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1 – 10 of over 240000Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the positioning points of successful retail enterprises in China, and to try to conclude the general law for selecting the positioning points.
Design/methodology/approach
By analyzing the evaluation data of countrywide samples and the impact factors of customer satisfaction, the authors select some successful retail enterprises in China to be the study samples. On the base of that, the performance concerning positioning points of the samples are discussed.
Findings
The paper reaches five valuable conclusions: first, successful retail enterprises have definite positioning points; second, successful retail enterprises commonly have a main positioning point and a second best positioning point; third, successful retail enterprises could choose commodity, service, price or shopping environment as their positioning point; fourth, retail enterprises in the same retail format could have different positioning points; fifth, the non‐positioning points of successful retail enterprises are usually above the industry average level, while those of retail enterprises in successful tendency could hardly reach the industry average level.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of samples (only large‐scale supermarkets) might still make the practical applications on other retail formats limited. Meanwhile, the criteria for identifying the successful enterprises in this paper are mainly customer satisfaction and loyalty, without considering the financial performance.
Practical implications
The conclusions in this paper have great significance for Chinese retail enterprises to establish a unique competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The conclusion concerning positioning points of this paper might be the first to answer the key issues in Chinese retail enterprises' positioning strategies.
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Zhiqiang Huang, Lei He, ZhaoXin Gao, Yingqi Jia, Yewei Kang, Dou Xie and Chunli Fu
This paper aims to introduce a new acoustic positioning method to solve the problem of space positioning for online inspection robots within the storage tank.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce a new acoustic positioning method to solve the problem of space positioning for online inspection robots within the storage tank.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed positioning system comprises two acoustic signal emitters and two receivers. Emitters are brought by the robot into the storage tank. Receivers are mounted on the external edge of the storage tank floor. The spatial coordinate values and motion directions of the robot in the storage tank are calculated by using the proposed acoustic positioning algorithm.
Findings
The experiment results and positioning error analysis indicate that the method can obtain the data of robotic space coordinates and motion orientation, while the positioning error of the method can be less than 20 cm. The accuracy reaches the positioning technology level of other tank online inspection robots.
Originality/value
This method not only expands the positioning of the inspection robots from 2D plane to 3D space but also significantly reduces the number of positioning sensors carried by a robot and improves the safety of a robot in the tank.
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Zhuoyu Zhang, Lijia Zhong, Mingwei Lin, Ri Lin and Dejun Li
Docking technology plays a crucial role in enabling long-duration operations of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Visual positioning solutions alone are susceptible to…
Abstract
Purpose
Docking technology plays a crucial role in enabling long-duration operations of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Visual positioning solutions alone are susceptible to abnormal drift values due to the challenging underwater optical imaging environment. When an AUV approaches the docking station, the absolute positioning method fails if the AUV captures an insufficient number of tracers. This study aims to to provide a more stable absolute position visual positioning method for underwater terminal visual docking.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a six-degree-of-freedom positioning method for AUV terminal visual docking, which uses lights and triangle codes. The authors use an extended Kalman filter to fuse the visual calculation results with inertial measurement unit data. Moreover, this paper proposes a triangle code recognition and positioning algorithm.
Findings
The authors conducted a simulation experiment to compare the underwater positioning performance of triangle codes, AprilTag and Aruco. The results demonstrate that the implemented triangular code reduces the running time by over 70% compared to the other two codes, and also exhibits a longer recognition distance in turbid environments. Subsequent experiments were carried out in Qingjiang Lake, Hubei Province, China, which further confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed positioning algorithm.
Originality/value
This fusion approach effectively mitigates abnormal drift errors stemming from visual positioning and cumulative errors resulting from inertial navigation. The authors also propose a triangle code recognition and positioning algorithm as a supplementary approach to overcome the limitations of tracer light positioning beacons.
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Baburhan Uzum, Bedrettin Yazan, Sedat Akayoglu and Ufuk Keles
This study aims to examine how teacher candidates (TCs) in Türkiye and the USA navigate their intercultural communication skills in a telecollaboration project.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how teacher candidates (TCs) in Türkiye and the USA navigate their intercultural communication skills in a telecollaboration project.
Design/methodology/approach
Forty-eight TCs participated (26 in Türkiye and 22 in the USA) in the study. TCs discussed critical issues in multicultural education on an online learning platform for six weeks. Their discussions were analyzed using content and discourse analysis.
