Developing corporate communications : insights from the Italian scenario

Purpose: Based on the managerial perceptions from large firms, this paper aims to explore the emergence, growth and importance of corporate communications and how it is evolving and creating competitive advantage for Italian firms. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach is deployed, comprising in-depth interviews with senior managers from Italian corporations from a broad spectrum of industries, including: energy, telecommunications, automotive, transport, retail chain, appliances, technology and engineering, private shipping, government-owned holdings, marketing consultancy and construction. Findings: The paper offers insight into corporate communications (corpcoms) practices in the sampled companies. The paper shows that corpcoms involves a complex range of activities leading to performance – managed and implemented under CEO direction. Practical implications: Corpcoms is perceived as a strategic concept with effective application relative to managing corporate image and reputation. The findings offer insights for communication professionals who deal with corpcoms, branding and marketing communications. Originality/value: Corpcoms can be viewed via the lens of social actors’ perspectives, i.e. via practitioners – including brand managers and senior executives, as they possess practical knowledge of business practice in specific contextual business settings and have the managerial ability and remit to design, implement and evaluate integrated corpcoms.