Branded lives: The production and consumption of meaning at work

Over the last number of decades, as a result of regulatory, technological and changing consumer dynamics, many service organisations operate in an increasingly competitive and dynamic external environment. These changes have led to service companies trying to both recruit and retain profitable customers. In order to compete effectively, do companies focus on transaction and relationship marketing activities only or on the balanced delivery of both? Apart from a small body of work (Brodie et al. 1997; Coviello et al. 1997; 2002), the literature has treated transaction and relationship marketing in an isolated and non-integrated fashion. In particular there has been limited consideration of the pertinent issues facing service organisations trying to integrate these two perspectives in practice. This article describes an in-depth study of a service organisation's transaction and relationship marketing activities. In this study theory was used in the development of a conceptual model. This model was used as a framework to guide the study and data collection using one retail bank case. The data were analysed in relation to the transaction and relationship marketing focus and activities of the bank. The findings indicate that resource investment in some aspects of transaction and relationship marketing activities, in practice, was unbalanced compared to the resource investment in a wide range of support activities. The study has implications for research and theory and to those attempting to deliver both transaction and relationship marketing in the context of dynamic and competitive environments.     

A cross-cultural longitudinal analysis of the meaning of work and the socialization process of career starters

This research examines the cultural variations in the socialization process of youth, from seven different countries during their transition into the world of work. It represents one of the very few longitudinal studies among young career starters and their work values. We study the extent to which work centrality is trans-national or culturally/nationally specific. The most significant increase in work centrality was found to occur during the second year of employment. At the national level, cultural differences were identified using Hofstede’s (1980) measures. Countries low in uncertainty avoidance were shown to have increased work centrality, while those high in masculinity–femininity appeared weakly influential.     

The meaning of commitment in professional service relationships: a study of the meaning of commitment used by lawyers and their clients

Several authors have identified the importance of commitment in successful business relationships. However, few studies have considered the meaning of commitment, especially within the context of customer-supplier relationships.

Most studies of commitment within the marketing literature use existing conceptualisations developed within the psychology and organisational behaviour literatures. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meaning of commitment in a customer-supplier relationship context, and to compare this with traditional conceptualisation of commitment.

This study investigates the meaning of commitment used by both lawyers and their clients, within the context of their relationship. The findings show that the meaning of commitment used in professional relationships may be more complex than its traditional conceptualisation and should be extended to include at least three additional components including: 'partnership commitment', 'impression management commitment' and 'personal commitment'. It is argued that it is inappropriate to 'borrow' the conceptualisation of the construct of commitment from other disciplines, without considering the market-based context in which it is used. Implications for professional service relationships include that professionals and clients would benefit from sharing a similar meaning of commitment and this meaning may be influenced by the culture, systems and processes of their organisation.     

Brands: meaning and value in media culture

The culture of consumption which characterizes the economically advanced societies in this century is historically unique and evolving. Widespread misbehavior by consumers is an intrinsic element of this culture, being unintentionally stimulated by the very marketing factors which stimulate legitimate consumption. The paper elucidates the culture of consumption and the known reasons for consumer misbehavior, shows the strong relationships among these, and then demonstrates the pervasiveness and variety of consumer misbehavior in North America today.     

The work of mapping and the mapping of work: prosumer roles in crowdsourced maps

This paper presents an analysis of crowdsourcing work with a particular focus on exploring what forces and characteristics of the collaboration practices and technologies encourage and discourage prosumer work behaviours. Data were gathered through depth interviews with prosumers of a crowdsourced digital nautical map, observational netnographic research of prosumers on angling forums, and interviews and meetings with the map providers. Incorporating research on consumer work and prosumption, three distinct prosumer roles are identified based on how angling prosumers differentially produce and consume the crowdsourced maps. These roles show multiple behaviours along the prosumption continuum, and in so doing extend the continuum by introducing a second dimension – work as private versus public prosumer activity. It concludes by offering suggestions for marketers to engage with prosumers in crowdsourcing contexts.     

Deconstructing symbolic consumption: exploring the anti-synthetic space between meaning and meaninglessness

Meaning is a fundamental aspect of symbolic consumption and lies at the heart of consumer culture theory (CCT). Although consumption meanings are considered dynamic, heterogeneous, and contextual, meaning itself is considered an inherent aspect of consumer culture and a constitutive force of consumer experiences. Utilizing deconstruction as a critical strategy, this paper interrogates the concept of meaning in the CCT literature and contends that meaning is not only present in consumption practices, but it is also absent. As meaning circulates in the infinite possibilities of language, meaninglessness emerges as an important aspect of this process. The dialectical tension between meaning and meaninglessness, though, does not converge within a particular consumption practice, but continuously diverges in the anti-synthetic space between them. We empirically explore the consumption of this anti-synthetic space in three popular culture exemplars. We conclude by discussing the broader implications of the deconstruction of symbolic consumption for CCT.     

意义维度的组织理论初探

本文对有关意义维度的理论观点进行了一个综述性的介绍,并在吸收前人研究成果的基础之上,尝试性地给出一个意义维度的组织理论的初步框架.     

