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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 May 2023

Yu-Ting Lin, Thomas Foscht and Andreas Benedikt Eisingerich

Prior work underscores the important role of customer advocacy for brands. The purpose of this study is to explore the critical role customers can play as brand heroes. The…

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Abstract

Purpose

Prior work underscores the important role of customer advocacy for brands. The purpose of this study is to explore the critical role customers can play as brand heroes. The authors developed and validated a measurement scale composed of properties that are derived from distinct brand hero motivational mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted one exploratory pilot, using semi-structured interviews, with industry and academic experts, and employed three main studies across varying brands and market settings.

Findings

This study explores and empirically demonstrates how the brand hero scale (BHS) is related to, yet distinct from, existing scales of opinion leaders, market mavens, attachment and customer advocacy. The six-item BHS demonstrates convergent, discriminant, nomological and predictive validity across several different brand contexts.

Research limitations/implications

This research extends the extant body of work by identifying and defining brand heroes, developing and validating a parsimonious BHS, and demonstrating how its predictive validity extends both to a range of key advocacy and loyalty customer behaviors.

Practical implications

The study provides provocative insights for marketing researchers and brand managers and ascertains the important role heroes may play for brands in terms of strong customer advocacy and loyalty behaviors.

Originality/value

Building on the theory of meaning, this study shows that identifying and working with brand heroes is of great managerial importance and offers critical avenues for future research.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 57 no. 13
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 October 2022

Ian Fillis and Kim Lehman

The authors provide an understanding of how the hero identity is culturally constructed and evolving. The authors focus on heroism within an arts marketing framework through an…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors provide an understanding of how the hero identity is culturally constructed and evolving. The authors focus on heroism within an arts marketing framework through an interrogation of Northern Ireland murals. In this paper, the authors elaborate on the links between arts marketing thought and the notion of hero and draw conclusions around what the authors see as a fruitful area for arts marketing theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have adopted a narrative approach, incorporating biographical method, visual analysis and ethnography in interpreting cultural murals. The authors assess representative examples in Northern Ireland using a thematic framework.

Findings

The murals the authors assessed have evolved from having a specific community focus to increasing numbers which now represent a “shared”, and therefore more modern version of the hero.

Research limitations/implications

The authors identify an emerging, aesthetically balanced portrayal of cultural murals, with a different set of heroic priorities compared to the past, which should encourage further related research elsewhere.

Practical implications

Northern Ireland murals are no longer the preserve of specific communities and are now also shared spaces which appeal to both the local population and cultural tourists.

Originality/value

Although analysis and evaluation of political murals has been carried out in other disciplines, the authors add to the limited insight from an arts marketing perspective.

Details

Arts and the Market, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4945

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 March 2021

Babar Dharani, Margaux Giannaros and Kurt April

Employee boredom is of concern to organizations because of its impact on employees’ quality of work life and productivity. This study aims to test the regulation of workplace…

Abstract

Purpose

Employee boredom is of concern to organizations because of its impact on employees’ quality of work life and productivity. This study aims to test the regulation of workplace boredom through meaning in life by workplace heroes to contribute to theory by examining the relationships between the variables and to practice by uncovering the potential of workplace heroes in alleviating state boredom.

Design/methodology/approach

Using online surveys and structured interviews for a mixed-method study, data were collected for state boredom, meaning in life and hero affirmation at work for a quantitative study, and data from the open-ended questions provided further insights regarding hero affirmation at work for a qualitative study.

Findings

Spearman rank-order correlations concluded correlations between state boredom and meaning in life. However, unlike personal heroes that influence meaning in life, workplace heroes were found not to. The qualitative analysis revealed three prime differences between workplace and personal heroes: proximity, symbolic representation of ideologies and qualities admired in the heroes. These reasons entailed that state boredom was not regulated by workplace heroes.

