以提升经济效益为目标 加强企业采购成本管理

<正>建立现代化的采购制度、加强采购管理、转换采购机制,是国有大中型企业提高经济效益的重要职能,也是现代企业谋求长期、持续、健康发展的重要保证。我国加入WTO后,大中型企业面临着更为激烈的市场竞争,企业只有依靠创新和深化改革,提高自身竞争力,才能经受住新形势的考验。而降低采购成本,是企业增强市场竞争力、提高经济效益的重要途径。因此,必须切实转变观念,强化成本意识,从市场出发,增强市场观念、竞争观念,以应对市场挑战。     

提高煤炭企业市场竞争能力的六大要素

企业与市场是鱼水关系,鱼离不开水,企业离开市场也无法生存。因此,这就要求企业争取用户、争夺市场,不断提高市场竞争能力。如何才能尽快提高煤炭企业在市场中的竞争能力?笔者认为,重点要抓好以下六大要素: 一、树立强烈的全员市场观念多年来,煤矿呼吁     

链式结算，算出效益最大化

事实证明,通过构建企业内部市场体系,划小经济核算单位,把职工收入与其自身节支降耗、提高工作质量的效果紧密结合起来是提高企业经营管理效率,实现企业效益最大化的有效途径。那么,如何构建企业内部市场,以达到实现经济效益最大化这个目的?     

外运企业如何拓宽国内外运输市场

外运企业作为市场的主体,既面临发展的机遇,又遭遇风险的威胁。同时,新的技术革命突飞猛进,用户需求千变万化,货运代理市场纷繁少序。在这种情况下,外运企业要健康发展,赢得竞争的胜利,不但要保持本企业原有的市场份额,还应以市场为导向,不断拓宽国内外市场,提高市场占有率,增强市场适应能力和竞争能力,以促进外运企业经济效益的提高。那么外运企业如何拓宽国内外市场呢? 一、强化服务意识 外运企业成立几十年来,“优质服务“一直是企业经营的宗旨。通过优质服务,外运企业与广大客户     

开放的工厂实时信息管理系统

随着中国加入WTO,也随着国内企业走向国际市场,除了注重产品质量、规范企业市场环境、提高劳动者的素质、加快设备更新换代等必要条件外,要保证企业快速响应市场需求,减少冗多的中间传递和管理环节,达到扁平化、低成本、高效率组织工厂生产,提高企业整体管理水平,建立一个可靠、高效、快速应对市场变化的企业实时信息管理系统是目前各企业投资的重点。     

增强市场竞争意识难点分析与对策

企业的市场竞争力,是企业在激烈的市场竞争条件下生存、发展和获利的能力。它不仅体现了该企业的现状,而且在很大程度上影响着该企业的前途与命运,关联着与企业命运休戚与共的全体职工的切身利益。因此各个企业都在努力提高本企业的市场竞争力。但是,不少在计划经济年代建立并运行的国有大型企业,在提高本企业市场竞争力问题上困难重重、举步维艰。在对提高市场竞争力诸多困难进行冷静分析后,这些企业的生产经营者们深感:思想意识乃提高竞争力行为的先导,千难万难,市场竞争意识不强,是提高企业竞争力第一位的、也是目前最大的困难。本文拟就国有大型企业竞争意识不强进行分析,旨在寻找问题根源,以便采取相应措施,为进一步提高国有大型企业市场竞争力提供参考。在计划经济年代建立并运行多年的国有大型企业市场竞争意识不强的表现及其原因体现在这样几个方面:     

当前搞活煤炭销售的几点建议

一、树立正确的企业发展方向企业的生存在于市场 ,企业的发展在于市场 ,煤炭企业应从计划经济的思维定式中解脱出来 ,摒弃等、靠、要的思想 ,树立靠抢占市场 ,争取市场 ,扩大市场 ,依托市场求发展的新观念。一是提高企业员工的市场意识 ,通过宣传教育、组织学习、讨论活动等方式 ,让职工明确生存靠竞争、靠发展市场的道理。二是企业重大问题决策 ,包括企业的年度生产经营计划、项目选择、技术改造、生产经营规模的确定 ,都要综合考虑市场因素 ,围绕市场决策 ,决策不脱离市场。三是综合考虑企业产品特点 ,准确市场定位 ,扬长避短 ,瞄准市场发…     

