The corporate brand naming process in the net economy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether classical brand naming concepts are sustainable for entrepreneurial firms in the net economy. Design/methodology/approach – A prior study of Kohli and LaBahn covers the formal brand naming process and gives insights into brand name objectives and criteria. To follow the research purpose, their findings have been adapted for entrepreneurial firms in the net economy based on some prior interviews conducted with entrepreneurs for the present research. On basis of these results, a questionnaire was designed and sent to 319 e‐entrepreneurs located in German business incubators, of which 105 were fully completed. Findings – The availability of an appropriate domain name is found to be a basic driver for deciding on a brand name. The domain name influences the course of action during the naming process. Two groups were found that significantly differ in proceeding with the naming process. One group of e‐entrepreneurs follows the traditional process of Kohli and LaBahn, whereas the other group follows a new approach giving more emphasis on the domain name. Here, the process shows to be iterative in nature instead of a step‐by‐step procedure. Originality/value – The value of this paper lies in the application of the traditional brand naming process to entrepreneurial firms in the net economy and its partial validation and revision based on the authors results from an empirical research.