54 research outputs found
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An exploration of Icelandic marketing entrepreneurs
Little research have focused on women entrepreneurship in Iceland and yet it is often heralded as a beacon of gender equality (Pettersson, 2012; Achtenhagen and Tilmar, 2013; Smith-Hunter, 2013). The World Economic Forum (2013) identified Iceland as the country with the world's smallest gender gap. This small gender gap is not reflected in the entrepreneurship figures which show that only 8 percent of Icelandic women are classed as entrepreneurs (GEM, 2009) compared to 15 percent of men. Furthermore, Danson and Burnett (2013) posited that entrepreneurship in island environments is an under-researched area. It is therefore pertinent to explore what is happening in terms of womenâs entrepreneurship in Iceland. The paper builds upon similar studies already undertaken in the UK and Europe (see Foster et al., 2011 and Wheatley et al, 2011) that have investigated the careers of marketing professionals through their life-courses. Marketing is considered to be a feminised industry in Iceland yet there is little knowledge about the careers these women have in the profession or why they decide to become self- employed. The findings showed the most often women became self-employed because of a trigger event and it seemed in most cases to be the financial crises in 2008
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Marketing women in Iceland: challenges of establishing a company
Objectives: This paper explores the experiences of nine
Icelandic business women who that have their own marketing businesses. In recent years more women graduated from Icelandic universities than men (Statistic Iceland, 2012a) where business and marketing studies have proved popular. Little is known though about the experiences of Icelandic women moving into self-employment in marketing, particularly in relation to challenges of setting up and managing their own business. Iceland provides a unique context as it is a small island with only 325.000 habitants (Statistic Iceland, 2014). The country was hit badly by the economic crisis in 2008 which is likely to have affected the career and business decisions of self-employed women. Prior Work: Marketing is considered to be a female-oriented industry but experiences of women working in marketing are an under-researched area (Maclaren and Catterall, 2000). In addition, Marlow et al.,(2009) called for studies focusing on the challenges of the entrepreneurial environment for women. Some of the challenges that women owning their own business have to face have been identified as capitalisation, working hours and location (Carter et al., 2001; Roper and Scott, 2009; Harding, 2006). These experiences will be discussed in this paper. Approach: This paper builds on work from a similar study already undertaken in the UK by Foster and Brindley (2010); Foster et al., (2011) and Wheatley at al., (2011) and their investigation of marketing businesses in the UK but explores the experiences in the novel context of Iceland which is a much smaller economy and often heralded as a beacon of gender equality (Petterson 2012; Acthenhagen and Tilmar, 2013). The study takes an exploratory, qualitative approach. Convenience sampling was used for the study with nine Icelandic women who owned a marketing business. All the interviews were conducted with the owner of the company using a set of questions around a priori themes drawn from the literature. The interviews took place in August 2013. Results: Preliminary analysis indicates that Icelandic women are cautious when it comes to capitalisation. They are quite reluctant to take out a loan to finance their business. In addition the majority seemed to work long hours, often nights and weekends. Full findings will be presented at the conference. Implications: These findings give the first account of experiences of Icelandic self-employed women in marketing and answers recent calls for studies in the field of marketing and the entrepreneur environment for women (Maclaren and Catterall, 2000; Marlow et al.,2009). Value: This paper provides an insight into the experiences of the Icelandic business women working in marketing. In addition it offers comparisons with previous studies conducted in the UK
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Understanding the role of social media in political corporate branding research in the context of Indian politics
This paper seeks to explore how political actors within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) use social media in their communication campaigns and how these social media platforms are understood by citizens following the 2014 Indian General Election. This research attempts to address the limited understanding of social media in the context of politics (Barnard and Kreiss, 2013; Burton and Shea, 2010; Cogburn and Espinoza-Vasquez 2011; Ganz, 2009; Gulati and Williams, 2007; Kumar 2009; Owen and Davis 2008). Furthermore, the limited research on political branding and social media has predominantly focused a western context negating eastern perspectives including the republic of India. This study will use the adapted Kapfererâs (2008) brand identity prism developed by Pich et al. (2014) to a political setting. This framework will ground the study and offer the opportunity to examine the role of social media from an internal brand identity and external brand image perspective. The findings will have implications not only for political parties but also for politicians, candidates and other parties interested in social media. This study will offer organisations a mechanism that will allow them understand how their social media is projected and understood and allow them to investigate whether their projected brand identity is coherent with the understood external brand image
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Exploring political brand identity and political brand image in non-party contexts from a multi-stakeholder perspective
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Exploring the creation and development of political co-brand identity: a multi-case study approach
Purpose: Research on the creation and development of candidate-politician brands otherwise known as political co-brands remains an under-researched area of study. This is supported by calls for more understanding on political co-brands and how they are positioned and managed by their creators. Framed by the concepts of internal brand identity and co-branding, this study investigates how political co-brand identity is constructed and managed over time, exploring alignment between the political co-brand and political corporate party brand.
Methodological Approach: An interpretivist revelatory multi-case study approach, utilising in-depth interviews, was conducted with three political co-brands [candidates-politicians] from the UK Conservative Party. The three cases represented constituencies across the United Kingdom from the North, Midlands and South of the country. The in-depth elite interviews were conducted July 2015 to September 2015. Methodological triangulation was also adopted to assess the coherency of emerging themes with online and offline materials and documents. A two stage thematic analytical approach was utilised to interpret the findings.
