555 research outputs found
Political branding: sense of identity or identity crisis? An investigation of the transfer potential of the brand identity prism to the UK Conservative Party
Brands are strategic assets and key to achieving a competitive advantage. Brands can be seen as a heuristic device, encapsulating a series of values that enable the consumer to make quick and efficient choices. More recently, the notion of a political brand and the rhetoric of branding have been widely adopted by many political parties as they seek to differentiate themselves, and this has led to an emerging interest in the idea of the political brand. Therefore, this paper examines the UK Conservative Party brand under David Cameron’s leadership and examines the applicability of Kapferer’s brand identity prism to political branding. This paper extends and operationalises the brand identity prism into a ‘political brand identity network’ which identifies the inter-relatedness of the components of the corporate political brand and the candidate political brand. Crucial for practitioners, this model can demonstrate how the brand is presented and communicated to the electorate and serves as a useful mechanism to identify consistency within the corporate and candidate political brands
The moderating effect of brand orientation on inter-firm market orientation and performance
While prior research has shown that market and brand orientation
are key contributors to successful business performance, research to
date has not fully explored how inter firm collaboration for these two
key orientations can enhance business performance. The purpose of
the paper is to investigate the relationship between inter-firm market
and performance; to test for the moderating role of brand orientation
in that relationship. A total of 169 completed pairs of surveys were
collected of small and medium enterprises operating internationally
in a variety of industries in Switzerland. The results show that inter-firm
market and brand orientation are two antecedents of marketing and
financial performance. The impact of inter-firm market on marketing
and financial performance is significant when the brand orientation
is favorable. This study extends previous research by examining the
moderating role of brand orientation on inter firm market orientation,
which is important, especially for firms wanting to increase their brand
reputation by entering into partnerships with other firms. Further
research is indicated, to identify the key moderators of the driving
force of inter-firm market in relation to business performance and
the reason why maintaining a strong brand presence is important in
the international marketplace
Resistance distance, information centrality, node vulnerability and vibrations in complex networks
We discuss three seemingly unrelated quantities that have been introduced in different fields of science for complex networks. The three quantities are the resistance distance, the information centrality and the node displacement. We first prove various relations among them. Then we focus on the node displacement, showing its usefulness as an index of node vulnerability.We argue that the node displacement has a better resolution as a measure of node vulnerability than the degree and the information centrality
Do UK universities communicate their brands effectively through their websites?
This paper attempts to explore the effectiveness of UK universities’ websites. The area of branding in higher education has received increasing academic investigation, but little work has researched how universities demonstrate their brand promises through their websites. The quest to differentiate through branding can be challenging in the university context, however. It is argued that those institutions that have a strong distinctive image will be in a better position to face a changing future. Employing a multistage methodology, the web pages of twenty UK universities were investigated by using a combination of content and multivariable analysis. Results indicated ‘traditional values’ such as teaching and research were often well communicated in terms of online brand but ‘emotional values’ like social responsibility and the universities’ environments were less consistently communicated, despite their increased topicality. It is therefore suggested that emotional values may offer a basis for possible future online differentiation
Metal enrichment processes
There are many processes that can transport gas from the galaxies to their
environment and enrich the environment in this way with metals. These metal
enrichment processes have a large influence on the evolution of both the
galaxies and their environment. Various processes can contribute to the gas
transfer: ram-pressure stripping, galactic winds, AGN outflows, galaxy-galaxy
interactions and others. We review their observational evidence, corresponding
simulations, their efficiencies, and their time scales as far as they are known
to date. It seems that all processes can contribute to the enrichment. There is
not a single process that always dominates the enrichment, because the
efficiencies of the processes vary strongly with galaxy and environmental
properties.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science
Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view",
Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 17; work done by an international team at the
International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S.
Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke
Prioritization of the launch of ICT products and services through linguistic multi-criteria decision-making
The market launch of new products and services is a basic pillar for large and medium-sized companies in the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) sector. Choosing the right moment for it is usually a differentiating factor in terms of competition, since it is a source of competitive advantage. There are several mechanisms and strategies to address this problem from the market perspective. However, the criteria of the different actors involved – managers, sales representatives, experts, etc. – coexist in the corporate sphere and they often differ, causing difficulties in priority setting processes in the launch of a product or service. The assessment of the prioritization of these criteria is usually expressed in natural language, thus adding a great deal of uncertainty. Fuzzy linguistic models have proved to be an efficient tool for managing the intrinsic uncertainty of this type of information. This paper presents a linguistic multi-criteria decision-making model, able to reconcile the different requirements and viewpoints existing in the corporate sector when planning the launch of new products and services. The proposed model is based on the fuzzy 2-tuple linguistic model, aimed at managing linguistic data expressing different corporate criteria, without compromising accuracy in the calculation of said data. In order to illustrate this, a practical case study is presented, in which the model is applied for scheduling the launch prioritization of several new products and services by a telecommunications company, within the deadlines set in its strategic planning.The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support received from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for the Research Projects TIN2016-75850-R, TIN2016-79484-R and TIN2013-40658-P
The impact of a major cluster merger on galaxy evolution in MACS\,J0025.4-1225
We present results of an extensive morphological, spectroscopic, and
photometric study of the galaxy population of MACS J0025.41225 (z=0.586), a
major cluster merger with clear segregation of dark and luminous matter, to
examine the impact of mergers on galaxy evolution. Based on 436 galaxy spectra
obtained with Keck DEIMOS, we identified 212 cluster members within 4 Mpc of
the cluster centre, and classified them using three spectroscopic types; we
find 111 absorption-line, 90 emission-line (including 23 e(a) and 11 e(b)), and
6 E+A galaxies. The fraction of absorption(emission)-line galaxies is a
monotonically increasing(decreasing) function of both projected galaxy density
and radial distance to the cluster center. More importantly, the 6 observed E+A
cluster members are all located between the dark-matter peaks of the cluster
and within ~0.3Mpc radius of the X-ray flux peak, unlike the E+A galaxies in
other intermediate-redshift clusters which are usually found to avoid the core
region. In addition, we use Hubble Space Telescope imaging to classify cluster
members according to morphological type. We find the global fraction of spiral
and lenticular galaxies in MACS J0025 to be among the highest observed to date
in clusters at z>0.5. The observed E+A galaxies are found to be of lenticular
type with Sersic indices of ~2, boosting the local fraction of S0 to 70 per
cent between the dark-matter peaks. Combing the results of our analysis of the
spatial distribution, morphology, and spectroscopic features of the galaxy
population, we propose that the starburst phase of these E+A galaxies was both
initiated and terminated during the first core-passage about 0.5--1Gyr ago, and
that their morphology has already been transformed into S0 due to ram pressure
and/or tidal forces near the cluster core. By contrast, ongoing starbursts are
observed predominantly in infalling galaxies, and thus appears to be unrelated
to the cluster merger.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, accepted by MNRA
A Comparison of the Performance of Brand-Affiliated and Unaffiliated Hotel Properties
Research has shown that performance differences exist between brand-affiliated hotels and unaffiliated properties. However, the extant empirical results are mixed. Some research has shown that brands outperform unaffiliated hotels on various metrics, whereas other research has shown the opposite. This article analyzes this issue using a matched-pair approach where we compare the performance differences of brand-affiliated and unaffiliated properties between 1998 and 2010. The matched-pair approach ensures that local competitive conditions as well as hotel characteristics are the same across the comparison pair. In addition, all potential omitted-variable bias and model misspecifications are avoided. Thus, to address our research question, we compare branded hotels with unaffiliated properties that are identical in age, market segment, location, and duration of operation, as well as having a similar number of rooms. Our analysis shows that performance differentials are present, albeit not systematic. We found no consistent advantages in all segments for either the affiliated hotels or the comparable unaffiliated properties, taking into account our comparison factors. That said, the methodology of our approach yields results that are more informative to the affiliation choice of owners and to the growth strategies of hotel brand–owner companies than those of previous empirical studies
Brand Identity and Online Self-Customisation Usefulness Perception
Online self-customisation (OSC) enables customers to tailor their preferences to certain product features via a brand-hosted online platform. Recent literature has given increasing attention to how consumers value OSC. However, extant research is characterised by a scarcity of understanding the effects of brand identity and individual differences on consumer responses to OSC. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of trust and the moderating role of need for uniqueness on the effects of brand identity prestige and brand identity similarity on consumer perceived usefulness of OSC. A field survey, through mall intercept, was conducted to test this conceptual framework. Our findings advance this field by finding that, not only the brand identity and consumer need for uniqueness, but also the interaction between them may affect consumers’ evaluation of OSC
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