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1 – 10 of 24Leslie de Chernatony and Susan Cottam
Having a successful brand that is integrated and coherent can provide a sustainable competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to identify internal factors contributing to…
Abstract
Purpose
Having a successful brand that is integrated and coherent can provide a sustainable competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to identify internal factors contributing to financial services brand success and ultimately to facilitate better‐informed branding activities, thereby growing brand equity.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory approach is adopted and indepth interviews were carried out with 68 respondents amongst six financial services organisations.
Findings
The organisations with more successful brands were characterised by the following factors: a holistic, consistent and integrated approach to branding, a focus on excellent and personalised customer service, an ethos which challenges the norm, a responsiveness to change, a high degree of brand literacy, and a synergy between the brand and organisational culture.
Research limitations/implications
The study was bound by the availability of respondents' time. The focus was to examine a relatively small sample of organisations in considerable depth. Moving forward, it is intended that a quantitative study will be undertaken to generalise and expand on these findings within the financial services market.
Practical implications
A number of significant managerial implications are drawn from this work, for example using the brand ethos model to enable employees to internalise their brand and the use of “brand jigsaw” workshops to facilitate brand consistency.
Originality/value
The results provide valuable insights into financial services brand management, encouraging the employment of more effective branding techniques within a sector that has traditionally had little interest in branding.
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Leslie de Chernatony and Susan Cottam
This paper seeks to consider the interaction between corporate brands and organisational cultures within less successful UK financial services organisations to provide guidance…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to consider the interaction between corporate brands and organisational cultures within less successful UK financial services organisations to provide guidance about better managing corporate brands.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 41 in‐depth interviews were conducted within less successful UK financial services organisations from a grounded theory standpoint.
Findings
Given the link between culture and employee behaviour and the criticality of employee behaviour in services brands, organisational culture was perceived by managers and staff as being key to brand success. However, amongst the corporate brands studied, the cultures were not brand‐supportive and a misalignment was noted between culture and brand. The study found that the organisational cultures were confusing and inconsistent, were undergoing a process of change, were focused on quantitative performance targets, were averse to innovation and in one case were unnecessarily “tough”.
Practical implications
The results highlight the need for managers to be attentive to the consistency and congruence between values in the organisational culture and corporate brand, to ensure that cultural change is managed appropriately, to adopt a holistic approach to brand management and to empower employees. A model is posited of the cultural pitfalls to avoid when managing corporate brands.
Originality/value
The value of the paper is that it can help financial services brands achieve their potential by allowing them to manage the interaction between culture and brand so as to optimise brand performance by avoiding the pitfalls encountered within less successful brands.
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Jose M. Pina, Eva Martinez, Leslie de Chernatony and Susan Drury
The main objective of this study is to analyse the influence that service brand extensions have on corporate image.
Abstract
Purpose
The main objective of this study is to analyse the influence that service brand extensions have on corporate image.
Design/methodology/approach
After reviewing the previous literature, a model is proposed and tested that shows how extending a services brand affects the overall corporate image. Statistical analysis of data from a market survey involving actual services brands and hypothetical extensions was undertaken. Structural equation modelling was the main methodology employed.
Findings
It was found that the extent of perceived fit between the corporate brand and the service extension influences the perceived quality of the extension, which in turn affects corporate image, especially for corporate brands that originally had highly rated images.
Research limitations/implications
Given that the study was done with hypothetical brand extensions, the proposed model is not tested in a real situation.
Practical implications
The results offer important implications, both for academics and managers. Through an effective communication policy, the company must increase the perceived fit. The results also suggest directions for further research. For example, it would be interesting to explore how the model works across services categorised on the continuum of search, experience and credence.
Originality/value
In the literature, there are few works analysing the effect of service extensions on corporate image. The research allows the understanding of the concept of corporate image and the role performed by service brand extensions. The proposed model and the estimation with SEM methodology add value to the existing knowledge.
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Clive Bingley, Sarah Lawson and Edwin Fleming
WENT TO Brittany in July for a week's holiday with my dear wife, and found it agreeaby empty of both tourists and the flood of crude oil which had enveloped the coast a few months…
Abstract
WENT TO Brittany in July for a week's holiday with my dear wife, and found it agreeaby empty of both tourists and the flood of crude oil which had enveloped the coast a few months ago when the tanker Amoco Cadiz broke up. Plenty of rain, though, so we spent the week perambulating between restaurants, and returned lighter of pocket and heavier of tum, to find a charming letter from a librarian in Hong Kong, who said he had met my sister there recently and she had expressed great admiration for me. I replied that in that case it couldn't have been my sister and would he please send a photo of the lady.
