Bruce Bendinger (editor), Advertising: The Business of Brands,Chicago: The Copy Workshop, 2001

Abstract

Advertising: The Business of Brands is a “non-genre” text, to borrow a term from film criticism. Genre films, such as Westerns or romantic comedies, follow certain formulas and have recognizable forms (Kaminsky 1991). Similarly, advertising principles texts used in introductory courses are part of a genre that, until now, has included certain recognizable and expected forms. The genre of ad principles texts carries certain expectations about scope, writing style, and layout. These texts provide an overview of the field; are written in a linear, narrative style by the same author or set of authors; and are hardbound books of up to 26 chapters in length. The layout incorporates an abundance of colorful ads and a generous amount of white space for visual appeal.     

Trade,investment, and labor: The case of Indonesia

Rapid industrialization and urbanization spurred on by a surge in foreign investment is often considered typical of newly industrializing countries (NICs). But in Indonesia, the combination of late development and an authoritarian state has created a particularly potent mix, one that has raised more questions than usual about the effects of growth, trade, and investment on labor conditions and local standards of living. The basic motives of foreign direct investment (FDI) are said to create a pattern that is inherently ripe for exploitation, since the capital, technology and market access all rest with the foreign investor. The author uses the Indonesian case to explore factors that might reduce exploitation. While conceding that foreign investment is likely to affect labor conditions in the host economy, especially in times of rapid growth, she cautions against presuming that the consequences will be mainly negative with respect to the living standards and basic human rights of the local population.     

The future of European integration: Visions, challenges, perspectives

In the last five years the European Union has developed at a speed unknown since its beginnings in the Fifties. As a result, the EU is participating in the last three reserves of the European nation state's sovereignty: the currency, the judiciary and the military. The achievements already made, not only enlargement, make the reform of the structures of the Union a necessity. Its institutions must be tailored to these achievements, not just arithmetically adjusted to the increasing number of Member States. MEP, former President of the European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium, and Strasbourg, France. The article is based on a speech given at the Symposium “Challenges for the European Future”, Hamburg, 28 October 2000.     

Preston,Ivan L., The Tangled Web They Weave: Truth,Falsity, & Advertisers,Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1994

Abstract

In an experiment, children in three grade levels (second, fourth, and sixth) viewed four advertisements. The children were shown advertisements with either metaphors in both pictorial and verbal form or a literal equivalent. The sixth graders interpreted more metaphors correctly than the fourth and second graders. In terms of recall of advertised content, the sixth and fourth graders recalled brand names, products, and additional copy better than the second graders. Within each grade level, metaphors did not enhance children's recall of advertised content or perceptions of the understandability of the advertisements and liking of the advertised products. The authors speculate that metaphors are most likely to enhance recall under conditions in which the metaphor serves as a direct representation linking the metaphor to the advertised product. Their findings suggest that advertisers should be aware that young readers may have difficulty interpreting metaphors and that metaphors may not be more effective in terms of children's recall and perception of understandability than literal versions of advertisements.     

The internationalization of African firms: Opportunities,challenges, and risks

There has been a marked increase in the internationalization activities of African firms over the last two decades or so, resulting in the emergence of regional challenger firms that are aggressively competing with foreign multinationals in terrains historically dominated by the latter. However, our understanding of this phenomenon is limited, as empirical research examining the nature of internationalization of African firms is scarce, and research directly investigating drivers, outcomes, and boundary conditions of the internationalization of African firms is lacking. The goal of this special issue, therefore, is to contribute to the scholarly understanding of the increasingly prevalent internationalization of African firms. This guest editorial provides a summary of the six articles in this special issue, and highlights three broad thematic issues: internationalization opportunities for African firms (accelerated private‐sector development and regional integration, and ability to overcome institutional voids); internationalization challenges (global competitiveness challenges, limited management and cross‐cultural capabilities, and overcoming the liability of Africanness); and internationalization risks (losing focus on home markets and over‐internationalization).     

Business-to-Business Negotiations: The Role of Relativism,Deceit, and Opportunism

Purpose: Studies examining the impact of relativism and deceitful tendencies on unethical negotiation tactics have yielded inconsistent results; some studies report a positive relationship, some negative, while some others report a nonexistent relationship between these constructs. These inconsistencies suggest that there may be intervening variables mediating the effects of these factors on unethical negotiation tactics. We propose that opportunism plays an important role in determining the effects of these two antecedents on business managers' perceptions of unethical negotiation tactics.

Method: An Internet-based survey was administered to a sample of managers at U.S. firms engaged in business-to-business marketing. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to evaluate the mediating role of opportunism between deceitful tendencies and relativism on questionable negotiation tactics.

Findings: The analysis supports the hypothesized role of opportunism as a mediating variable. Opportunism was found to play a significant role in mediating the relationships of both relativism and deceitful tendencies on attitudes toward unethical negotiation tactics.

Contribution: In addition to the theoretical contributions suggested here, this article includes suggestions for minimizing the likelihood that a negotiation partner's relativism and deceitful tendencies will negatively impact business negotiation.     

