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Summer 2010
A relational insight of brand personification in business-to-business markets
Michael Bourlakis, Suraksha Gupta, T.C. Melewar
Customers find it difficult to differentiate between competing products based on their functional aspects. The shortening life cycle of products due to quick adoption of technological innovations by competitors makes it difficult for them to identify products based on specifications. The contemporary academic literature related to relationship marketing and brand management is passionate about customer and consumer psychology but little attention has been given to the brand selection criteria of resellers as business customers of the brand. This paper combines branding and relationship marketing as two broad functions of marketing. The paper argues upon the role of human representatives of the brand as brand personified in managing these two functions of marketing in business-to-business markets. The proposal of the paper is to use human representatives as a tool for the execution of relationship marketing and branding strategies. The objective behind using human representatives is to maximize the mindshare of resellers towards the brand and create value for them beyond products and services. |
Summer 2010
Book Reviews
Phil Ford, Kristina Vasileva , Malcolm Warner
Fells, R. (2010), Effective Negotiation: From Research to Results, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, paperback, 248pp, £22.99.
Griffith-Jones, S., Ocampo, J. A. and Stiglitz, J. E. (eds.) (2010), Time for a Visible Hand: Lessons from the 2008 World Financial Crisis, Oxford, UK:Oxford University Press, paperback, pp. 377, £25.
Chia, Robert C. H. and Holt, Robin (2009), Strategy without Design: the
Silent Efficacy of Indirect Action, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, hardback, 260 pp, £55.
Rainey, David L. (2010), Enterprise-Wide Strategic Management: Achieving
Sustainable Success through Leadership, Strategies, and Value Creation,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, Hardback, ISBN-13:
9780521769808.
Akerlof, George, A. and Shiller, Robert J. (2009), Animal Spirits: How
Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters for Global
Capitalism, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 264 pp.
Segal-Horn, S. and Faulkner, D. (2010), Understanding Global Strategy,
Andover: Cengage Learning/EMEA, Paperback, £42.99, 522pp.
Jacobs, D. (2009), Mapping Strategic Diversity: Strategic Thinking from a Variety of Perspectives, London and New York, NY: Routledge, Paperback, £28.99, 256pp.
Moesgaard, M., Froholdt, M. and Poulfelt, F. (2009), Return on Strategy:
How to Achieve It! London and New York, NY: Routledge, Hardback,
£25.99, 328pp.
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Summer 2010
Corporate brand identification and corporate brand management: how top business schools do it
John Balmer, Mei-Na Liao, Wei-Yue Wang
This article reveals an a priori link between the effective management of corporate brands and the strength of corporate brand identification by customers and stakeholders. The article introduces a model of corporate brand management and corporate brand identification. This
research, undertaken within leading business schools, resulted in three propositions: (P1) corporate brand management is analogous to strategic general management and involves nine connate activities - adapting, communicating, embracing, endorsing, investing, leading, maintaining,
reflecting, and supporting; (P2) a stakeholder and values approach is more likely to result in there being a strong corporate brand identification on the part of students; (P3) an institutional and functional approach to corporate brand management results in weak/
indifferent corporate brand identification by scholars. The pivotal importance of corporate brands to contemporary organisations and to their policy advisors, are illustrative of the saliency of this study. This inductive study draws on insights from policy makers and scholars
in top business schools. This article throws light on why and how general managers should accord importance to corporate brand management. In broader contexts, leading business schools are regarded as repositories of best practice in terms of scholarship in business
administration and, in terms of operations, general management per se. As such, this study has an especial significance for general management of corporate brands among contemporary organisations. |
Summer 2010
Corporate governance and bankruptcy filing decisions
Kaouthar Lajili, Daniel Zéghal
This paper examines the nature and extent of potential linkages between corporate governance characteristics and bankruptcy filing decisions. To test the paper's research hypotheses and follow prior related literature, a sample of financially distressed firms was formed and matched with a group of financially healthy firms in the US between 2001 and 2003. Results show that in addition to lower business and financial health indicators faced by financially distressed firms compared to their financially healthy counterparts, the former group also faced higher director turnover and shorter outside director tenure. In addition, the results indicate that interactions between two or more corporate governance characteristics could have a significant impact on
the bankruptcy filing decision, thus suggesting that a multi-theory foundation for governance research could be warranted in the future. Further research is needed to investigate in more depth how boards and management work together, change, make decisions and manage their
reputations and careers, not only in the case of financial distress but also in normal business situations. |
Summer 2010
Editorial
Steve Downing
The sequence of papers in this Summer issue runs from governance to
management development to strategy and marketing. The first two papers offer scholarly provocation, suggesting simple expectations about good governance and the effectiveness of goal setting in management education may be misplaced. First, Kaouthar Lajili and Daniel Zéghal in 'Corporate governance and bankruptcy filing decisions’ show in a closely argued analysis of governance in financially distressed US companies between 2001 and 2003 that corporate governance is a complex and multi-faceted concept where various elements interact. Despite drawing on agency theory and resource dependence theory to produce some plausible propositions relating good governance to reduced likelihood of financial distress and bankruptcy filings, not all of the propositions are supported. For example the impact of CEO turnover and the independence of independent directors is not a simple matter. Thus although the recent financial crisis and failure of US and UK banks might seem to call for urgent action to improve governance the authors believe more research is needed before new well founded regulation could be recommended…
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Summer 2010
International market entry decisions: the role of local market factors
Jerome Couturier, Davide Sola
This paper examines how external market factors influence the choice of international market entry (direct investment, partnership or acquisition). It is based upon interviews in four industries and upon a longitudinal two-year case study working with a major German Food
company entering the British, Italian and Polish markets. The research confirms the importance of external market factors such as market growth, market consolidation and value chain fragmentation. It proposes a practical framework to guide the company's entry strategy. |
Summer 2010
Which goals should participants set to enhance the transfer of learning from management development programmes?
Travor Brown, Martin McCracken
This paper is designed to critique the goal setting literature, with particular emphasis on the effectiveness of different types of goals for successful transfer in management development programmes. In reviewing the literature, particular focus was given to goal interventions used in
education, training and skill acquisition settings over the last 20 years and how these studies have advanced the understanding of knowledge transfer from management development programmes. Overall, the evidence suggests that the traditional result (or distal outcome) based goals are ill-suited for effective transfer and instead management development scholars and practitioners should use the newer forms of goal setting (e.g. proximal plus distal, behavioural and learning) to facilitate transfer. |
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