Russians, Refugees and Europeans: What shapes the discourse of the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia?

The Conservative Peoples’ Party of Estonia (EKRE) presents a unique case in the study of far-right parties for two reasons. First, the ‘others’ to which they juxtapose Estonians are the Russian-speaking minority, who are white, Christian, and to a large extent, share many of the socially conservative values of the EKRE. Second, there has been a trend for European far-right parties to look towards the Russian Federation for ideological support due to shared socially conservative ideological positions, and an opposition to the EU and NATO. EKRE takes a different stance towards the Russian Federation than many other far-right parties in Europe. Interviews were conducted with members of EKRE, as well as members of other political parties in Estonia, primarily focusing on the post-migrant crisis relationship between EKRE and the Russian-speaking population in Estonia, as well as other core issues related to EKRE. The aim of this article is twofold: first, it serves as an introductory piece, introducing EKRE to the broader literature on populist, radical right parties. Secondly, this article asks the questions “is the presence, or the possibility of the presence of a foreign, racially and religiously different ‘other’ enough to attract a significant portion of a national minority to vote for and become members of a PRR party?” and “is the presence, or the possibility of the presence of a foreign, racially and religiously different ‘other’ enough to entice a PRR party to cooperate with a national minority which was previously their target?” This article argues that EKRE is open to Russian-speakers becoming members within the party, but will not extend their reach to them as Russian speakers. Rather, they would welcome Russian-speakers as party members provided they are Estonian nationalists who adhere to the party constitution and see Estonia as a sovereign nation which they seek to protect

Russians, Refugees and Europeans: What shapes the discourse of the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia?

The Conservative Peoples’ Party of Estonia (EKRE) presents a unique case in the study of far-right parties for two reasons. First, the ‘others’ to which they juxtapose Estonians are the Russian-speaking minority, who are white, Christian, and to a large extent, share many of the socially conservative values of the EKRE. Second, there has been a trend for European far-right parties to look towards the Russian Federation for ideological support due to shared socially conservative ideological positions, and an opposition to the EU and NATO. EKRE takes a different stance towards the Russian Federation than many other far-right parties in Europe. Interviews were conducted with members of EKRE, as well as members of other political parties in Estonia, primarily focusing on the post-migrant crisis relationship between EKRE and the Russian-speaking population in Estonia, as well as other core issues related to EKRE. The aim of this article is twofold: first, it serves as an introductory piece, introducing EKRE to the broader literature on populist, radical right parties. Secondly, this article asks the questions “is the presence, or the possibility of the presence of a foreign, racially and religiously different ‘other’ enough to attract a significant portion of a national minority to vote for and become members of a PRR party?” and “is the presence, or the possibility of the presence of a foreign, racially and religiously different ‘other’ enough to entice a PRR party to cooperate with a national minority which was previously their target?” This article argues that EKRE is open to Russian-speakers becoming members within the party, but will not extend their reach to them as Russian speakers. Rather, they would welcome Russian-speakers as party members provided they are Estonian nationalists who adhere to the party constitution and see Estonia as a sovereign nation which they seek to protect

Suboptimality of Sales Promotions and Improvement Through Channel Coordination

This paper deals with sales promotions in the form of consumer price discounts in fast-moving consumer goods. First, we show analytically that suboptimality is to be expected with respect to the size of the consumer price discount. This is due to the separate decision making of the retailer and the manufacturer. We then compute the impact of this suboptimality for a database of eighty-six sale promotions, and we find that it is substantial. On average, the actual profitability of the sales promotions is only about one fourth of its potential profitability. The suboptimality problem can be solved through specific arrangements between retailer and manufacturer, which have the purpose of better channel coordination. One of these is a proportional discount sharing arrangement, in which each party contributes to the consumer price discount in proportion to its original margin (without sales promotion). Several other winwin arrangements are possible also.Sales promotions;channel coordination;channels of distribution;consumer price discounts

The Effectiveness of Case-Based Reasoning: An Application in Sales Promotions

This paper deals with Case-based Reasoning (CBR) as a support technology for sales promotion (SP) decisions. CBR-systems try to mimic analogical reasoning, a form of human reasoning that is likely to occur in weakly-structured problem solving, such as the design of sales promotions. In an empirical study, we find evidence that use of the CBR-system improves the quality of SP-campaign proposals. In terms of the creativity of the proposals, decision-makers who think highly divergent (i.e., who tend to generate many, and diverse ideas in response to a problem) benefit most from prolonged system usage. Creativity, in turn, is positively related to the (practical) usability of a proposal. These results suggest that the CBR-system is most effective when it is used as an idea-generation tool that reinforces the strength of divergent (creative) thinkers. A convergent thinking style, in which case the CBR-system has a compensating role, even has a negative impact on CBR-system usage. Increasing the decision-maker's personal belief in the usefulness of the system, e.g., by training or education, may help to alleviate this reluctance to use the CBR-system.marketing management support systems;sales promotions;case-based reasoning;weakly-structured decision making

