Better together? A hospitality case for umbrella branding

While the topic of ‘umbrella branding’ (UB) strategies for manufacturers' products in the business-to business literature has received attention, much less has been written about UB strategies in the hospitality industry. With the aid of a theoretical framework this paper explores three types of behavioural characteristics: alliance attribute; communication behaviour; and alliance management to examine cost and service benefits for alliance success within one umbrella organisation in the German hospitality industry. The theoretical framework of the paper built on the model of Vanpoucke and Vereecke (2010), incorporating a top management perspective to test and extend an umbrella brand. Design/methodology: Semi-structured interviews with a sample of senior managers were undertaken in Germany at the headquarters of Ringhotels v.E. Content analysis of the data collected was implemented to increase understanding of the research phenomenon with regard to relationships and the conceptual framework applied. The results were presented in the tables with discussions about the qualitative research Findings: The results of the study showed that behavioural characteristics played a significant role in explaining overall alliance success on cost and service benefits. A good level of quality presented in Ringhotels’ services, marketing, risk and coordination were found to be a better predictor of success when absence of management and lack of trust hampered good performance. Originality/Contribution: The study offers insights into the management of relationships within Ringhotels v.E. and how these can be better managed. The main contribution of the work fills in a gap currently existing in the literature about umbrella branding within the hospitality industry

Imperforation choanale aspects cliniques, approache therapeutique

No Abstract. Journal Tunisien d\'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale Vol. 17 2006: pp. 30-3

Inhibitors of Non-for Profit Organisations’ activities and survival in a crisis context

Purpose Tunisia has been living a decade of democratic transition since 2011. In this new context, the civil society has been fervently expressing claims for democracy and social justice through creating thousands of NPOs (23456 NPOs in 2020 against 9000 established in 30 years up to 2010). However, this shift seems to be misleading, as only 3000 NPOs are actually active, indicating that NPOs are struggling to sustain their activities and ensure their survival. The purpose of this study is to uncover the factors hindering NPOs activities and survival. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a purposive sample of 32 NPOs members in two main economic and touristic cities -Tunis and Sousse- selected using snow ball method. A considerable amount of qualitative data was produced (400 pages of text). This seems representative of Tunisian citizens’ inclination to protest in the new prevailing political and social context. The data collection benefited from the freedom of speech gained after the 2011 civilian uprising as interviewees were enthusiastic in voicing their opinions. Findings Two main categories of inhibitors were identified. First, endogenous inhibitors including (i) inhibitors under the control of the NPO (i.e. use of illegal and foreign sources of funding, limited financial resources, unavailability of NPOs’ members, short term planning, conflicts between managers, autocratic leadership, organisational support, activities diversification and organisational justice, leadership and communication skills, “NPO culture”, members’ opportunistic behaviour and, generation gap) (ii) inhibitors related to NPOs inter-relationships: stiff competition, unfair and dishonest competition, lack of collaboration, trust and communication between NPOs. Second, exogenous inhibitors, i.e. perceived unethical practices and image transfer, economic crisis, foreign funding sources and the media. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations mainly due to the sample size and characteristics of the selected interviewees. In addition, data was collected in only two regions (Tunis and Sousse). Therefore, the results lack generalisability.   Practical implications The findings highlight the critical impact of the inhibitors under the control of NPOs compared to those out of their control. NPOs in crisis context, could overcome these inhibitors by ensuring congruence between the NPOs’ mission, objectives and activities and designing suitable marketing strategies. Originality/value This study contributes to elucidate this complex circular system of exchange and its inhibitors in challenging and understudied context. It offers support to Bagozzi’s (1974; 1975; 1994; 2011) calls for uncovering the factors constraining or facilitating exchanges that have an impact going beyond the relationship between three or more partners and the conditions that govern these exchanges. Moreover, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical attempt to support Bagozzi’s (1994) conceptualisation. It also brings an update to NPOs' data and marketing strategy in a region near the crossroads of Middle Eastern, North African and Western influences. Keywords: Not For Profit Organisations (NPOs), endogenous and exogenous inhibitors, NPOs’ inter-relationship, circular exchange system

Hematome Retropharynge Spontane : Apropos D\'un Cas

L\'hématome retro-pharyngé est une affection rare souvent d\'origine traumatique. La survenue d\'un HRP de façon spontané est exceptionnelle. Le but de notre travail est de rapporter à travers une observation les manifestations cliniques, les différentes hypothèses étiopathogéniques ainsi que les modalités thérapeutiques des HRP. Notre patiente âgée de 40 ans a consulté en urgence pour une ecchymose cervicale apparue spontanément. Les différentes investigations se sont révélées non concluantes. Sous surveillance, l\'évolution a été spontanément favorable.Spontaneous Retropharyngeal Haematoma (SRH) is a rare affection witch occur without traumatism. We report a case of 40\'s old year woman who present a SRH and discuss ethiopathogeny, clinic\'s and therapeutic\'s involvement Journal Tunisien d\'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale Vol. 16 2006: pp. 33-3

Characteristics of Different Systems for the Solar Drying of Crops

Solar dryers are used to enable the preservation of agricultural crops, food processing industries for dehydration of fruits and vegetables, fish and meat drying, dairy industries for production of milk powder, seasoning of wood and timber, textile industries for drying of textile materials. The fundamental concepts and contexts of their use to dry crops is discussed in the chapter. It is shown that solar drying is the outcome of complex interactions particular between the intensity and duration of solar energy, the prevailing ambient relative humidity and temperature, the characteristics of the particular crop and its pre-preparation and the design and operation of the solar dryer

Stochastic Dominance Analysis of CTA Funds

In this paper, we employ the stochastic dominance approach to rank the performance of commodity trading advisors (CTA) funds. An advantage of this approach is that it alleviates the problems that can arise if CTA returns are not normally distributed by utilizing the entire returns distribution. We find both first-order and higher-order stochastic dominance relationships amongst the CTA funds and conclude that investors would be better off investing in the first-order dominant funds to maximize their expected utilities and expected wealth. However, for higher-order dominant CTA, riskaverse investors can maximize their expected utilities but not their expected wealth. We conclude that the stochastic dominance approach is more appropriate compared with traditional approaches as a filter in the CTA selection process given that a meaningful economic interpretation of the results is possible as the entire return distribution is utilized when returns are non-normal

Sustainability and Business practices in North Africa and Beyond

Editorial

Does perceived social responsibility affect consumer attitudes towards global brands? Lessons from the Nescafé Case in Turkey

This study builds on consumer culture theory, signalling theory and associative network memory model to investigate the impact of consumers’ perceptions of global brands’ social responsibility on consumers’ attitudes towards brands. A survey is implemented in Turkey using Nescafé as an example of global brands. Data from 243 fully completed questionnaires were analysed using SmartPLS. The results from the structural equation modelling indicate that for Turkish consumers the perceived globalness of the brand contributes to the brand’s perceived credibility but has a negative direct relationship on the perception of the brand’s social responsibility. In addition, the local icon value of the brand has positive and significant relationships with the brand’s perceived credibility and the brand’s perceived social responsibility. This later has a positive relationship on consumers’ attitudes towards the brand. The perceived globalness of the brand is important to develop the perceived credibility of the brand. The paper provides some guidelines for global brands when communicating their social responsibility activities to consumers in emerging markets