Dannie Kjeldgaard and Matthias Bode
Brandfests are conceptualized as marketer-initiated events that facilitate consumers’ individual and social engagements with brands. After its inception in the late 1990s, the…
Abstract
Purpose
Brandfests are conceptualized as marketer-initiated events that facilitate consumers’ individual and social engagements with brands. After its inception in the late 1990s, the concept of brandfests was quickly folded into the concept of brand community, leaving conceptual and strategic opportunities untapped. The purpose of the paper is to suggest a broadened conceptualization of brandfests based on the play theory and the notion of ludic interagency.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper includes a longitudinal study and ethnographic method.
Findings
Unlike previously studied brandfests, this context entails a low-involvement product, a brand that is not the focal point for participants, a broad range of market-facing enactors, shifting roles and the realization of multiple meanings and values for multiple enactors. The findings demonstrate that brand meaning and value can be constituted through ludic engagement of a broad range of market-facing enactors through a ludic spectacle such as a brandfest. Moreover, the authors find that this can go on outside the established spatial and temporal frames normally considered by the marketing literature.
Research limitations/implications
This has implications for theories of emplacement (servicescape) and brand meaning actualization in terms of where, when and whom is involved in brand meaning actualization.
Practical implications
The paper develops four strategic propositions which broaden the type of brandfests that allow managers to define a range of potential strategies for engaging consumers and other enactors in a broader range of brandfests.
Originality/value
The paper reconceptualizes a dormant concept in the marketing literature to develop strategic implications based on the play theory. It challenges the prevalent centrality of the brand and consumer brand involvement.
Details
Keywords
Benn Lawson, Antony Potter, Frits K. Pil and Matthias Holweg
Responding in a timely manner to product recalls emanating from the supply chain presents tremendous challenges for most firms. The source might be a supplier from the same…
Abstract
Purpose
Responding in a timely manner to product recalls emanating from the supply chain presents tremendous challenges for most firms. The source might be a supplier from the same industry located next door, or one from a completely different sector of the economy situated thousands of miles away. Yet the speed of the firm’s response is crucial to mitigating the consequences of the recall both for the firm, and consumer health and well-being. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of geographic distance, industry relatedness and clustering on firm response time to a supplier-initiated product recall.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the theoretical framework via an examination of food recall announcements registered with the US Food and Drug Administration over a ten-year period. The authors develop a data set comprising 407 pairs of supplier and affected downstream manufacturing firms, and utilize cross-classified hierarchical linear modeling to understand the drivers of organizational responsiveness.
Findings
The results suggest that firm response time is lengthened by geographic distance but reduced when the supplier and affected firm operate in related industry sectors. The authors further find that as more firms in a given industry are affected by the same recall, response time deteriorates.
Originality/value
Product recalls in the agri-food industry are significant events initiated to protect consumer health and ensure the safety of the farm-to-fork food chain. The findings highlight how both geographic- and industry-related factors determine the speed of firm responsiveness to these events.
Details
Keywords
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.
Details
Keywords
Matthias M. Meyer, Andreas H. Glas and Michael Eßig
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had severe effects on economies worldwide and, in particular, on public institutions that must keep their operations running while supply chains are…
Abstract
Purpose
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had severe effects on economies worldwide and, in particular, on public institutions that must keep their operations running while supply chains are interrupted. The purpose of this study is to examine how public institutions act during a pandemic to ensure the security of supply.
Design/methodology/approach
The distinct focus is if, why and how public institutions have adopted additive manufacturing (AM) – a production technology colloquially known as three-dimensional printing in which a product is created by joining raw material layer by layer based on a digital model (computer-aided design [CAD] file) of the product – in reaction to supply disruptions caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. For this purpose, four cases within the context of the pandemic supply disruption are used as the units of analysis.
Findings
The findings are twofold: public institutions reacted, on the one hand, with a behavioral solution approach, trying to solve the supply disruption with new or changed forms of cooperation and collaboration. On the other hand, public institutions used a technical solution approach (TSA) as a supply disruption response and intensified their use of AM.
