An exploratory study into brand alignment in B2B relationships

B2B relationships are characterized by strategic partnerships between firms and the suppliers of goods and services integral to their offerings. Failure to choose the right partner could jeopardize the survival of both partners. While a number of studies suggest that partnering firms need to be aligned operationally, few studies look at whether there should be alignment between the brands of firms and their suppliers. Therefore, we build on existing studies on sexual selection to develop a theory of whether similarity in brand attributes affects the success of B2B relationships. We propose that firms wishing to portray particular brand images to their customers choose suppliers whose images mirror their own. To develop our proposition, we investigate the brand personality alignment between well-known firms and their suppliers in four industries. The findings of our analysis have significant implications for scholars and managers interested in the nature and success of B2B partnerships.     

The motives of off-the-books entrepreneurs: necessity- or opportunity-driven?

In recent years, it has become common to represent entrepreneurs as either necessity- or opportunity-driven. Drawing upon face-to-face interviews in England with 70 entrepreneurs trading wholly or partially off-the-books, this paper evaluates critically this dichotomous representation. The finding is that squeezing the motives of off-the-books entrepreneurs into one side or the other of this dichotomy not only over-simplifies their rationales since both necessity and opportunity motives are often involved but also obfuscates how their motives change over time. The outcome is a call to replace this either/or depiction with a richer and more nuanced both/and understanding of off-the-books entrepreneurs that recognises their diverse and dynamic motives.

Three bubbles and a panic: An explanatory review of recent food commodity price events

This paper is a summary of the behaviour of food commodity prices in 2007–2008 and a review of the causes of the price increases, extracted from a report to the Chief Scientific Advisor to Her Majesty’s Government [Thirtle, C., Piesse, J., 2008. An Explanatory Review of the World Food Commodity Price Events of 2007–2008. A Report to the Chief Scientific Advisor. Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, London]. The historical background shows that the price spike was much less severe than in the 1970s. The conventional wisdom that prices of the main food commodities were falling prior to 2006 is questioned. Most ceased falling and were quite stable from the 1980s. The paper separates the causes of the spike from the underlying changes driving the long run trends. The literature on the causes of the spike is critically reviewed and summarised. There is a reasonably broad consensus on most of the causes, but much less on the impact of the depreciation of the US Dollar. There are also concluding speculations on the future.     

The Challenges of Detection and Enforcement of Insider Trading

Taking advantage of the China’s recent anti-corruption campaign, we attempt to examine the effect of public governance on a firm’s incentive to commit fraud. Using enforcement actions data from the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) from 2004 to 2014, we find that, due to enhanced public governance, firms are less likely to commit fraud in the post-campaign period than in the pre-campaign period. We further show that the effect of public governance is more evident in privately held listed firms, in firms with weak legal environment, and in firms in areas with poor local economies. In addition, we find that older CEOs respond less actively to the public governance caused by anti-corruption regulations. This paper offers clear policy implications for business ethics by indicating that public governance provides external monitoring of corporate decisions.     

Competing incremental and breakthrough innovation in a model of product evolution

This paper develops a growth model in which product cycles arise endogenously from investment in incremental and breakthrough innovations. Incumbent firms invest in incremental technology improvements with the aim of reducing production costs. Market entrants develop breakthrough product designs in order to capture the market from vintage product lines. The competing objectives of the two types of innovation generate product cycles within an environment of creative destruction, as new products displace old and are then manufactured using production technologies that are continuously refined. Investigating the relationship between innovation incentives and the average length of product cycles, we characterized three stable patterns of product evolution: incremental innovation alone, breakthrough innovation alone, and product cycles with both types of innovation. Numerical examples suggest that when the market exhibits stable product cycles, subsidies to either type of innovation raise the rate of economic growth and improve welfare.     

Expressive voting and two-dimensional political competition: an application to law and order policy by New Labour in the UK

There has been much debate regarding the electoral strategy adopted by New Labour in the lead-up to and then during their time in government. This paper addresses the issue from the perspective of left/right and liberal/authoritarian considerations by examining data on individual attitudes from the British Social Attitudes survey between 1986 and 2009. The analysis indicates that New Labour’s move towards the right on economic and public policy was the main driver towards attracting new centrist voters and could thus be labelled ‘broadly’ populist. The move towards a tougher stance on law and order was more ‘narrowly’ populist in that it was used more to minimise the reduction in support from Labour’s traditional base on the left than to attract new votes. The evidence presented provides support for an expressive theory of voting in that law and order policy was arguably used to counter alienation amongst traditional, left-wing Labour supporters.     

Undergraduate Economics Education in English and Welsh Universities

A professor experienced in both the United Kingdom's and the United States' educational systems, the author describes and compares the two countries' economic education objectives and practices.