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As some areas of the luxury market have been industrializing because of their expanding scale and scope, the commoditization trend is threatening luxury brands along the value chain. Too many products might flood the market. Because the commodity trap has not so far been commonly referred to as the source of the problem, the efforts of firms to decommoditize have seldom been described. The purpose of this paper is to describe and interpret one type of successful reaction to this problem: the exclusive partnership made by Louis Vuitton with artist Takashi Murakami. The paper identifies the strategy along the value chain and its step by step implementation and influence on commoditization.

The paper identifies the strategy behind this partnership and its step by step implementation. It uses a qualitative method because it would like to understand complex phenomenon and explore in depth, some strategic operations and decisions. More precisely, it is a case study research because it works on a contemporary situation and allows to retain the meaningful characteristics of real-life events as organizational, managerial and social processes

LV strategy raises the difficulty for competitors to imitate or to propose same value products as the value added to LV product is almost unique with Murakami ' s touch. With this strategy they impact commoditization as defined by Reimann et al. Also, we formulate a few recommendations and insist on the integration of all the parts of the upstream value chain- especially operations – to achieve a successful long-term retail strategy.

There are no research on partnerships between art and luxury. Our extensive analysis of the partnership between LV and Murakami gives a comprehensive view of how this kind of collaboration helps to fight back commoditization. However, more case studies should be studied to know if the strategy is replicable.

This research gives a comprehensive analysis of the adaptation of the value chain to make the partnership a success. It also underlines the need to conduct and to adapt the whole value chain to the specifities of the artist.

There are few research investigating the links and partnerships between artists and luxury brands. The originality is to describe a particular partnership concerning all the parts of the upstream value chain – especially operations – it also makes recommendations concerning potential partnerships between art and luxury to fight back against commoditization.

This study aims to examine the transformation process in traditional beliefs and practices in the use of sand in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.

This study uses historical and ethnographic methods to understand the transformation of the sand rituals in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai. The historical approach is used to investigate the past ritual practices of the sand pagoda, while the ethnographic approach is used to gather evidence about the recent practices surrounding the construction and deployment of the sand pagoda; the historical and archival research for this study has also accessed material from newspapers and photographs. Because observation and interviews are major methods of ethnographic research, participant observation at the sand pagoda rituals in the Songkran Festival was conducted, as well as interviews with the relevant interest groups to collect data on the rituals and the recent changes in these practices.

The transformation process in the traditional beliefs and practices surrounding the construction of sand pagodas in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, is a result of the influence of tourism, the development of a market economy and the accompanying commoditisation process and secularisation and the decline of Buddhism in the local communities in Chiang Mai.

This study has implications for other religious practices which have become increasingly staged and reinvented in the process of tourism development. It only examines one among many other elements in the increasingly touristic secularisation of formerly religious beliefs and practices.

The paper contributes to an expanding literature on the transformation of traditional rituals as a consequence of external factors, especially tourism promotion and the ways in which formerly sacred spaces and activities become commoditised.

This is the first study which focuses on the transformation of practices surrounding sand pagodas in the Songkran Festival in Chiang Mai, in relation to the promotion of tourism, processes of commoditisation and the declining importance of Buddhism.

This paper aims to propose a new theoretical perspective on the organizational design of offshoring service organizations by adopting an information processing perspective which incorporates the factors of collaborative information technologies, task commoditization and global customer service delivery that are characteristic of modern-day knowledge-intensive service (KIS) organizations.

The authors analyze data from a large multiyear survey of offshoring service providers conducted in 12 countries.

The authors show how use of collaborative technology is significantly and positively related to spatial and configurational dispersion, task commoditization is significantly and positively related to spatial and temporal dispersion and need for global customer presence is not related to spatial, temporal or configurational dispersion.

The paper integrates concepts from management information system (MIS), operations management and international business to show how collaborative technology, task characteristics and customer service requirements affect the global dispersion of KISs.

The results show how use of collaborative technology, task characteristics and global customer service requirements need to be jointly considered in the global dispersion of activities by KIS providers.

The study sheds light on the effect of the key factors on different dimensions of global dispersion (i.e. spatial/temporal/configurational dispersion) in offshoring service provider organizations. Second, it shows how the traditional information processing perspective on organizations can be updated and applied to KIS organizations by incorporating the factors of global collaborative information technologies, task commoditization and global customer service.

The learning outcomes of this paper is as follows: to analyse the drivers, mediators and threats of commoditisation. To critically evaluate the merits of different marketing options that may be employed to avoid commoditisation. To critically assess the branding-focussed or customer-focussed strategies that could be used. To develop appropriate strategies for Biotronik SA to counter commoditisation in the future.

