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The European retail motor industry is currently facing an unprecedented number of major forces for change. For independent dealer businesses to survive, they must clearly demonstrate to consumers that they represent the best possible channel for the acquisition and maintenance of their motorisation needs. They must also demonstrate to manufacturers that they represent the best route to market for them. Proposes a way that dealers can not only survive but, in co‐operation with their manufacturers, prosper in the market of the future. Such an approach would comprise the removal of wasteful activity, the reduction of costs and prices, delivering greater customer value and improving customer retention. In short, true lean distribution. The concept centres on a “customer account manager”, who pro‐actively manages the consumer’s needs for after‐sales of all types, thereby managing demand and removing waste from the system. As a consequence of this demand management, he or she is able to monitor the consumer’s needs (and even his family’s needs) for a new or used replacement car, again removing waste. The approach enables the dealer to exchange ineffective, costly, direct marketing and advertising for value‐adding contacts from which the consumer and manufacturer directly benefit, thereby creating a virtuous circle.

There can be no doubt that distribution, in the widest sense of the word, is operating in a rapidly changing environment in the UK new car market. In particular, the supply and stocking systems for new vehicles have been subject to greater change since 1992 than at any time in the past and, it must be emphasized, this change is still ongoing. There has been very little academic research on distribution generally and some of the points drawn from this work in the automotive industry may have viability in other contexts with suitable localization. Summarizes the research carried out in the UK by the International Car Distribution Programme. Shows that some franchises have instituted revolutionary changes while others are more evolutionary. Some would seem to have carefully considered philosophies and strategies while others appear to have more of a “me‐too” approach. Many franchises have introduced central‐stocking systems as the first step in trying to make their supply systems leaner and they have achieved both an increase in customer matching (customers actually getting the exact specification of car that they wanted) and a decrease in stock and costs. Those already operating such systems are making them more sophisticated as time goes on. During the fieldwork for the research some systems had received major updates and others were due to occur in early 1995. There are many different approaches and in the research they have been classified into broadly similar types. The systems operated by some franchises are already pan‐European while others are confined to the UK with continental markets operating traditionally. In addition, wholly new approaches and systems are in the process of being introduced ‐ such as one specialist manufacturer who has introduced a “supply to order” policy. The improvements in distribution efficiency have the potential to provide savings typically of about £150 (but up to £360) per new car sold to the franchise as a whole. In addition there are unquantified benefits from the considerable improvements in customer satisfaction. Part of such savings can be realized by the dealer and part by the manufacturer. Some franchises had already realized large proportions of these savings and benefits before this research took place while others still have opportunities ahead of them and could yet achieve the sort of amounts suggested above.

Why did the United States experience a housing and mortgage market boom and bust in the 2000s, while analogous Canadian markets were relatively stable? Both US and Canadian markets are replete with government interventions. In this paper, I account for the US and Canada’s different experiences by arguing that government interventions are not created equal. Some government interventions prevent market participants from pursuing actions that ex ante are reckoned beneficial. Alternatively, other interventions lead to the pursuit of actions that turn out to be costly ex post. It is the latter type that we expect to manifest in crises. The US case is one where government interventions in the mortgage markets led to actions that appeared ex ante beneficial but were revealed to be costly ex post. Alternatively, Canada’s mortgage market was and remains essentially a regulated oligopoly. Regulatory capture makes for a sclerotic market that likely imposes costs on Canadian borrowers in the forms of limited financing options and higher interest rates. However, this sclerosis also lends itself to stability. This market structure made the Canadian mortgage market relatively insusceptible to a bubble.

1. In accordance with instructions we visited Holland on 18th August, 1927, and after calling at the British Legation and making some preliminary inquiries at the Department van Binnenlandsche Zaken en Landbouw and the Department van Arbeid, Handel, en Nijverheid we spent the ensuing week visiting condenseries, creameries and farms in various parts of the country and making inquiries of managers and experts employed at the creameries and condenseries and of farmers and farm hands at the farms which we visited. We were able' to see the various activities involved in the production of condensed milk, butter and cheese, the actual milking and care of the cows, the transport of the milk and its handling at the creameries and condenseries, and the various processes through which it passed in its conversion into condensed milk, butter and cheese. The regulations and organisation for the hygienic control of these processes were explained to us by officials at the two Government departments mentioned above, and in certain of the districts visited we took the opportunity of calling upon the respective directors of the Keuringsdienst van Waren for each of these districts and ascertained the scope of their activities and their procedure for enforcing the regulations.

The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of corporate brand symbolism on consumer satisfaction and loyalty on a sample of Australian automobile consumers.

Survey research was employed to test the study hypotheses. The regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationships between an independent variable (corporate brand symbolism) and dependent variables (consumer satisfaction and loyalty).