Findings
The findings indicated that TCs approached the telecollaborative space as a translingual contact zone and positioned themselves and their interlocutors in the discourse by using the personal pronouns; I, we, you and they. When they positioned themselves using we (people in Türkiye/USA), they spoke on behalf of everyone included in the scope of we. Their interlocutors responded to these positionings either by accepting this positioning and responding with a parallel positioning or by engaging in translingual negotiation strategies to revise the scope of we and sharing some differences/nuances in beliefs and practices in their community.
Research limitations/implications
When TCs talk about their culture and community in a singular manner using we, they frame them as the same across every member in that community. When they ask questions to each other using you, the framing of the questions prime the respondents to sometimes relay their own specific experiences as the norm or consider experiences from different points of view through translingual negotiation strategies. A singular approach to culture(s) may affect the marginalized communities the most because they are lost in this representation, and their experiences and voices are not integrated in the narratives or integrated with stereotypical representation.
Practical implications
Teachers and teacher educators should first pay attention to their language choices, especially use of pronouns, which may communicate inclusion or exclusion in intercultural conversations. Next, they should prepare their students to adopt and practice language choices that communicate respect for cultural diversity and are inclusive of marginalized populations.
Social implications
Speakers’ pronoun use includes identity construction in discourse by drawing borders around and between communities and cultures with generalization and particularity, and by patrolling those borders to decide who is included and excluded. As a response, interlocutors use pronouns either to acknowledge those borders and respond with corresponding ones from their own context or negotiate alternative representations or further investigate for particularity or complexity. In short, pronouns could lead the direction of intercultural conversations toward criticality and complexity or otherwise, and might be reasons where there are breakdowns in communication or to fix those breakdowns.
Originality/value
This study shows that translingual negotiation strategies have explanatory power to examine how speakers from different language backgrounds negotiate second and third order positionings in the telecollaborative space.
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The predominant view of positioning in both the literature and practice – a remarkably uni- or two-dimensional view – asks these questions: (1) What dimension should the product…
Abstract
The predominant view of positioning in both the literature and practice – a remarkably uni- or two-dimensional view – asks these questions: (1) What dimension should the product or service be positioned on, for example, unique styling, design, performance, and quality? (2) What category does the product or service compete in or belong to? So marketers therefore ask: Should the computer brand be positioned as reliable (Dell), or faster (Toshiba)? Research on economic value is well established in the pricing literature, especially in business-to-business pricing. Most of this literature focuses on differentiation value, that is, how to calculate the worth of the differential benefits a customer receives from using the firm's product versus the competitive substitute. But a much less studied area of this research deals with the price of the competitive reference product, or competitive frame of reference. Rarely do marketers extend positioning strategy to the level of economic value, asking: How is the product framed, and how valuable is the frame? The purpose of this chapter is to explore competitive frames of reference in business-to-business positioning. Specifically, what are alternative types of frames of reference? What is the role of the reference price in frames of reference? What are the implications of choosing one type of frame of reference versus another?
Vidal Ashkenazi, David Park and Mark Dumville
Presents an overview of how satellite‐based positioning techniques could be used to develop novel navigational methods for use on mobile robotic platforms. Details are given of…
Abstract
Presents an overview of how satellite‐based positioning techniques could be used to develop novel navigational methods for use on mobile robotic platforms. Details are given of the major terrestrial techniques, both internal and external to the robot, which have been traditionally used to meet positioning requirements. A descriptive summary of the global positioning system of navigation satellites (GPS) is followed by an introduction to Galileo, the European project on the development of a comparable system. A small number of examples, either near to market or in use now, are used to illustrate the use of robotic systems that use GPS as a source of 3D absolute position information, but also velocity, attitude and time. Concludes that GPS is likely to become the universal positioning standard for outdoor applications, with future augmentations and developments enhancing the reliability, integrity and accuracy of the system. Nevertheless, in most cases it will still be necessary to use GPS in combination with alternative positioning sensors.
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Divya Gogia, Sandeep Kumar Gupta and Priya Rathi
In highly competitive environments, sustainability positioning is crucial for firms, as they are evaluated based on their sustainable practices. This study aims to draw on the…
Abstract
Purpose
In highly competitive environments, sustainability positioning is crucial for firms, as they are evaluated based on their sustainable practices. This study aims to draw on the legitimacy and information asymmetry theories to explore attributes that impact business-to-business (B2B) sustainability positioning in emerging economies, such as India, within the service industry.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a mixed-methods exploratory research design to examine the attributes affecting sustainability positioning. In the first phase of the study, a qualitative research method was used to explore the attributes influencing B2B sustainability positioning. In the second phase, this study used these factors to develop a structural model.
