Marketing by Controlling Social Discourse: The Fairtrade Case

A non‐conventional marketing strategy is used by the owners of a not‐for‐profit code of practice, Fairtrade. People buy Fairtrade‐branded goods because of the social discourse around it – what friends, newspapers, teachers and others tell them about what it guarantees, what it achieves and what is its social acceptability – rather than because of the advertising. The social discourse is favourable to Fairtrade but bears little relation to observable fact. Methods used by the brand owners and others to control and manipulate the social discourse are identified.     

LACK OF RIGOUR IN DEFENDING FAIRTRADE: SOME IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS OF A DISTORTING ACCOUNT – A REPLY TO PETER GRIFFITHS

Peter Griffiths claims to have undermined defensive accounts of Fairtrade by highlighting a lack of rigour in their methodology and textual construction. However, inter alia he has significantly distorted the meaning and relevance of a variety of contributions, not least that literature which he accuses others of failing to acknowledge.     

Marketing and the church: Should god be sold or found?

Recent years have seen an expansion of marketing in social causes and not-for-profit activities; there continues to he considerable debate about the extent to which this simply reflects a pragmatic application of established marketing techniques or whether it truly reflects efforts to be genuinely market orientated. Indeed some may argue that the nature of social cause marketing is such that it is difficult, if not impossible, to be customer-driven. The marketing of the Church is one manifestation of social cause marketing where marketing programmes are calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas. The paper seeks to examine whether the marketing techniques and approaches used in relation to the Church are really marketing or just a form of selling. It is argued that the core product of the Church, salvation, is not really subject to modification in response to customer needs and thus that questions may arise about the possibility of genuinely marketing the Church. However, where there is a willingness to develop and modify the expected and augmented products in response to the changing needs and expectations of a ‘marketplace’, arguably there is evidence of marketing, not just selling.     

Frank H. Knight's Criticism of Henry George

A bstract .   The ferocity of Knight's comments on Henry George may come as a surprise to those who are not familiar with his criticisms of other economists and philosophers. But, in fact, his criticisms of George are not due to specifically Knightian insights on George's approach, but rather reflect the different philosophical framework from which neoclassical economists like Knight think. At the core of Knight's disagreements with George is his neoclassical theory of rent, as the Georgist critics of Knight understand. The article reviews the philosophical, economic, and ethical ideas that underlay Knight's neoclassicism, and hence inform his criticism of George.     

Why Development Programmes Fail: William Easterly and the Political Economy of Intervention

Throughout his considerable body of work, William Easterly has identified several critical problems with foreign aid and economic development programmes. In particular, he argues that many working in areas of development act as ‘planners’, who believe they can implement effective policies but who in fact lack the necessary knowledge. Moreover, Easterly claims that these agents face perverse incentives that lead to suboptimal development outcomes. This article explores the theoretical roots of Easterly's critiques and relates them to the work of two Nobel prize‐winning economists, F.A. Hayek and James M. Buchanan. It explores the broader applicability of Easterly's criticisms by applying a similar framework to military activity.     

Henry George's Political Critics

A bstract .   Twelve political criticisms of George were paramount after he formed his own political party in 1887: (1) his refusal to join with other reformers to link his proposals with theirs, or to absorb theirs into his own campaign; (2) his singular focus on ground rent to the exclusion of other forms of monopoly income, such as that of the railroads, oil and mining trusts; (3) his almost unconditional support of capital, even against labor; (4) his economic individualism rejecting a strong role for government; (5) his opposition to public ownership or subsidy of basic infrastructure; (6) his refusal to acknowledge interest-bearing debt as the twin form of rentier income alongside ground rent; (7) the scant emphasis he placed on urban land and owner-occupied land; (8) his endorsement of the Democratic Party's free-trade platform; (9) his rejection of an academic platform to elaborate rent theory; (10) the narrowness of his theorizing beyond the land question; (11) the alliance of his followers with the right wing of the political spectrum; and (12) the hope that full taxation of ground rent could be achieved gradually rather than requiring a radical confrontation involving a struggle over control of government.     

Did Mises Err? Was He a Utilitarian?

A bstract .   Walter Block's critique of my paper fails to address the main argument: that Ludwig von Mises's support for laissez faire comes from a comparison of the systems recommended by the ideologies of socialism, interventionism, and liberalism. Mises compares these systems according to the criterion of their capacity to achieve the goal of satisfying material wants. This goal is either explicit or implicit in the arguments made by those who subscribe to the above ideologies. He uses value-free economic reasoning to determine whether the systems recommended by the three ideologies will achieve the goal. In this reply, I reaffirm the argument in the face of Block's critique. In addition, I address two other arguments. The first is the implicit argument in Murray Rothbard and in Block that Mises erred because he failed to take account of all the goals that policy advocates might have in recommending a policy. I argue that he did not err. The second is that Mises is a utilitarian, an argument also advanced by Leland Yeager. I argue not only that Mises was not but also that he repudiated the idea that his support for laissez faire was based on utilitarian welfare principles. The reply also answers some of Block's more specific criticisms of my paper.     

