Aligning identity and strategy: Corporate branding at British Airways in the late 20th century

Published as "Aligning identity and strategy: Corporate branding at British Airways in the late 20th century", California Management Review, 51(3), 6 - 23, 2009. © 2009 by the Regents of the University of California. Copying and permissions notice: Authorization to copy this content beyond fair use (as specified in Sections 107 and 108 of the U. S. Copyright Law) for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by the Regents of the University of California for libraries and other users, provided that they are registered with and pay the specified fee via Rightslink® on JSTOR (http://www.jstor.org/r/ucal) or directly with the Copyright Clearance Center, http://www.copyright.com.This article explains the utility of adopting an identity-based view of the corporation, which underpins a diagnostic tool of identity management outlined in this article. Using British Airways as an extensive case history, it examines and analyzes how British Airways' senior executives have intuitively adopted an identity-based perspective as part of the strategic management of the carrier. The analysis is corroborated by insights from the former CEO of British Airways, Lord Marshall, as well as his predecessor, Lord King. The overriding message is that calibrating the multiple identities of the corporation is a critical dimension of strategic management

Heritage branding orientation: The case of Ach. Brito and the dynamics between corporate and product heritage brands

The notion of heritage branding orientation is introduced and explicated. Heritage branding orientation is designated as embracing both product and corporate brands and differs from corporate heritage brand orientation which has an explicit corporate focus. Empirical insights are drawn from an in-depth and longitudinal case study of Ach. Brito, a celebrated Portuguese manufacturer of soaps and toiletries. This study shows how, by the pursuance of a strategy derived from a heritage branding orientation Ach. Brito – after a prolonged period of decline – achieved a dramatic strategic turnaround. The findings reveal how institutional heritage can be a strategic resource via its adoption and activation at both the product and corporate levels. Moreover, the study showed how the bi-lateral interplay between product and corporate brand levels can be mutually reinforcing. In instrumental terms, the study shows how heritage can be activated and articulated in different ways. For instance, it can re-position both product and/or corporate brands; it can be meaningfully informed by product brand heritage and shape corporate heritage; and can be of strategic importance to both medium-sized and small enterprises

The corporate brand and strategic direction: Senior business school managers’ cognitions of corporate brand building and management

This revelatory study focuses on top Financial Times (FT) ranked British business school managers cognitions of corporate brand building and management. The study insinuates there is a prima facie bilateral link between corporate branding and strategic direction. Among this genus of business school, the data revealed corporate brand building entailed an on-going concern with strategic management, stakeholder management, corporate communications, service focus, leadership, and commitment. These empirical findings, chime with the early conceptual scholarship on corporate brand management dating back to the mid-1990s. These foundational articles stressed the multi-disciplinary and strategic nature of corporate brand management and stressed the significant role of the CEO. As such, this research adds further credence to the above in terms of best-practice vis-à-vis corporate brand management. Curiously, whilst senior managers espouse a corporate brand orientation, corporate brand management is seemingly not accorded a similar status in the curriculum. Drawing on general embedded case study methodological approach, data was collected within eight leading (FT-ranked) business schools in Great Britain at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Bradford, Cranfield, Warwick, Lancaster and City (London) Universities. Each of these eight British business schools can be deemed as ‘top’ business schools by virtue of their inclusion in the influential Financial Times (FT) worldwide list of top business schools. The primary mode of qualitative data collection was the 37 in-depth interviews with business school Deans, Associate Deans and other senior faculty members and other managers

The negotiating strategies determining coitus in stable heterosexual relationships

Heterosexual behaviour is a complex subject and one which is aggravated by confounding variables. Few studies have investigated the way in which one variable, namely coitus, is initiated and negotiated in stable marital relationships. As the HIV/AIDS pandemic spreads in sub-Saharan Africa, the subject of marital coitus becomes of increasing concern. This study tests a methodology of semi-structured interviews and diary-keeping techniques to investigate how the activity is initiated and negotiated. A research team monitored the study and evaluated the research techniques. The study concluded that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is affecting the initiation and negotiation of coitus between marital partners and that the partners wish to renegotiate the relationship, but the mechanisms for renegotiation are not at present available

