Jae-Eun Kim, Stephen Lloyd, Keji Adebeshin and Ju-Young M. Kang
The purpose of this paper is to advance the theory and practice of luxury and masstige brand advertising effectiveness by decoding symbolism imbedded in fashion advertising.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the theory and practice of luxury and masstige brand advertising effectiveness by decoding symbolism imbedded in fashion advertising.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs a semiotic analysis of masstige brand advertising to discover those messages and themes that emerge and that communicate masstige values.
Findings
The research identifies identitary values that are exclusive to masstige brands, and those they share with luxury brands.
Research limitations/implications
The purpose of this research is not to make generalizations; rather, its purpose is to offer insights into those themes that define luxury and masstige brand identitary values.
Practical implications
The research provides insights into the key identifiers, which may inspire further research and provide marketing insights for the operation management in luxury fashion.
Originality/value
The research contributes to luxury and masstige retail brand research by identifying the symbolic meaning of luxury advertising.
Loretta Newman‐Ford, Steve Lloyd and Stephen Thomas
The number of people engaging in higher education (HE) has increased considerably over the past decade. However, there is a need to achieve a balance between increasing access and…
Abstract
The number of people engaging in higher education (HE) has increased considerably over the past decade. However, there is a need to achieve a balance between increasing access and bearing down on rates of non‐completion. It has been argued that poor attainment and failure within the first year are significant contributors to the overall statistics for non‐progression and that, although research has concentrated on factors causative of student withdrawal, less attention has focused on students who fail academically. This study investigated the effects of a number of factors on the academic attainment of first‐year undergraduates within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Glamorgan. Results showed that gender and age had only minor impacts upon educational achievement, while place of residence, prior educational attainment and attendance emerged as significant predictors of attainment. Further analysis showed these three factors to be interrelated, with attendance correlating strongly with both entry points and place of residence. In turn, prior attainment was strongly linked to place of residence. Findings may be used to identify and proactively target students at risk of poor academic performance and dropout in order to improve rates of performance and progression.
Details
Keywords
Stephen Lloyd and Arch Woodside
This study seeks to provide analytical insights into corporate brand‐rapture (CBR), its antecedents and consequences, and contributes to methodology for modeling CBRs.
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to provide analytical insights into corporate brand‐rapture (CBR), its antecedents and consequences, and contributes to methodology for modeling CBRs.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper defines the construct and develops a theory that explains how corporate brand‐rapture works and is testable empirically.
Findings
CBR merits further investigation as a potentially valid, operational concept in marketing that underpins the conscious and unconscious drivers of the corporate brand's strongest stakeholders and that lays the foundations of research into corporate brand‐rapture communication.
Research limitations/implications
The paper, while remaining conceptual, identifies a dynamic concept of interest to researchers and to corporate brand marketing management and proposes seven fundamental propositions for modeling CBR.
Practical implications
The paper provides researchers and corporate brand marketing with a more rigorous understanding of the foundations of engagement with a corporate brand.
Originality/value
This paper is the first so far on CBR theory and provides insights that are important to corporate brand marketers and their communications strategies.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to provide research insights into stakeholder specifications of the domain of the corporate reputation (CR) construct thereby obtaining greater…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide research insights into stakeholder specifications of the domain of the corporate reputation (CR) construct thereby obtaining greater content validity of scale items.
Design/methodology/approach
A simple research technique is identified (the nominal group techniques (NGT) which, when used in the context of a formal procedure, addresses content validity issues.
Findings
The study confirms the value of NGT in providing content validity through stakeholder (rater) involvement in construct definition and domain specification.
Research limitations/implications
The stakeholder makes a vital contribution to construct definition and to scale item development.
Originality/value
The development of a method based on what is in the minds of stakeholders and which has relevance at the level of meaning as well as explanation. Stakeholders have not so far been involved directly in CR scale item development.
Details
Keywords
– This paper aims to enrich discussion on pilgrimage tourism by analyzing motivations for visiting Sissinghurst, and of essential components of the pilgrimage experience.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to enrich discussion on pilgrimage tourism by analyzing motivations for visiting Sissinghurst, and of essential components of the pilgrimage experience.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilizes data triangulation and the application of two powerful Jungian archetypes to decode motivations to manage and to participate in a journey to an iconic pilgrimage site (Sigginghurst Castle Garden, in Kent, England and administered by the National Trust) using the analysis of interview-based, published, broadcast media and internet blog storytelling.
Findings
Pilgrim tourists seek and achieve individuation by being part of the essential experience of a site; with its founders, its owners and management and with its continuing re-birth story.
Research limitations/implications
The paper illustrates the application of Jungian archetypes to identify motivations to engage in a tourism experience and as a means for managers to identify a destination's essential characteristics.
Practical implications
This work provides a means for managers to identify a destination's essential characteristics.
Originality/value
The paper documents an original research approach to a previously under-researched research topic.
Details
Keywords
Two claims are made about play that bears on managing change in organizations. First, play is a creative dynamic of human community; and in particular, it is the form taken by…
Abstract
Purpose
Two claims are made about play that bears on managing change in organizations. First, play is a creative dynamic of human community; and in particular, it is the form taken by love at the boundary of fantasy and reality. Second, play is known, not by analysis via the mind and reason, but by intuition via the body and feeling. To manage change as play is to call upon the possibilities of adaptation and development that lie at the creative edge of love.
Design/methodology/approach
The arguments of the paper are not strictly rational (deductive) or empirical (inductive) but are based upon an “abductive” reading of the literatures on play and managing change.
Findings
Play is key in managing change. Play is the creative enlargement of love involved in healthy and effective adaptation and development.
Social implications
Change in organizations is best taken in the spirit of love that is play. As change calls to love, the greatest changes call to the greatest love of the divine in which all things are possible.
Originality/value
The paper offers a novel theoretical integration of the research literatures on play and managing change. The paper offers a powerful argument for the humane foundations of play and change in love.
Details
Keywords
WE endorse with much pleasure the welcome that has greeted the election of the new President of the Library Association. When the Association, in what seems now a somewhat remote…
Abstract
WE endorse with much pleasure the welcome that has greeted the election of the new President of the Library Association. When the Association, in what seems now a somewhat remote past, determined to place the executive side of its business in the hands of a permanent Secretary, the question of the continuance of an Honorary Secretary was given careful consideration. It was resolved that he should continue and that his main function would be to represent the President at all times when the latter was not available. He had other duties, even if they were not clearly expressed, including a general overall initiative in committee and Council matters. The successive holders of the office since, Stanley Jast, Dr. E. A. Savage and Lionel R. McColvin proved so clearly the wisdom of that decision that the Association made each of them President; they have been heads of the profession in a real sense, inspiring and actively creative. The last of them, Mr. McColvin, is known everywhere librarians meet, here and overseas, and only the newest library recruits are unfamiliar with his reports, essays and many books, or have not heard of his home and other county surveys and his fearless, suggestive appraisals of what he has seen and thought. In a rather difficult time the Library Association is fortunate to have so statesmanlike a librarian to lead it.