Ad agencies

This article highlights advertising agencies as marketplace icons. The role of ad agencies in creating iconic brands can sometimes be obscured, yet ad agencies are central to how the contemporary marketplace works. While ad agencies are no longer the hegemonic instance of consumer culture that they were from the 1950s to the 1990s, they have adapted to today's democratic advertisingscape by shepherding cultural content produced elsewhere to market. Ad agencies have remained the engine behind significant shifts in consumer culture, such as the warming of relations between music and advertising, by acting as the ‘midwife’ between art and commerce, facilitating new cultural practices in the process.     

Whiskey: marketplace icon

Brands are potent and efficient vehicles to diffuse and reproduce ideologies. This article revisits over a decade of research on Jack Daniel’s as an iconic brand, and provides a behind the scenes look at the process of researching cultural brands. It describes whiskey as a marketplace icon that reflects particular cultural ideologies, and updates the Jack Daniel’s story in the context of the craft liquor movement. Iconic brands, cultural icons, and marketplace icons are discussed. Further distinctions between iconicity at the category, segment and brand level are made. The article is transcribed and edited from an interview with Consumption Markets & Culture editor Jonathan Schroeder in June 2015.     

Champagne: marketplace icon

What makes a simple wine, grown in a rather mediocre wine-growing region, one of the most famous and magical marketplace icons of today? How did champagne establish such a unique position, against all the odds, and become the global symbol of celebration? In seeking answers to these questions, this marketplace icon contribution elaborates on what 250 years of avant-garde champagne marketing can tell us about champagne’s ever-shifting image and role in consumer culture. I argue that the “imperishable fame” of champagne stems primarily from four epic myth-making moments that not only came to shape a national identity but also modern consumption ideologies in important ways.     

Consumer Intentions to Revisit Online Retailers: A Mental Imagery Account

The current research explores the role of Web site characteristics, such as animation and iconic navigation aids, in predicting consumers’ self‐reported intentions to revisit a retailer's Web site. An experimental study (n = 339) shows that Web site characteristics do not affect revisit intentions directly but through the vividness of mental images that consumers hold of the Web site as a whole. Vivid mental Web site imagery is stimulated by animation and facilitated by individual tendencies to put faith in intuitive rather than rational thinking, while it does not relate to the use of icons in navigation. The implications of these findings for researchers, Web designers and marketers are discussed.     

From iconic business leader to Russian icon museum founder: Bridging business and the arts across cultures

This case study portrays Gordon Lankton, a highly successful U.S. executive who, drawing upon the relationships he had built during two decades of doing business in Russia, succeeded in having Moscow's renowned State Tretyakov Gallery lend priceless icons to his new museum in a small Massachusetts town. We demonstrate how a charismatic and gently determined executive‐turned‐museum founder exhibited transformational leadership while bridging business and the arts across cultures. The case study includes an interview with Gordon Lankton and is followed by a commentary that features an interview with Kent dur Russell (the Museum of Russian Icons curator) and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of Lankton's leadership style. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Product strategy choices – Honeywell and RCA mainframe computer product strategies 1963–71

IBM's System/360 family of mainframe computers has been rightly considered as one of the most ambitious product developments of all time. However, what of the responses to it? This paper looks at two companies which directly targeted IBM's customer base. One, Honeywell, chose to target customers of IBM's older technology offering backwardly compatible, updated systems, exploiting IBM's move to a new technology. RCA, ostensibly one of the technically capable electronics companies of the era, tackled IBM head-on by producing a series of systems compatible with IBM's latest generation equipment – a strategy of forward compatibility. The cases on Honeywell and RCA focus not only on their product strategy but also on the timing of their investments. Specifically it highlights that, while the concentrically diversified nature of RCA provided it with the ability to develop computers, RCA's investment decisions were based on internal resource allocation logic, not a market-driven logic.     

The globalization of Chinese enterprises

The question of how and why Chinese firms globalize is one of the most pressing issues for businesses today. China's globalization process is nothing less than remarkable. The twenty‐first century will feature a developing country as the leader of the global economy by 2020, when, by most estimates, China's purchasing power parity (PPP) gross domestic product (GDP) surpasses America's. With China's new role on the world's stage, global economic and political institutions are likely to change. China's foray into Latin America, for example, has changed the traditional role that America has played in its “backyard.” While the Chinese government was given much credit for China's globalization, Chinese private‐ and family‐owned businesses have also propelled China outward. Our research stream and annual China Goes Global conference at Harvard has attempted to frame the questions associated with China's globalization. This special issue is another important step in this direction. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Should Cookie Monster adopt a healthy lifestyle or continue to indulge? Insights into brand icons

Developing a brand icon has been a way for marketers to humanize and forge relationships with consumers. Icon development takes time. During this time, marketers have to face how much they stay true and consistent with their icons and how much they allow their icons to adapt to cultural changes in the marketplace. Little is known about how consumers respond to changing icons, and even less is known about whether there may be certain consumer groups that are more or less receptive to such changes. Four experiments and qualitative interviews were undertaken to gain insights into these issues. People who have a low need to belong were most impacted by changes in the icon, with effects most evident among consumers with a fearful attachment style. Feelings of rejection were found to amplify these effects. These findings have implications both for theory and practice.     