The Effectiveness of Different Mechanisms for Integrating Marketing and R&D

The integration of marketing and R&D is a major concern for companies that want to improve their new product performance (NPP). In order to integrate, companies are using mechanisms such as physical proximity, cross-functional teams, and job rotation. This study examines the relative effectiveness of these mechanisms by developing a model that distinguishes between indirect effects of mechanisms on NPP (i.e., through a higher level of integration) and direct effects. The model is tested with data collected from 148 pharmaceutical companies. By simultaneously studying a broad range of integrating mechanisms, we found that housing marketing and R&D closer to each other and using an influential cross-functional phase review board are highly effective mechanisms to increase integration. Using information and communication technology (ICT) more intensively, having equal remuneration and career opportunities for marketing and R&D and using more cross functional teams are also effective in producing more integration, although to a somewhat lesser extent. The effectiveness of personnel movement and informal social group events is rather low. Interestingly, ICT appears to be a very effective tool for enhancing NPP. ICT not only fosters integration, but in addition it has an independent direct positive effect on NPP, possibly through knowledge creation within marketing and R&D. We also found a direct effect on NPP of another mechanism: cross functional phase review boards. However, for this mechanism the direct effect is negative. So, notwithstanding its strong positive effect on integration, a price is paid in terms of NPP. This may be related to the amount of formalization and complexity accompanying this mechanism.marketing;interne organisatie;farmaceutische industrie;interfaces;productontwikkeling

Intra-Firm Adoption Decisions

The subject of this paper is intra-firm adoption decisions, a relatively unexplored research area in the marketing literature. In particular, we investigate which factors influence the intra-firm adoption decisions regarding the common European currency of the treasury, purchasing and sales departments of European companies. Two sets of independent variables were hypothesized to influence the intra-firm adoption decisions, i.e. (1) variables known from the inter-firm diffusion literature, (2) variables specifically relevant for intra-firm analyses of innovation acceptance. The hypotheses are tested using data from treasury, purchasing and sales managers (441 respondents in total) from companies located in five different European countries. The results of logistic regression show that the proposed intra-firm variables are indeed important explanatory variables that should be included in intra-firm analyses. Moreover, for the inter-firm variables we found differences in the effects between departments, which demonstrates the very need for an intra-firm analysis.innovation;European Monetary Union;business marketing;intra-firm adoption;European marketing

Reflectometric study of surface states and oxygen adsorption on clean Si(100) and (110) surfaces

External differential reflection measurements were carried out on clean Si(100) and (110) surfaces in the photon energy range of 1.0 to 3.0 eV at 300 and 80 K. The results for Si(100) at 300 K showed two peaks in the joint density of states curve, which sharpened at 80 K. One peak at 3.0 ± 0.2 eV can be attributed to optical transitions from a filled surface states band near the top of the valence band to empty bulk conduction band levels. The other peak at 1.60 ± 0.05 eV may be attributed to transitions to an empty surface states band in the energy gap. This result favours the asymmetric dimer model for the Si(100) surface. For the (110) surface at 300 K only one peak was found at 3.0 ± 0.2 eV. At 80 K the peak height diminished by a factor of two. Oxygen adsorption in the submonolayer region on the clean Si(100) surface appeared to proceed in a similar way as on the Si(111) 7 × 7 surface. For the Si(110) surface the kinetics of the adsorption process at 80 K deviated clearly. The binding state of oxygen on this surface at 80 K appeared to be different from that on the same surface at 300 K

New Product Announcements as Market Signals. A content analysis in the DRAM chip industry

New-product announcements (NPAs) have considerable effects on competitors in industrial markets. Several studies have shown that the perceived threat caused by an NPA may trigger severe competitive reactions. Yet it is still unclear how the perception of threat by competitors is related to the specific content of the announcement. In this study we explore the actual content of NPAs observed in a particular market. We do this through a multi-year content analysis of new-product announcements in the DRAM memory chip industry. We analyze patterns in the occurrence of attributes and demonstrate how firm strategy affects NPA content. Findings from this study provide important insights for managers about the design of NPAs. It also triggers further research on the use of NPAs in competitive industrial markets.competition;innovation;market signals;new product announcement;semiconductors

Building Stronger Channel Relationships Through Information Sharing

Does sharing market information help channel partners to buildstronger mutual relationships? Is low initial trust really animpediment for further relationship development by means ofinformation sharing? How do connections with other competingchannel partners affect the relationship building process? Toaddress these questions, we conducted an experimental study.Our findings show that retailer information sharing helps todevelop higher quality supplier relationships. Interestingly,even if the initial level of trust in the retailer is low, therelationship quality substantially improves. In a morecompetitive situation the suppliers respond more favorably tothe retailer?s information-sharing initiative.experimental design;information-sharing;interfirm collaboration;marketing channels