Community-Based Strategy in the Postmodern Society

Abstract

In recent decades, a new social condition has emerged, in which human beings increasingly seek to strengthen their identity by belonging to communities. The role of these communities as providers of identity may offer a powerful construct for explaining and interpreting a vast array of firm activities and actions, as well as evaluating their potential for creating and sustaining competitive advantage. We develop a framework in which firms implement strategies to interact with communities. The framework provides insights that apply to various domains of the organization literature, ranging from corporate identity to supplier relationships and from human resource practices to corporate social responsibility.