Carving Start-up Character: Effects of Symmetrical Communication on Start-up Corporate Character, Customer-Start-up Identification, and Customer Advocacy

ABSTRACT This study took a personification approach and examined how strategic communication influences the development of startup corporate character and associated outcomes in China. Specifically, it examined the relationships among startups’ symmetrical communication model, startup characters of agreeableness, enterprise, competence, and ruthlessness, customer identification with the startup, and eventually, customer advocacy. Results from an online survey with 641 startup customers in China revealed the importance of practicing symmetrical communication at startups, which effectively helps shape startup character. In turn, startup corporate character would affect customer identification with the startup, which eventually contributes to customer advocacy. This study provides valuable theoretical grounds to advance the growing literature on corporate character, stakeholders-organization identification, and symmetrical communication, emphasizing a unique startup context in the culturally distinctive market of China. It also provides practical insights for startup leaders, communication practitioners, and entrepreneurs on how to build a favorable corporate character, strengthen connections with customers, and win support from customers.