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The purpose of this paper is to define and understand the different models of brand development, according to the evolution of a brand’s identity and the introduction of brand extensions, starting from the premise that brands must be managed in a consistent way over time, but also need to be expanded. The second aim of this article is to introduce a specific methodology for studying the development of brands with a long-term approach.

The concepts of assimilation and accommodation as defined by Piaget (1983) provide an in-depth understanding of how and why brands evolve. This article is based on a multiple case study approach. Four luxury brands were studied longitudinally. Brand chronologies were drawn and images of brand communications and brand extensions were gathered. Structural semiotic analysis was then used to highlight the different processes of brand development. In addition, qualitative interviews with two experts were conducted.

Hermès and Louis Vuitton develop their brands according to the assimilation model. Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana follow the accommodation model. There is a link between the brand’s identity type (symbolic/functional) and the model used for brand development. A detailed analysis of each model is presented highlighting the main features.

To reinforce the distinction between the two models of brand development, it would be interesting to look at other brands. The choice of these brands depends on their country of origin and their age.

The main contributions of this paper are the dynamic and longitudinal analyses of brand development and the introduction of the assimilation and accommodation concepts. The use of semiotics constitutes another original feature of this research.

This paper demonstrates usage of a Web‐based participative virtual learning environment, which has enabled graduate students in e‐commerce classes on the Masters in Business Administration Programme taught by the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to share and disseminate their knowledge among themselves. An illustrative single case study methodology is applied in order to achieve this purpose. The structure of this virtual environment on the Web is analysed. Findings about the participation level of the students in this group, the impact of regional influences – since classes are given throughout Brazil – and the role of the moderator in the leverage of this environment are also presented in this research, which attempts to establish how Internet technology can be effective in the development of virtual learning communities.

This study aims to draw on Piaget’s theory of assimilation and accommodation (absorptive capacity) as having mediating roles to examine the effect of motivational factors in entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention among engineering students. In addition, this relationship is analyzed along with the moderating effect of the home environment.

The structural equation model was applied to a sample of university students (736 respondents) engaged in an entrepreneurship education program in South Korea.

The findings highlight that the motivations of personal achievement, social welfare and social relationship were associated with assimilated students, and the motivations of personal achievement and cognitive interest were associated with accommodated students fostering entrepreneurial intention in their entrepreneurship education.

This finding contributes to the theoretical implications of absorptive capacity (assimilation and accommodation) in the learning process and has wider practical implications for course instructors in educational institutions who wish to promote the effectiveness of developing entrepreneurship knowledge and skills among engineering students.

This research explores perceptions of knowledge management processes held by managers and employees in a service industry. To date, empirical research on knowledge management in the service industry is sparse. This research seeks to examine absorptive capacity and its four capabilities of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation and their impact on effective knowledge management. All of these capabilities are strategies that enable external knowledge to be recognized, imported and integrated into, and further developed within the organization effectively. The research tests the relationships between absorptive capacity and effective knowledge management through analysis of quantitative data (n = 549) drawn from managers and employees in 35 residential aged care organizations in Western Australia. Responses were analysed using Partial Least Square-based Structural Equation Modelling. Additional analysis was conducted to assess if the job role (of manager or employee) and three industry context variables of profit motive, size of business and length of time the organization has been in business, impacted on the hypothesized relationships.

Structural model analysis examines the relationships between variables as hypothesized in the research framework. Analysis found that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities correlated significantly with effective knowledge management, with absorptive capacity explaining 56% of the total variability for effective knowledge management. Findings from this research also show that absorptive capacity and the four capabilities provide a useful framework for examining knowledge management in the service industry. Additionally, there were no significant differences in the perceptions held between managers and employees, nor between respondents in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Furthermore, the size of the organization and length of time the organization has been in business did not impact on absorptive capacity, the four capabilities and effective knowledge management.

The research considers implications for business in light of these findings. The role of managers in providing leadership across the knowledge management process was confirmed, as well as the importance of guiding routines and knowledge sharing throughout the organization. Further, the results indicate that within the participating organizations there are discernible differences in the way that some organizations manage their knowledge, compared to others. To achieve effective knowledge management, managers need to provide a supportive workplace culture, facilitate strong employee relationships, encourage employees to seek out new knowledge, continually engage in two-way communication with employees and provide up-to-date policies and procedures that guide employees in doing their work. The implementation of knowledge management strategies has also been shown in this research to enhance the delivery and quality of residential aged care.

How do entrepreneurs learn from critical events or significant entrepreneurial experience? It is an important field in entrepreneurship cognition and learning studies. Previous studies have given interpretations from many perspectives, such as effectuation, scenario change of entrepreneurial behaviors, cognitive development, situated learning, etc. These studies provide important clues for exploring the dynamic mechanism of entrepreneurship learning; the problems, such as narrow study angle, fragmentation of knowledge and lack of systematic explanation, however, have also been exposed. For this reason, this study aims to reveal the deep structure and the effectiveness mechanism of entrepreneurs’ learning from critical events, based on existing theoretical progress and specific cases, through the abstract method of retrospective analysis. A conceptual model of entrepreneurial critical events learning is built on this basis, thus deepening the understanding of entrepreneurial learning mechanism.

