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1 – 10 of 151Rossella C. Gambetti, Robert Kozinets and Silvia Biraghi
Social media platforms have matured into significant arenas for moral conflict and often intense confrontation between brands and their consumers. This research aims to scrutinize…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media platforms have matured into significant arenas for moral conflict and often intense confrontation between brands and their consumers. This research aims to scrutinize the strategic development of a fresh brand entity deliberately detached from its morally compromised corporate parent, intended to reshape public perceptions and elude regulatory scrutiny.
Design/methodology/approach
Promoted as a center for transformative dialogue and innovation, Mission Winnow by Philip Morris is a novel example of a brand creating an entirely separate brand entity to provide sponsorship, and to associate itself with new brand values. This study employs a multisited netnography through which the posts and conversations on Mission Winnow’s platform and website hub are captured and interpreted, as well as the branded content and the free flows of consumers’ conversations generated around the brand on social media.
Findings
Findings reveal a broad interchange of moral controversy, acceptance and opposition discourses on social media. When consumers’ acceptance narratives gain traction, consumers extend their support toward the new brand entity, employing strategies that echo moral rationalization and decoupling. When resistance narratives dominate, consumers consciously draw connections between the decoupled brand and the parent brand’s immoral behavior.
Originality/value
This study expands upon prior research into brand activism and consumers’ moral reasoning toward controversial brands, linking the notion of brand decoupling to brand activism discourse and introducing key underexplored aspects like the power of imagery, linguistic creativity and nostalgia. Moreover, it presents significant implications for a more nuanced understanding of the important interrelationship of brand decoupling and recoupling on social media.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the introduction of marketing within the advertising function of the Philips company between the late 1950s and the mid-1970s. This company…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the introduction of marketing within the advertising function of the Philips company between the late 1950s and the mid-1970s. This company function, along with the organizational changes and integrative efforts it enacted and that it was subjected to, serve as a case study on how marketing as an organizational concept could be implemented within parts of a multinational company in a time of changing market conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a qualitative historical study of primary sources from the Philips company archive, mainly pertaining to the highest corporate level of Philips’ advertising function. Based on these sources, this research traces the implementation of marketing within that company function. It also investigates the functions’ organizational structure, as well as the measures taken to further integration between the subparts of the companies’ advertising function. Insofar as possible, the impact of marketing on the advertising functions’ relation with other company parts is explored as well. In doing so, this research is situated at the junction of marketing history and historical research on advertising.
Findings
Introducing marketing to Philips’ advertising function was a multistep process involving not only the advertisers of the company but also several other departments implicated in marketing. A large focus within the advertising function was put on furthering the integration between the three major components of the function, as well as the integration between different functions (albeit to a lesser extent). While certain measures aiming toward institutionalizing collaborative processes and facilitating integration were successful, the advertisers working in national branches of Philips nonetheless retained a certain degree of independence.
Originality/value
Previously unused sources were examined to contribute to the understanding of how marketing – and more specifically, marketing management – was introduced within a multinational European company. Through its focus on the practical implementation of marketing within a company, this research not only adds to our knowledge about integrative processes specific to Philips, but it also improves our understanding of the historical structures of the advertising function within multinational companies and the organizational changes taking place on a practical level after the introduction of marketing.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate (1) whether the public health expenditure rises as the gross state domestic product (GSDP) increases and (2) whether the infant…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate (1) whether the public health expenditure rises as the gross state domestic product (GSDP) increases and (2) whether the infant mortality rate (IMR) reduces as public health expenditure increases.
Design/methodology/approach
For this investigation, the author collected a time series of data on public health spending and IMRs for an Indian state and applied regression, stationarity, cointegration and causality tests. The author also compared the relative performance of selected Indian states.
Findings
The author found that none of the Indian states did equally well in reducing the infant mortality rate (IMR). As GSDP rises, the public expenditure on health rises, however, this increase in public health expenditures does not cause a reduction in the IMR. The cointegration and causality test results validated it.
Practical implications
The author recommends that policymakers must shift their focus from merely increasing government health expenditure to efficiently utilising allocated funds and removing the administrative bottlenecks. Also, an equitable health financing system that addresses existing disparities in the healthcare delivery system should be ensured.
Originality/value
Researchers and policymakers have debated the role of public health spending in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 targets. The paper proves that there exists no long-term relationship between public health spending and IMR.
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The purpose here is to show how the “shadow” economy has grown in scale and impetus in recent years, though even before modern times it has been present (e.g. the City of London…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose here is to show how the “shadow” economy has grown in scale and impetus in recent years, though even before modern times it has been present (e.g. the City of London, Shaxson, 2011) since at least the middle ages. The reasons for this have become complicated, but we can identify some “deep structures” that are common. Firstly, “globalisation” made it easier for multinationals to escape national regulatory regimes. Secondly, one of the ways neoliberal trading regulations allowed such actors to augment their assets was by means of what they initially called “transfer-pricing” but which now is officially known as “profit shifting” through tax havens. Thirdly, the growth in international trade in legal and illegal ways caused money laundering – even by otherwise respectable banks – to grow across borders. Conversely, from the supply-side, tax haven status was increasingly accessed by jurisdictions that sought to achieve economic growth by supplying tax haven services, both Delaware and Ireland as exemplars of a “developmental” fiscal policy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a “pattern recognition” design, an approach that is abductive, meaning interpretive, as shown in the observation that explanation can be valid or reliable without direct observation. This is shown in the indirect observation that “rain fell because the terrace has puddles” or “ancient glaciers once carved this valley”.