Rapid rise of China's semiconductor industry: What are the implications for Singapore?

Lately, there has been a rush of foreign investment commitments in China's semiconductor industry, giving rise to predictions of a semiconductor revolution in the world's most populous country. Pull factors include China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which would clarify trading and investment rules, government incentives, and, of course, burgeoning domestic demand. For the moment, because of U.S. export restrictions, China's chip industry will be kept behind the technology curve by around five years. However, its ample supply of engineers and low labor costs will aid in the development of the assembly & test and design sectors, which are labor‐intensive. But given strong government commitment, the industry is likely to continue to progress upward, gaining from the diffusion of high‐tech know‐how through its alliances with multinational corporations and tier‐one foundries. In the industry's value chain, there is potential for Taiwan and China to complement each other in both domestic and global markets, across both high‐ and low‐end technology segments, and across the entire chain of activities. To meet the challenges, Singapore needs to further leverage on its competencies in infrastructure and logistics, as well as the well‐established ASEAN production network for greater economies of scale. For Singapore's semiconductor industry to remain competitive, there is a need to strengthen the full value chain, from integrated circuit (IC) design to wafer fabrication to packaging & test, by attracting and building up companies specializing in different competencies. Singapore semiconductor manufacturers should continuously strive to stay at the technology forefront and provide competitive customer services. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

MATLAB在控制系统仿真中的应用

本文简述了采用MATLAB软件的控制工具箱对控制系统进行辅助设计的一般方法。MATLAB具有编程简单直观，用户界面友善，开放性强等优点，能有效提高控制系统的工作效率，是控制系统中一种很好的工具。     

全固态化100W立体声调频发射机

本文叙述一种新型的全固态化立体声调频广播发射机的主要组成、技术指标、各单元特点及可靠性预算。实践表明,该机性价比高,是国内广播系统中最受欢迎的产品之一。     

Habit,prisoner's dilemma and Americans’ welfare cost of working much more than Europeans

Europeans work much less than Americans. Some studies claim this is due to Europe's high taxes and that Europeans would gain by adopting US tax rates and work time. I argue that Americans would gain by reducing work time to Europe's level. Due to historical experience, Europe is able to internalise work‐time‐related negative externalities by enacting restrictive work‐time policies, while the United States is not, resulting in a prisoner's dilemma equilibrium and “overworking trap.” A simple model and work‐time data are used to derive the US welfare gain from reducing work time to Europe's level. Findings are as follows: (i) parameter values are consistent with experimental results on own vs. other people's income value; (ii) the welfare gain's present value is between 80 and 120% of annual welfare; and (iii) a European policy that reduces work time excessively remains beneficial if the reduction is less than twice the optimal one.     

The Chinese business system and its authoriliberal economic model

China's position as one of the most powerful nations in the world is undisputed. However, in an evolving landscape, China's utilization of a path-dependent business system may hinder the ability of the country's institutions to undergo necessary change, which will have important implications for international business literature. Through business system theory, empirical evidence, and a mixed methods approach, we discuss China's business system explaining how the system may impair sustainable growth and the transformation required by a less dependent industrial society. Our research suggests that the Chinese business system is still very arrested due to its recent past, and the Chinese Communist Party has only partial interest in improving some of the most important bases for the development of modern enterprises, even if fostering a somewhat liberal economic approach. Since similar political (authoritarian) and economic (liberal) approaches are found elsewhere, we theorize on what we called an authoriliberal economic approach.     

Congenital learning in the Spanish telecommunication industry

Knowledge provided by a firm's founder(s) is one of the most important success factors for SMEs. This paper aims to identify the impact of the founder's knowledge on business performance in today's organization. It is with this in mind that we propose a specialized organizational learning process, which we refer to as the congenital learning process, by which the firm transforms the tacit and explicit knowledge of the founder into knowledge which is available to the firm and its members. The research model and hypothesized relationships are empirically tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach, validated by factor analysis of 130 SMEs in the Spanish telecommunications sector. Two structural equation models, derived from the literature, have been used, resulting in the conclusion that organizational performance is positively affected by the transfer and transformation of knowledge as long as the organization has implemented processes that lead to the creation of what we refer to as an open organizational context.     

