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Nonprofit organizations that engage in rebranding strategies face challenges reconciling normative (social or mission driven) and utilitarian (business driven) identities of their organizations. This research examines the interplay between rebranding processes and dual identities of 10 rebranded charitable organizations, in particular how these identities are reflected in managers' narratives and subsequently shape rebranding strategies. The study reveals four types of rebranding strategies and the potential drivers for their adoption. Pressure to secure resources can lead nonprofit organizations to emphasize utilitarian identities in rebranding, and so surface hidden tensions among stakeholders reluctant to relinquish established normative identities. In managing the process of rebranding, senior managers engage in practices of justifying, re-visioning, and influencing to reduce emerging tensions. The research suggests that both utilitarian and normative identity concerns need to be addressed during the process.

We make the case that there are four distinct forms of organizational values – espoused, attributed, shared and aspirational. These partial, but related, forms encompass variation in temporal orientation and levels of analysis. We use these forms to reveal the dynamic nature of organizational values by delineating the evolution of gaps and overlaps between them. We set out a series of propositions, originating from institutional, organizational and managerial sources to explain the nature of movement between these distinct forms of values and the potential implications for organizational behaviour and performance. Finally, we consider the possibilities of this fine-grained analysis of the organizational values concept for future research.

The authors describe an adaptation of the laddering method that allows interpretive researchers to uncover informants' personal values during the course of a single interview where other subjects are also explored. The authors explain laddering and illustrate its outcomes by means of case examples. The method allows the exploration of personal values to be integrated into a more flexible interview method, providing greater scope for probing salient issues while optimizing the (potentially limited) time available with informants.