The meaning of the tindemans report

In INTERECONOMICS No. 3, 1976, we published an Interview with Professor Dr Walter Hallstein, former President of the EEC Commission, on the Belgian Prime Minister’s, Leo Tindemans’, “Report on the European Union”. Meanwhile the Report has been discussed on occasion of the last European Council meeting in Luxembourg whose unfortunate outcome pointed out in a dramatic way the weakness of the political will of the Community. In the following article the President of the Council, Gaston Thorn, explains his views of the significance of the so-called “Tindemans Report”.     

浅谈品牌与品牌资产评估的意义

新经济时代的到来.使品牌发展面临着更大的机遇和挑战.开展品牌价值评估和实施品牌战略业已成为企业经营活动的重要内容之一.品牌资产作为企业最有价值的资产,同时又是一项独具魅力的无形资产,有关品牌资产价值的理论不仅指出了品牌发展的方向与途径,更为品牌的经营提供了决策依据.集无形性、价值性与功能性于一身的品牌资产极大地激发了人们对它的研究兴趣,对品牌资产价值的评估亦成为当前关注的一大热点.     

从抽象的意义到具象的符号——论广告编码的意识形态化

随着消费社会的形成,消费者对商品的需求由物质属性向精神属性转变,商品本身的功能性使用价值逐渐由商品的社会性象征意义所取代。为适应或推动这种消费理念的转变,广告在创意编码的过程中,扮演着为商品填充意识形态领域里各项元素的角色．这些元素以大众文化和流行时尚为主,广告商力图对这些文化内涵、价值理念和伦理道德予以个性化的诠释并通过具象的视觉符号向目标受众传播以期得到他们的认可,从而达成最终的商品销售目的。     

Metaphors and meaning: A grounded cultural model of us entrepreneurship

A grounded cultural model of US entrepreneurship is developed by analysing the metaphors that entrepreneurs use to give meaning to entrepreneurship in their life-and-business narratives. The resultant cultural model is coherent and internally consistent, and is helpful in providing stronger insights into entrepreneurs' own perspectives, aspirations, and cognition of the entrepreneurial process. Close to Schumpeter's conception of the entrepreneur, it nevertheless contains elements that are markedly American, and can be contrasted both with European mental models of entrepreneurship, and metaphorically derived models of organisational behaviour.     

In search of the meaning of entrepreneurship

This paper is an attempt to build a bridge between the popular and the academic usage of the terms entrepreneur and entrepreneurship, and to identify the raw materials needed to construct an interpretive framework capable of illuminating the nature of entrepreneurship and its role in economic theory. We review briefly the contributions made to this topic by Cantillon, Schumpeter, Schultz and Kirzner. We advance a synthetic definition of the entrepreneur as someone who specializes in taking responsibility for and making judgemental decisions that affect the location, the form, and the use of goods, resources, or institutions. We then conclude with some observations on the basic choice confronting economics regarding the place of entrepreneurship in economic analysis.     

Psychological meaning: Empirical directions for identification and strategy development

Meaning is important in attitude and perception research. Consumers can assign meanings to product attributes that do not conform to standard usage or have not been considered by the researcher, and a misunderstanding of that meaning can result in ineffective marketing strategy. This paper explores different levels of meaning and, through empirical example, presents a methodology for investigating the psychological meaning of attributes. Alternative methodologies for studying psychological meaning are discussed, and techniques for investigating the strategic operationalization of empirical semantic meaning results are illustrated using a mass transit study.     

Bringing meaning to the sales job: The effect of ethical climate and customer demandingness

Top performing salespeople are attracted to organizations that provide opportunities to make full use of their abilities. Responses from 1450 sales directors from a leading direct selling organization were used to examine salesperson's experienced meaningfulness. Results show that experienced meaningfulness is critical to sales because it impacts salesperson's performance, turnover intentions and felt stress. Further, ethical climate and customer demandingness influence experienced meaningfulness perceptions.     

Perceived work conditions and self-directed learning in the process of work

Self-directed learning at work is becoming a megatrend in training and organisational development. However, there is a wide range of meanings subsumed under this concept. Referring to theoretical considerations in the domains of motivation, interest, strategies of learning and control, a conceptual model of self-directed learning, called the Two-Shell Model of Motivated Self-Directed Learning was developed and validated. The impact of selected perceived work conditions (experienced autonomy, competence and social integration) on this type of learning was structurally modelled with a sample of 67 employees in the fish processing industry. On the basis of these theoretical considerations and results the instrument ‘project group’ is analysed and recommended to support motivated self-directed learning.     

垄断行业改革的意义及思路

垄断行业改革已成为我国经济体制改革的重点和难点。打破垄断,对于提高企业综合竞争能力,保证我国经济持续、健康、快速发展具有重要意义。垄断行业与竞争性领域改革相比,具有自然垄断性、公益性、安全性、网络性、复杂性等特点。对垄断行业进行改革,既要借鉴国际经验,又要充分考虑行业及企业的特殊性,健全法律,注重发挥政府的主导作用。