纺织服装企业营销系统组织创新研究——以陕北地区毛纺织服装企业为例

国内纺织服装企业适应市场能力普遍较弱,市场淘汰率较高,大多数还处于职能式进行单一的产品生产,市场反应能力较差。纺织服装企业要提高市场竞争力,就必须建立起科学、合理的营销组织机构,通过组织创新,合理地配置资源,提高企业的营销能力,从而提升企业的市场竞争力。本文在对陕北毛纺织服装产业进行深入调研的基础上,结合理论分析与实证研究,通过结构方程模型(SEM),分析了毛纺织服装企业在营销组织创新时存在的问题以及营销组织创新与营销能力和绩效间的关系,为陕西省服装企业提升市场竞争力提供具有针对性的对策建议。     

中国汽车产业市场结构与市场绩效研究

本文利用中国汽车工业1998—2008年的数据,通过多元回归分析方法,对中国汽车产业市场结构和市场绩效进行实证研究。实证表明,中国汽车产业市场已从竞争型转向了中下集中寡占型,市场集中度对汽车产业的市场绩效为正效应,但对内资企业、外商投资企业、港澳台投资企业的影响程度不同。本文剖析了中国汽车企业通过市场集中度提高提升市场绩效的主要影响因素及市场集中度对内外资企业市场绩效影响程度差异的原因,并探讨相关政策建议,以期对中国汽车产业发展提供有益的思路。     

海林中科被工信部列为轴承行业重点管理企业

近日,海林中科科技股份有限公司被国家工业和信息化部确定为轴承行业重点管理企业。海林中科公司近年来通过较大规模的技术改造,大力开拓重载汽车、工程机械、大型农机等配套市场和出口市场,企业生产经营规模不断扩大,市场竞争力有效提高,被中国轴承工业协会评为“十五”发展先进企业和行业管理先进企业。     

Brand innovation and social media: Knowledge acquisition from social media,market orientation,and the moderating role of social media strategic capability

The study examines the relationships between knowledge acquisition from social media, two forms of market orientation (proactive and reactive), social media strategic capability, and brand innovation strategy in the context of China's online technology industry. Analysis of 357 online technology ventures, created during the past 6 years, suggests that brand innovation is affected by both knowledge acquisition from social media and market orientation. Social media strategic capability positively affects brand innovation and acts as a moderator between knowledge acquisition, market orientation, and brand innovation. It further enhances both types of market orientations in achieving brand innovation, suggesting that on social media, customer's needs, both expressed and latent (or unexpressed), can be identified more comprehensively than that of the traditional setting. Hence, the context of social media provides a different set of rules for competition and strategic behavior, in which online technology ventures should note. Implications are useful to improve the current understanding of social media brand innovation strategy, here in China's dynamic social media scene.     

Appropriating the value from innovation: inimitability and the effectiveness of isolating mechanisms

Preventing the imitation of products and their underlying characteristics is a key source of competitive advantage. Isolating mechanisms, such as patents, brand name and speed to market, render an organisation's inventions imperfectly imitable by competitors, helping sustain the above‐normal returns achieved from a new product innovation. A theoretical framework is developed whereby the characteristics of isolating mechanisms, namely causal ambiguity, asset stock effects and enforceability of property rights, are shown to be important determinants of appropriation effectiveness. A multiple method research design, consisting of a survey of 238 large Australian organisations, and a further six case study organisations, is adopted. The results indicate that isolating mechanisms in the form of technological capabilities, market‐based assets and knowledge protection positively moderate an organisation's returns from their innovation activities, while being first‐to‐market is found to negatively moderate the business returns achieved. Implications for managers in increasing the effectiveness of their appropriation regime, and future directions for research are proposed.     