Assessing the Impacts of US‐Japan Bilateral Trade Agreements, 1980–1995

The paper presents three different viewpoints on the effects of US‐Japan bilateral trade agreements and finds some evidence to support each one using trade data from 1980–1995. For most of the 25 industry‐agreement cases, the data do not support a conclusion of significant positive impacts of the agreements on Japan's imports of targeted manufactured products from either the US or non‐US sources. In at least one high‐profile case involving autos, I find evidence suggesting positive impacts on imports from the US, but in this case the data suggests trade diversion benefiting US0based producers at the expense of European ones. I also find a few cases where the agreements may have produced positive effects on Japan's imports from non‐US sources.     

Strategic inertia,financial fragility and organisational failure: The case of the Birkbeck Bank, 1870–1911

This article looks at the key factors behind the failure of the Birkbeck Bank in 1911. Using a wide range of primary source material, it charts how the Bank emerged from its philanthropic roots as a mutual building society in the 1870s to go on and enjoy spectacular growth during the late nineteenth century before eventually faltering and failing in the early twentieth century. Throughout the analysis, particular attention is given to the investment decisions taken by the Bank's management and the impact that these had on the Bank's fortunes. In addition, the article also looks at the extent to which the Birkbeck Bank's overall business model differed from those of other banks in this period. Ultimately, what it shows is that the Bank's failure to modify its investment strategy quickly enough in response to changing market conditions – most notably the fall in the value of Consols and other gilt-edged securities – proved to be the decisive factor in its eventual collapse. For this reason, the article contends, it is appropriate to categorise the 1911 Birkbeck Bank failure as one caused by strategic inertia rather than excessive risk-taking.     

The importance of intellectual property protection to the American research-intensive pharmaceutical industry

The American research-intensive pharmaceutical industry is the world's most successful and competitive and one of the crown jewels of the U.S. industrial base. Among the principal reasons for its success is an unparalleled commitment to research and development, which in turn yields an impressive array of advanced biomedical therapies. Intellectual property protection is a cornerstone of the industry's existence. Like other industries, such as computer software and audio/video recordings, a major portion of the industry's cost of production is incurred in the development stage, rendering unauthorized copying both easy and profitable. The GATT Uruguay Round and the North American Free Trade Agreement have set high standards for pharmaceutical and other industries' intellectual property protection. Unfortunately, there will be delays until numerous countries implement these standards. These delays harm both the industry worldwide and individual countries where patent protection would attract investment and stimulate research and development.     

Latvia

Situated on a trading crossroads between Western Europe and Russia, Latvia has emerged as one of the most successful countries in Central Europe. This article provides a comprehensive review of Latvia's historical development, political structure, economy, investment, and foreign‐trade environment. It aims to be a useful source of information for foreign businessmen and investors interested in doing business in Latvia. In the fall of 1991, when the Baltic States separated from the Soviet system, no one predicted that these countries would make the transition to a market‐based economy as quickly and as effectively as they have. However, 11 years later, with notable growth and rising standards of living, such thinking is no longer considered overly optimistic. “It is the biggest, most complicated, and most promising piece of the new Europe,” wrote The Economist (1998) in reference to the Baltic region. Wherever there is new growth, there are many business opportunities to be found. Latvia's position in the center of this region is one indication of the business potential for those with the capacity to do business there. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Tourism development in transition economies: The Cuba case

From Vietnam to Hungary, countries in various stages of transition from central planning to market economies are turning to tourism as an important component of their national industry portfolios. Cuba is no exception. Tourism has the potential to be one of Cuba's most lucrative sectors. Simon discusses the impact of this growing sector on Cuba's structural and economic development, the foreign investment tourism has garnered and what it requires for the future.     

Hermes Revisited: A Replication of Hofstede's Study in Hong Kong and the UK

Hofstedes' well-known study of cross-cultural values has come to be regarded as among the most influential in the field, and the subsequent extensive citation of a study, which involved the measurement of international differences in cultural values within IBM or ‘Hermes’, is testimony to its seminal status. Unfortunately, this success has not been matched by increased co-operative research amongst social scientists into cultural issues, namely through an ‘intersubjective’ approach which was one of Hofstede's hopes for subsequent development. Hofstede's approach, based on the comparative explanation of work-related values, is categorized and labelled variously and using different typologies, thus re-emphasizing that his approach is not the only perspective.