Towards an integrated approach to corporate branding - an empirical study,
Einwiller, Sabine, and Will, Markus, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 2002 Vol. 7
Based on the findings of an empirical study among communication executives in 11 multinational companies the authors propose an increasingly integrated approach to corporate branding. Key aspects which support the claim of the authors are the growing importance of the financial community, the augmenting skill shortage driving competition for current and future employees, and the enhanced transparency of corporate activities being greatly supported by the particular characteristics of the Internet. In order to achieve greater integration and eventually a favourable reputation, an organisational model has been proposed in this article combining centralisation and team organisation, which particularly aims to support integration across the various functions responsible for stakeholder relations.

From customer relationship management to customer-managed relationship: Unravelling the paradox with a co-operative perspective, Law,
Monica, Lau, Theresa, and Wong, YH, marketing Intelligence & Planning, 2003, Vol. 21
Analysing three perspectives on customer relationship management (CRM) developed by academics, numerous paradoxes have been illustrated in this paper, as it can be an integrated corporate approach, a specific strategy to customer behaviour modification or different customer treatment. The article highlights that an evolutionary change in the concept of CRM is required. Three key findings have been made in this regard. First, customers should be the main focus and companies are actually dealing with customer-managed relationships (CMR). Second, it is not just a one-to-one relationship pattern. The linkages with other parties are the cores of the relationship between customers and companies. It should therefore be a one-network-one relationship. Third, a co-operative approach should be used in order to integrate the CRM and CMR concepts to enable customers to participate in corporate strategy formulation and to encourage companies to co-operate with third parties in serving customers. The financial service sector is taken as a major example to illustrate the full concept of CRM and CMR managerial implications arising from the implementation of the co-creative approach are explored, which include market share and mind share.

E-quality in an integrated enterprise,
Madu, Christian N, Madu, Assumpta A., The TQM magazine, 2003, Vol. 15
The focus of this paper is the transformation of traditional organisations to integrated enterprises that share a common database. While organisations may see their major goal in integrating the business units and functional departments as a way of achieving better coordination and handling of information, it is argued that quality is, in fact, a major tenet of such an integration process. Additionally, it develops a premise on how the quality needs of an organisation are served through an integrated enterprise by evaluating areas such as enterprise resource planning, supply chain management,
e-procurement and customer relationship management. The paper concludes that developing management procedures to enhance data and information management systems in an integrated organisation can enhance the overall efficiency and productivity of an integrated enterprise..