Research limitations/implications
This research derives an implications model that focuses on the TSA. Considering the ex ante and ex post phases of the disruption, several effects of AM on resilience are identified. The most relevant is the long-term learning effect (i.e. AM data created during this disruption might also help in a new disruption).
Practical implications
Practitioners who act under extreme pressure and uncertainty are informed by cases that have managed to close bottleneck situations with either a behavioral or TSA. Specific strategies are given for how public buyers could use AM within a pandemic situation to mitigate supply bottlenecks, such as increasing their robustness by localizing sourcing and increasing agility by combining traditional and additive supply sources. Additionally, insights are provided into how public organizations can increase their level of preparedness by including disruption paragraphs, establishing CAD databases, in contract clauses and keeping reserve contracts with AM service providers.
Originality/value
This research contrasts behavioral and technical solution concepts for a pandemic in the public sector. Thus, it provides insights into the relative benefits of AM and causes and effect with regard to how AM affects supply robustness and agility.
Details
Keywords
Matthias D. Mahlendorf, Utz Schäffer and Oliver Skiba
Participative budgeting is one of the most intensively researched budgeting variables in management accounting. Research has stalled, however. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Participative budgeting is one of the most intensively researched budgeting variables in management accounting. Research has stalled, however. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate further research by providing an overview of antecedents of participative budgeting and suggesting ways to build upon extant research.
Methodology/approach
We assess 22 studies published prior to 2011 that offer statistical insights into why organizations use participative budgeting by theorizing and modeling it as a dependent variable.
Findings
This work answers two research questions regarding why organizations use participative budgeting: (a) Which antecedents of participative budgeting have been analyzed so far? (b) Which causal-model forms are used in extant research regarding the antecedents of participative budgeting?
Originality/value
This paper provides a detailed overview of empirical studies and respective findings aiming to explain why organizations use participative budgeting. Many prior studies have measured the association between contextual antecedents and participative budgeting. However, from a theoretical perspective, objectives of employees and supervisors are often used to explain the relation. Based on our literature review, we propose that all objectives identified so far intervene in the relationship between context and use of participative budgeting and also further detail these objectives. Consequently, our review analyzes the status quo of research on why organizations use participative budgeting and adds additional suggestions of underlying causal processes that can be tested in future studies.
Details
Keywords
Tyson Browning, Maneesh Kumar, Nada Sanders, ManMohan S. Sodhi, Matthias Thürer and Guilherme L. Tortorella
Supply chains must rebuild for resilience to respond to challenges posed by systemwide disruptions. Unlike past disruptions that were narrow in impact and short-term in duration…
Abstract
Purpose
Supply chains must rebuild for resilience to respond to challenges posed by systemwide disruptions. Unlike past disruptions that were narrow in impact and short-term in duration, the Covid pandemic presented a systemic disruption and revealed shortcomings in responses. This study outlines an approach to rebuilding supply chains for resilience, integrating innovation in areas critical to supply chain management.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on extensive debates among the authors and their peers. The authors focus on three areas deemed fundamental to supply chain resilience: (1) forecasting, the starting point of supply chain planning, (2) the practices of supply chain risk management and (3) product design, the starting point of supply chain design. The authors’ debated and pooled their viewpoints to outline key changes to these areas in response to systemwide disruptions, supported by a narrative literature review of the evolving research, to identify research opportunities.
Findings
All three areas have evolved in response to the changed perspective on supply chain risk instigated by the pandemic and resulting in systemwide disruptions. Forecasting, or prediction generally, is evolving from statistical and time-series methods to human-augmented forecasting supplemented with visual analytics. Risk management has transitioned from enterprise to supply chain risk management to tackling systemic risk. Finally, product design principles have evolved from design-for-manufacturability to design-for-adaptability. All three approaches must work together.
Originality/value
The authors outline the evolution in research directions for forecasting, risk management and product design and present innovative research opportunities for building supply chain resilience against systemwide disruptions.
Details
Keywords
Katri Kauppi, Alistair Brandon‐Jones, Stefano Ronchi and Erik M. van Raaij
The paper examines the moderating role of a purchasing function's absorptive capacity (AC) on the relationship between the use of electronic purchasing tools and category level…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper examines the moderating role of a purchasing function's absorptive capacity (AC) on the relationship between the use of electronic purchasing tools and category level purchasing performance. The authors argue that an e‐purchasing tool may not in itself positively influence performance unless combined with AC as a human interface to maximise its information and transactional improvement potential.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data collected from 297 procurement executives of large companies in ten countries are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hierarchical moderated regression.
