The centrality of ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the corporate marketing perspective serves as a point of differentiation for the field within the broader…
Abstract
Purpose
The centrality of ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the corporate marketing perspective serves as a point of differentiation for the field within the broader marketing discipline. Currently, there is a lack of clarity around the ‘transparency’ construct, which is an integral if ill-defined dimension of ethics and CSR in marketing. A shared understanding of the transparency construct is thus a significant gap within corporate marketing theory. Addressing that gap is the purpose of this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach in this paper is conceptual. In developing a detailed definition of transparency, the paper draws on core papers in corporate marketing theory as well as organisational transparency.
Findings
Rawlins’ (2009) multi-layered definition of the transparency construct is identified as appropriate for adoption in the corporate marketing context. Each of the six layers of his definition is analysed to understand what is implied and what the application of the construct means for corporate marketing practice. The implications are that the application of transparency in corporate marketing requires that a positive and proactive approach to information-sharing is adopted; the default position is to share information with stakeholders; both good and bad news are shared; the criteria – accuracy, timeliness, balance and unequivocality – are applied to all information prior to releases; an organisation commits to empowering stakeholders; and there is recognition of an obligation to account to stakeholders.
Research limitations/implication
The paper is conceptual in nature and does not apply the definition of the transparency construct to empirical data. It is likely that empirical research will lead to further refinements and amendments. The paper should therefore be considered as a starting point for this empirical work.
Practical implication
The paper provides a detailed definition of the transparency construct, which includes a discussion of what the application of the transparency construct implies and what it means for the practice of corporate marketing. The definition and its practical application are summarised in table form as a guide for both researchers and practitioners of corporate marketing. The table may serve as a guide for evaluating current organisational performance and for embedding transparency in corporate marketing practice.
Originality/value
This study appears to be the first paper to address the gap in the corporate marketing literature in relation to the transparency construct. This conceptual paper therefore provides a foundation for further empirical research into the application of the transparency construct in corporate marketing.
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Shirley Leitch and Sally Davenport
This paper applies Eisenberg’s theory of strategic ambiguity to stakeholder relationship management during a period of significant change within a public sector organisation…
Abstract
This paper applies Eisenberg’s theory of strategic ambiguity to stakeholder relationship management during a period of significant change within a public sector organisation. Public sector organisations generally have a wider range of stakeholders than private sector organisations and must discharge their statutory responsibilities within the highly charged environment of the political arena. This paper will contend that communication professionals may deploy strategic ambiguity to manage the competing demands of public sector stakeholders and also to stimulate a diversity of actions and creative responses in the stakeholder community. The paper draws upon an extensive case study of the major science‐funding agency in New Zealand – the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) – to illustrate the potential value of and identify some limits to the use of strategic ambiguity.
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Shirley Leitch and Sally Davenport
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate identity, corporate marketing and the pursuit of corporate objectives, particularly those objectives…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between corporate identity, corporate marketing and the pursuit of corporate objectives, particularly those objectives that require action at a societal level.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a literature review and an holistic, multiple method case study, drawing on e‐mail newsletters, interviews, web sites, media articles and organizational documents.
Findings
Corporate identity may serve as a constraint on behaviour that limits strategic and tactical options. It may also constitute a strategic resource that enables action. The seven distinctive characteristics of front organizations identified in the paper enable them to overcome some of the constraints experienced by other organizational types in pursuing corporate objectives requiring action at a societal level.
Research limitations/implications
Future research directions include: analysis and theory development in relation to the design and marketing of a “packaged present” CI; the expansion of this analysis to other types of temporary organizations; and further exploration of the implications of temporality for corporate marketing.
Practical implications
Deploying an “active” definition of corporate identity can take practitioners beyond the audit‐based approach, with its focus on understanding “what the organization is”, to a strategic approach to corporate marketing focused on the temporal question “what does the organization wish to become?”
Originality/value
This paper begins to address two significant gaps in the corporate marketing and corporate identity literatures: the first in relation to corporate identity and temporality; and the second in relation to temporary organizations, particularly front organizations. The paper identifies seven distinctive characteristics of front organizations, which provide the basis for future research.
