Multi-stakeholder brand narratives: an analysis of the construction of artistic brands

Abstract

In the case of visual artists, the product they create is inextricably linked to their identities, personalities and career histories in terms of how the art is produced, presented, consumed and positioned and valued in the market. Although artists’ branding initiatives are considered relevant to branding and marketing theory, identifying how these are constructed and managed and identity negotiated through this process is an area that needs further development. This research therefore uses a multi-stakeholder approach to branding theory to examine contemporary artists’ careers to understand how value is added to their ‘product’. Qualitative analysis of artists’ biographies and career histories in the London art market illustrates how value is co-constructed through relationships in a temporal manner that must be strategically managed.     

Sustainability marketing at the farmers’ market: An ethnographic analysis of ambiguous communication

Farmers’ markets have grown rapidly in recent decades. One explanation for this growth relates to consumers’ view that farmers’ market products are more sustainable. While many have analyzed customer preferences at farmers’ markets, few have examined farmers’ message strategies in this space. Little has been done to analyze the ways farmers use sustainability as a marketing approach. This ethnographic research is based on 100 hr of observation and in‐depth interviews with 36 participants and analyzes the ways farmers position their products as sustainable to customers. The findings indicate that sustainability is not a primary topic of conversation during customerfarmer interaction. However, related concepts such as environment, local, organic, and chemical serve as the proxies for sustainability, even though these messages are presented ambiguously.     

Self-concept,individual characteristics,and counterfeit consumption: Evidence from an emerging market

The study draws on a sample of over 350 consumers from 10 department stores in an emerging market where counterfeit products are available in abundance and there is a huge demand for such goods. The findings reveal that interdependent and independent self traits significantly affect individual characteristics, that is, susceptibility to normative influence, readiness to take social risk, and status acquisition (SA), which in turn influences counterfeit purchase intention. It was discovered that such individual characteristics play a mediating effect on the self-concept—purchase intention relationship and that high degrees of interdependent self traits positively affect consumers' purchase intention. The study adds to the theory of reasoned action (TRA) by incorporating SA variables into the TRA framework and discovers their significant influence on purchase intention. Some novel insights surrounding counterfeit consumption in an emerging economy context are presented and several implications are extracted to help practitioners appeal to such individual characteristics for combating counterfeit consumption.     

An examination of materialism,conspicuous consumption and gender differences

This paper examines gender differences in terms of materialism, conspicuous consumption, brand loyalty and impulse buying. We build our hypotheses based on both existing marketing and consumption literature with an additional integration of historical and gender studies literature in order to further augment the study of materialism and its related variables. Our study used survey data from 1180 Americans living in four northeastern states. Results show that significant differences between the genders were found in terms of materialism, conspicuous consumption and impulse buying. No significant difference was found in terms of brand loyalty.     

The retail sector in the Nordic countries: A description of the differences, similarities, and uniqueness in the global market

We present an overview of the retail sector in the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. We apply the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and the Concentration Ratio to estimate the market concentration in the retail sector in each of those countries. The level of concentration in the retail trade in the Nordic countries is relatively high as compared to other European countries, which is reflected in low customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the Nordic countries have a relatively high proportion of their total population living in the capital area, and we consider how that affects their retail trade.     

Conceptualising market orientation in non-profit organisations: definition,performance, and preliminary construction of a scale

Abstract

This paper applies Narver and Slater's (1990 Narver, J. and Slater, S. 1990. The effect of a market orientation on business profitability. Journal of Marketing, 54(2): 20[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) conceptualisation of market orientation to non-profit organisations. The study constructs a reliable and valid scale of the market orientation in non-profits in order to test the relationship between non-profits' market orientation and their performance outcomes in the context of a developing country. We surveyed 211 Indian non-profits and received 102 usable responses. We used principal axis factoring with oblique rotation to analyse the data. The scale was tested for its dimensionality, reliability, and various validities. The findings show a positive link between non-profits' market orientation and their performance in the context of a developing country. Market-oriented non-profits were found to be more effective in achieving their organisational mission, beneficiary satisfaction, and peer reputation than those that were less market oriented.     

Corporate social responsibility in emerging market economies: Determinants,consequences, and future research directions

The last two decades have witnessed a growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) worldwide by corporations, investors, policy makers, and researchers across different disciplines. This paper is part of a Special Issue devoted to CSR practices of firms in emerging market economies (EMEs). It complements prior research focusing mainly on developed countries. We begin with an assessment of CSR practices in EMEs, and examine their determinants and performance implications. We then review key findings in the empirical CSR literature, including studies published in the Emerging Markets Review Special Issue. We conclude by describing pertinent avenues for future research.     

Sustainable consumption: consumption,consumers and the commodity discourse

This paper examines the concept of sustainable consumption by focusing on the consumption habits of Irish consumers. The key research findings fit into three broad and interrelated categories. Firstly, whilst recent sustainable consumption literature suggests that new research should focus on the issue of consumption, in and of itself, our study shows that consumers themselves view environmental problems from a supply and not a demand perspective. They focus on issues such as recycling and waste and not consumption itself. Secondly, our study shows that consumers have green opinions about very diverse issues and these are directly related to the individuals' lifestyles. Finally, our research shows that “material green” consumers are buying into a particular image in their consumption practices. This is very much connected to the meanings of their consumption that are derived from the communication value they attach to commodities. As such our study provides support for earlier conceptual research which suggests that in order to encourage less consumption we must use existing commodity discourse to achieve such ends.     