President Bill Clinton has had many opponents and enemies, most of whom come from the political right wing. Clinton supporters contend that these opponents, throughout the Clinton…
Abstract
President Bill Clinton has had many opponents and enemies, most of whom come from the political right wing. Clinton supporters contend that these opponents, throughout the Clinton presidency, systematically have sought to undermine this president with the goal of bringing down his presidency and running him out of office; and that they have sought non‐electoral means to remove him from office, including Travelgate, the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster, the Filegate controversy, and the Monica Lewinsky matter. This bibliography identifies these and other means by presenting citations about these individuals and organizations that have opposed Clinton. The bibliography is divided into five sections: General; “The conspiracy stream of conspiracy commerce”, a White House‐produced “report” presenting its view of a right‐wing conspiracy against the Clinton presidency; Funding; Conservative organizations; and Publishing/media. Many of the annotations note the links among these key players.
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In a recent reference to changes brought about by the local government reorganisation of 1974, we criticised some of the names given to the new areas. Some of these name changes…
Abstract
In a recent reference to changes brought about by the local government reorganisation of 1974, we criticised some of the names given to the new areas. Some of these name changes have made difficulties for those who follow from afar the doings of local authorities, as well as raising the ire of local people. Local names, however, are not the only casualty. The creation of new and larger governmental organisations rarely, if ever, results in economy and as anticipated, it was not long before the new local authorities were being directed to embrace financial stringency and all that it incurs. One such other casualty has been the loss of so many of the annual reports of local authority departments, very few now arriving at BFJ offices. In every case, the reason has been the same—severe restrictions on spending. Not that this was not necessary in many fields, but in respect of annual reports, we are convinced it was false economy. For so many of the reports, it was our pleasure to review them in the pages of BFJ. A prominent Labour politician was once heard to refer to them as “hard and dry reports for hard and dry officials”. It all depends probably on what you are looking for in them. Statistics there must be but most enforcement officers and public analysts, endeavour to keep these to the minimum, the general impression being that these are “dry”. If you are looking for trends, for comparison of the year under review with preceding years and then for comparing the results reported in one part of the country with another, where the population, eating habits, consumer reactions may be different, the tables of statistics are highly important.
Alexandra L. Ferrentino, Meghan L. Maliga, Richard A. Bernardi and Susan M. Bosco
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in…
Abstract
This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.
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On 1 April 1978, the Israeli peace movement burst into world consciousness when an estimated 25,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv to urge the administration of Prime Minister…
Abstract
On 1 April 1978, the Israeli peace movement burst into world consciousness when an estimated 25,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv to urge the administration of Prime Minister Menachem Begin to continue peace negotiations with Egypt. A grassroots group called Peace Now is credited with organizing and leading that demonstration. Today, the “peace camp” refers to left‐wing political parties and organizations that hold dovish positions on the Arab‐Israeli conflict and the Palestinian issue. While some figures in the Labor Party view themselves as the peace movement's natural leader, political parties further to the left like the Citizens Rights Movement (CRM) and Mapam are more dovish. In the last 10 years, many grassroots peace organizations have, like Peace Now, formed outside the political party system, with the goal of influencing public opinion and eventually having an impact on policy makers. Peace Now is still the largest, most visible and influential of those organizations.
Ariel L. Kaufman and Mark R. Kueppers
A content validation process of an institutional leadership framework is described for leadership educators in higher education. We created this process to further integrate our…
Abstract
Purpose
A content validation process of an institutional leadership framework is described for leadership educators in higher education. We created this process to further integrate our leadership framework across campus, maintain alignment with advancements in leadership research and ensure it is broadly inclusive and culturally responsive.
Design/methodology/approach
Our approach included seven essential design elements and was informed by a review of leadership frameworks in practice and the literature, validation studies and a comprehensive document review.
Findings
Our approach yielded a validated leadership framework with modifications to its principles, values, competencies and outcomes. Modifications addressed pre-determined criteria and were deemed relevant to leadership research and our institutional context.
Originality/value
The external content validation process of our leadership framework is novel and serves as a valuable guide for those considering opportunities to strengthen their own institutional approaches to leadership education.
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John Andrews Fitch spent a year studying labor conditions in the steel industry around Pittsburgh during 1907 and 1908. The results of his research became The Steel Workers, one…
Abstract
John Andrews Fitch spent a year studying labor conditions in the steel industry around Pittsburgh during 1907 and 1908. The results of his research became The Steel Workers, one of six volumes in the Pittsburgh Survey, a groundbreaking 1910 analysis of conditions faced by working people in a modern industrial city. Introducing his discussion of common employment practices in the steel industry, Fitch declared, “A repressive regime…has served since the destruction of unionism, to keep the employers in the saddle.” He traced the origins of management’s arbitrary power to the Homestead lockout of 1892, when Carnegie Steel destroyed the last stronghold of organized labor in the mills of western Pennsylvania. During his stay in Pittsburgh, Fitch saw the results of fifteen years of management domination. “The steel worker,” he wrote, “sees on every side evidence of an irresistible power, baffling and intangible. It fixes the conditions of his employment; it tells him what wages he may expect to receive and where and when he must work. If he protests, he is either ignored or rebuked. If he talks it over with his fellow workmen, he is likely to be discharged” (Fitch, 1989, pp. 206, 232–233).