Judith Rosenblum and Reed A. Keller
C&L took on the mission of building a learning organization as the result of a strategic process that we went through about two and a half years ago. We identified learning as a…
Abstract
C&L took on the mission of building a learning organization as the result of a strategic process that we went through about two and a half years ago. We identified learning as a strategic competency of our firm—we saw it as a basis for the evolution of our business.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of brand associations and the formation of attitudes towards a new sponsor. Specifically, the paper evaluates the Under Armour…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of brand associations and the formation of attitudes towards a new sponsor. Specifically, the paper evaluates the Under Armour brand and its anomalous position in the Barclay’s Premier League.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design is longitudinal, qualitative and interpretivistic, utilising 26 online focus groups with 213 participants over a 24-month period encompassing the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 Premier League seasons.
Findings
The results indicate that Under Armour’s lack of football (soccer) presence in the context of the Premier League offered significant differentiation, as it diminished “common ground” with other fans, offered the opportunity to create personal identities beyond the club and the consumption of kit apparel, and was seen as positive given the articulation that brands such as Nike and Adidas were “forced” onto fans. Additionally, for the first time in the sports sponsorship literature, the findings reveal fans engaging with brands in a utilitarian manner, expressing concerns relating to cost, durability, functionality and value for money.
Research limitations/implications
This study is exploratory in nature and highly contextualised, and a larger-scale study of the phenomenon is desirable. This study extends the literature on fans’ perceptions of sponsoring brands and shows that a new sponsor, without prior league or club associations, can generate significant brand interest and elicit consumption behaviours beyond team apparel.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that there are considerable opportunities for “outside” brands to garner a market share and instigate loyalty through sponsorship. Subsequently, kit manufacturers should consider strategies that encompass entry into new sporting areas.
Originality/value
The study reveals that fans seek uniqueness and differentiation in a sponsoring brand, with brand image paramount in relation to the club and to both social and personal identity.
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Fiona Davies and Georgios Tsiantas
Selecting the most effective leveraging methods is crucial for national Olympic sponsors, who have limited time to achieve their sponsorship objectives. This paper presents the…
Abstract
Selecting the most effective leveraging methods is crucial for national Olympic sponsors, who have limited time to achieve their sponsorship objectives. This paper presents the Optimal Leveraging Activity (OLA) model, which suggests that leveraging activities for high involvement products/services should primarily focus on enhancing brand image, knowledge and involvement, while for low involvement products/services a more sales-oriented approach is favourable. The leveraging activities of four Grand National Sponsors of the Athens Olympic Games illustrate the differences.
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Discussion of the 2016 electorate has centered on two poles: results of public opinion and voter surveys that attempt to tease out whether racial, cultural, or economic grievances…
Abstract
Discussion of the 2016 electorate has centered on two poles: results of public opinion and voter surveys that attempt to tease out whether racial, cultural, or economic grievances were the prime drivers behind the Trump vote and analyses that tie major shifts in the political economy to consequential shifts in the voting behavior of certain demographic and geographic groups. Both approaches render invisible a major development since the 1970s that has been transforming the political, social, and economic landscape of wide swaths of people who do not reside in major urban areas or their prosperous suburban rings: the emergence and consolidation of the carceral state. This chapter sketches out some key contours of the carceral state that have been transforming the polity and economy for poor and working-class people, with a particular focus on rural areas and the declining Rust Belt. It is meant as a correction to the stilted portrait of these groups that congealed in the aftermath of the 2016 election, thanks to their pivotal contribution to Trump's victory. This chapter is not an alternative causal explanation that identifies the carceral state as the key factor in the 2016 election. Rather, it is a call to aggressively widen the analytical lens of studies of the carceral state, which have tended to focus on communities of color in urban areas.
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Stephen LeMay and Scott B. Keller
The purpose of this paper is to examine the past 50 years of driver research from a historical context linked to the political and economic developments of the US motor carrier…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the past 50 years of driver research from a historical context linked to the political and economic developments of the US motor carrier industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review was conducted and studies were targeted that exemplified eras of historic change pertaining to trucking published within the top-tier logistics journals.
Findings
Distinctive categorizations of driver research emerged: organizing era from 1930 to 1949, era of the collective mind from 1950 to 1979, era of the individual from 1980 to 2009 and the era of the driver as extension of the firm from 2010 to present. Research streams are highly influenced by current industry developments, economic conditions and the political landscape.
