Roots of Identity in Real Estate Industry
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Volume 6 Number 2
Top of Mind Roots of Identity in Real Estate Industry Lars Steiner Center for Built Environment, University of Ga¨vle, Sweden
ABSTRACT All companies have a story to tell. In some way, this story has to do with the founders of the company. In a company that has managed to survive some years, there is reason to question which story is the one we want to tell. It is important that the story finally communicated attracts and maintains the support and confidence of customers, financiers, and society at large, since it is the story that informs people about the identity of the company. Using an interpretative qualitative method, five cultural factors were found to affect early corporate identity: vision, aesthetics, play, charisma and trust, of which entrepreneurial vision and aesthetics were especially important. Interviews with founders and managers of small real estate business companies revealed seven corporate identities:
Corporate Reputation Review, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2003, pp. 178–196 # Henry Stewart Publications, 1363–3589
Page 178
— the Gambler and the Investor identities, both of which consider real estate a capital investment activity — the Service Management identity, where real estate business is seen as facilities management, an activity, which needs the same attitude as other service industries such as the hotel or restaurant business — the Family identity, which means managing the real estate’s heritage — the Serial Entrepreneur identity, who realizes entrepreneurial ideas in the real estate business — the Fast Grower and the Edge City identities, which create short-term success in projects that are later bought up.
IDENTITY AS A CONSEQUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION Upon the start-up of a new company, the foundation for the forthcoming growth or decline of the company is established both in the form of physical properties and in the spiritual ambitions, values, and visions of leaders and employees. If one is looking for the roots of identity in a company, its founders are interesting actors. Especially during the first phase of an organization’s life cycle, entrepreneurs make impressions on individuals both within and outside the boundaries of the organization. Olins (1978: 78) points to the role of the founder in shaping a company’s identity: ‘In the first or heroic period of a company’s development the personality of its founder gives it its identity’. As Olins observes, ‘There is a first-generation drama in which the style and personality of the company is very clear — when the founder creates and then builds up the organization largely in his own image’ (p. 81). Several researchers argue that the founder and the first years of a company’s life cycle are crucial for its future development (Kimberly and Miles, 1980; Miles and Randolph, 1980; Freeman, Carroll and Hannan, 1983). Entrepreneurs function as leaders and managers from the very foundation of an organization, thereby institutionalizing norms and values (Steiner, 1990). Stinchcombe (1965: 153–164) stresses that the environment is bein
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