Findings
The results demonstrate few significant direct effects of e‐purchasing tools on category performance. All performance measures studied are enhanced when dimensions of AC and their interactions with the e‐purchasing tools are added. Specifically, buyer competence, manager competence and communications climate have performance‐enhancing effects. In some cases, AC on its own appears to increase performance more than e‐tools.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to study the moderating effects of AC on the relationship between e‐purchasing tool usage and category performance. Its findings support the view that simply implementing technology does not lead to performance improvements, but that a human interface is required to maximise the information and transactional improvement potential of e‐purchasing tools.
Details
Keywords
This chapter provides an introduction to the world of family companies and family constitutions from a legal perspective. It first studies the legal types of business…
Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to the world of family companies and family constitutions from a legal perspective. It first studies the legal types of business organizations that family firms have chosen across time and jurisdictions. It then illustrates how early predecessors of family constitutions evolved in the late Middle Ages and what modern family constitutions look like in different countries today. Further considerations are devoted to the governance framework of family firms. The chapter concludes by exploring the potential legal effects of family constitutions under German company and contract law.
Details
Keywords
Over 3 million intermittently employed and socially disadvantaged workers receive low wages and limited benefits in diverse long-term care settings and employment arrangements as…
Abstract
Over 3 million intermittently employed and socially disadvantaged workers receive low wages and limited benefits in diverse long-term care settings and employment arrangements as they try to become a positively valued unified occupation: “direct care workers.” Before this occurs, these workers must overcome negative definitions imposed by three powerful institutions: professional guilds, employers, and states. Care workers’ legitimacy is challenged as nursing labels them “unlicensed, assistive personnel,” defining them in terms of their task relationship to nurses rather than their social relationship to clients. Care workers’ identity is obscured as corporate rationalization nullifies their unique contributions with task unbundling, part-time work, short staffing, and turnover undermining bonding with colleagues and clients. State regulation impedes care workers’ integration, segmenting similar workers under different regulatory regimes, defining workers negatively rather than by their educational attainments and competencies. Overcoming this triple negation will require not just cultural change, but also real structural changes, and can occur only through concerted actions involving coalitions. Labor market intermediaries, public authorities, labor unions, workforce investment boards, philanthropic organizations, and government interagency groups are among those supporting direct care workers’ advancement by strategically coordinating licensing, purchasing, and developing the workforce. Recent federal policy changes and health reform legislation have enhanced recognition of this occupation and are providing new resources for its development.
Details
Keywords
Angelo Canzaniello, Evi Hartmann and Matthias S. Fifka
The purpose of this paper is to explore how intra-industry strategic alliances (SAs) seek to assess supplier risk related to sustainability, what motivation drives single members…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how intra-industry strategic alliances (SAs) seek to assess supplier risk related to sustainability, what motivation drives single members to form or join such an SA, and how such a joint endeavor affects supplier risk management.
Design/methodology/approach
An embedded single case study with multiple units of analysis was conducted. The main data were collected through semi-structured interviews with key respondents from seven leading chemical companies, three of which were founding members of the SA, while four were new members.
Findings
This paper shows that forming/joining an SA concerning sustainability-related supplier risk assessment, results in the reduction of task uncertainty and equivocality as well as the increase of information processing capacities. Based on the implemented sharing routines, a higher overall efficiency can be achieved. Moreover, the members benefit from an enhanced identification of varying stakeholder expectations, a facilitated capability building and a more comprehensive supplier risk assessment. In particular, the joint endeavors result in assessment processes of higher robustness, which provide outcomes of higher quality.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to investigate companies’ efforts toward improving their supplier risk management in the area of sustainability by establishing/joining an intra-industry SA. By providing insights into the motivation to form or join such a collaborative platform and illustrating the effects that arise from the SA’s work from an organizational information processing perspective, it provides a contribution to both academics and managerial practice.