This study combines retrospection of critical realism with a single case study. On the one hand, data are collected through many channels, such as semi-structured interview, field observation and collection of secondhand information to describe events as detailed as possible. On the other hand, strict coding principles and processes are followed to ensure the validity and reliability of the research.

Entrepreneurial critical event learning reflects the legitimacy, competency and dominancy of entrepreneurial behavior script and leaves a positive influence on the quality improvement of entrepreneurial behavior script. Entrepreneurial critical event learning is an effectual process of decision-making and a process of situated learning and cognitive development. Thus, critical event learning plays an important role in enhancing the influence capacity of stakeholders.

Single case study is used in this paper and, thus, lacks comparison and verification of multi-case study. In addition, selection biases might have occurred during the process of retrospection.

This study broadens research on new enterprise generation process from the aspect of interaction between entrepreneurs and environment. This study reveals the deep structure and effectiveness mechanisms that restrain entrepreneurial behaviors. The study overcomes the problem of over-emphasis on institutional restriction and insufficient understanding on the subjective initiative of entrepreneurs in the research on institutional legitimacy. This study addresses over-emphasis on individual initiative and insufficient focus on behavior legitimacy in effectuation theory.

Perhaps it is academically improper to base a conceptual model upon personal conviction. This article develops a conceptual terminology for the interaction between educational administration and the dynamics of culture‐change in the Third World, Melanesian context of the 1970's. It is also the product of a growing conviction that educational administration sees itself, far too often, as an area of knowledge, western‐based, but yet capable of application to non‐western and Third World countries. Some western educational administrators, both scholars and practitioners, seem guilty of a latter‐day cultural imposition reminiscent of the middle‐class. Christian imposition of earlier colonial education systems. The alternative philosophy is that educational administration should be promoted and evaluated not according to “absolute” criteria but according to its appropriateness or inappropriateness for a particular, different and dynamic cultural context. In what follows this philosophy of cultural relativism is tested by arguing the hypothesis that traditionalist educational policy is inappropriate for Melanesian schools whereas local educational policy is appropriate.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new population-based metaheuristic optimization algorithm, assimilation-accommodation mixed continuous ant colony optimization (ACACO), to improve the accuracy of Takagi-Sugeno-Kang-type fuzzy systems design.

The original N solution vectors in ACACO are sorted and categorized into three groups according to their ranks. The Research Learning scheme provides the local search capability for the best-ranked group. The Basic Learning scheme uses the ant colony optimization (ACO) technique for the worst-ranked group to approach the best solution. The operations of assimilation, accommodation, and mutation in Mutual Learning scheme are used for the middle-ranked group to exchange and accommodate the partial information between groups and, globally, search information. Only the N top-best-performance solutions are reserved after each iteration of learning.

The proposed algorithm outperforms some reported ACO algorithms for the fuzzy system design with the same number of rules. The performance comparison with various previously published neural fuzzy systems also shows its superiority even with a smaller number of fuzzy rules to those neural fuzzy systems.

Future work will consider the application of the proposed ACACO to the recurrent fuzzy network.

The originality of this work is to mix the work of the well-known psychologist Jean Piaget and the continuous ACO to propose a new population-based optimization algorithm whose superiority is demonstrated.

This study aims to enhance knowledge on marketing strategies to increase repeat visitors. Furthermore, the authors suggest using appropriate destination information tailored to first-time visitors and repeat visitors as social capital.

This study compares the differences in satisfaction between first-time foreign tourists and those repeat visiting. The authors apply a theoretical framework based on optimal distinctiveness theory (ODT) and consumer knowledge to determine which actions maximize the satisfaction of each group. Then, the relationships among assimilation desire, differentiation desire and satisfaction are quantitatively analyzed.

The results show the difference in the relationship between assimilation and travel satisfaction for first-time visitors and repeat visitors. First-time visitors are satisfied with popular sightseeing spots with higher assimilation level, whereas repeat visitors are satisfied with moderately unpopular sightseeing spots with lower assimilation level. The results clarify that information reflecting only the popularity of destinations is significantly effective for first-time visitors, but unsuitable for repeat visitors. Therefore, it would be possible to propose to repeat visitors a combination of “moderately differentiated” destinations.

The first contribution is that on the basis of Brewer (1991), the quantitative analysis confirmed that the social identity of an individual changes from assimilation to differentiation with the accumulation of experience until the optimal point is found. The second contribution is that we combined several fields such as ODT (Brewer, 1991), familiarity (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987), trial/repeat behavior (Iyengar et al., 2015) and reference groups (Peter & Olson, 2010). The third contribution is that the authors proposed marketing strategies on the basis of the empirical analysis to increase the number of inbound tourists.