天津市GI初级农产品品牌营销的现状分析

以品牌化带动农产品市场化是现代农业发展的必由之路。从GI的内涵出发,结合消费者对农产品需求产生的新特点,分析了GI农产品品牌营销的必要性,并结合天津市GI农产品品牌覆盖情况,分析了特色农产品品牌营销面临的机遇与挑战,并在此基础上,提出促进天津市特色农产品品牌营销的措施。     

The U.S.A.'s Land Data Legacy from the 19th Century: A Message from the Henry George-Francis A. Walker Controversy over Farm Land Distribution

A bstract . Today's perception of land problems stems in part from agriculturally-oriented data developed in the late 19th Century and continued in present day series. Henry George criticized the agricultural statistics of his time but he was as much a captive of the data as his antagonist, Francis A. Walker. The historical identity of farm with farm operator in agricultural statistics is a basis for current concerns about the structure of agriculture. Landownership issues now transcend agriculture. The distribution of wealth, control of use, incidence of taxes and subsidies require land data not tied to a particular firm, industry or program.     

Economics, Sociology, and the "Professional Complex"

A bstract .   This article discusses the relationship between economics and sociology in the context of Parsons's analytical theory of action and systems and his criticisms of orthodox and institutional economics. The article also addresses his view of the importance of the professions to an understanding of the nature of advanced capitalism. The professions are discussed as both an illustration of his theoretical argument and a substantive problem that stimulated the development of his theory. The "professional complex" is an emergent phenomenon in capitalism that modifies its operation and points to the complexity of systems of social action that require to be analyzed without being reduced to one of their elements. This reductionism is evident in orthodox economic theory and also in the more sociologically-oriented approach of institutional economics. Parsons argues that each is a form of what, following Whitehead, he calls the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness." Although Parsons offers a significant critique of dominant approaches in economics, major flaws within his own theory create the appearance that he has simply carried over the deficiencies of orthodox theory into his own general statement of theory. These flaws contribute to major misunderstandings of Parsons's project and, therefore, indicate continuing problems in the relation between economics and sociology.     

IN A WORD OR TWO,PLACED IN THE MIDDLE: THE INVISIBLE HAND IN SMITH'S TOMES

We explore the conjecture, first hinted at by Peter Minowitz, that Smith deliberately placed his central idea, as represented by the phrase ‘led by an invisible hand’, at the physical centre of his masterworks. The four most significant points developed are as follows: (1) The physical evidence: the expression ‘led by an invisible hand’ occurs pretty much dead centre of the 1st and 2nd editions of The Wealth of Nations (WN), and of the final edition of the tomes containing The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). (2) The rhetoric lectures show that Smith not only was conscious of deliberate placement of potent words at the centre, but thought it significant enough to remark on to his pupils, noting that Thucydides ‘often expresses all that he labours so much in a word or two, sometimes placed in the middle of the narration’. (3) The invisible‐hand paragraphs in TMS and WN both contend with Rousseau and hearken back to the Rousseau passages that Smith had translated and provided in his 1756 article on literature. (4) There are numerous and rich ways in which centrality and middleness hold special and positive significance in Smith's thought.     

FAMA ON BUBBLES

While Eugene Fama has repeatedly expressed his discontent with the notion of an “irrational bubble,” he has never publicly expressed his opinion on “rational bubbles.” On empirical grounds Fama rejects bubbles by referring to the lack of reliable evidence that price declines are predictable. However, this argument cannot be used to rule out rational bubbles because such bubbles do not necessarily imply return predictability, and return predictability of the kind documented by Fama does not rule out rational bubbles. On data samples that include the 1990s, there is evidence of an explosive component in stock market valuation ratios, consistent with a rational bubble.     

4 Human Rights, Global Justice, and Disaggregated States: John Rawls, Onora O'Neill, and Anne-Marie Slaughter

A bstract .   Human rights are urgently important rights that all individual persons may validly claim and that all governments are obligated to respect. According to some philosophers, no government can plausibly claim legitimate authority unless its legal and political system ascribes such rights, and no society can plausibly claim to be just unless it has a legitimate government. John Rawls presents his own version of this conception in the context of his account of the moral basis of a just global system of public law, which he calls the Law of Peoples. According to some of his critics, including Onora O'Neill, not only is the Law of Peoples statist, but also it relies on a false view of the state. O'Neill has developed a new conception of an ideally just global order in which states have fewer, and corporations more, powers and obligations to secure human rights, in contrast to Rawls's conception. Her conception is consistent with Anne-Marie Slaughter's account of the transformation of state sovereignty due to globalization. However, contrary to initial appearances, it is not the case that O'Neill's and Slaughter's views taken together require significant modification of Rawls's conception of human rights. There is no fundamental conflict between Rawls's conception of human rights and Slaughter's account of state transformation. And O'Neill's criticisms of Rawls's view are unwarranted.     