The case begins with the protagonist and managing director of Biotronik SA, Robbie Nel, brewing over a new industry development. One of the leading private hospital groups has sent an open invitation to medical device suppliers to tender, where the lowest-priced products will win shelf space in their cathlabs. Robbie has to decide whether to sacrifice Biotronik SA’s profit margins to win the tender or risk not being stocked in their cathlabs. Or, he must find an alternative non-price-based strategy to pursue. The medical device industry is facing increasing price pressures from various stakeholders in the device-purchasing process. The decision to purchase is no longer the responsibility of specialist physicians alone. International and local market trends indicate that the medical device industry is threatened by commoditisation. Robbie has to make a decision on changing the Biotronik SA business model and strategy in response to these macro trends.

This teaching case is aimed at postgraduate students, particularly those pursuing MBA, EMBA and Postgraduate Diploma programmes, as well as specialist masters and executive education. The students should have some work experience to comprehend and assess the case from a practical perspective.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to show that some of the critical questions that top executives from electronics companies ask are not unique to their industry and, in fact, are the same ones that confront executives across a variety of industries and virtually all company sizes. Questions that address issues of product complexity and the breadth of product offerings, how to respond to competitive forces, and how to meet the challenges that come from shortened product lifecycles and shrinking the time it takes for products to ultimately reach the marketplace are all relevant across multiple industries. Still, the electronics industry is one that is experiencing an especially unprecedented degree of change spurred by the increasing complexity of end products, higher competitive intensity, and shorter time to commoditization.

The article provides the methodology and tool set needed to develop and assess a product portfolio map, determine changes needed to marketing and sales focus as well as future actions to take in order to sustain higher profitability and return on investments. It includes: definition of the key dimensions and characteristics of the six key zones for product, sales, and marketing; summary of product, marketing and sales focus by zone; key challenges and actions that an organization can undertake for each zone; and methodology to apply the framework and develop an actionable transformation roadmap. This answers key questions such as: Does the current coverage align with existing core competencies? Which zone has the most profitable products? If playing in every zone which business should be divested? If there is heavy emphasis on one zone what does it mean for M&A strategy? Where do the top 100 customers map in the framework? What looking at product and technology roadmap going forward, which zones do we start entering?

This article provides a framework that enables businesses to ascertain their current state and identify actions appropriate to achieve a desired future state. It provides insights that lead to an actionable transformation plan.

Most companies in the electronics industry are executing multiple strategies based on acquisitions, sales transformations, new product introductions, and cost cutting measures to deal with the situation. However, the success rate of these strategies leaves significant room for improvement at many companies. So what is the answer? As is often the case when many variables need to be considered simultaneously and the competitive environment is complex such as this, it is important to establish a structured way to approach the challenges at hand. In this case, the key elements to consider are the customer experience, the product portfolios, and sales and marketing competencies. Achieving the right level of interaction and focus among these elements is critical to achieving success. This article provides a new and insightful framework to enable a structured analysis of the multi‐variable system.

Purpose – To provide an update on recent intensifications of commoditization among the North (Amoamo) Mekeo (Central Province, PNG) and to assess the extent to which in this context contemporary villagers qualify as “dividuals,” “individuals,” or “possessive individuals.”Methodology/approach – The empirical data presented in this chapter were collected by means of participant observation techniques conducted over a 40-year period. Here those materials are analyzed through a juxtaposition of the “partible” or “dividual” type of personhood foregrounded in the “New Melanesian Ethnography” (Strathern, 1988; Wagner, 1991) and models of the “individual” and “possessive individual” in Macpherson’s (1962) formulation of “possessive market societies.”Findings – Contrary to the canonical assumptions of “individualism” and “possessive individualism” which underpin most social-scientific theories of modernization, globalization, development, etc. in the non-Western world, North Mekeo villagers’ most recent intensive post-contact engagements with capitalism have tended to reproduce indigenous “dividual” patterns of partible personhood and sociality which incorporate seemingly “individualist” practices as momentary parts of overall, total “dividual” persons and processes.Research implications – Explanations of the globalizing spread of capitalism among non-Western peoples must pay heed to indigenous notions of personhood agency if they are to avoid ethnocentric distortions arising from presuppositions of the ubiquity of Western notions of individualism.Originality/value of chapter – This chapter demonstrates the analytical benefits of the New Melanesian Ethnography – particularly its key notion of partible personhood – and the advantage of focused long-term ethnographic fieldwork in accounting for processes of social change.

Many models of markets are based on assumptions of rationality, transparency, efficiency, and homogeneity in various combinations. This paper aims to explain why markets routinely and repeatedly make “mistakes” that are inconsistent with these simplifying assumptions.

