Search results

This paper aims to critique human personality as a theory underpinning brand personality and to propose instead a theory from human perception, and by doing so, to identify universally relevant dimensions.

A review of published measures of brand personality, a re-analysis of two existing data bases and the analysis of one new database are used to argue and test for the dimensions derived from perception theory.

Existing work on brand personality suggests 16 separate dimensions for the construct, but some appear common to most measures. When non-orthogonal rotation is used to re-analyse existing trait data on brand personality, three dimensions derived from signalling and associated theory can emerge: sincerity (e.g. warm, friendly and agreeable), competence (e.g. competent, effective and efficient) and status (e.g. prestigious, elegant and sophisticated). The first two are common to most measures, status is not.

Three dimensions derived from signalling and associated theory are proposed as generic, relevant to all contexts and cultures. They can be supplemented by context specific dimensions.

Measures of these three dimensions should be included in all measures of brand personality.

Prior work on brand personality has focussed on identifying apparently new dimensions for the construct. While most work is not theoretically based, some have argued for the relevance of human personality. That model is challenged, and an alternative approach to both theory and analysis is proposed and successfully tested.

The purpose of this paper is to test whether employee characteristics (age, gender, role and experience) influence the effects of employer brand image, for warmth and competence, on employee satisfaction and engagement.

Members of the public were surveyed as to their satisfaction and engagement with their employer and their view of their employer brand image. Half were asked to evaluate their employer’s “warmth” and half its “competence”. The influence of employee characteristics was tested on a “base model” linking employer image to satisfaction and engagement using a mediated moderation model.

The base model proved valid; satisfaction partially mediates the influence of employer brand image on engagement. Age, experience gender, and whether the role involved customer contact moderate both the influence of the employer brand image and of satisfaction on engagement.

Engagement varies with employee characteristics, and both segmenting employees and promoting the employer brand image differentially to specific groups are ways to counter this effect.

The contexts in which employer brand image can influence employees in general and specific groups of employees in particular are not well understood. This is the first empirical study of the influence of employer brand image on employee engagement and one of few that considers the application of employee segmentation.

The paper aims to investigate the impact of ruthless image on the attractiveness and connectedness of corporate brands. It proposes a model that trust mediates the influence of a ruthless image on these outcomes. The study aims to build upon previous theory which suggests that not all brands with negative aspects to their images are destined to receive negative consumer responses.

A mixed method approach was adopted to examine consumer responses to ruthless brand image, including five focus groups to uncover successful brands with strong ruthless associations and 680 personal face‐to‐face surveys in which respondents were interviewed about one of four brands.

The paper provides empirical support that the mediating role of trust is critical to the development of favourable outcomes where negative brand associations exist. No significant direct links between ruthlessness, attractiveness and connectedness were identified – only an indirect effect via trust.

The chosen research approach may reduce the generalisablity of the results. Further empirical testing using alternative brands and outcome measures is encouraged.

Strategic brand implications are outlined which argue that brands with negative images can be successful, profitable and often the market leader. The importance of leader image to disguise the ruthlessness of the corporate brands is discussed.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study favourable consumer attitudes in the context of brands with negative associations.

This paper is a brief historical examination of brand, organisation identity and reputation in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The discussion is situated within the context of the challenges that the global knowledge‐based business environment poses to organisations of differing sizes.

The authors' approach is discursive. The argument is supported by findings from published studies and empirical reality. The authors analyse and distill our thoughts (and the empirical findings) in a way that is relevant to the activities of entrepreneurs and SMEs.

Organisations are better able to create strong firm by integrating branding, reputation building, relevant and appropriate organisational identity beyond their visual façade. They need to be more proactive, and also have to express and embed their brand value propositions within their identity and reputation in their dealings with customers. The authors surmises that researching about (and evaluations of) brand, reputation and organisation identity need to play more active roles in offering novel ways of conceptualising and documenting the realities of the contemporary (global) business environment in which firms operates.

The study offers new horizons on brand, organization identity and reputation as they relate to economic reality. The authors unequivocal articulation is that these concepts are critical factors in the success of enterprises and small businesses in competitive markets.

In this chapter we explore the relationship between current gendered practices and past conditions through the lens of actor-network theory (ANT). In particular we are interested in the viability of ANT as a lens for studying the past and in ways that can be reconciled with feminist thought. We argue that although there is some nonresonance between ANT and feminist theorizing, using ANT in a critically historicist way allows some of the barriers between ANT and feminism to be broken down. We synthesize an approach to study gendered organizational processes that exist in and over time, identifying and surfacing some of the actants (i.e., human and material factors that encourage people to act) that work together within networks to produce gendered effects such as ongoing discriminatory practices. We trace these effects using the history of Air Canada as an exemplar, in the process noting the conceptual and ontological differences between the past and history. Finally, the advantages of a critically historical ANT are discussed as a way to achieve a level of fusion between ANT and feminist thought.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on female faculty and administrators working in higher education, past and present.

Materials were selected based on scholarly impact and reputation of the author. Selections were then examined to assure varied perspectives and wide period coverage.

Throughout the past century, women have made tremendous strides in the pursuit of equity in the academic working environment. However, statistics and personal experiences indicate that much progress is still needed.

This bibliography is limited to literature on working female faculty and administrators in the USA. It is intended to provide a broad overview of their past and present working conditions. Materials cover the Colonial period though the present. As such, a brief selection of materials available are included. Although there are much fewer resources that include the women of color experience, whenever possible materials are included. For the purpose of this review, the female student demographic is omitted. As there is a plethora of materials on this subject, it should be examined in a separate bibliography.

This bibliography provides students and scholars a brief introduction to research women in higher education which encompasses diverse voices, a wide historical range and contemporary materials.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

This chapter discusses how employee productivity may be enhanced by understanding the difference in fit between introverts and extroverts and their work environment. Research shows that neglecting to consider varied personality types of employees when designing characteristics of the physical workplace may hinder employee performance given that introverts and extroverts thrive in different work environments. Drawing upon the self-determination theory, the chapter makes a case on how allowing employees the autonomy to choose their work environment (work from home or work from office) will enhance their performance by empowering them in their preferred work setting. Finally, this chapter discusses strategies that may help accommodate how introverts’ and extroverts’ interface with the physical characteristics of their workplace, followed by a discussion on companies that are in the process of shifting to a hybrid work setting in acknowledgement of increased productivity because of work from home practices during the pandemic.