Laís Rodrigues, Alessandra de Sá Mello da Costa and Marcus Wilcox Hemais
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how, in three different contexts, the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation narratively uses its past to build an official…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how, in three different contexts, the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation narratively uses its past to build an official history concerning its origins that legitimates advertising self-control as a hegemonic narrative.
Design/methodology/approach
By using the historical research and the “uses of the past” approach, this study identifies, analyzes and confronts three organizational histories of Conar’s origins (both its official and unofficial versions) in the context of the creation of the Brazilian system of advertising self-regulation.
Findings
After a thematic analysis of the documentary sources, the narratives on the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation’s origins and the self-control process were grouped into three versions: the narrative under the military regime: 1976/1980; the narrative during the process of re-democratization of the country: 1981/1991 and the contemporary narrative: from 2005 onwards. These narratives were confronted and, in consequence, provided, each of them, a different interpretation of the context surrounding the creation and justification for advertising self-control.
Originality/value
The study shows how a consumer defense organization re-historicized its past strategically to gain legitimacy in three different ways through time. It also reveals that organizations strategically use their past to build an intended vision of the future, thus having more agency than the hegemonic literature in management studies usually guarantees. Finally, it exposes the malleability of past narratives through which organizations play a critical role in the ongoing struggle for competing uses of the past. Therefore, the study identifies different organizational stories through time that allow researchers to reflect on several strategic uses of the past by organizations.
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Laís Rodrigues, Marcus Wilcox Hemais and Alessandra Costa
This paper aims to unveil colonial racist elements related to the cases of racism in advertising judged by the Brazilian Council of Advertising Self-Regulation (Conar), from 1980…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to unveil colonial racist elements related to the cases of racism in advertising judged by the Brazilian Council of Advertising Self-Regulation (Conar), from 1980 until 2020.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative critical and historical research was developed, based on a decolonial perspective, with the use of critical discourse analysis (CDA).
Findings
By analyzing such phenomenon, the present study can discuss how self-regulatory codes that are based on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) 1937 Code are not equipped to deal with racist issues.
Originality/value
Discussions that focus on how racial elements in advertising are treated by a regulatory agency are scarce. Despite the focus being on the Brazilian case, this phenomenon should not be understood as a particularity of this country, since problems related to racism in advertising in countries that also have ICC-type self-regulatory codes are frequent.
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Based on a decolonial perspective from Latin America, this paper aims to offer a different history of the creation of Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code (CDC), analyzing the process…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on a decolonial perspective from Latin America, this paper aims to offer a different history of the creation of Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code (CDC), analyzing the process through which Eurocentric influences, especially coming from Consumers International (CI), became present in the development of the code.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative historical research was developed using marketing amnesia and decolonialism as its theoretical backdrop. Primary and secondary data are used as source of information. Primary data were obtained through interviews with two authors of the CDC. Secondary data were collected from academic articles and books, reports, magazines and consumer organization websites, as well as journalistic articles.
Findings
During the drafting of the CDC and after its promulgation, the presence of Eurocentric forces was constant, given the interests of CI and other agents in influencing Brazil’s consumer practices, subordinating them to those of the Global North. This Eurocentric presence was accepted by the Brazilian jurists that drafted the CDC, which led to the incorporation of both laws and bills from Eurocentric countries and the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection into the code.
Originality/value
Such discussions are scarce in marketing, due to the area’s amnestic state regarding the past. While selectively forgetting certain pasts, marketing fails to both acknowledge its tendency to subordinate consumerist actions to those accepted by the Eurocentric world, and to establish analyses that deal with mimetic processes, to minimize asymmetries between companies and consumers, especially in emerging economies, and, even more, dichotomies between the Global North and the Global South.
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Olivia Vieira Marx Andrade, Renata Pautasso Barreto Amorim, Fabiana Cassilha Pires and Marcus Wilcox Hemais
The purpose of this paper is to show students the problems that a Brazilian franchise in the fast food sector faced while internationalizing its business to Mexico and Spain…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show students the problems that a Brazilian franchise in the fast food sector faced while internationalizing its business to Mexico and Spain. Specifically, discuss how the entry mode of master franchise used by Spoleto presented problems to the company's managers.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a teaching case, designed to make students reflect on issues related to international business and international marketing. The primary data were collected through interviews with Edwin Junior, International Expansions Manager of Spoleto. The information gathered in the interviews was complemented by secondary data from newspapers, business magazines, internet sites and the Spoleto sites in Brazil and Mexico.
Findings
The choice to make partnerships with companies that already have experience in managing big multinational franchises might not be the best move for a brand that is unknown outside of its country. This aspect of master franchise partnerships is scarcely discussed in the literature, which instead tends to focus on other negative aspects of this kind of arrangement. It is also important to point out that close control over the master franchisees actions, especially in the initial phases of international expansions, is important to guarantee that operations will be up to standards in all countries.
Originality/value
The value of this study is in the discussion it raises about the mistakes, rather than the successes, made by a Brazilian franchise in its first attempts to expand internationally.
Barbara de Lima Voss, David Bernard Carter and Bruno Meirelles Salotti
We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in…
Abstract
We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.