Corporate Brand Name Changes and Business Restructuring: Is the Relationship Complementary or Substitutive?

Abstract

Corporate brands are strategic assets for organizations, but it is difficult to understand the value added by corporate brand name changes because they often occur simultaneously with business restructuring initiatives. The authors test a framework that delineates the informational relationship between corporate name changes and business restructuring initiatives. The hypothesis is tested on a sample of jointly announced corporate name changes and business restructuring initiatives. The results show that jointly announced corporate name changes and business restructuring are significantly more informative than the sum of their individual effects. The results further suggest that the information complementarity arises because corporate brand name changes resolve uncertainty and help in coordinating business restructuring initiatives. The results do not support the view that corporate brand name changes are cosmetic and/or primarily signals for business restructuring. The study offers a promising research foundation for understanding the value of marketing actions announced jointly with other corporate events.