Product Hierarchy and Brand Strategy Influences on the Order of Entry Effect for Consumer Packaged Goods

Manufacturers focus on becoming more agile, software firms deploy rapid application development tools—everyone is in a hurry. Although we all understand the benefits of being first to market, we understand just as clearly that not all first-to-market products enjoy the same, sustainable benefits from being market pioneers. Why do some pioneering products experience a more significant order-of-entry effect than others? Roger A. Kerin, Gurumurthy Kalyanaram, and Daniel J. Howard examine two factors–product hierarchy and brand strategy—which may influence the magnitude of this effect for new consumer packaged goods. First, they hypothesize that pioneering a new product class offers a greater advantage than introducing a new form to an existing product class. Second, they predict that the order-of-entry effect will be greater for brand extensions than for entirely new brands. Finally, considering both product hierarchy and brand strategy, they expect that the order-of-entry advantage for brand extensions over new brands will be significantly greater within new product classes than for new forms of existing products. These hypotheses are tested using data from the Information Resources, Inc. Behaviorscan° data set. Collected from 2,500 household panel members, 75 supermarkets, and 25 drugstores, this database contains weekly measures of brand trial penetration as well as brand distribution, price, and promotion information in eight geographic markets from the period 1983–1988. The models developed in this study explore the relationships among brand trial penetration, product hierarchy, brand strategy, order of entry, lag time between successive brand entrants, and marketing mix variables (i.e., price, promotion, distribution, and advertising). The study strongly supports all three hypotheses. In particular, the analysis clearly demonstrates that the order-of-entry effect is greatest for a new product class pioneered by a brand extension. Order of entry has the least effect on a new product form pioneered by an entirely new brand. For a company seeking a competitive advantage from being first to market, innovation in product function offers greater potential benefit than innovation in product form. Such a company can also benefit from building on the name and reputation of its established brands. Although the study finds these order-of-entry effects significant, the effects of marketing mix variables such as product price and promotion are consistently stronger.     

Can All Brands Innovate in the Same Way? A Typology of Brand Position and Innovation Effort*

Product innovation is vital to ongoing brand equity and has been responsible for revitalizing many brands, including Apple, Dunlop Volley, Mini, and Gucci. While several scholars have noted the relationship between a brand's position and the form of innovation available to a firm, surprisingly no study has sought to bridge this gap. This study aims to address this issue by, first, building a typology of the innovation practices underpinning differently positioned brands and, second, exploring the strategic and tactical implications of different brand‐related innovation efforts. In so doing, this study addresses a critical question: How do differently positioned brands organize their innovation efforts? A multiple case‐study approach was used in this paper. Cases were sampled from a number of industries and across a range of different countries with a focus on business‐to‐consumer brands. Thirty‐five interviews were conducted across 12 cases. The brands studied differed in their approach to innovation (incremental vs. radical) and in their relationship to the marketplace (market‐driven and driving markets). These two dimensions result in four alternative ways of organizing the innovation effort to effectively reinforce the brand: (1) incremental and market driven (follower brands); (2) radical and market driven (category leader brands); (3) incremental and driving market (craft‐design‐driven brands); and (4) radical and driving markets (product leader brands). For follower brands, new product success is contingent upon the quality of the firm's marketing information systems and speed to market. Category leaders seek to dominate and appeal to the mass market with bold product initiatives. Craft‐designer‐driven brands aim to maintain an aura of authenticity, downplaying the commercial realities of their innovation efforts, while product leader brands seek to reaffirm their status as industry pioneers. This research contributes to the branding and new product development literature in several ways. It illustrates that differently positioned brands require the deployment of different firm capabilities and resources and a unique organizational philosophy to achieve new product success. The findings also enrich the brand extension literature through an examination of alternate bases, beyond that of product category, by which brand fit can be established. Finally, this research demonstrates how brand positioning can pose limitations on an industry leader's ability to respond to disruptive technologies. This study identifies that failed new products or brand extensions are driven by a mismatch between desired strategy and the capabilities necessary for achieving success (suggesting brand extensions are not as low risk as previously thought). As such, managers should carefully attend to brand perceptions when developing innovation strategies, particularly in relation to brand extensions.     