Support was found for all hypotheses formulated in this study. Regression results reveal consistent favourable and significant effects of corporate brand symbolism on both consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

Although this paper makes contributions in international marketing, the cross-sectional nature of the data collection method limits the information gained to the single point in time. This research studied the impact of corporate brand symbolism on consumers of one original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Having a larger number of participating car manufacturers/OEMs would have provided a wider insight. However, time and resources limitation did not allow to study a larger sample. In the future, practitioners are recommended to further understand the relationship between self and social aspects of brand symbolism in order to formulate more targeted communication strategies.

The findings of this study point to the strategic role of the brand in generating both satisfaction and loyalty. In the light of increasing advertising costs and decreasing consumer loyalty, strengthening corporate brand symbolism makes a lot of economic sense. The findings suggest that managers need to take into account consumer need for identity expression and consider this in their branding strategies.

Humans are social beings by nature. However, international brand research has paid relatively little attention to how products are used by consumers in everyday life, including their social life. Consumer behaviours increasingly depend on social meanings they imbue brands with beyond products’ functional utility. It is argued the focus of symbolic consumption needs to be broadened and integrated more with social science concepts.

This study captures a construct of corporate brand symbolism by including self and social aspects of symbolism. The current study also comprehensively measures consumer loyalty, including cognitive, affective and behavioural types of loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of decentralised control on finished goods inventory levels in a distribution system, and to identify the factors that determine the overall inventory level.

The authors' study is based on a mixed method approach using both a survey and semi‐structured interviews to assess inventory management practices and firm performance.

It was found that the common assumptions that distribution outlets or dealers are homogenous and that their behaviour is uniform in response to central control, such as the manufacturer's strategy, do not hold in practice. In fact, the authors show that under conditions of decentralised control, the inventories held at outlet level vary greatly around the aggregate inventory at overall manufacturer level and in this sense bear little resemblance to it. Amongst other conclusions, these findings provide a possible explanation for previous studies' inconclusive evidence on inventory reduction.

The authors' research is based on evidence from the automotive industry in the USA; future research may include a wider industry analysis and geographical scope.

The paper identifies how incentives and decision‐making structures at the outlet level need to be considered in order to derive decisions that are optimal at the supply chain level.

The paper extends the current literature on the determinants of inventory levels by using dealer‐level data, as opposed to manufacturer or firm‐level data in previous studies, thereby identifying possible causes for the previously inconclusive evidence on inventory levels in distribution systems.

The aim of this paper is to understand how large and apparently successful organizations enter spirals of decline that are very difficult to reverse. The paper examines the case of Rover, once one of the largest car producers in the world, which collapsed in 2005. An analysis of strategic and operational choices made over a period of 40 years investigates the reasons for, and consequences of, a growing mismatch between the context faced by the company (industry dynamics, market conditions) and its operational capabilities, a mismatch that ultimately brought about the company's demise.

The paper is based on interviews with 32 people, including senior managers (including four chief executives), government ministers and union officials who were key decision makers within, or close to, the company during the period 1968 and 2005. Secondary sources and documentary evidence (e.g. production and sales data) are used to build up a historical picture of the company and to depict its deteriorating financial and market position from 1968 onwards.

The company was formed from a multitude of previously independent firms as part of a government‐sponsored agenda to build a UK National Champion in the car industry. The merged company failed due to several factors including poor product development processes, poor manufacturing performance, difficult labour relations, a very wide product portfolio and a lack of financial control. Although strenuous efforts were made to address those issues, including periods of whole or part ownership by British Aerospace, Honda and BMW, the company's position deteriorated until eventually production volumes were too low for viable operation.

The case of Rover highlights the importance of what has been termed “the management unit” in complex systems. The management unit comprises processes and routines to deal with challenges such as managing product portfolios, connecting strategic and operational choices, and scanning and responding to the environment. In the case of Rover, a number of factors taken together generated excessive load on a management unit frequently operating under conditions of resource scarcity. We conclude that viewing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development, yields insights often absent in the operations management literature.

The paper is of value by showing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development; and yields insights often absent in the operations management literature. The Rover case featured in the paper demonstrates the usefulness of systems ideas to understanding at least some types of failure, not as an alterative to capability‐based approaches, but in addition to them.

The purpose of this paper is to use managerial vision of corporate brand in relation to consumers, dealers and frontline employees to generate brand benchmarks. These benchmarks are sets of perceptions on how managers envision corporate brand to be positioned in minds of consumers, dealers and frontline employees. Additionally, this study explores managerial views concerning the importance of corporate branding in relation to an organization and its stakeholders. One of the most important strategic decisions that managers make concerns positioning of a corporate brand in the minds of key internal and external stakeholders.

Insights are drawn from the in-depth semi-structured interviews with 22 senior managers from the three car manufacturers based in Australia and engaged in the corporate branding strategy.

