An ex-ante approach to brand capability valuation

There are numerous financial metrics available in the academic and commercial world to estimate brand value. In the context of mergers and acquisitions, managers often use such metrics when purchasing or selling brands. However, the measurement of brand equity in a going-concern has received scant attention in the academic literature. The well-known Interbrand™ approach is an ex-post calculation of brand value. This paper extends Interbrand's brand strength valuation model by developing an ex-ante approach to guide managers in their budgeting and strategic decision-making processes geared towards building brand value. It then empirically tests the model in a company with an internationally recognized brand.     

竞争优势理论及其对我国服务贸易的启示

国家竞争优势理论是当前流行的国际贸易理论学说,该理论对一国制定服务业发展战略和提升国际服务贸易竞争力具有重要的借鉴意义。本文从国家竞争优势理论出发,在对我国服务贸易现状进行分析的基础上,提出以服务贸易国际竞争力为导向的若干对策建议。     

亚运会对广州服务贸易促进作用的理论机制

2010年广州亚运会的举办,将极大的促进广州服务贸易的发展,给广州带来巨大的经济效用.文章利用迈克尔·波特的竞争优势理论和需求贸易理论从生产要素、需求条件、相关与支持性产业、企业战略、结构及行业竞争、机遇和政府等方面对此作出理论分析,提出"亚运会影响下的广州服务贸易竞争力模型",在此基础上总结广州服务贸易发展现状,得到一些启示及发展对策.     

Does competitive clutter in television advertising “interfere” with the recall and recognition of brand names and ad claims?

This paper contrasts the effects of competitive clutter on the recall and recognition of information from ads for familiar brands. An experiment was conducted utilizing ads for the type of relatively familiar brands typically advertised on network television; the dependent variables were recall and recognition of brand names and ad claims. Results showed that brand name recall scores were substantially reduced by competitive clutter. However, exposure to competitors' ads had little effect on ad claim recall. These data are consistent with the view that information about familiar brands will tend to be compartmentalized in memory, reducing interference effects in attribute recall. Exposure to competitive clutter had relatively little effect on recognition task performance. Suggestions for future advertising research considering competitive interference and brand familiarity issues are provided.The authors thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their guidance. Ray Burke. Frank Kardes, James Kellaris, Karen Machleit, Joe Mandese, and Don Schumsky provided helpful comments on various aspects of this research.     

Entrepreneurial rents and the theory of the firm

The creation of entrepreneurial rents occurs under conditions of uncertainty. Yet current theories of rent appropriation such as transactions cost theories of the firm focus their efforts primarily on how quasi-rents – rents that have already been created – are appropriated by parties to that exchange. Entrepreneurs face a dual challenge, that of creating entrepreneurial rents and appropriating some of these rents. Moreover, this challenge usually exists at a time when the entrepreneurial rents that might be created are not known or anticipatable. Indeed, entrepreneurs not only concern themselves with ensuring that they are able to appropriate at least some of the rents that might be eventually created but in fact they may not create any rents or potentially lose value. Understanding the dual nature of the rent creation and the rent appropriation problem has a variety of implications for the study of entrepreneurial organizations and generally for theory of the firm discussions.     

Localized competition in the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship

The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship predicts that the relationship between new knowledge and entrepreneurial activity depends on the commercialization efficiency of incumbents. We extend the theory to contend that localized competition impedes entrepreneurial activity by reducing the incentive to exploit new knowledge, and we test this conjecture using spatial panel estimation. We find a positive relationship between new knowledge and entrepreneurial activity, which is negatively moderated by localized competition. We also find that greater agglomeration counteracts the moderating effect localized competition has on the relationship between new knowledge and entrepreneurial activity.     

Barriers to the advancement of modern food retail formats: theory and measurement

The recent expansion of global food retailers into emerging economies has made the study of food retail modernization especially relevant at this time. We present a framework to analyze limitations to market share growth of retail formats based on diffusion across consumer segments and by product category. We then propose a measurement approach, based on consumer surveys, that quantifies the impact of these processes on supermarket market share. Food retail modernization is then examined in Hong Kong by this approach for two points in time. In a 1995 diagnostic study, we find that geographic and economic segment diffusion of supermarkets is complete, but that product category-dependent diffusion (specifically perishables) is not. The latter, thereby, becomes the major restriction on supermarket share gain. In 1999, a second study measures the impact of the introduction of superstores, a large modern format, on the perishable restriction to modern format share growth. Consumers perceived superstore perishables to be superior to supermarkets’, but these views had little impact on the ability of modern format to wrest additional share from traditional markets. We discuss diagnostic and monitoring applications, and extensions of the approach to other retail contexts.     