Findings
Reviewing the European Union’s (EU) list of non-co-operating jurisdictions in support of the OECD’s review of base erosion and profit-shifting activity, Collin concluded the EU’s listing “moved the needle” somewhat but was only a modest success. This is because of its reluctance to sanction its own members or large economies like the USA. Data on foreign direct investment and offshore banking assets suggest listed jurisdictions did not suffer notably from being named and shamed. In all cases studied, this contribution found legally damaging, fraudulent, conflict of interest and corrupt practice activities everywhere.
Originality/value
The originality is found in three spheres. Firstly, the pattern recognition method was vindicated in yielding hard to research results. Secondly, the “assemblage-thirdspace” theory was found advantageous in demonstrating the uneven geography of tax haven clusters and their common history in turbocharging economic development. Finally, the empirics showed the ruses executed by cluster members in tax havens to circumvent the law from global management consultancies to micro-firms consisting of tax lawyers and other experts interacting in knowledge supply chains of dubious morality.
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C. Verity Bennett, Louisa M. Roberts, Phil Smith, Melissa Meindl, Philip Pallmann, Fiona Lugg-Widger, Elizabeth-Ann Schroeder, Linda Adara, Kim Munnery, Lena Meister, Sharon Ayayo, Sarah Rawlinson, Donald Forrester, Stavros Petrou, James White and David Westlake
School social work, in various forms, is well established internationally and has a growing evidence base. Yet existing research focuses on professional perspectives rather than…
Abstract
Purpose
School social work, in various forms, is well established internationally and has a growing evidence base. Yet existing research focuses on professional perspectives rather than those of students. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring secondary school student perspectives of having social workers in schools (SWIS). It was undertaken in England as part of the SWIS trial, which tested whether secondary school-based social workers could improve child safety and well-being, identify issues more quickly and reduce the need for statutory services.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods approach comprised a survey (n = 1,998 students) and interviews (n = 27 students). Surveys included questions on awareness, understanding, interaction with and attitudes towards the school-based social workers. Interviews involved a Q-sort activity followed by semi-structured questions on general attitudes and experiences. The Q-sort characterised prominent perspectives and how many students subscribed to them.
Findings
Students were broadly positive about having a social worker in their school in the survey and interviews. Two prominent perspectives on SWIS were identified. The first (n = 17) was defined by students feeling positively overall and strongly agreeing that they trusted the social worker. The second (n = 4) was mixed in sentiment, defined by some anxiety about working with the social worker. In interviews, students relayed that social workers were easily accessible, offered emotional support and acted as a bridge between school and home.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to quantify student perspectives on having social workers at school and evidence attitudes and experiences about school-based social work as practiced during the SWIS trial.
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This chapter proposes a framework explaining the evolution of property rights in land, assuming two unequal groups of actors: elites possessing means of violence and nonelite land…
Abstract
This chapter proposes a framework explaining the evolution of property rights in land, assuming two unequal groups of actors: elites possessing means of violence and nonelite land cultivators. It then shows that all intermediary groups – those acting between the chief violence holders (i.e., rulers) and cultivators – are in effect (greater or lesser rulers and cultivators). Using this framework, this chapter explains most of the developments in the evolution of land rights in 19th century colonial Bengal. The proposed theoretical framework explains how different, hierarchically arrayed claims over land and the resulting allocation of rights was a function of asymmetries in power and information between three groups: rulers, direct cultivators, and intermediaries without their own coercive means. It explains inter alia why private property in land was not likely to emerge in this configuration, and that the (non-private) property rights of the other two groups wouldn't attain stability as long as rulers perceived an information asymmetry. In such a situation, land rights would attain neither “private,” nor “public” character.
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Isobel Moore, Philip John Archard and Sarah Simmonds
The process of ending mental health support is often not well-attended to in practice or research, and clinicians in UK mental health services lack focused clinical guidance in…
Abstract
Purpose
The process of ending mental health support is often not well-attended to in practice or research, and clinicians in UK mental health services lack focused clinical guidance in this area. This paper aims to report on a service evaluation that sought to understand from clinicians working in a single adult community mental health team (CMHT) their experiences of discharge and issues arising in the process, factors considered in decision-making and what constitutes “good” endings and what support could be helpful to them in navigating this with clients.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were completed with six members of the multi-disciplinary team and analysed thematically.
Findings
Clinicians described a range of criteria considered in discharge decision-making. Collaboration, planning and preparation were represented as key ingredients for “good” endings. Factors viewed as complicating discharge included complexity and changes in presentation, psychosocial contexts and re-referrals. Perceptions of clients’ feelings (resistance and dependence, fear and anger, relief and gratitude) and varying feelings evoked for clinicians (from little or no reported impact, to pride and confidence, sadness and worry) at the ending of the working relationship were reported. Suggested organisational supports for clinicians with endings and discharges involved opportunities to consult with colleagues, psychological formulation and advice and reflective supervision.
Originality/value
There has been limited empirical attention to practitioner experiences of discharge in the work of CMHTs in a UK context; this practitioner-led evaluation explored clinician perspectives.
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