Creating Brand Names That Work

When it comes to brands, what's in a name is everything—a product is not a brand until you name it. What you call your product makes a difference. In addition to making the product yours and no one else's, a good brand name can create a competitive edge by being memorable, by communicating the special qualities of the product, and by setting the stage for a line of future products. Lorna Opatow brings practical experience to this article in which she identifies the problems and the promises in choosing brand names, and then provides guidelines for creating, developing, and evaluating them prior to testing for market acceptance.     

How to Increase the Odds for Successful Brand Extension

Increasingly, new products are being introduced to the market as line extensions. Chester Kane discusses several ways to improve current practices. He argues that several special steps should be taken to obtain maximum leverage from the value of an existing brand name. Starting with efforts to understand customer's perceptions of the brand, he describes a series of approaches that collectively stress planning, objectivity, and the use of appropriate research tools. The article discusses a variety of both successes and failures, noting that seldom do customer's perceptions match current brand marketing strategies, a fact overlooked by many companies.     

Leveraging brand equity in business-to-business mergers and acquisitions

Every acquisition provokes a branding decision—should the acquirer absorb the acquired business by renaming it under its own name to convey to the market that ownership and the way of doing business has changed, or should it allow the acquired company to continue trading under its old name so as to avoid damage to its existing customer franchise? This is a complex management decision but one which apparently receives little attention. This paper draws on the B2B branding and M&A literatures to create a model of brand equity transfer. The model assumes that rebranding of an acquired company under the name of the new parent can yield positive benefits if the new parent has higher brand equity than the acquired company. A case study of an acquisition of a national construction materials company by a larger international group provides an illustration of the transfer process.     

Hedonic prices in the German market for mobile phones

This paper provides a hedonic price analysis of mobile telephones for the German market, based on data of 302 different handsets from 25 manufacturers over the period from May 1998 to November 2003. By measuring shadow prices for different product characteristics, the authors find that volume, for example, has a negative effect on the price of a mobile handset, while the number of ringtones and the talk time battery life relative to the handset's weight positively affect mobile phone prices. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, radiation is statistically insignificant. Also handsets have become cheaper over time, and handsets with additional features, such as MMS, MP3 or Bluetooth, command a higher price. In addition, there are positive brand name effects for some brands. According to the estimations presented in this paper the brand name premiums may range from 57 to 172 euro.     

Opportunism,knowledge, and the performance of franchise chains

An important feature of most franchise chains is that they simultaneously use franchised and company‐owned outlets. In this study, I show that the relationship between the resources provided to outlet managers and the financial performance of franchise chains is contingent on their governance structure. Specifically, opportunism and knowledge considerations seem to prevent chains with a large proportion of franchised outlets from fully leveraging resources such as a valuable brand name and tacit business practices. On the other hand, brand name value and business practices tacitness are not directly related to the proportion of franchised outlets in chains. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Brand Metaphors as Design Innovation: A Test of Congruency Hypotheses

Metaphors are a common tool in brand design, from the original, enticing Apple logo to the classic animalistic hood ornament of a Jaguar automobile. Metaphors are a powerful marketing tool as an efficient way to convey a great deal of meaning to consumers, including expressing product benefits, points of differentiation (e.g., “Iron Mountain's” name and logo, intended to express its superiority in data and document safekeeping), and even brand personality. The perspective taken here is that when applied to products, metaphors also serve as a form of design innovation. This study examines the interactions and effects of various applications of brand metaphor (linguistic, visual, and symbolic) and the forms those metaphors can take (human, animal, or nonmetaphoric) in influencing important outcomes including brand vividness, brand differentiation, and consumer preference. Based on two experiments across multiple product categories with 424 subjects, we find that the consistency of brand metaphor application and the use of animal‐based metaphors in particular have significant influence on key outcomes. Implications for brand management and design innovation through the more effective use of design metaphors are considered, as are implications for theory and future research in the area.