Research limitations/implications
The chronological framework of research established specific time-based eras. An alternative framework or other emerging eras may be conceived as scholars consider factors in addition to those explored within this research.
Practical implications
Managers within developing countries may leverage the research within a specific era to help resolve driver problems that have already been researched in the USA. Scholars are encouraged to further study truck drivers as critical extensions of the firm in light of the advances in autonomous vehicles, drones and other technology impacting the motor carrier industry.
Social implications
For nearly a half century, the turnover of truck drivers has been a major issue. This research provides driver managers with the knowledge to better understand and to more adequately provide for the needs and welfare of truck drivers.
Originality/value
This research is the first to fully connect the research and developments pertaining to the motor carrier industry, the occupation of truck driving and the historical developments of US policy and the economy.
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Rebecca Bednarek, Miguel Pina e Cunha, Jonathan Schad and Wendy Smith
Over the past decades, scholars advanced foundational insights about paradox in organization theory. In this double volume, we seek to expand upon these insights through…
Abstract
Over the past decades, scholars advanced foundational insights about paradox in organization theory. In this double volume, we seek to expand upon these insights through interdisciplinary theorizing. We do so for two reasons. First, we think that now is a moment to build on those foundations toward richer, more complex insights by learning from disciplines outside of organization theory. Second, as our world increasingly faces grand challenges, scholars turn to paradox theory. Yet as the challenges become more complex, authors turn to other disciplines to ensure the requisite complexity of our own theories. To advance these goals, we invited scholars with knowledge in paradox theory to explore how these ideas could be expanded by outside disciplines. This provides a both/and opportunity for paradox theory: both learning from outside disciplines beyond existing boundaries and enriching our insights in organization scholarship. The result is an impressive collection of papers about paradox theory that draws from four outside realms – the realm of belief, the realm of physical systems, the realm of social structures, and the realm of expression. In this introduction, we expand on why paradox theory is ripe for interdisciplinary theorizing, explore the benefits of doing so, and introduce the papers in this double volume.
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Marta B. Calás and Linda Smircich
Since the late 1980s we’ve been inspired by feminist theorizing to interrogate our field of organization studies, looking critically at the questions it asks, at the underlying…
Abstract
Since the late 1980s we’ve been inspired by feminist theorizing to interrogate our field of organization studies, looking critically at the questions it asks, at the underlying premises of the theories allowing for such questions, and by articulating alternative premises as a way of suggesting other theories and thus other questions the field may need to ask. In so doing, our collaborative work has applied insights from feminist theorizing and cultural studies to topics such as leadership, entrepreneurship, globalization, business ethics, issues of work and family, and more recently to sustainability. This text is a retrospective on our attempts at intervening in our field, where we sought to make it more fundamentally responsive to problems in the world we live in and, from this reflective position, considering how and why our field’s conventional theories and practices – despite good intentions – may be unable to do so.
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Nina M. Iversen and Leif E. Hem
Consumers' evaluations of brand extensions have gained considerable attention in the marketing literature. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a brand's perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
Consumers' evaluations of brand extensions have gained considerable attention in the marketing literature. The purpose of this study is to investigate how a brand's perceived global or local origin impacts evaluations of brand extensions and creates transfer effects of brand meaning. The paper conceptually characterizes the transference process and empirically tests the nature and extent of spillover effects of origin associations across multiple parent brands and extensions.
Design/methodology/approach
For the empirical testing of the conceptual model of transfer effects of origin associations we undertook a cross‐sectional consumer survey amongst a sample of 267 Norwegian respondents. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the causal relationships between the latent exogenous and endogenous variables in the conceptual model.
Findings
The present study indicates that the global and local origin framework, first introduced by Steenkamp et al. in 2003, can explain the occurrence of reciprocal transfer of brand meaning across parent brands and extensions. The paper shows that global and local origin associations operate in a manner very similar to brand associations in the transference of perceptions. It finds that distinct origin associations influence the pre‐brand image and drive the forward effect on the attitude towards the extension as well as the subsequent backward effect upon the post‐brand image of the parent brand.
Originality/value
This paper reveals for the first time that distinct origin associations can initiate spillover effects across parent brands and extensions. This study is therefore an important step towards the generalizability of main brand extension studies to other contexts such as extensions of global brands.