国家油标出台,SUV市场重整布局

2005年4月27日，国家环保总局公布了汽车尾气排放标准，将于2007年7月1日起在全国开始实施，北京则会提前实行国三标准，其余城市将实现逐步淘汰、逐步过渡的方法，陆续实施国三标准。《标准》一出，加上国际原油价格的上涨，“乘用车燃料消耗量限值》的公布，消费税税率即将提高，种种因素导致购车成本增加，意欲购买SUV的消费者不得不再三考虑。仅在2005年1-4月，SUV整体销量就下滑了1／4，“中国SUV年”风光不再，似乎走到了“山重水复疑无路”的局面。有人甚至提出与其等SUV市场被冻结，不如趁此机会，一刀将“油老虎”切出市场，这对于经历了03年的急速扩张和04年的平缓发展之后呈现疲软状态的SUV市场，无疑是雪上加霜，难免引起一片哗然。SUV正面临着关乎生死存亡的压力，是危机?还是挑战?SUV市场又将会如何发展呢?     

Stock picking,market timing and style differences between socially responsible and conventional pension funds: evidence from the United Kingdom

As far as we are aware, this study presents the first comparative analysis of the stock picking and market timing abilities of managers of conventional and socially responsible (SR) pension funds, and of their use of superior information. For the United Kingdom, the results obtained show a slight stock picking ability on the part of SR pension fund managers (although it disappears if multifactorial models are considered), and a negative market timing ability on the part of both SR and conventional pension fund managers (these results hold for multifactorial models controlled by home bias). In relation to the management styles, both conventional and SR pension funds usually invest in small cap and growth values, although it is the SR pension funds that are the most exposed to these styles. We also observed that, while conventional pension fund managers make certain use of superior information to follow stock picking strategies, managers of SR pension funds use superior information to follow market timing strategies.     

Concepts of price fairness: empirical research into the Dutch coffee market

This paper researches perceptions of the concept of price fairness in the Dutch coffee market. We distinguish four alternative standards of fair prices based on egalitarian, basic rights, capitalistic and libertarian approaches. We investigate which standards are guiding the perceptions of price fairness of citizens and coffee trade organizations. We find that there is a divergence in views between citizens and key players in the coffee market. Whereas citizens support the concept of fairness derived from the basic rights approach, holding that the price should provide coffee farmers with a minimum level of subsistence, representatives of Dutch coffee traders hold the capitalistic view that the free world market price is fair.     

Reducing distributor opportunism in the export market: Effects of monitoring mechanisms, norm-based information exchange, and market orientation

As monitoring mechanisms are critical to exporter–distributor relationships, the effectiveness of different types of monitoring mechanisms remains an important issue. Our study goes beyond the separate effects of monitoring mechanisms on opportunism, and tests the moderating effects of market orientation (MO) and norm-based information exchange on the monitoring mechanism–opportunism relationship. Based on survey data of 160 export ventures in China, we find that process control increases distributor opportunism, while norm-based information exchange and MO decrease it. Moreover, at high levels of norm-based information exchange and MO, the impact of process control on opportunism turns from positive to negative.     

基于VAR模型的江苏省投资、消费与经济增长实证分析

本文利用江苏省1980年到2007年经济数据,在VAR模型的基础上,运用协整检验、格兰杰因果检验、脉冲响应分析和方差分解的方法对江苏省的投资、消费与经济增长之间的关系进行实证分析。结果发现,投资、消费和经济增长之间具有长期均衡关系,江苏省地区生产总值的增长与投资和消费都具有双向因果关系,消费对经济增长的贡献度比投资更大。因此,通过提高居民收入水平,才能刺激消费,促进江苏经济健康发展。     

Romancing the alpaca: Passionate consumption, collection, and companionship

With their inquisitive nature, apparent intelligence, and aesthetic appeal, alpacas draw humans to them. This article spotlights alpaca breeders in an exploration of collecting as passionate consumption [BelkRussell, W. Collecting in a Consumer Society. London: Routledge, 1995.] and consumers' relationships with their animal companions [Hirschman Elizabeth. Consumers and their animal companions. Journal of Consumer Research 1994; 20 (March): 616-32.; Holbrook MB. Stephens DL. Day E. Holbrook SM. Strazar G. A collective stereographic photo essay on key aspects of animal companionship: The truth about dogs and cats. Academy of Marketing Science Review 2001; (1) 1-16.]. Multiple data sources provide stories of alpaca ownership. These sources comprise books, newspaper clips, and magazine articles about alpacas, as well as the author's own experiences as an alpaca breeder over the past 10 years. Building from Belk's work on collection, this article both introduces the idea of dynamic-and-transforming collections and illustrates how passionate consumption can lead to rejuvenation and re-enchantment with life. By concentrating on consumption experiences, this work adds to the growing body of consumer research that moves beyond a narrow focus on purchase behavior.     

解读今年造船市场油船建造热

今年以来,全球油船运输市场持续疲软,波罗的海原油运价指数年初时为2110点,11月底下降至1169点,跌幅44%.与油船运输市场的冰冷相对的是油船新造船市场的火热,油船新船价格指数年初是为183点,11月底上升至202点,升幅10.38%.     

审计委员会、董事会特征与财务呈报质量:基于中国证券市场的实证研究

Board independence and the board’s expertise characteristics are key factors influencing the quality of financial reporting. Companies, having a higher percentage of independent directors, having independent financial directors, or having an audit committee on board are more likely to generate quality accounting earnings information. Variables representing board behavior characteristics, namely, ratio of shares owned by the board, board meeting frequency within a year, and the number of independent directors holding posts concurrently in the controlling shareholder’s company, are not significantly related to the quality of financial reporting. Board meeting frequency is even abnormally negatively related to the quality of financial reporting. Translated from Guangli Pinglun 管理评论 (Business Review), 2006, (7): 49–56