System dynamics models are used to show how misestimating demand growth, allowing financial discipline to lapse, unrealistic business planning, and misperception of technology trajectories can produce disastrously wrong business decisions. Examples are drawn from airlines, telecommunications, IT, aerospace, energy, and media.

The undesirable outcomes can include vicious cycles of investment and profitability, market bubbles, accelerated commoditization, excessive investment in dead‐end technologies, giving up on a product that becomes a huge success, waiting too long to reinvent legacy companies, and changes in market leadership. Differentiating transient phenomena from the longer term trends, movement away from vertically integrated business models, and effective use of early warning signs avoid these mistakes, or at least limit the damage that they cause.

Decision makers tend to rely on simple mental models which have serious limitations. They become increasingly deficient as problems grow more complex, as the environment changes more rapidly, and as the number of decision makers increases. The amplification and tipping dynamics typical of highly coupled systems, for example, bandwagon, network, and lemming effects, are not anticipated. Behavioural factors that play critical roles in the evolution of markets often are misunderstood or ignored.

The paper illuminates the effects of bounded rationality, imperfect information, and fragmentation of decision making on the behavior of markets. Models which assume, at least implicitly, that decision makers understand the structure of the market and how it produces the dynamics which can be observed or might potentially occur can be dangerous simplifications and seriously misleading.

This study uses ethnographic methods to explore the discursive practices that give life to ethnic restaurants, establishing identity, and addressing community engagement. Employing postcolonial and postmodern perspectives that discuss discursive practices of hybridity, authenticity, and commoditization, the research focused on five culture-specific restaurants: Irish, Italian, Korean, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern. The restaurants' stories are studied through observation, interviews, and the situated approach as discussed by Denzin (1994). The findings suggest that some restaurants openly embraced hybridity, defied and debunked stereotypes, and resisted hegemonic constructions of individuals and of culture by enacting narratives of defiance, while others attempted to maintain traditional images or commodify the culture. Using the situated approach revealed a post-postcolonial tension between certain restaurants within the community.

Digital and information technologies (IT) are becoming silently pervasive in old-fashioned real estate markets. This paper focuses on three important avenues for the diffusion of IT in commercial real estate: online brokerage and sales, the commoditization of space and Fintech in mortgage and equity funding. We describe the main new markets and products created by this IT revolution. The focus is on the pioneering US market, with some attention devoted to the specific firms and institutions taking these innovations into the mainstream. We also carefully analyze the economic underpinnings from which the new technologies can expect to generate cash flows, thus becoming viable—or not. Finally, we discuss their likely impact on established players in the commercial real estate arena.

In this paper, the author chooses to focus on three separate arenas where the IT revolution—sometimes referred to as Proptech, as applied to real estate—is having discernible impacts: sales and brokerage, space commoditization and online finance platforms. The author invites the reader to think seriously about the economic fundamentals that may—or may not—sustain new business models in Proptech. Real estate economists and investors alike need to be critical of new business models, especially when they are being aggressively marketed by their promoters. Trying to avoid any hype, the author provides thoughts about the likely impact of the innovations on their markets, guided by economic and finance theory, and previous experience.

The author evaluates the evolution of commercial real estate brokerage. While innovations will, no doubt, have an impact on the ways in which we buy and lease commercial properties, the lessons from the housing market should make us skeptical about the possibility of the new technologies dramatically facilitating disintermediation in this market. In fact, new oligopolies seem to be emerging with regard to market data provision.

Proptech will change some aspects of the real estate industry, but not others!

As change pervades the property industry, only a relatively few research pieces are illustrating or—more importantly—providing insights about the likely economic and financial impacts of IT penetration. Similarly, only a few papers have so far addressed the economic viability of the alternative business models of tech startups targeting real estate markets and transactions.

This study aims to focus on how companies operating in international food commodity markets can improve their long-term competitiveness and profitability upon financial pressure. Management can choose between generic strategies of either cost leadership or enhanced value adding by differentiation and innovative marketing strategies. The aim of the paper is to highlight key findings from a case study perspective.

The research is set within the farmed salmon sector in the world’s second largest producing country, Chile, which is also a fast growing emerging economy in Latin America. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with General Managers of this global industry.

Unexpectedly, our findings show that executives preferred competitive strategy of cost reduction rather than differentiation. Based on previous research, we recommend managers of individual firms and trade associations to play down commoditisation and to pursue differentiation strategies with particular attention to emergent environmental attributes.

Practitioners from Latin America may learn on empirical considerations of international marketing strategies taking this competitive global industry as an example. An overall cost leadership strategy is not sufficient in a mature industry, and customer-oriented strategies are needed more than production-oriented strategies. Clustered firms are recommended to benefit from differentiation strategies with particular attention to emergent environmental attributes.