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Developing intellectual capital and knowledge management measuring systems are two fast growing research areas. Many companies are striving to be known as knowledge organizations and have started measuring and analyzing organizational intellectual capital indicators based on what has been reported in the literature. Very little effort has been made to standardize the measurement and reporting of these indicators with most organizations using very general components. This article discusses a research study that sets out to gain an understanding of management attitudes to the measurement of intellectual capital. The study was conducted with 36 top management participants with at least 20 years of experience in a service‐related industry in Australia. This research investigates the relationship between the perception of the importance of measuring intellectual capital indicators and the level of understanding of these indicators. The strategic implications of understanding the measurements are also discussed within the context of the attitude of top management.

Despite a plethora of studies purporting that learning could occur at the individual, team and organizational levels, there is still a lack of reported empirical evidence on these linkages. Accordingly, these theoretical assumptions will be tested with empirical evidences in this study. Interestingly and contrary to the literature, individual learning was not significantly related to organizational learning. Internal team learning (learning within teams) was partially related to organizational learning, and external team learning (cross‐functional team learning) was significantly related to organizational learning. Organizational learning was conceptualized and tested as a three‐factor variable that consists of commitment to learning, shared vision, and open‐mindedness. A discussion of the results is provided.

The purpose of this study is to comprehend the whole phenomenon of corporate philanthropy in Malaysia by studying the traits of companies that make significant contributions to society. Specifically, it looks at firms' ownership structures and specific characteristics and their influence on the extent of corporate philanthropy.

This study employs Agency theory as the basis for explaining philanthropic behaviour of Malaysian companies. A total of 100 public‐listed companies were selected from the top 200 companies based on market capitalization as listed on the Bursa Malaysia. The ownership structures and firm characteristics of the selected companies were tested against the extent of corporate philanthropy in order to see the relationship among the variables. In addition, multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings of this study reveal that ownership structure does have some influence on corporate philanthropic activities. This is consistent with the proposition of Agency theory. In addition, the size factor is also found to be a significant determinant of philanthropic tendency among Malaysian companies.

In view of the increasing importance of corporate philanthropy in the overall context of corporate social responsibility and nation building, this study serves well in providing an insight into the determinants of corporate philanthropic tendencies in Malaysia. By doing this, it extends the horizon of the study done by Prathaban and Rahim on the levels of firm charitable contributions.

This paper offers an important explanation of the factors that influence corporate philanthropic tendency, particularly in the Malaysian context.

The main research question of the paper is to determine whether technology nowadays is overcome by customer preferences and needs. In particular, the role of the brand is to be analysed with respect to its influence in shifting customer preferences from the technical performances (tangible elements) to the emotional/symbolic ones (intangible elements).

Consumer behaviour was analysed by interviewing a random (but well stratified) sample of mobile phone users in order to study their consumption style and the motivations underlying the buying process in order to understand, on the one hand, the variables that influence people in the usage of mobile phones and, on the other, those that influence firms in launching new products, both from a technological point of view and from a marketing one.

The findings show various dimensions that are relevant in consumer minds when considering decisions regarding technological products. Brand attitudes do relate positively to consumer intention to use (purchase) specific mobile phones over others.

The study, though exploratory, has underlined the importance of brand and the dualism between marketing and technology in the adoption and diffusion of technological products. Certainly, the analysis has some limitations, but it provides an initial perspective into understanding brand issues. Future research should focus on the effects of the cooperation between mobile operators and mobile manufacturers.

This paper provides an analysis of the brand attitude and perception tested and viewed through user eyes.

Reporting the value of intellectual capital (IC) in the disclosure process for stakeholders has focused largely on the construction of indicators determined by the companies. This paper reports a study conducted with the investment community to determine the information they need to assist them in making investment decisions. This research project sets out to answer what are the perceptions towards strategic capital information required to assist in decision making and what are perceived as the most important or critical strategic management capital and strategic marketing capital indicators. More specifically, the study addresses the inter‐relationship between the knowledge of indicators and the perceived importance of disclosing the information on these indicators.

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the affective components of brand association influence the key stakeholders of business‐to‐business (B2B) brands. The aim is to demonstrate the importance of branding to organisations involved only in B2B markets by testing three hypotheses: that the customer's affective brand associations predict satisfaction with the company; that customer and employee affective brand associations correlate, and; that the better the training employees believe they receive, the stronger their affective brand associations and the higher their satisfaction with the organisation.

The paper uses a survey of the customers (280) and employees (367) of two construction companies involved only in B2B markets using a multidimensional measure of corporate brand personality. Structural equation modelling and regression are used to test the hypotheses.

Customer satisfaction is predicted by corporate brand personality. The customer view correlates significantly with the employee view. The quality of training in turn helps predict the employee view and their satisfaction.

Building affective associations with a pure B2B brand is an effective way to increase customer satisfaction. This in turn appears to depend on the employee view which depends, inter alia, on their view of the quality of training they receive. Further work is required to identify other factors that may influence the employee view of a B2B brand and how the employee view influences the customer view.

Few studies in B2B marketing are of companies involved only in B2B markets, despite the large number of firms and the volume of business that is conducted in this sector. The study demonstrates both the influence of a strong brand image in B2B marketing but also how customers might acquire such an image.

This paper aims to provide a theoretical analysis of contemporary brand communication for technology products, focused on how the human body functions as a metaphorical and communicative device, to shed insight into how technological brands make their products understandable, tangible, and attractive in interesting ways.

An interdisciplinary conceptual review and analysis focuses on issues of metaphor and the body in marketing research and social theory. This analysis is discussed and applied to the communication of technological brands.

The paper argues that to successfully communicate technological brands requires interdisciplinary insights in order to understand consumption contexts. It proposes an analytic framework for practice and research focused on visual communication for technology brands and products, and demonstrates how advertising both creates and contributes to culture.

Researchers need to understand that a sole focus on the advertising system needs to be supplemented by an understanding of how the symbol of the body in technology advertisements is reflective and productive of meaning in socio‐cultural discourse.

Brand researchers need to add to the prevailing advertising as persuasion model to encompass representation and culture in brand communications. The paper contributes to understanding how basic visual forms, such as the human body, are employed in technology product marketing. It challenges marketers and researchers to broaden their conception of branding and marketing communications to one more consistent with an image economy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to help business marketers with online and traditional retail channels (multi‐channel retailers) to find the optimal branding strategy and market structure in order to maximize their profits.

A game‐theoretic model is developed to determine the optimal branding strategy and market structure for the dual‐channel stores of a multi‐channel retailer.

The paper demonstrates that an optimal branding strategy and market structure exists for the dual‐channel stores of a multi‐channel retailer. When a retailer uses multiple channels in parallel to sell its product, the optimal branding strategy is to employ as large as possible brand differentiation between the dual‐channel stores, particularly when the price is less sensitive for consumers and the market base size is larger. Furthermore, it is also found that the optimal market structure is the Stackelberg mode, especially when the product brands between the two channels are less differentiated.

The present study assumed that all information is known to both the online and traditional channels of a multi‐channel retailer. However, information could be incomplete. It is recommended that future research explore the value of product brand differentiation under incomplete information settings.

The paper provides a very useful model framework, branding strategy, and market structure for business managers who are using or planning to use multiple channels to sell their products.

This paper fills a conceptual and practical gap for a structured analysis of the current state of knowledge about multi‐channel branding strategies. The paper provides practical and solid advice and examples demonstrating the application of product brand differentiation strategies for business managers.