Henry George Under the Microscope: Comments on "Henry George's Political Critics"

The annual supplement of the AJES for 2008 titled Henry George: Political Ideologue, Social Philosopher, and Economic Theorist had as its first and longest essay "Henry George's Political Critics" by Professor Michael Hudson. It offered a multitude of criticisms, most of which Prof. Hudson seemed to agree with. All purported to be criticisms of George as a political strategist, though some seem more to originate from Hudson's disagreement with theoretical positions George was bound to take. The purpose of this short paper is to show that Professor Hudson's long article fails to do what it seems intended to do. That is, it fails to show that trade unionists and especially socialists were "natural allies" of the Georgist movement, that it was George's fault that that they were not, and that George "allied" his movement irrevocably to "capital," rejecting its "natural allies."     

Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re-appraisal

abstract The work of Kurt Lewin dominated the theory and practice of change management for over 40 years. However, in the past 20 years, Lewin's approach to change, particularly the 3-Step model, has attracted major criticisms. The key ones are that his work: assumed organizations operate in a stable state; was only suitable for small-scale change projects; ignored organizational power and politics; and was top-down and management-driven. This article seeks to re-appraise Lewin's work and challenge the validity of these views. It begins by describing Lewin's background and beliefs, especially his commitment to resolving social conflict. The article then moves on to examine the main elements of his Planned approach to change: Field Theory; Group Dynamics; Action Research; and the 3-Step model. This is followed by a brief summary of the major developments in the field of organizational change since Lewin's death which, in turn, leads to an examination of the main criticisms levelled at Lewin's work. The article concludes by arguing that rather than being outdated or redundant, Lewin's approach is still relevant to the modern world.     

Christianity and Collectivism

The bishops have been repeating familiar criticisms of commercial society. A clergyman in an industrial centre counter-asserts the viciousness of the polity: the citizen who pays his taxes under threat of fine or imprisonment is not practising Christian charity.     

基于消费者偏好的生鲜农产品网络销售策略

随着电商经济的发展,构建基于消费者偏好的生鲜农产品网络销售模式是优化农产品销售渠道、降低销售成本的重要举措。影响网络销售的因素比较多,尤其是不同消费群体对于网络产品的需求不统一,因此,为了提升生鲜农产品的网络销售量,电商企业要针对消费者的不同偏好进行分析。论文以生鲜农产品网络销售的现状为切入点,阐述构建基于消费者偏好的生鲜农产品网络销售的具体对策。     

农产品纵向一体化运作模式初探

通过对国内外农产品运作的简要了解与分析,并结合中国广大农村的劣势分析与农产品的特性及其物流的特点,以及对我国农产品现有的供应链思想做了简单的探讨与分析,认为“小而精”的思想不适合农产品运作,提出了农产品“产加销一体化”这样的纵向一体化运作模式可能更符合中国国情,从而为农产品的有效运作提供一种新的思路。     

黑龙江省农产品流通网络化探析

在农产品形成买方市场的前提下，制约黑龙江省农业经济发展的关键环节是如何实现农产品快速，健康的流通。目前黑龙江省农产品流通存在的主要问题，一是信息不畅通的问题，二是市场营销网络不健全的问题。要解决这两个主要问题，建议采用网络化的手段，既要充分利用现代电子信息技术，又要全面建设农产品市场营销网络。     

Transfer of marketing knowledge to Catholic primary schools

While the role and importance of marketing have grown in nonprofit organizations, marketing knowledge in nonprofit education organizations, specifically primary schools, is sparse. This paper reports the research findings of an exploratory study designed to examine the transfer of marketing knowledge to Catholic primary schools. It identifies and explores what school leaders know about marketing, how they acquire that knowledge, and what factors contribute to or impede its development. Qualitative data gathered from Catholic school educational leaders reveal that while marketing is viewed in schools as an important management function, marketing knowledge is slow to transfer. Findings reveal that marketing knowledge is primarily developed unintentionally, as a result of trial and error, and that a lack of formal marketing training results in a heavy dependence on volunteers. Findings also indicate that school leaders have minimal autonomy under the Diocese, which, along with economic, cultural, and structural barriers, functions to limit marketing knowledge development. It was also found that, although cross‐sector cooperation is desired among educational leaders, it is not pursued, further limiting the transfer of marketing knowledge. Theoretical and managerial implications for resource‐strapped primary schools in competitive environments are discussed.