Brands as eigenforms: how recursive knowledge sharing creates value

Purpose The purpose of this study is to clarify how brands accumulate value through recursive knowledge loops linking firms, customers and wider stakeholders, by framing brand value as an eigenform: a pattern that is dynamically stable yet continuously reproduced across rational, emotional and spiritual knowledge fields. Design/methodology/approach This study offers a conceptual integration of second-order cybernetics with tri-field knowledge theory. A maximum–minimum fuzzy model is introduced to formalise how dispersed interpretations converge, stabilise or fragment. Findings Brand meaning consolidates when signals from the rational, emotional and spiritual fields are coherent and repeatedly reproduced; misalignment propagates fragmentation. The fuzzy formulation yields a practical diagnostic of cross-field coherence and highlights which field is most vulnerable at a given time. Research limitations/implications This conceptual study paves the way towards empirical operationalisation; avenues include longitudinal community data, agent-based simulations and cross-cultural comparisons of field weightings. Practical implications Managers can tune process/channel design, community/interface architecture and purpose/governance mechanisms to sustain a coherent eigenform creation; tracking a fuzzy-based coherence index can surface tipping points and guide timely interventions. Originality/value This study specifies the cybernetic engine that translates distributed dialogue into value-in-use and contributes a mathematically tractable tool for monitoring convergence under uncertainty.