Originality/value

The model of Coughlan et al. (2019) explored trait boredom regulation through meaning in life by personal heroes. This study tested for the regulation of state boredom through meaning in life by workplace heroes; thus, contributing to theory through a nuanced model with enhanced usefulness in practice. The study also further dissects the concept of heroes by uncovering differences between workplace and personal heroes that perpetrated the differences in the findings.

Details

Management Research Review, vol. 44 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8269

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2017

Olivia Efthimiou

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate heroism as an embodied system of leadership and well-being. Heroic leadership is presented as a baseline for sustainable futures and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate heroism as an embodied system of leadership and well-being. Heroic leadership is presented as a baseline for sustainable futures and global health.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents an embodied reading of heroic leadership and its sustainable development across five stages. It outlines its core functions, its grounding in self-leadership through physical and mental trauma and its holistic benefits, resulting in the development of the Heroic Leadership Embodiment and Sustainable Development (HLESD) model. The efficacy of HLESD is demonstrated in an empirical case study of heroism promotion and education: the Hero Construction Company and the Heroic Imagination Project.

Findings

Heroic leadership is revealed as an emergent, dynamic and distributed form of sustainable development.

Research limitations/implications

This paper demonstrates the critical connections between heroism, sustainability, embodied leadership and well-being and how they stand to benefit from each other, individuals and communities at large.

Social implications

The implementation of HLESD in educational, counselling and broader contexts in consultation with a wide range of professionals stands to offer significant benefits to pedagogies, clinical practice, holistic therapies and twenty-first-century societies, at both the community and policy level.

Originality/value

The emerging field of heroism science and the use of heroic leadership as an interdisciplinary tool is a novel approach to well-being, which holds immense potential for the imagining and fostering of sustainable personal and collective futures.

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2007

Joshua Shuart

The use of celebrities, and particularly athletes, to influence consumers and sell products is not a new practice, but one that is gaining considerable steam in the sports…

1847

Abstract

The use of celebrities, and particularly athletes, to influence consumers and sell products is not a new practice, but one that is gaining considerable steam in the sports marketplace. However, many academics and practitioners have long questioned the means by which celebrity endorsement is measured and evaluated. Through the use of validated surveys among US students and the inauguration of the Celebrity-Hero Matrix (CHM), some of their questions are answered. Being labelled a 'heroic' athlete does, it seems, have tremendous power for marketers, and provides endorsement clout for the athlete.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 August 2019

Brent D. Oja, Minjung Kim, Pamela L. Perrewé and Christos Anagnostopoulos

In an attempt to promote sport employees’ well-being, the purpose of this paper is to examine the more traditional constructs of psychological capital (i.e. hope, efficacy…

Abstract

Purpose

In an attempt to promote sport employees’ well-being, the purpose of this paper is to examine the more traditional constructs of psychological capital (i.e. hope, efficacy, resiliency and optimism) and to feature the inclusion of authenticity, an often overlooked construct, among sport employees.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper is designed to create an expanded sport employee psychological capital construct, labeled A-HERO, and a subsequent theoretical model to improve their well-being.

Findings

In detailing a conceptual model of A-HERO for well-being, the model includes and explains the relationships among sport employee antecedents (i.e. sport employee identification, pride and passion), an organizational contextual variable (person–organization fit), and an important employee and organizational outcome (i.e. employee well-being) in contemporary sport organizations.

Research limitations/implications

A-HERO offers a necessary first step for future theoretical research and empirical applications to improve sport employees’ well-being.