Complete Boolean algebras are Bousfield lattices

Given a complete Heyting algebra we construct an algebraic tensor triangulated category whose Bousfield lattice is the Booleanization of the given Heyting algebra. As a consequence we deduce that any complete Boolean algebra is the Bousfield lattice of some tensor triangulated category. Using the same ideas we then give two further examples illustrating some interesting behaviour of the Bousfield lattice.Comment: 10 pages, update to clarify the products occurring in the main constructio

Functional Flexibility of Intestinal IgA – Broadening the Fine Line

Intestinal bacteria outnumber our own human cells in conditions of both health and disease. It has long been recognized that secretory antibody, particularly IgA, is produced in response to these microbes and hypothesized that this must play an important role in defining the relationship between a host and its intestinal microbes. However, the exact role of IgA and the mechanisms by which IgA can act are only beginning to be understood. In this review we attempt to unravel the complex interaction between so-called “natural,” “primitive” (T-cell-independent), and “classical” IgA responses, the nature of the intestinal microbiota/intestinal pathogens and the highly flexible dynamic homeostasis of the mucosal immune system. Such an analysis reveals that low-affinity IgA is sufficient to protect the host from excess mucosal immune activation induced by harmless commensal microbes. However, affinity-maturation of “classical” IgA is essential to provide protection from more invasive commensal species such as segmented filamentous bacteria and from true pathogens such as Salmonella typhimurium. Thus a correlation is revealed between “sophistication” of the IgA response and aggressiveness of the challenge. A second emerging theme is that more-invasive species take advantage of host inflammatory mechanisms to more successfully compete with the resident microbiota. In many cases, the function of IgA may be to limit such inflammatory responses, either directly by coagulating or inhibiting virulence of bacteria before they can interact with the host or by modulating immune signaling induced by host recognition. Therefore IgA appears to provide an added layer of robustness in the intestinal ecosystem, promoting “commensal-like” behavior of its residents

Results at the 1-Year Follow-Up of a Prospective Cohort Study with Short, Zirconia Implants

The objective of this study was to clinically and radiologically evaluate the performance of a short (8 mm), 1-piece, zirconia implant after an observation period of 1 year in function. A total of 47 patients with 1 missing tooth in the position of a premolar or molar were recruited. Short (8 mm), 1-piece, zirconia implants were placed and loaded after a healing period of 2 to 4 months with monolithic crowns made of 3 different materials. Implants were followed up for one year and clinically and radiologically assessed. A total of 46 implants were placed. One was excluded since no primary stability was achieved at implant placement. At the 1-year follow-up, mean marginal bone loss 1 year after loading was 0.05 ± 0.47 mm. None of the implants showed marginal bone loss greater than 1 mm or clinical signs of peri-implantitis. A total of 2 implants were lost during the healing phase and another after loading, resulting in a survival rate of 93% after 1 year. All lost implants showed a sudden increased mobility with no previous signs of marginal bone loss or peri-implant infection. The short, 8 mm, zirconia implants showed stable marginal bone levels over the short observation period of 1 year. Although they revealed slightly lower survival rates, they can be suggested for the use in sites with reduced vertical bone. Scientific data are very limited, and long-term data are not yet available, and therefore, they are needed

Effect of grain size of polycrystalline diamond on its heat spreading properties

Abstract The exceptionally high thermal conductivity of polycrystalline diamond (&gt;2000 W m−1 K−1) makes it a very attractive material for optimizing the thermal management of high-power devices. In this paper, the thermal conductivity of a diamond sample capturing grain size evolution from nucleation towards the growth surface is studied using an optimized 3ω technique. The thermal conductivity is found to decrease with decreasing grain size, which is in good agreement with theory. These results clearly reveal the minimum film thickness and polishing thickness from nucleation needed to achieve single-crystal diamond performance, and thus enable production of an optimal polycrystalline diamond for heat-spreading applications.</jats:p