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1 – 10 of over 1000The purpose of this case study is to explore how a relatively economically insignificant business can gain and maintain access to a major supermarket chain on the other side of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this case study is to explore how a relatively economically insignificant business can gain and maintain access to a major supermarket chain on the other side of the globe in a world oversupplied with fine wines.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the approach to case studies recommended by Lyons (2005), this case study is built on semi‐structured interviews with key informants, previous experience, observations, documentary and web resources, combined in a process of triangulation to ensure reliability and content validity.
Findings
The nature of the problems facing a small wine producer are described, followed by an account of how access to Tesco was achieved and maintained. Personnel with previous Tesco contact were found to be vital to gaining access. Providing exactly what the supermarket wanted, when it wanted it and with reliability to continue supply over time were found to be critical as was the role of the channel coordinator. Supplier/supermarket loyalty was able to survive opposition. Maintaining good relationships in the supply chain was supported at all levels by active participation of the supplier's principals, in all stages of the chain, both personally and in developing solutions to the supermarket's problems.
Originality/value
The case study describes the first successful export of wine from New Zealand to Britain for sale in Bag‐in‐Box containers and how this is far more efficient in “food miles”.
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There are many selling opportunities in automated manufacturing for both buyer and seller. You may have heard about all the doom and gloom in the machine tool industry—that it's…
Abstract
There are many selling opportunities in automated manufacturing for both buyer and seller. You may have heard about all the doom and gloom in the machine tool industry—that it's going under. However, cells, manufacturing systems, automatic manufacturing, and automated assembly should rejuvenate the machine tool and capital goods sector of the economy. With automated manufacturing, there is reason to be optimistic about the future.
Elizabeth Pérez-Izaguirre, José Miguel Correa Gorospe and Eider Chaves-Gallastegui
This chapter reflects on how ethics was managed in Basque educational ethnographic research. Specifically, it addresses researcher positionality when relating to research…
Abstract
This chapter reflects on how ethics was managed in Basque educational ethnographic research. Specifically, it addresses researcher positionality when relating to research collaborators in an attempt to manage inclusive ethics in situ. Nowadays, most research is evaluated by an ethical review board that ensures adequate research practice. However, unexpected fieldwork events need to be managed in the field, and this chapter addresses the impact of these events on the relationship between researchers and collaborators. Influenced by a post-qualitative stance we posit that research collaborators should be included in the research process. It reflects on the data collected during an ongoing ethnographic study with higher education students. The method used includes several interview meetings between researchers and collaborators, multimodal representations of collaborators' learning, and participants' self-observations. In the interviews, participants' discourses, representations, and self-observations were collaboratively analysed. The ethnographic data from these meetings show how researchers use a collaborative approach to practise ethics. Through such meetings, the knowledge derived from the ethnographic data is co-constructed in a research relationship where participants engage in dialogue and negotiation about the discourse created around them. Based on this relationship, we propose the concept of inclusive ethics as a process requiring an honest, inclusive, and collaborative relationship with the research subject.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the international market development process in small- and medium-sized exporting firms (SMEs) and to examine the influence of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the international market development process in small- and medium-sized exporting firms (SMEs) and to examine the influence of “unexpected market events” in relation to actual market activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The discussion is illustrated with a multiple case study. The data in the cases were collected by using secondary data, but also through face-to-face interviews with export executives in the firms. The cases for this research were selected on the basis of suggestions from the Swedish Export Council who applied their own interpretations of firms that have shown rapid export development.
Findings
SMEs are becoming more involved in international activities and exhibiting market behaviours not previously seen. The recognition that internationalization is affected by multiple influences has led to a growing interest in contingency approaches. The findings in the study are illustrated by a typology of international market behaviour.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to a few exporting firms within the manufacturing industry so the results of the study can only be tentative.
Practical implications
The number of SME firms operating in international markets has grown. The findings in this paper emphasize the importance of the fact that management has the interest, experience and commitment necessary for international activities.
