The brand as a social system of interpenetration: conceptualizing brand through communications

In this thesis I address oversights in the socio-cultural understanding of the brand by demonstrating the failings of three prevailing views. First, the brand is commonly captured through two dimensions: the functional and the symbolic. This conception results from an oscillation between two distinct worldviews: the material and the communicative. Second, the brand is conceptualized as the direct result of the motives of individuals, who are not reflexive of broader socio-cultural formations. Third, the brand is portrayed as a commercial entity that is coupled with a single ideology for competitive advantage. However, the multi-dimensional brand is neither essentially economic nor culturally one dimensional. Using Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, I observe communications media and the brand as self-reproductive social systems. Merging his methodology of functional analysis with Michel Foucault’s archaeology, I analyze the relevant academic literature and subject an actual brand to empirical examination. Herein I show how communication technologies and media make up ‘the communications system’, through which the society is not simply communicated but is created. Like all social phenomena, the brand as a social system (and its meanings) arises within the communications system by observing itself in relevant communicative events. The self-reproductive brand system exists within society by differentiating itself from its environment comprised of disparate social systems. The brand interpenetrates and then differentiates from each of these environmental systems via a particular distinction. The plurality and the interplay of these diverse distinctions enable the brand system. In turn, the brand as a social system of interpenetration fulfils its macro function in society by translating and synchronising these otherwise detached social systems. By understanding this broader societal function of the brand and its resulting dispositions, marketers can elevate their micro perspective in relation to a long-term macro view and thereby better guide the brand

Business research, self-fulfilling prophecy, and the inherent responsibility of scholars.

Business research and teaching institutions play an important role in shaping the way businesses perceive their relations to the broader society and its moral expectations. Hence, as ethical scandals recently arose in the business world, questions related to the civic responsibilities of business scholars and to the role business schools play in society have gained wider interest. In this article, I argue that these ethical shortcomings are at least partly resulting from the mainstream business model with its taken-for granted basic assumptions such as specialization or the value-neutrality of business research. Redefining the roles and civic responsibilities of business scholars for business practice implies therefore a thorough analysis of these assumptions if not their redefinition. The takenforgrantedness of the mainstream business model is questioned by the transformation of the societal context in which business activities are embedded. Its value-neutrality in turn is challenged by self-fulfilling prophecy effects, which highlight the normative influence of business schools. In order to critically discuss some basic assumptions of mainstream business theory, I propose to draw parallels with the corporate citizenship concept and the stakeholder theory. Their integrated approach of the relation between business practice and the broader society provides interesting insights for the social reembedding of business research and teaching

Business Research, Self-fulfilling Prophecy, and the Inherent Responsibility of Scholars

Business research and teaching institutions play an important role in shaping the way businesses perceive their relations to the broader society and its moral expectations. Hence, as ethical scandals recently arose in the business world, questions related to the civic responsibilities of business scholars and to the role business schools play in society have gained wider interest. In this article, I argue that these ethical shortcomings are at least partly resulting from the mainstream business model with its taken-for granted basic assumptions such as specialization or the value-neutrality of business research. Redefining the roles and civic responsibilities of business scholars for business practice implies therefore a thorough analysis of these assumptions if not their redefinition. The taken-for-grantedness of the mainstream business model is questioned by the transformation of the societal context in which business activities are embedded. Its value-neutrality in turn is challenged by self-fulfilling prophecy effects, which highlight the normative influence of business schools. In order to critically discuss some basic assumptions of mainstream business theory, I propose to draw parallels with the corporate citizenship concept and the stakeholder theory. Their integrated approach of the relation between business practice and the broader society provides interesting insights for the social reembedding of business research and teachin

Exploring the Cultural Origins of Differences in Time Orientation between European New Zealanders and Māori

Previous research suggests that time orientation differs as a function of national culture. National cultures often cluster together by region, thus regional generalizations can provide insights on how cultures in a given cluster perceive time. We consider the unique case of bi-cultural New Zealand with two cultures, the European New Zealanders (Pākehā) and the indigenous Māori from historically contrasting temporal clusters: Anglo-American and South Pacific. To demonstrate the ways in which Pākehā and Māori differ in their perspectives on time orientation we take our analysis beyond the basic generalizations based on regional clusters and consider the cultural roots of Māori time perceptions. Specifically we consider differences between these two cultures along the theoretical dimensions of clock vs. event time, punctuality, and past/present/future orientations. With respect to Māori culture, we argue that sociocentricity, including different conceptualizations of self, and a unique historical perspective form the basis for the discernible differences between Pākehā and Māori in terms of time perspectives. The endurance of these different perceptions of time, despite over 160 years of Māori and Pākehā social and cultural integration, testify to the centrality of time orientation as a fundamental cultural value. Managerial implications of understanding these cross-cultural differences in time orientation for both domestic and international business are discussed

The Opinion - Vol. 03, No. 05

Originally published in print for Fuller Theological Seminary\u27s community from 1962 through 1977.https://digitalcommons.fuller.edu/fts-opinion/1018/thumbnail.jp

Toward a Reform-Minded Model for Securities Law Enforcement

This paper examines a significant shift in enforcement practice at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, originating under the Chairmanship of William Donaldson but likely to continue beyond it. This shift is a response to a crisis of corporate governance, exemplified by recent scandals among various public corporations and financial services institutions, and to the demonstrated inadequacy of SEC enforcement tools to respond to that crisis. While the SEC\u27s new approach, which I call the Reform Undertaking, is incomplete, I argue that if properly implemented it may have the potential to spur institutional reform not only in corporate governance, but also within Enforcement practice itself. I use the Reform Undertaking as a springboard for developing a larger theoretical model, focusing on the ways in which forward-looking, reform-minded enforcement improves on more traditional, retrospective, nontransparent approaches as a mechanism for addressing systemic problems in corporate governance. I conclude that the Reform Undertaking is a version of what is becoming known as new governance, or experimentalist, regulation. Further, the new enforcement model I describe - which I call the True Reform Undertaking - is a novel elaboration on existing experimentalist theory. Experimentalism is typically associated with a decentralized, data-driven, highly participatory regulatory model, but my work considers its application to the securities law enforcement context. As such, the True Reform Undertaking responds to one of the hardest problems for New Governance: what to do with worst actors. The model considers how to stimulate reform within corporations that for public welfare or other reasons should not simply be shut down, but whose dysfunction or internal culture makes them resistant to experimentalist incentives

The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics

The failure of modern science to create a common scientific framework for nature and consciousness makes it necessary to look for broader foundations in a new philosophy. Although controversial for modern science, the Peircean semiotic, evolutionary, pragmatic and triadic philosophy has been the only modern conceptual framework that can support that transdisciplinary change in our view of knowing that bridges the two cultures and transgresses Cartesian dualism. It therefore seems ideal to build on it for modern biosemiotics and can, in combination with Luhmann’s theory of communication, encompass modern information theory, complexity science and thermodynamics. It allows focus on the connection between the concept of codes and signs in living systems, and makes it possible to re-conceptualize both internal and external processes of the human body, mind and communication in models that fit into one framework