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IT is evident from the numerous press cuttings which are reaching us, that we are once more afflicted with one of those periodical visitations of antagonism to Public Libraries…
Abstract
IT is evident from the numerous press cuttings which are reaching us, that we are once more afflicted with one of those periodical visitations of antagonism to Public Libraries, which occasionally assume epidemic form as the result of a succession of library opening ceremonies, or a rush of Carnegie gifts. Let a new library building be opened, or an old one celebrate its jubilee, or let Lord Avebury regale us with his statistics of crime‐diminution and Public Libraries, and immediately we have the same old, never‐ending flood of articles, papers and speeches to prove that Public Libraries are not what their original promoters intended, and that they simply exist for the purpose of circulating American “Penny Bloods.” We have had this same chorus, with variations, at regular intervals during the past twenty years, and it is amazing to find old‐established newspapers, and gentlemen of wide reading and knowledge, treating the theme as a novelty. One of the latest gladiators to enter the arena against Public Libraries, is Mr. J. Churton Collins, who contributes a forcible and able article, on “Free Libraries, their Functions and Opportunities,” to the Nineteenth Century for June, 1903. Were we not assured by its benevolent tone that Mr. Collins seeks only the betterment of Public Libraries, we should be very much disposed to resent some of the conclusions at which he has arrived, by accepting erroneous and misleading information. As a matter of fact, we heartily endorse most of Mr. Collins' ideas, though on very different grounds, and feel delighted to find in him an able exponent of what we have striven for five years to establish, namely, that Public Libraries will never be improved till they are better financed and better staffed.
Shirley Leitch and Neil Richardson
This article offers the “brand web” model as a conceptual framework for the creation and ongoing analysis of corporate brands and brand relationships. The framework is…
Abstract
This article offers the “brand web” model as a conceptual framework for the creation and ongoing analysis of corporate brands and brand relationships. The framework is particularly relevant for new economy ventures that result from alliances. In deploying the brand web model, marketers are asked to consider: the power relationship between the corporate brands; their corporate identities and brand values; the goals of each brand; and the relative strategies pursued to achieve these goals. These questions are posed within the context of the semiotic model of corporate identity.
Rodney McAdam, Shirley‐Ann Hazlett and Christine Casey
The aim of this paper is to explore the issues involved in developing and applying performance management approaches within a large UK public sector department using a multiple…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to explore the issues involved in developing and applying performance management approaches within a large UK public sector department using a multiple stakeholder perspective and an accompanying theoretical framework.
Design/methodology/approach
An initial short questionnaire was used to determine perceptions about the implementation and effectiveness of the new performance management system across the organisation. In total, 700 questionnaires were distributed. Running concurrently with an ethnographic approach, and informed by the questionnaire responses, was a series of semi‐structured interviews and focus groups.
Findings
Staff at all levels had an understanding of the new system and perceived it as being beneficial. However, there were concerns that the approach was not continuously managed throughout the year and was in danger of becoming an annual event, rather than an ongoing process. Furthermore, the change process seemed to have advanced without corresponding changes to appraisal and reward and recognition systems. Thus, the business objectives were not aligned with motivating factors within the organisation.
Research limitations/implications
Additional research to test the validity and usefulness of the theoretical model, as discussed in this paper, would be beneficial.
Practical implications
The strategic integration of the stakeholder performance measures and scorecards was found to be essential to producing an overall stakeholder‐driven strategy within the case study organisation.
Originality/value
This paper discusses in detail the approach adopted and the progress made by one large UK public sector organisation, as it attempts to develop better relationships with all of its stakeholders and hence improve its performance. This paper provides a concerted attempt to link theory with practice.
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Judy Motion, Shirley Leitch and Roderick J. Brodie
Corporate co‐branding is analysed within the context of a case study of the sponsorship relationship between adidas and the New Zealand Rugby Union. The study indicates that…
Abstract
Corporate co‐branding is analysed within the context of a case study of the sponsorship relationship between adidas and the New Zealand Rugby Union. The study indicates that corporate brands may develop co‐branding relationships in order to redefine brand identity, discursively reposition the brand and build brand equity. Corporate co‐branding is established at a fundamental brand values level that, in turn, influences the type of marketing communication campaign that may be undertaken. Discourse theory provides insights into the importance of an articulation campaign in order to increase the equity of corporate brands. Co‐branding offers corporate brands access to the brand strategy of the co‐brand partner, the alignment of brand values, the marketing communication association and brand reach and network of relationships.
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MANY and sundry are the worries which fall to the lot of the librarian, and the matter of book‐repair is not the least among them. The very limited book‐fund at the disposal of…
Abstract
MANY and sundry are the worries which fall to the lot of the librarian, and the matter of book‐repair is not the least among them. The very limited book‐fund at the disposal of most public library authorities makes it imperative on the part of the librarian to keep the books in his charge in circulation as long as possible, and to do this at a comparatively small cost, in spite of poor paper, poor binding, careless repairing, and unqualified assistants. This presents a problem which to some extent can be solved by the establishment of a small bindery or repairing department, under the control of an assistant who understands the technique of bookbinding.