Originality/value
The interest in the study is focused on capturing the steps in the development process that diverts internationalization in a firm from the traditional path of exporting in SMEs. The multiple case studies illustrate the fact that unexpected market events can influence the firm’s marketing behaviour and the international marketing strategy.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore international market development for mature products and practices used in a novel business context.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore international market development for mature products and practices used in a novel business context.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a qualitative approach, the case study method was chosen to investigate how firms develop markets in relation to a new international business context. Critical international decisions are analysed using a managerial perspective.
Findings
The success of international ventures depends on managerial learning and effectiveness. In this paper, the authors argue that decisions about international market development can add significantly to the understanding of how business firms enter and develop markets in novel business contexts. Two case studies show different approaches for meeting challenges in distant markets. Four propositions are developed.
Originality/value
A theoretical contribution of this study is the importance of factors that explain international market development decisions in novel business contexts. The balance between incomplete knowledge and making resource commitments is of central concern to international managers. Some of this is tacit knowledge that a firm achieves and learns during the process of market development and other knowledge can only become available after an actual market entry. A second theoretical contribution of this study is the significance of contextual market knowledge in a novel business context.
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Tiina Tuominen, Tapio Korhonen, Heikki Hämäläinen, Satu Temonen, Helena Salo, Jouko Katajisto and Hannu Lauerma
– The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of the academic skills deficits in male offenders and their relation to neurocognitive deficits.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of the academic skills deficits in male offenders and their relation to neurocognitive deficits.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 72 Finnish male prisoners were tested with regard to reading, spelling, and mathematical abilities.
Findings
Low academic skills, especially reading, were related to poor neurocognitive performance in verbal memory, visual memory, attention, and motor dexterity. The results showed a high number (29-36 percent) of reading and spelling disorders. In all, 15 percent of those with medium to severe problems in academic skills had marked difficulties in mathematics. In total, 88 percent of the participants with at least one problem area in literacy skills had neurocognitive deficits. In the present study, the pervasive neurocognitive deficits, occurring comorbidly with reading and spelling difficulties, seem to refer to a fundamental set of deficits which are only minimally explained by IQ, educational background or training.
Research limitations/implications
Reading and spelling difficulties could be seen as functional illiteracy which, combined with a broad spectrum of neuropsychological function deficits, pose a challenging task for rehabilitation. Only after proper identification of deficits has been achieved is it possible to set goals and select the appropriate means for rehabilitation. One obvious limitation is the moderate number of subjects (n=72).
Practical implications
It may not be enough just to train reading or develop literacy activities among prisoners; focussing intervention on comprehensive neurocognitive deficits is also necessary.
Originality/value
Correlates and comorbidity between academic difficulties and neurocognitive deficits among offenders, especially in arithmetic difficulties, have been less studied.
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Noëlle Cotter, Eugene Monahan, Helen McAvoy and Patrick Goodman
Older people are vulnerable to fuel poverty on the island of Ireland. This paper seeks to explore the lived experiences of older people in cold weather with a view to informing…
Abstract
Purpose
Older people are vulnerable to fuel poverty on the island of Ireland. This paper seeks to explore the lived experiences of older people in cold weather with a view to informing fuel poverty policy and service responses.
Design/methodology/approach
A postal and online survey utilising an opportunistic sample of older people living in Ireland and linked with a range of services/community and voluntary groups was undertaken in January‐April 2011. Data on the experiences of 722 older people in the cold weather of winter 2010/2011 were analysed in the context of socio‐economic, health, and housing circumstances.
Findings
During the period of extreme cold weather half of the sample reported that they went without other household necessities due to the cost of home‐heating. In general, 62 per cent of those surveyed worried about the cost of home‐heating. Homes considered “too cold” were more likely to lack central heating and experience damp/draughts. Staying indoors, keeping the heating on, and eating hot food/drinks were common responses to cold weather but a diverse range of behaviours was observed. Associations were observed between living in a cold home and higher levels of chronic illness, falls and loneliness, and fewer social activities.
Research limitations/implications
The sample cannot be considered nationally representative; single occupancy and social housing units were overrepresented.
