orientations towards exploration and exploitation. We also investigate the moderator role of the self-brand connection. This paper has contributions and implications, especially for the literature on exploration-exploitation at the individual level.