THE pages of the Library World have at all times been open to receive the opinions of every side, on all questions of library policy, and we believe that it can be fairly claimed…
Abstract
THE pages of the Library World have at all times been open to receive the opinions of every side, on all questions of library policy, and we believe that it can be fairly claimed that no other English professional journal can show a greater record of catholicity and freedom from prejudice. Just recently we have published three articles in succession, which plead for, or advocate, some method of mitigating what the writers term the “Fiction Nuisance,” and one result of our complaisance may be witnessed in the stir which has been caused in journalistic quarters, over the alleged shortcomings of Public Libraries, and their scandalous distribution of nothing but fiction! It is argued, with some justice, that, if librarians are so quick to admit the existence of a fiction nuisance, then the case must be very serious indeed; and that it is regarded in this light may be gathered from the article on “Free Libraries,” by Mr. J. Churton Collins, in the June Nineteenth Century. For some reason or another, best known, no doubt, to themselves, certain librarians are always ready to join in the hue and cry against Public Libraries, and to lend the sanction of their authority to the general execration of fiction reading, thus giving a weapon to the enemy which is promptly used to thrash municipal libraries into a pulp. For months past this outcry against libraries has been going on, and there cannot be a single doubt that it has been stimulated by, if it did not originate in, the injudicious apologies for high fiction percentages in some library reports, and the publication of articles by librarians who admit too much, without giving substantial grounds for their conclusions. We are unable to say whether such apologies and articles are dictated by the weak, but human, desire to side with the majority, but there can be no doubt as to their harmful tendency and the evil they are causing all over the country. It is time, therefore, that the other, and, we believe, true side of the question should be put forward, and we propose to devote a series of articles to show that the charges made against Public Libraries of being nothing but huge engines for the distribution of fiction, mostly bad in tone and quality, are either gross misrepresentations, or exaggerations capable of explanation, and justification. As an introduction to this series, we have obtained permission from Mr. Thomas Greenwood, to use the greater part of the paper entitled, “The Great Fiction Question,” which is printed in Greenwoods Library Year Book, 1897, and is now becoming scarce and difficult to procure, owing to the book being out‐of‐print; like the later Year Book of 1900–1901. This paper is a vigorous, fair, and able statement of the case for fiction, which has not received the amount of attention it deserves, and we think it will be performing a service to librarians if we reprint it as a preliminary to our own proposed examination of the question of Fiction Reading in Public Libraries:
Research is recognised as an essential part of planning and evaluation in most areas of marketing and corporate communication, including advertising, direct marketing and…
Abstract
Research is recognised as an essential part of planning and evaluation in most areas of marketing and corporate communication, including advertising, direct marketing and, increasingly, public relations and corporate communication disciplines such as employee communication and community relations. Understanding of audience interests, awareness, perceptions and information needs is critical to strategic planning of communication campaigns. Secondly, identification and quantification of changes in awareness, perception and, ultimately, behaviour is necessary to evaluate objectively the effectiveness of communication (ie the outcomes or results). Nowhere is research more important than in multicultural and cross‐cultural communication. International relations began with human migrations and trade and reach new levels today with globalisation, corporations, organisations and governments increasingly seeking to create consistencies and shared values across divergent cultural groups. They seek to create consistencies and shared values in relation to products (eg Coca‐Cola, IBM, McDonalds), policies (eg trade agreements) and in popular culture such as films, television programmes and news media. Social rules and shared values, ie the culture of communities, affect organisations seeking to communicate multiculturally and cross‐culturally at two levels. First, the “home” culture of the organisation wishing to communicate shapes policies, plans and products that are produced. Secondly, the cultures of audiences inform and substantially shape their interpretation and use of information. Often, multicultural and cross‐cultural communication is a case of “Chinese whispers” on an international scale. What one says or shows is frequently not what others hear or see. Studies cited in this paper show that culture is a vitally important factor in communication. Yet, companies and even governments attempt communication with little understanding of audiences which they wish to reach and with which they wish to build relationships and understanding. This paper examines cultural considerations specifically in the field of public relations and corporate communication in the Asia Pacific region which is comprised of a diverse range of cultures and has been identified as the largest market in the world. Thus, it is increasingly a focal point of global communication campaigns.