Originality/value
This research found significant associations between living in a cold home/difficulty paying for heating, and aspects of ill‐health and social exclusion. While no causal association can be assumed, this phenomenon has implications for policies supporting healthy ageing.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of innovative packaging for marketing purposes in a food supply chain. The intent is also to understand the function of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of innovative packaging for marketing purposes in a food supply chain. The intent is also to understand the function of packaging as a marketing tool. The outcome of the study is expected to contribute to the link between packaging and marketing literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study method was chosen in order to assess and investigate how packaging can be used in marketing. The study focuses on narrating the use of packaging for different customer applications and the unit of analyses was the packaging product. In order to analyse the five sub-cases or “corporate stories” a cross-case analysis was used and the analysis of data was carried out in different stages. This approach treats each sub-case as a separate entity and the analysis reveal both similarities and differences among the sub-cases.
Findings
The present study demonstrates that packaging has become an important tool in marketing of different products either this is for end-consumers, or customers in a supply chain. This has become more essential as more products are introduced on a market. The study shows the significance of linking packaging to marketing strategy. An important ingredient for that is the use of packaging design for differentiation purposes. The results support also that packaging has become an essential factor for a secure and efficient distribution in a food supply chain. In addition, packaging and packaging design is contributing to value creation for different actors in a food supply chain.
Practical implications
The managerial implication from the case study shows that packaging can be used together with the product concept to create a competitive offering in a market. This gives managers the possibility to differentiate their products from competitive offerings by using packaging and packaging design in a creative manner.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need for contributions to more research on packaging and marketing strategy. The study shows the influence of packaging on marketing.
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A. Kullaya Swamy and Sarojamma B.
Data mining plays a major role in forecasting the open price details of the stock market. However, it fails to address the dimensionality and expectancy of a naive investor…
Abstract
Purpose
Data mining plays a major role in forecasting the open price details of the stock market. However, it fails to address the dimensionality and expectancy of a naive investor. Hence, this paper aims to study a future prediction model named time series model is implemented.
Design/methodology/approach
In this model, the stock market data are fed to the proposed deep neural networks (DBN), and the number of hidden neurons is optimized by the modified JAYA Algorithm (JA), based on the fitness function. Hence, the algorithm is termed as fitness-oriented JA (FJA), and the proposed model is termed as FJA-DBN. The primary objective of this open price forecasting model is the minimization of the error function between the modeled and actual output.
Findings
The performance analysis demonstrates that the deviation of FJA–DBN in predicting the open price details of the Tata Motors, Reliance Power and Infosys data shows better performance in terms of mean error percentage, symmetric mean absolute percentage error, mean absolute scaled error, mean absolute error, root mean square error, L1-norm, L2-Norm and Infinity-Norm (least infinity error).
Research limitations/implications
The proposed model can be used to forecast the open price details.
Practical implications
The investors are constantly reviewing past pricing history and using it to influence their future investment decisions. There are some basic assumptions used in this analysis, first being that everything significant about a company is already priced into the stock, other being that the price moves in trends
Originality/value
This paper presents a technique for time series modeling using JA. This is the first work that uses FJA-based optimization for stock market open price prediction.
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Amélie Guèvremont and Bianca Grohmann
This paper aims to examine under what conditions consumers develop emotional attachment toward authentic brands. It proposes that authentic brands’ ability to evoke attachment is…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine under what conditions consumers develop emotional attachment toward authentic brands. It proposes that authentic brands’ ability to evoke attachment is contingent upon situational (i.e. need to belong and need to express the authentic self) and consumer individual difference variables (i.e. brand engagement in self-concept [BESC] and personal authenticity).
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments empirically test the effects of brand authenticity on emotional brand attachment. Experiment 1 considers the moderating roles of social exclusion and BESC. Experiment 2 examines the moderating roles of situationally induced feelings of self-inauthenticity and enduring personal authenticity.
Findings
Consumers with a high level of BESC show greater emotional brand attachment to authentic (versus less authentic) brands when they feel socially excluded. Consumers with a high level of enduring personal authenticity show greater emotional brand attachment to authentic (versus less authentic) brands when they experience situations that make them feel inauthentic.
Practical implications
This paper has implications for brand communication strategies adopted by brands that are positioned strongly on authenticity.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the few to examine the effect of brand authenticity on brand attachment taking into account the moderating role of situational and individual difference variables. The findings contribute to the brand attachment and brand authenticity literatures.
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