Exploring the UK micro-brewing industry : factors facilitating and hindering micro-firms’ growth and internationalisation efforts

The British brewing industry has experienced major changes in recent years due to the emergence of the micro-brewing movement, that is, a constant stream of new micro-firms producing craft beer and specialised ales that has also been met by a revitalised consumer interest to new flavours and to the locality of beer products. With a new brewery opening every other day, the outlook of the industry’s future also seems positive; projections estimate that the value of the UK beer market will boost by 10.3% till 2019 (KeyNote, 2015). However, despite the fact that the phenomenon has received much media attention, and despite the commonly acclaimed changing nature of consumers’ beer preferences, there is, quite surprisingly, a dearth of academic research on the micro-brewing sector; most previous studies [e.g. Cabras and Bamforth (2015), Swaminathan (1998)] have focused on the historical context and the factors that have facilitated the resurrection of the industry in the US and British contexts. This paper argues that we still have very limited understanding of the ways these micro-firms act within their local networks and increasingly competitive environments, and of their perceptions about the factors that enable and hinder their efforts to grow and internationalise. This study attempts to address this research gap, by building on existing literature in entrepreneurial network capabilities and export performance of small-medium enterprises

A Transforming Insurance Company and the 4 Types of Health Data Challenges that Arise: A Finnish Case Study

Abstract This paper aims to identify the challenges of health data in the context of an insurance company that is transforming from a reactive company into a proactive one. Using 23 interviews from a case study of an insurance company in Finland, we revealed 4 key areas of challenges that arise during this transition. The identified areas were found to be the following: Access, Ownership, Sharing, and Use. These findings are then discussed in context of the shift towards a proactive paradigm for organizations. The customer experience is suggested to be pivotal for organizations to create value and for managing the 4 identified health data challenges

Local heritage – a hindrance or a catalyst for successful internationalization initiation? Empirical evidence from micro-businesses in the British craft-brewing industry

Drawing from extant literature on SMEs’ internationalization, characteristics of micro-firms, and brand heritage, this study aims to provide insight into the complex role that strong brand associations to locality play in micro-firms’ approach towards internationalization. The specific objectives of this research are to: 1) understand how deep local embeddedness influences the adoption of a domestically- or internationally-oriented market focus; 2) explore how strong brand associations with locality hinder and/or encourage internationalization decisions; and 3) reveal micro-breweries’ mechanisms to negotiate potential tensions emerging from efforts to pursue international activities while retaining their crucial connections to their locale

The role of social media presence, responsiveness, and interactivity in enhancing key relationship strength indicators within B2B contexts : the customer's perspective

Extant research on use of social media by firms has mostly focused on B2C contexts, yet given their benefits for firms (e.g. creating awareness, enhancing brand image, etc.), scholars' attention has increasingly turned to the role and usage of social media for B2B brands. In such contexts, research has primarily examined the challenges relating to the use of social media from the seller's perspective. This paper extends this line of research by investigating the impact of B2B brands' social media presence, interactivity, and responsiveness on key supplier-customer relationship indicators (commitment, interactivity, satisfaction, and partner quality) from the customer's perspective. Data from an online survey (N=200) with customers of B2B brands were analysed using structural equation modelling. We reveal that social media presence has a positive impact on all indicators, responsiveness positively influences commitment, while interactivity enhances perceptions of brand partner quality

Exploring the relative importance of consumer motives when purchasing craft and premium beer, and the ignored role of intermediaries : a preliminary analysis with British consumers

The beer industry has seen substantial growth in the “craft beers” sector. According to Euromonitor (2015) the number of Microbreweries in the UK more than doubled between 2010 and 2015. These numerous small businesses have established microbreweries to sell a range of high quality beers, often limiting themselves to selling within their own region. The brewers often market their products by emphasising some element of the heritage of the area in which they are operating or by trying to create some heritage around the type of brew they are making

Investigation of patterns of self-brand personality alignment

In their continuous search for improved explanations of why consumers engage with certain brands more than with others, academics and managers have placed significant importance on self-brand congruence theory, which suggests that consumers are drawn to brands with characteristics that align with their own characteristics. Although this theory has been extensively investigated and supported by previous research, it has hitherto been assumed that the alignment of characteristics exhibits a similarity configuration, that is, consumers are drawn to brands with traits that mirror their own traits. By adopting a relational view of consumer-brand interactions and drawing from the literature on interpersonal relationships, specifically from theories of interpersonal attraction, the thesis explores the possibility that besides similarity, self-brand personality alignment may also exhibit a complementarity configuration, whereby consumers are drawn to brands with traits that complement their own. Using a two-phase empirical study of mixed methods [in-depth interviews and online survey (n=206)], the thesis first explores the structure of consumers’ perceptions of their own personalities and those of their favourite brands using Exploratory Factor Analysis. Results reveal that although brand personality has the same five factor structure as human personality, the composition of dimensions is distinct. The patterns of alignment between the two sets of traits are then examined through Canonical Correlation Analysis, which reveals the existence of both similarity and complementarity configurations in self-brand personality alignment. A new method for measuring the magnitude of self-brand personality alignment is then devised, which captures both configurations. The predictive power of this new measure is then compared against existing, similarity-based measures for a range of desirable brand behaviours, using Discriminant Analysis and Linear Regression. Results indicate the new measure performs well, especially for emotionally-related brand behaviours

Personal Health Data: Access and Perceived Value in Denmark

Abstract This study explores how accessible and valuable Personal Health Data are in Denmark. This paper uses a qualitative inquiry which was adopted to provide information about (1) the accessibility of data available, (2) and the perceived value of data by recruiting 8 healthy Danish individuals who were instructed to access their personal health data, and were then prompted to discuss how accessible and valuable they perceived their personal health data to be. In total, participants accessed 31 datasets and wearable sensor data through 23 web applications and 8 mobile applications. They reported on search and access challenges in interviews and through journaling. Our results suggest that participants were satisfied with the access they had to their personal health data, however the participants expressed disappointment in ways the data was presented for them by the services and platforms. Thus, we concluded that the perceived value of personal data were found to be dependent on the usability and personalization features of the services, rather than on the data itself