International expansion of transnational advertising agencies in China: An assessment of the stages theory approach

This paper examines the expansion of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a service industry to a country which is both developing and in transition—i.e. the advertising industry in China—to assess how useful the stages theory is in understanding internationalisation issues in today's globalised world. Three of our findings are consistent with the expectations and formal denouement of the stages approach: (a) the agencies increased their involvement in the China market over time; (b) the agencies went through organisational structure change through an incremental process; and (c) the internationalisation process was much faster for late entrants. On the other hand, some findings are not congruent with the theoretical explanations or logic of the theory. The main reason why agencies change their form of operations to a more involved mode, according to executives, was that their clients’ investment in China had increased. They argued that change in operational form is client-driven, rather than being driven by an increase in market knowledge. In sum, form must not be taken for the substance, although some aspects of the Uppsala model can explain the stages and changes of modality in MNE operations in China.     

基于购物网站的竞争情报分析

介绍了购物网站的概念、分类标准与发展现状,竞争情报的基本概念与网络环境下的特点。围绕购物网站竞争情报分析活动中对竞争环境、竞争对手与竞争策略的分析进行具体的展开。从电子商务角度讨论企业外部环境和自身内部环境,分析竞争对手的步骤与方法,提出适用于购物网站的竞争策略,目的是为企业掌握竞争环境和提高核心竞争力起一定的指导作用。     

Political brand identity: An examination of the complexities of Conservative brand and internal market engagement during the 2010 UK General Election campaign

This paper seeks to build an understanding of the importance of internal communications when building a strong political brand. Using Kapferer's brand prism as a conceptual framework, the paper explores UK Conservative Party members' attitudes towards the development of the Conservative brand as personified by David Cameron. There are clear implications for political strategists as the findings suggest that it is crucial to engage the internal market in the co-creation of the marketing communications strategy for as brand evangelists they interpret the brand promise at the local level.     

如何将服务贸易的比较优势转化为竞争优势

服务贸易不同于货物贸易,服务贸易的比较优势、竞争优势也与货物贸易不同。服务贸易具有不可分离性、不可触知性、不可储存性等特点。服务贸易比较优势主要是以人力资本为基础。企业的长期发展,必须将比较优势转化为竞争优势。要加快国内服务业发展,进一步开放服务贸易市场,优化和升级我国国际服务贸易结构,提高整体竞争力。     

物流企业品牌竞争力提升路径研究

现代物流业在国民经济建设发展中日益展现出重要的作用。作为具有典型服务型企业特征的物流企业,必须重视其品牌竞争力的提升,通过品牌竞争力获得竞争优势,促进物流企业成长,促进现代物流业的快速发展。     

An integrative approach to the gender gap in entrepreneurship across nations

Although female entrepreneurship contributes to the economic growth of nations, women are less likely to start new ventures compared to men. This gap, however, varies considerably across nations, suggesting that environmental factors play a role in explaining it. We employ the cross-cultural cognitive model of new venture creation to elucidate this variance. Based on data from 45 nations, we find that, while women and men differ pan-culturally in their likelihood to start new ventures, the socio-cultural dimensions of masculinity-femininity and institutional non-compliance exacerbate, while generalized trust mitigates this gap across nations.     

An asymmetrical approach to understanding configurations of customer loyalty in the airline industry

This study employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine asymmetrical relationships among service attributes, relationship quality, and customer loyalty in the airline industry. The study incorporates customers’ demographics and psychological variables to model customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is operationalised as behavioural and attitudinal dimensions in order to capture customers’ actual behaviours and behavioural intentions. Symmetrical testing is also used to compare findings with those from fsQCA application. The study provides various causal recipes or configurations for predicting relationship quality and customer loyalty. The comparison between symmetrical and asymmetrical findings presents deeper and more insightful information. These findings provide useful guidelines and references for the relevant researchers and practitioners. The study also contributes to the literature by utilising symmetrical and asymmetrical tools to advance understanding of antecedent conditions of relationship quality and customer loyalty.     