Originality/value

By elucidating the role of authenticity at work with traditional psychological capital constructs in the current sport industry, this paper stimulates sport business and management scholars to validate empirically the A-HERO construct and examine proposed relationships for an improved prediction of sport employees’ well-being.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 9 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2017

Yue Cai Hillon

The governing bodies responsible for drafting and promoting the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) apparently envisioned a completely voluntary initiative…

Abstract

Purpose

The governing bodies responsible for drafting and promoting the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) apparently envisioned a completely voluntary initiative without concern for accountability. Public concern and commentary led to the addition of a reporting requirement in 2010. Two years later, program administrators began to update statuses. As of January 2016, PRME listed 636 signatories on their website. Because the reporting requirement took effect, approximately 86 schools have broken their commitment to comply with the PRME standards. Some schools were de-listed for inaction, whereas others actively left the program. This study aims to understand those who intentionally chose not to comply with PRME.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized a heroic quest typology to analyze and understand the behavior of institutions that intentionally chose not to comply with PRME. Narrative analysis of these concluded quests included strategic plans, research summaries, course syllabi and descriptions, press releases, PRME Sharing Information on Progress reports, UNGC letters of commitment, Communication on Progress reports, and internal informants.

Findings

Out of the 15 entities, 4 exhibited dual or quasi-heroic quests. Their experiences offered two viable and practical alternatives for institutions seeking to transcend the business ethics industry limitations of the PRME initiative.

Research limitations/implications

The narrative analysis of this study encompassed a sufficiently large amount of data for confidence in the typological characterization of each institution’s heroic quest. Additional insights from informants would no doubt strengthen the analysis.

Practical implications

The existence of the business ethics industry casts doubt on the ability of business schools and their accreditors to offer substantive change to create a genuine form of responsible management education. This study concludes with two alternative paths taken by schools attempting to escape the narrative of irresponsible management.

Originality/value

The PRME publicly lists signatories in non-compliance. While most of these result from passive inaction, a small number of institutions intentionally choose to leave the PRME. No research has been done to understand these intriguing cases and the heroic quest typology is a unique application in narrative analysis.

Details

Society and Business Review, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5680

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 May 2010

Margaret Muir, Hannah Cordle and Jerome Carson

Margaret's story concludes our short series on recovery heroes. This series started with Dolly Sen, followed by Peter Chadwick, Gordon McManus and Matt Ward. Four of the five…

Abstract

Margaret's story concludes our short series on recovery heroes. This series started with Dolly Sen, followed by Peter Chadwick, Gordon McManus and Matt Ward. Four of the five people featured were from our local service at South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. We have defined recovery heroes as individuals whose journeys of recovery can inspire both service users and professionals alike. Margaret once commented that, ‘all service users are recovery heroes’. It is fitting that the series should end with her own story.

Details

Mental Health and Social Inclusion, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-8308

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2013

Paul Moxnes

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of archetypes on collective fantasies and covert ideations and argue that archetypal fantasies, dreams and emotions impact…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of archetypes on collective fantasies and covert ideations and argue that archetypal fantasies, dreams and emotions impact organisational performance all the way down to the bottom line.

Design/methodology/approach

The author maintains that role‐figures in fairy tales and mythology can teach us significant lessons about the management of organisations. The impact of the Hero archetype is elaborated in particular.

Findings

In order to manage hidden, yet important, dimensions of organisational life, the study of managerial behaviour should focus more on archetypal dimensions of human interaction.

Originality/value

The paper asserts that allowing scholars, management, and leadership practitioners to study organisational behaviour and cultural patterns from an archetypal perspective, offers prospects of more effective leadership and decision making.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1986

Alf H. Walle

The increased attention being directed toward nonquantitative (so‐called relativistic) research designs within marketing has encouraged marketing's use of methods that were…

Abstract

The increased attention being directed toward nonquantitative (so‐called relativistic) research designs within marketing has encouraged marketing's use of methods that were developed in the “softer” social sciences. Representative of such trends is Sidney Levy's use of mental‐structuralist mythological theory within the context of consumer behavior. This paper demonstrates how another school of mythology (Jungian analysis) can be used to deal with consumer behavior and the way consumers respond to certain advertisements. Although serious methodological problems exist in Jungian analysis, techniques that explore the impact of universal innate human thought upon consumer behavior can be useful. As a specific example, the “archetype” of the athlete and its relation to consumer behavior and product promotion will be discussed.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

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