Although managers viewed corporate brand as a “strategic tool” and “the DNA” of an organization, the findings suggest that corporate brand strategy is ultimately driven by consumers rather than multiple stakeholders. Practical (utilitarian) components of the brand value were emphasized by the managers as key brand benefits communicated to consumers and also to dealers and frontline employees. Although managers recognized the importance of being seen as a “trustworthy partner” by dealer principals and customer-facing staff, the idea of dealer networks playing a role of a “supportive mechanism” for enhancing consumer experience, was domineering.

The views expressed by the interviewees in this paper may not fully reflect the views of the whole organization regarding the corporate brand. As this study is conducted in the car manufacturing industry, its findings may not be directly applicable in other industries. As corporate branding a relatively new area, organizations do not always appreciate its scope and what such a branding strategy involves. However, organizations need to move beyond a “product branding thinking” to a strategic perspective as corporate brands build the images formed and held by key external and internal stakeholders.

Generating benchmarks for corporate brands using top management’s aspirations can assist organizations in generating focused and more nuanced understanding of how they wish corporate brand to be perceived by the key stakeholders and effectively build corporate brand.

Managerial vision of corporate brand was used as a starting point in developing reference points (i.e. benchmarks) for the desired brand identity, which may potentially be developed into relevant standards and best practices in corporate branding within an organization.

It is now becoming apparent that the prevalent “stock‐push” approach in the automotive industry of building vehicles against a long‐term forecast and fulfilling the large majority of orders from existing stock is no longer a viable proposition. Pressure from rising stock levels in the market and the discounts needed to sell these vehicles is forcing the vehicle manufacturers to rethink their sourcing strategy in favour of “build‐to‐order” systems. More responsive order fulfilment at vehicle manufacturer level however will have wide implications on the component supply and logistics subsystems. Based on findings of the 3DayCar research programme, this paper aims at assessing whether current logistics systems are capable of supporting such a “build‐to‐order” approach. Based on empirical evidence of benchmarks covering three million annual vehicle movements in the UK vehicle distribution system, key constraints in current vehicle distribution logistics will be established, and the cost and environmental impact of more responsive logistics will be assessed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the key research question, which is whether fintech innovation for financial inclusion has been successful in India? As fintech has been popular in many countries, there is very little understanding on how successful it has performed in India for financial inclusion. This research attempts to ravel important factors that may or may not have a direct or indirect impact on fintech innovation for financial inclusion, thereby dissecting the empirical data to reveal important information for the reader.

This study covers a comprehensive literature review, from which key variables are discovered, then develops hypotheses to be examined, followed by proposing a research model. The survey data examines important research instruments for fintech inclusion in India, identifying and measuring factors, leading to partial least squares (PLS) model testing. Finally, the key findings are reported.

The findings reveal that fintech innovation from variables such as users experience and motivation for digital payments drives usefulness and ease of use leading to financial inclusion. The security, trust, transparency and customer support when built into the fintech innovation for digital payments influences perceived ease of use (PEOU) and usefulness that mediates to uplift financial inclusion directly. Whereas perceived usefulness (PU) anchoring happens to be a precursor for the financial inclusion. On the contrary, cultural values for fintech innovation through PEOU and usefulness had no impact whatsoever on financial inclusion, thus demystifying cultural influences as non-influential factor.

Research limitations are that the study was conducted in India, and may not be generalised in other countries; however, it can be modified to fit future research. Survey data captured was from a particular region of South India, which may differ from the rest of the country. The sample size and research period were adequate; however, larger data sets would be more meaningful for longitudinal studies. As India is the second most populous country in the world, a comparison with other similar countries of the same size and geographical location will be useful for future research.

This research reveals that financial inclusion is much more complex than previously known and that the penetration of fintech has the capacity to go deeper and include a large number of people into the mainstream financial system and ameliorate the inequities in urban-rural gender and caste. The user’s experience, culture and motivations positively influenced the usefulness and ease of use for driving the financial inclusion of digital payments. Further security, trust, transparency and customer support can facilitate the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) as a tool for financial inclusion.

Fintech innovation for financial inclusion is based on the successful acceptance of the digital payment system by people in the society. This research has identified that for any fintech innovation, it is essential that society needs to benefit from it. Encouraging a larger population to switch to digital payments offer challenges and opportunities. While the opportunities are enormous research suggests that early adopters of new technology go through different phases of testing, in which a society can completely accept an innovation or can completely reject an innovation if the two mediating factors such as PU and ease of use do not perform as predicted, thus having a higher failure rate. On the other side, if such an innovation as fintech becomes successful it has the capacity to bring billions of people into mainstream financial inclusion, a success story that can greatly benefit the Indian society and which can be replicated among other countries in the world.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt in an effort to understand the influential factors from the point of view of users for the adoption of CBDC for financial inclusion. The main contribution of this paper is to examine the role of CBDC as an instrument to foster financial inclusion in India, which has not been attempted so far. The originality also lies to the heart of the research is dissecting and making meaningful sense of the empirical data, developing and measuring research instruments and hypotheses and finally adopting a PLS model to answer the key research question, which is whether fintech innovation for financial inclusion can be successful for India?