Diversification can be risky, as it extends a firm’s identity across multiple categories. This study examines cultural and symbolic strategies used to mitigate such risks by managing the emergence of multiple identities.

A key strategic choice is “naming;” the parent’s name may be included in the new subsidiary’s name (“semantic seeding”) or not (“semantic autonomy”). A stock of parent–subsidiary names serves as a lens through which gatekeepers evaluate the parent’s underlying creativity at the time of spanning categories.

There is expected to be interfirm variance in creativity evaluations due to the differences in the number of autonomous or seeded names a parent sustains, the degree of visibility of different names, and the timing of introducing a new name.

The growth of the Internet and assorted technologies has made it possible to collect and process detailed information on social networks. This article investigates how firms (and governments) can harness the power of social networks to promote their goals. We show that the optimal use of social networks leads to higher sales and greater profits. 

‘Indeed it is a form of marketing that identifies and targets individuals who have influence over potential buyers.”

However, an increase in the level and dispersion of social interaction can increase or decrease the optimal influence strategy and profits of the player, depending on the content of the interaction. Optimal influence strategies will target individuals with low or high connections, depending on the content of interaction. Finally, the returns to investing in market research on social networks are greater in more unequal networks.

Source: jstor.org