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Brands and Religion in the Secularized Marketplace and Workplace: Insights from the Case of an Italian Hospital Renamed After a Roman Catholic Pope

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Abstract

Religion is considered a cornerstone of business ethics, yet the values held dear by a religion, when professed by business organizations serving heterogeneous market segments in secularized societies, can generate conflict and resistance. In this paper, we report findings from a study of stakeholder reactions to the renaming of an Italian public hospital. After the construction of new facilities, the hospital was renamed for the recently canonized Roman Catholic Pope John XXIII. Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence of public criticism surrounding the name change. A fine-grained analysis of a sample of 734 respondents belonging to different stakeholder groups revealed that consumers (patients and citizens) predominantly supported the name change, while employees were often critical and concerned about possible religious influences on medical practice and scientific research. Moving beyond our empirical setting, we propose a process model of brand-religion alignment inspired by McCracken’s (J Consum Res 13(1): 71–84, 1986) meaning transfer model, which considers both the alignment process and its reception by relevant audiences. The study also presents managerial implications useful for those brand managers who wish to create effective, respectful links with religion.

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Notes

  1. The hospital, scheduled for completion in 2009 to 2010, was completed in December 2012, owing to technical delays.

  2. Data on professed religion were gathered only for patients and citizens, and not for employees and suppliers, owing to hospital policies.

  3. The local population is 47 % female and 53 % male; source: www.comune.bergamo.it.

  4. The average age of residents in the hospitals’ catchment area is 45; source: ISTAT (2014).

  5. Data about the education level of people in the hospitals’ catchment area were not available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of Bergamo, Via dei Caniana 2, 24127, Bergamo, Italy

    Daniela Andreini, Giuseppe Pedeliento & Mara Bergamaschi

  2. Department of Marketing, Kedge Business School, Marseille, France

    Diego Rinallo

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  1. Daniela Andreini
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  2. Diego Rinallo
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  3. Giuseppe Pedeliento
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  4. Mara Bergamaschi
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Correspondence to Daniela Andreini.

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Andreini, D., Rinallo, D., Pedeliento, G. et al. Brands and Religion in the Secularized Marketplace and Workplace: Insights from the Case of an Italian Hospital Renamed After a Roman Catholic Pope. J Bus Ethics 141, 529–550 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2709-y

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