Regulation,deregulation, self-regulation: The case of engineers in Ontario

Against a wider background of rationales for deregulation within a modern economy, and as an exercise of subjecting a theory to the hard discipline of a particular case, a detailed analysis is given of a recent proposal for a form of deregulation (the industrial exemption) for engineering in Ontario. The proposal of the Staff Study of the Professional Organizations Committee set up by the Ontario Government is analyzed in terms of its Posnerian foundations, and is critized theoretically, empirically and normatively. Attention is drawn to two wider issues: the protection by self-regulating professionals of third parties against negative externalities, and the adverse effects of the proletarianization of professionals in large organizations. J. T. Stevenson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto where he teaches Ethics and Engineering and he is co-chairman of the Occupational Ethics Group. An important publication is Standards and Support Stystems for Whistle-Blowers, Engineering Dimensions, 1982.An earlier version of this paper was presented to a conference, Economics, Philosophy and Justice, at University of Waterloo, May 1983. I am indebted to Lawrence Haworth, University of Waterloo, for helpful criticisms. A shorter version was presented to a conference sponsored by the Society for Business Ethics at de Paul University, Chicago, July 1983. I thank Conrad Brunk, Conrad Grebel College, Waterloo for further helpful comments. The paper draws primarily on two documents: (a) Micheal J. Treblicock, Carolyn J. Tuohy and Alan D. Wolfson, Professional Regulation: A Staff Study of Accountancy, Architecture, Engineering and Law, prepared for The Professional Organizations Committee, Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario, 1979. (Hereafter referred to as POC Staff); (b) H. Allen Leal, J. Alex Corry, J. Stefan Dupré, The Report of the Professional Organizations Committee, Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario, 1980. (Hereafter referred to as POC Report). The first work brings together material form sixteen staff working papers, to which I have had access through the courtesy of Professor John Swan, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. I have also made use of The Professions and Public Policy ed. by Philip Slayton and Michael J. Treblicock, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978 and, for American perspectives, Regulating the Professions, ed. by Roger D. Blair and Stephen Rubin, Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1980.     

Refractory Materials: The Global Market,The Global Industry

World demand for refractory products—heat-resisting ceramic materials used in metal refining, glass making, and other high-temperature industrial applications—will be slowing down considerably from an annual rate of 10.8 percent during 2002–07 to 3.5 percent during 2007–12. Such slower growth reflects many factors, but is due primarily to: unsettled economic conditions; better efficiencies in steelmaking (which accounts for about half of all end uses of refractories); and the preference of end-users for maintenance rather than new facilities. The four key markets or end uses for refractory materials are: iron and steelmaking; other metal-making; nonmetallic materials such as glass; and an all-other category. In 2007, world refractory demand was 38.1 million metric tons valued at $22.9 billion; the corresponding figures for 2012 are projected at about 45.2 million metric tons valued at $28.5 billion. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for about 45 percent of total weight in 2007; its share by 2012 should rise to about 69 percent, with China becoming the dominant producer and consumer of refractory materials.     

Store-, Market-, and Consumer-Characteristics: The Drivers of Store Performance

Four factors have traditionally been identified in influencing store performance: store-, market-, and consumer characteristics and competition. Given partially conflicting and, in some cases, dated findings in the literature we want to re-assess the effects. In particular, past research has usually considered only two out of the four constructs at any time, which is likely to result in erroneous interpretation of results. We draw upon a unique cross-sectional sample of grocery stores with a wide array of store characteristic, store performance, trade area, and consumer demographic variables. Using structural modeling, our prime interest is to assess the differential impact of store attractiveness, market potential, and socio-economic status on two different store performance measures, while controlling for competitive effects. We find that the market potential of a store is by far the most important driver of store sales performance and sales productivity performance. With one exception, the model and the data support the hypothesized relationships about the direction and the strength of the impact of a store's attractiveness, market potential and socio-economic characteristics of the trade area on a store's performance.     

Daniel Yergin: The new map: energy,climate, and the clash of nations

Business Economics -     

The Defense Industry Initiative: Ethics,self-regulation,and accountability

In 1986, President Reagan created the Packard Commission, a blue-ribbon commission to investigate defense contracting procurement fraud. The Packard Commission's major recommendation was for defense contractors to adopt ethics programs. Out of this recommendation emerged the Defense Industry Initiative (DII). This paper examines this Initiative and focuses on the DII's six principles. In particular, this paper explores the implications the DII has had with respect to (1) pursuing intra-industry cooperation and setting industry-wide standards; (2) monitoring compliance; (3) the paradox inherent to the DII as a facilitator for industry self-regulation; and, (4) why companies have enthusiastically adopted the directive. This paper concludes that the DII falls short of being an effective method of self-regulation because: (1) it does not achieve complete industry-wide cooperation; (2) it does not establish uniform standards of ethical conduct within the industry; (3) it does not hold the signatory companies accountable for creating a strong system of ethical conduct; and, (4) it does not relieve the organizational and market pressures to be unethical.Nancy Kurland is a doctoral student. Her research interests include ethics, values, and moral reasoning in business. She has published in theJournal of Business Ethics.     

Blitzscaling: The good,the bad,and the ugly

Today’s disruptive innovations are driving the creation of numerous billion-dollar startups. Venture capitalists focus on these potentially disruptive technology startups and fund them furiously, advancing their speed of growth. The idea is to scale fast and seek huge returns for investors. Terms that define this type of aggressive scaling have recently developed in Silicon Valley. Unicorn is defined as a venture with a value of $1 billion, while a decacorn describes startups with a value of $10 billion. Another recent term is blitzscaling: funding a venture for extremely fast growth and prioritizing speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty. While blitzscaling is being used heavily by investors in Silicon Valley, we look at exactly what comprises this new phenomenon and how it is used in practice. We examine the concept, its stages, and its prevalence before reviewing the different examples of how the strategy has been implemented for success (the good), cases of its failure in practice (the bad), and the extreme cases of ethical compromise by ventures (the ugly). From these cases, we draw specific lessons that, if understood and appropriately addressed, would help new ventures effectively implement the strategy.