Findings: This multiple case study demonstrates how successful political co-brands create and develop identities tailored to their constituency, often distinct from the corporate political brand and developed several years before electoral success at the ballot box. In addition, this study reveals that political co-brands are dichotomous in terms of strategically managing a degree of alignment with the corporate political brand yet maintaining a degree of independence.
Originality/value: This study has implications for brands beyond the world of politics. Brands can adopt the political co-brand identity framework developed in this study as a pragmatic tool to investigate internally created co-brand identity and explore alignment with the corporate party brand identity. In addition, this research adds to the limited research on non-fictitious co-brands and co-branding literature at large and addresses the calls for more research on brand identity in new settings
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Creating and developing local political brand identity: a constituency focus
Political brands are complex multilayered entities that can be segmented into corporate political brands otherwise known as Parties and individual-sub political brands often conceptualised as individual politicians and candidates (Cwalina and Falkowski 2014; De Landtsheer and De Vries, 2015; Milewicz and Milewicz 2014; Speed, Butler and Colins 2015). Research into individual-sub political brands has received little attention compared with corporate political brands with calls for more research dedicated to individual-sub political brands. This is particularly the case with studies on political brand identity. Political brand identity is seen as the internal view or reality of the organisation and focuses on how the entity projects itself to the external audience. Further, leading authors within the field call for more day-to-day and non-traditional focus within political marketing and investigate how political brands are positioned are needed (Needham and Smith 2015; OâCass 2001; Ormrod, Henneberg, Forward, Miller, and Tymms 2007). More specifically, Pich and Dean (2015) call for more insight and understanding into the individual-sub political brands in order to ascertain and strategically utilise their potential of building long term relationships with voters. Responding to the identified gap in the body of knowledge, this paper seeks to explore how individual-sub (local) political brand identity is created and developed from an internal orientation following the 2015 UK General Election. This study highlights a distinct case study of a Member of Parliament of the UK Conservative Party. This will offer insight into the sub-brand political brand and assess consistency with the corporate political brand. Further, this study will provide unique first-hand perspectives of how identity is created, developed and maintained within the political environment. The findings have implications not only for political parties but also for politicians, candidates and other political entities. The paper will review and refine the concept of local-sub political brands and illustrate how to investigate the internal orientation of individual political brands. This study will demonstrate that individual political brands can be tailored to address the wants and needs of each unique constituency yet remain consistent with the corporate political brand
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Investigating political brand reputation with qualitative projective techniques
Corporate brands can be seen as an amalgamation of three related yet distinct elements namely internal identity, external image and external reputation (Balmer and Greyser 2003; Harris and de Chernatony 2001; Spry 2014). Existing research has tended to focus on internal identity and external image with very few studies devoted to the exploration of external reputation and how the concept relates to external image. A strong, clear consistent reputation has the potential to offer a competitive advantage and is considered an organisation's most valuable asset (Dowling 1993; Firestein 2006; Spry 2014). Therefore understanding a corporate brandâs reputation is surely crucial in determining consistency with short-term image and coherency with identity and assessing its overall authenticity. This paper will examine the interrelatedness of corporate reputation and image within the context of political branding. However, this also raises the question of how to investigate external brand reputation. A number of authors (Fombrun and van Riel; 2004; Davies et al, 2001) draw on metaphors for reputation such as Davies et al (2001) who use the metaphor "magnet" as reputation helps attract different types of stakeholders. To add to the body of knowledge, this pa'er seeks to generate insight into the UK Conservative Partyâs brand reputation prior the 2015 UK General Election, building on the work of Pich et al (2015) who used qualitative projective techniques to understand the Conservative Party's brand's image before the 2010 UK General Election. The paper will offer insight into the political brandâs current reputation and reveal how the external image has influenced its development over the five year electoral cycle. The findings have implications not only for political parties but also for politicians, candidates and other political entities as this study offers a framework that not only supports the understanding of political brand reputation but outlines how the brand image has contributed to the way in which it has developed over the last 5 years. The paper will review and refine the concept of brand reputation and illustrate how to investigate the external orientation of a corporate brand. This study will demonstrate that qualitative projective techniques can be a useful tool to explore more than a brandâs image but also a brand's long-term reputation
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The evolving nature of political brands: a comparative study exploring the internal and external brand orientations of David Cameronâs Conservative Party from 2010 to 2015
This paper seeks to build an understanding of the relationship between the communicated brand identity and understood political brand image of the UK Conservative Party. This is supported by the exploration of the applicability of Kapfererâs brand identity prism (2008) and brand image framework (Bosch et al. 2006) to the context of political marketing. Despite this research demonstrating the problematic nature of transferring concepts of brand identity and brand image to the political environment, this research develops an improved and focused framework to explore internal and external orientations of political brands. The findings have implications not only for political parties but also for politicians, candidates and other political entities. Organisations will be able to generate a deeper understanding of their brands from an internal and external orientation and investigate whether their projected brand identity is coherent with the understood external brand image
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Itâs just for old men and children: exploring self-image barriers to cycling
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