Consumer perspectives on the relationship between iconic branding and entrepreneurial orientation

Background: This article presents the outcomes of research testing, from a consumer perspective, for a relationship between iconic branding (IB) and the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) driving that brand. Reviewed literature on IB and EO posits that internal stakeholders, such as brand owners, managers and employees, do perceive the relationship but the consumer’s view as the external stakeholder is understudied.Aim: This study aimed to discover whether consumers, as external stakeholders, perceive a relationship between IB and EO.Setting: This study investigated the relationship between the IB and EO of an iconic brand food retail chain store in South Africa from the perspective of the brand’s consumers.Methods: The study followed a quantitative case study research design. Data were collected using an online questionnaire randomly administered to probable consumers of the brand of interest. Analysis of variance, Fisher’s exact test and multivariate analysis of variance were some statistical techniques applied to test the hypothesised relationships.Results: The study found that contrary to suggestions in the extant literature, consumers largely perceive a statistically significant difference between the brand of interest’s IB and its EO attributes, and they did not perceive a relationship between the IB construct and EO variables. Furthermore, males and females did not perceive IB or EO in the same way.Conclusion: Brand managers seeking to foster consumer awareness of the relationship between IB and EO must aim to include more entrepreneurial-orientated branding into the IB and adopt differentiated strategies based on gender.Contribution: The findings narrowed the gap in the literature by adding a consumer perspective on the relationship between IB and EO.