中国环境保护对产业国际竞争力的影响分析

建立了一个环境保护强度的综合评价指标体系,通过对不同污染程度产业的国际竞争力分析,将环境保护强度与产业国际竞争力的相关关系进行实证检验,指出环境保护强度与产业国际竞争力并不具备规律性相关关系。     

中俄边境贸易发展的学理性研究——以黑龙江省与俄罗斯的贸易合作为例

中俄边境贸易是中俄两国经贸关系的重要组成部分,黑龙江省与俄罗斯的贸易合作不仅对黑龙江省经济发展具有不可替代的重要作用,同时在中俄贸易中也占有举足轻重的地位。从生产要素的自由流动、比较优势、资源、产业的互补性、竞争性以及对经济发展的拉动作用等视角,运用经济学的基本原理分析双方的贸易规模、贸易结构、贸易差额、贸易效应,在互利共赢的基础上巩固双方的传统贸易优势,优化进出口商品结构,促进以技术贸易为先导的产业合作,实现贸易对本区域经济发展的拉动作用。     

竞争效应对外资企业向国内企业技术外溢的刺激作用

本文通过建立理论模型的方式,采用静态均衡分析的方法,讨论了竞争效应对外商投资企业向国内企业技术外溢的刺激作用。通过分析,本文证明了当东道国劳动力工资受到内外资企业劳动力需求的影响,且国内经济有一个有效的研发部门时,那么外商投资企业生产技术的改进会通过竞争效应推动国内企业的技术进步,且东道国的整体国民收入亦会随着外商投资企业技术水平的上升而增加。     

Buying a sponsor's brand: the role of affective commitment to the sponsored team

Sponsorship is increasingly important in a firm's communication mix. Research to date has focused on the impact of sponsorship on brand awareness and its subsequent consequences for image congruency and consumer attitudes towards sponsors' brands. A lesser studied area is the effect of sponsorship on consumers' purchase intentions and behaviours. We argue that existing models of sponsorship driven purchase behaviour fail to account for affective commitment, which mediates relationship between affiliation with the team and social identification with the team. We propose a modified framework describing the effect of sponsorship on purchase intentions in the context of low and high performing sports teams. The framework is tested using structural equations modelling; employing PLS estimation and data collected via online survey of AFL chat room participants. Results confirm the role of affective commitment in sport sponsorship purchase intentions and indicate that team success has a significant influence on fans' purchase behaviours.     

Exploring the post-termination stage of consumer–brand relationships: An empirical investigation of the premium car market

This research extends customer lifecycle models to include a post-termination stage that bridges the dissolution stage of a consumer–brand relationship with a potential recovery stage. Drawing from 43 depth interviews with former customers of a car brand, this study relies on grounded theory and triangulation to explore consumer responses in the post-termination stage and finds evidence for both negative and positive customer responses after dissolution. The authors combine qualitative techniques with categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA) to explore the dimensionality of post-termination responses and extract relationship-related and termination-related response dimensions. They use these dimensions to identify four distinct post-termination customer clusters, which differ systematically with the customer's termination reasons, as demonstrated through a series of exact logistic regressions. In addition to providing evidence of a post-termination stage, this study offers implications for customer relationship management.     

The Autonomy of the Contracting Partners: An Argument for Heuristic Contractarian Business Ethics

Due to the domain characteristics of business ethics, a contractarian theory for business ethics will need to be essentially different from the contract model as it is applied to other domains. Much of the current criticism of contractarian business ethics (CBE) can be traced back to autonomy, one of its three boundary conditions. After explaining why autonomy is so important, this article considers the notion carefully vis à vis the contracting partners in the contractarian approaches in business ethics. Autonomy is too demanding a condition for the realm of CBE. But a less stringent version of the contract may be possible, a version which uses the contract as a heuristic device, which merely requires moral responsibility. Furthermore, it is argued that views of (human) agency and the moral subject should be made explicit in such a theory.