Connecting Corporate Identity and Corporate Sustainability Strategies: Insights from the Retail Industry

This investigation brings two main theoretical insights into how organizations can bridge CS and CI and articulate them at strategic and instrumental levels. Firstly it focuses on the understanding of how CS may be part of CI. At the strategic level, CS is embedded and is usually part of the definition of CI. The way this bridge is established sets the differentiation of the company’s business model and way of doing things. Secondly, CI’s dimensions through their management allow for the implementation of the organization’s ethos. Companies embed CS strategies in the CI management, conveying main supporting guidelines. There are patterns on the way organizations bridge both concepts and those patterns are distinct depending on the stage of the development of the CS strategy and its implementation.