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Notes the importance of innovation with regard to competitiveness but points out that innovation and change management are synonymous with risk. This research presents a new design typology which is accessible to managers and can be built into corporate strategy ‐ allowing a facility for controlling and managing innovation.

Business‐to‐business international Internet marketing is one of the key drivers in sustaining an organisation’s competitive advantage. The challenge for organisations today is to understand the factors that play a critical role in utilising Internet capabilities and their implications on business strategic objectives to enable them to compete successfully in the electronic age. Proposes 33 critical factors classified into five categories and validated empirically through a sample of 123 UK companies. Discusses the significance, importance and implications for each category and makes recommendations.

The aim of this research is to investigate how local company web sites can contribute towards the value and characteristics of city brands online, particularly where post‐industrial cities are concerned, and to establish a predictive model for this.

Interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of how post‐industrial city brands can be influenced by local companies, leading to the notion of a “constructed” city brand. An overarching brand model was developed based on the works of Christodoulides et al. and Merrilees and Fry and a survey of company web sites conducted. Structural equation modelling was then fitted to these data.

Trustworthiness, responsiveness, online experience and emotional connection were confirmed as dimensions of company online brand value. It was further shown that company brand and constructed city brand are influenced by customer perceptions of brand value. Company brand was not, however, related to constructed city brand for the case study of Bradford, UK, which has a pervading negative reputation.

A model incorporating company brand and city brand has been developed and validated for a typical post‐industrial city that is in decline. The influence that local companies can exert on these brands via their web sites and behaviours was established. It is further demonstrated that company brands become disassociated from a city if it has a negative brand image.

This article aims to introduce the special issue which arose from a conference about urban regeneration in post industrial cities hosted at Bradford University in 2008. The event focused on the sustainable and intangible aspects of individual and community well‐being.

The article discusses the background to urban regeneration and introduces the papers in the issue.

The papers investigate and understand how policies, programmes and projects can increase well‐being in the built environment, and what this means for those involved. Specifically the papers address key features of well‐being in terms of the economics of regeneration, participation, sustainability, social enterprise, migration, partnership, management, and the importance of place and space.

The article focuses on the papers of the special issue that encourage pragmatic and workable solutions based on sound theory and practice.

This exploratory research examines how corporate communications can influence stakeholder perceptions to enhance or detract from the city as a brand. It uses the UK city of Bradford as a case study and adopts theoretical concepts of product and corporate branding. Balmer's AC²ID test of corporate identity is applied to identify gaps in the City's official communications strategy, revealing conflicting messages between local government policy and different stakeholder groups. This analysis points to the need for positive visual evidence of change, such as an improved built environment in the city centre. The analysis may have value for policy‐makers in the UK and elsewhere who seek to improve community and stakeholder relationships. This research may also help to promote an honest approach towards branding cities as well as providing the potential for an enhanced brand value.

The Internet provides a fundamentally different environment for international marketing and requires a different approach. Now it is unrealistic to apply the same marketing strategies without making some modifications to be appropriate to the electronic edge. This paper touches on the effect of international Internet marketing (IIM) on the marketing mix and explains the need for a new marketing paradigm. The aim is to determine some building blocks in the new marketing paradigm.

Despite the undisputed importance of organizational innovation and decades of academic research on the subject, there is surprisingly little agreement on what innovativeness is or how to achieve successful innovation in practice. Furthermore, the difference between the theory and practice is often interpreted in an ad hoc manner, which limits the potential for innovation to provide a competitive advantage. This research aims to explore perceptions of innovativeness from the perspective of senior managers in the hotel industry from a sample of 11 high-class hotels located in the developing country of Iran.

A stratified purposeful sampling method will be employed, in which in-depth interviews with top managers and owners will be carried out over a five-month period. Meaning units (MUs) will be extracted, which are compared and discussed with the interviewees until a basic agreement of terms can be made.

The findings relate to themes such as Leavitt's diamond of task, structure, people and technology, with technology featuring quite strongly in a number of responses. It reflects how top managers and owners perceive that innovativeness can gain a competitive advantage by differentiating one hotel from another; and the role of national culture in developing that advantage. There are implications that a strong relationship with government and local business stakeholders could underpin innovativeness at local and regional level.

This research provides a valuable contribution to the understanding of some important drivers of innovativeness in the context of the hotel industry in a developing country.

A survey of 108 UK industrial companies compares attitudes towards new products with company performance. The research, carried out at Bradford University Management Centre, uses a range of performance measures to examine the product development process and factors that influence the success and failure of projects. The findings indicate where a change of attitude can reduce “time to market”, increase the number of products launched and improve sales growth. Discusses profiles of two companies, Edward Macbean and On Demand Information, together with a new map of the product development environment.

This conceptual paper examines the notion of CEO brands and the problems that arise if they are misaligned with company brands. Previous research examines product, company and people brands and implications for senior executives and organizations, but there is no theoretical framework for CEO brand stewardship. This research aims to fill the gap.

The marketing literature is examined to identify differences between products and people as brands, and the potential for CEO brands to enhance corporate brand equity. Based on an application of existing branding concepts to CEOs, a conceptual model of CEO brands is developed to include an analysis of the relationships between its constituent parts.

CEO brands can be legitimately considered as brands, and existing brand conceptualisations can be applied to CEOs as long as some particularities are accounted for. CEO brands are influenced by their personality and their role as managers, and organisations need to constantly monitor CEO brand reputation as well as communicate its positioning. A successful CEO branding enhances perceived brand value and creates value for organisations.

This research informs brand managers and strategists about brand equity creation. Monitoring stakeholder perceptions of CEOs can enhance rather than detract from corporate brand value. As it showed that people and CEOs can be legitimately considered as brands, the concept of branding needs to be extended to embrace people and CEO brands.

For business practice, this research informs about the differences and similarities between traditional product brands and CEO brands. Particularly it informs that organisations should consider that the CEO brand personifies to stakeholders what the organisation stands for, for example, when hiring a new CEO.

This research provides a new conceptual model on the previously under‐researched area of CEO branding. The insights into CEO brands provide the basis for empirical research into relationships between brand identity, reputation, position and equity, with implications for personal fame and company fortune.