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This paper aims to develop a theoretical approach to place market analysis that aims to identify the ways in which specific places are used and to further enable the identification of distinct segments and products.

Typology construction was chosen as the main study method. Eight polar place demand patterns were classified on the abstract level, using a set of binary variables of spatial behaviour (migration, natural growth and settling). Based on this typology, eight abstract places were deductively described. In conjunction with this deductive study, the authors conducted focus groups, and the results showed considerable similarity in the interpretation of the achieved types.

This paper arrives at interdependent typologies of place demand, place product and place use patterns that allow the ways of using specific places to be identified and distinctive segments and products to be distinguished as particular, consistent combinations of the achieved types.

The typologies obtained expand the scope of competitive analysis and planning in framing place marketing. Distinct uses of specific places unambiguously point to the features of certain segments and could thereby enable a lucid marketing strategy.

Empirically driven place market research has not precisely defined the distinct ideas and concepts of investigated places, which might reflect the different segments of the population that have different intentions for the use of these places. This paper offers important insights into product differentiation and market segmentation in the frame of simultaneous product use.

In this paper, we discuss how “cultural capital” and “symbolic capital,” understood as specialized subsets of intangible resources and capabilities, enable firms to achieve valuable strategic positions in ways that are currently underexplored by mainstream strategy literature. We articulate the similarities and differences between cultural and symbolic capital and the intangible assets that have been the focus of mainstream strategy researchers, such as intellectual, social, and reputational capital. Our theoretical arguments build on insights from a number of studies conducted primarily in non-North American settings that have shown how symbolic properties of products create value. We conclude by delineating future avenues of research that strategy scholarship should consider in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between intangible resources and capabilities, and value creation.

Many firms, wine producers among them, have successfully communicated the quality of their products to the market by emphasizing the geographic origin, or location of production of critical ingredient(s) found in the product. The purpose of this article is to: introduce the concept of a “place‐based” marketing strategy, i.e. a marketing strategy that identifies a consumer product with a specific geographic area; explain why it is essential to the wine business; and, why it may be superior to other types of marketing strategies for certain types of agricultural products. Additionally, traditional valuation techniques applied to agricultural land typically assume that agricultural goods are undifferentiable commodities. With the growing trend toward the production of “place‐based” agricultural products, the traditional valuation methods omit an important variable – the potential for the geographical source to help develop a product‘s brand equity. This paper also discusses land valuation techniques and applies the concept of products of place to the trend among Californian wine growers to produce wines with vineyard designations.

To explore the factors crucial to international fashion retailer success and evaluate how internationalisation could be controlled efficiently by a firm.

The study adopts a qualitative approach in the form of case studies of two international fashion retailers. This involved structured interviews with management to explore their knowledge and experiences supported by secondary research such as company and media reports.

Defines the critical success factors especially contingent to their businesses, emphasising the importance of brand management, product development and differentiation to international fashion retailers.

An exploratory study which model needs testing using quantitative methods.

Understanding of how fashion retailers successfully internationalise will increase company efficiency.

Portuguese handicrafts are distinctive artisan products that have been shaped by cultural and historical conditions. The aim of this chapter is to focus on understanding the inherent innovativeness embedded within different handicraft that is made in Portugal. This involves taking a country perspective to handicraft production and the reason why it has continued or revived over time. This involves focusing on the role of entrepreneurs in the handicraft industry and how artisan entrepreneurship can be utilized. Specific examples of Portuguese handicrafts are stated in this chapter that showcase the cultural connections individuals feel. Theoretical and managerial implications are stated that highlight the importance of handicrafts to cultural preservation. Future research suggestions are also stated that stress the need to continue research into Portuguese handicrafts and artisan entrepreneurship.

An increasingly sophisticated body of theory and practice has emerged over the past 20 years about the impact that strategy plays in driving corporate business success, as well as the role that real estate plays in that strategy. In the context of three case studies, this paper will discuss the theory and application of the Strategy Alignment Model, which is a framework for directly linking real estate initiatives with core business strategy and for measuring results as organisational outcomes. Among a number of topics will be discussed the theoretical underpinnings of the model, as well as its application to such diverse yet interrelated issues as placing companies in locations that enhance recruitment and retention of the best people; building layouts that promote communication; communication; and workplace concepts, on and off site, that support new ways of working

Economist’s conceptualisations of managers as rational utility‐maximising beings stands in contrast to cognitive models which see managers as possessing limited and incomplete knowledge which they use to “generate” subjective interpretations and assumptions about competitive strategy and rivalry. Using data from interviews with knitwear producers in the Shetland Isles, Scotland, discusses how perceptions of competition are enacted through social interaction between knitwear producers. In addition to supporting the existence of industry groups, these data suggest that this process occurs at a deeper level of analysis, limiting perceptions of competition at both industry and individual levels. Discusses how membership of a trade association can facilitate marketing and cooperation but may, in the process, inadvertantly constrain managers’ ability to conceptualise and respond to changing market conditions. The implications of these issues for strategic planning are considered.

China's population–land contradiction is a crucial issue, and by deeply analyzing causes of wasting arable land, this article recommends some policies to avoid waste.

Based on the current high-, middle- and low-class differentiation in the agricultural products' consumption structure against urban residents' rapid income growth, this article proposes that agricultural products with distinctive regional characteristics should be developed according to regional natural agricultural resources and market demand, so as to ensure that China's scarce arable land can be used effectively.

Choices in regional agricultural production relate to operational farmers' enthusiasm for profitability and production, residential farmers' ability to ensure their own food security, agriculture's sustainable development and arable land resources' optimal allocation. Therefore, the varietal structure of agricultural products and regional production layout should be compatibly decided according to consumer demand and resource endowment.

During the process of industrialization and urbanization, wasting of arable land has become a social development problem. On the basis of agriculture's regional resource endowment, this article reconstructs the functional positioning of various Chinese agricultural regions and solves the difficult problem of consumption structure transformation and homogeneous competition through the geographical division of labor, thereby optimizing allocation of arable land resources.

This two‐year inquiry was commissioned by the American Business Conference (ABC) and conducted by McKinsey & Company, Inc., to explain how and why certain midsized growth companies have outpaced the nation in sales, profits, jobs, and exports. The study is based on an extensive literature search, several large data bases (PIMS, Compustat, and Dun & Bradstreet), and a survey. However, it was some sixty informal in‐depth interviews with ABC members—in some cases founders and always current leaders—that provided most of the unconventional and provocative insights.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the satisfaction response in the context of an applied creative, business‐to‐business, professional service – that of advertiser satisfaction with agency creative services.

The study is a based on a longitudinal questionnaire survey of advertising managers.

The paper finds that the disconfirmation of expectations model, previously utilised largely in goods categories and in consumer services, can be successfully applied within advertising creative services.

Use of the key respondent method; the ability of managers to comply with the very specific conditions set out for choice of campaign; memory: the assumption that respondents could remember which campaign they had referred to in their initial questionnaire responses when completing the second questionnaire.

Advertisers commit very large resources on the basis of their satisfaction with agency generated creative ideas, at a time when such product appears in a highly undeveloped, relatively intangible state. The study tests how satisfaction is formed in this context.

The paper has an application of the disconfirmation‐based model of customer satisfaction to advertising creative product. The literature on advertising creative ideas as a product category (and to “applied creative” products in general) is very limited.