How brands craft national identity

Drawing on cultural branding research, we examine how brands can craft national identity. We do so with reference to how brands enabled New Zealand’s displaced Pākehā (white) majority to carve out a sense of we-ness against the backdrop of globalization and resurgent indigenous identity claims. Using multiple sources of ethnographic data, we develop a process model of how brands create national identity through we-ness. We find that marketplace actors deployed brands to create and renew perceptions of we-ness through four-stages: reification, lumping, splitting, and horizon expansion. From this, we make three primary contributions to the consumer research literature: we develop a four-part process model of how brands become national identity resources, explore the characteristics of the brands that enable the emergence of and evolution of we-ness, and explore how our processes can address a sense of dispossession among displaced-majorities in similarly defined contexts

The Influence of Orthopedic Surgery on Circulating Metabolite Levels, and their Associations with the Incidence of Postoperative Delirium

The mechanisms underlying the occurrence of postoperative delirium development are unclear and measurement of plasma metabolites may improve understanding of its causes. Participants (n = 54) matched for age and gender were sampled from an observational cohort study investigating postoperative delirium. Participants were ≥65 years without a diagnosis of dementia and presented for primary elective hip or knee arthroplasty. Plasma samples collected pre-and postoperatively were grouped as either control (n = 26, aged: 75.8 ± 5.2) or delirium (n = 28, aged: 76.2 ± 5.7). Widespread changes in plasma metabolite levels occurred following surgery. The only metabolites significantly differing between corresponding control and delirium samples were ornithine and spermine. In delirium cases, ornithine was 17.6% higher preoperatively, and spermine was 12.0% higher postoperatively. Changes were not associated with various perioperative factors. In binary logistic regression modeling, these two metabolites did not confer a significantly increased risk of delirium. These findings support the hypothesis that disturbed polyamine metabolism is an underlying factor in delirium that warrants further investigation

In search of tools for the use of Country-Image (CI) in the brand

Existing country image (CI) literature tends to focus on consumer behaviour. In contrast, this paper approaches CI from the point of view of the firm. In doing so, it seeks to identify the means by which international companies associate a brand with a specific country of origin in order to build brand values. In particular, it looks at the use of CI cues in brand strategies. The paper is based on exploratory research comprising a case study of two contrasting companies from the cosmetics industry, Natura, a domestic company, and the French-owned L’Occitane, both of which draw on images of Brazil to build their brands. Specific elements of CI used in branding are identified, and the extent to which the use of these differs depending on the origin of the owning company is explored. The cases suggest that CI can be exploited in different contexts. Through analysis of the elements used by both companies to build strong brands associated with the Brazilian CI—Natura Cosméticos and L’Occitane au Brésil—six tools are identified that can be combined by firms to deliver brand values, derived from any country, through the use of CI

Redesigning manufacturing: reimagining the business of making in the UK

Manufacturing in the UK has an image problem. Although this image problem is more fiction than fact, it nonetheless has an impact on the sector's ability to attract staff, capital, and policy interest. This book redresses this situation by focusing on the real successes of the sector and the strategies used by makers to achieve sustainable results

Redesigning manufacturing: remaking the business of making in the UK

Abstract not availabl

Take a look at me now: Consecration and the Phil Collins effect

Consecration is the process by which producers in creative fields become canonized as “greats”. However, is this the end of the story? Research on consecration focuses on the drivers of consecration, but pays little attention to the post-consecration period. Furthermore, the research ignores the dynamics of consecration. To address these gaps, we examine the changing fortunes of a consecrated artist – the musician Phil Collins. We identify the ways in which three actors (fans, critics, and peers) assemble for consecration, disassemble for deconsecration, and reassemble for reconsecration. Examining the changing public image and commercial fortunes of Collins as a solo artist between 1980-2020, we identify a N-shaped process of rise-fall-rise that we call the Phil Collins Effect (PCE). This effect offers a new way of thinking about how cultural producers gain, lose and regain status in their fields