Findings
A variety of attributes was critical in assessing the sustainability positioning of B2B firms. This study identified a number of factors that explain the attributes affecting sustainability positioning in B2B markets. Some of them included environmental consciousness and external assurance.
Originality/value
This study significantly contributes to the theoretical discourse on sustainable practices in B2B businesses in multiple ways. First, it provides empirical data on the relationship between firms’ environmental consciousness and sustainability positioning in the B2B context, thereby adding to and expanding the current literature on this topic. Second, this study investigates the impact of external assurance on B2B firms’ sustainability positioning and shows how it can enhance credibility, transparency and accountability. Finally, it analyzes sustainable positioning in the service sector, specifically in India, thereby contributing to the body of knowledge on this topic.
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Hang Guo, Xin Chen, Min Yu, Marcin Uradziński and Liang Cheng
In this study, an indoor sensor information fusion positioning system of the quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was investigated to solve the problem of unstable indoor…
Abstract
Purpose
In this study, an indoor sensor information fusion positioning system of the quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was investigated to solve the problem of unstable indoor flight positioning.
Design/methodology/approach
The presented system was built on Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and LiDAR-Lite devices. Based on this, one can obtain the aircraft's current attitude and the position vector relative to the target and control the attitudes and positions of the UAV to reach the specified target positions. While building a UAV positioning model relative to the target for indoor positioning scenarios under limited Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), the system detects the environment through the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 (Transmit Data) peripheral sensor, obtains the current attitude and the position vector of the UAV, packs the data in the format and delivers it to the flight controller. Then the flight controller controls the UAV by calculating the posture to reach the specified target position.
Findings
The authors used two systems in the experiment. The first is the proposed UAV, and the other is the Vicon system, our reference system for comparison purposes. Vicon positioning error can be considered lower than 2 mm from low to high-speed experiments. After comparison, experimental results demonstrated that the system could fully meet the requirements (less than 50 mm) in real-time positioning of the indoor quadrotor UAV flight. It verifies the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method compared with that of Vicon and achieves the aim of a stable indoor flight preliminarily.
Originality/value
Vicon positioning error can be considered lower than 2 mm from low to high-speed experiments. After comparison, experimental results demonstrated that the system could fully meet the requirements (less than 50 mm) in real-time positioning of the indoor quadrotor UAV flight. It verifies the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method compared with that of Vicon and achieves the aim of a stable indoor flight preliminarily.
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The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on positioning strategies, categorise them as typologies and taxonomies and propose generic positioning strategies…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on positioning strategies, categorise them as typologies and taxonomies and propose generic positioning strategies for organisations from a theoretical viewpoint.
Design/methodology/approach
Typologies and taxonomies are defined and characterised, and then all product or brand positioning strategies are examined. Articles published in reputable marketing and strategic marketing journals from 1969 to 2022 are analysed for this purpose. The analysis was done using qualitative text mining: classification, coding and text analysis.
Findings
The review enables the identification of three generic positioning strategies widely accepted in the literature, as well as the distinction between conceptually derived positioning strategies (typology) and empirically derived positioning strategies( taxonomy).
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a comprehensive overview for researchers who wish to get broad-picture research on generic classifications in positioning strategy. Moreover, most notably for academics, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to classify positioning strategies into typologies and taxonomies based on their evolution.
Practical implications
Knowledge of positioning typologies and taxonomies can assist managers in developing and implementing a strategy that allows their company to maximise the potential of its product/brand and achieve better results. The literature review contributes to theory development and helps companies understand their positioning strategies.
Originality/value
Despite considerable interest in positioning research, little effort has been made to examine positioning strategies’ current or future development. Some authors use the term taxonomy to describe their conceptually derived classification of positioning strategies, and it was discovered that authors frequently interchangeably use the terms typologies or taxonomies. When attempting to understand and compare the various classifications, this liberal use of the term’s typology and taxonomy creates misunderstanding and confusion. This paper fills that void.
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This study aims to examine how perceptions of the globalness or localness of a brand affect the purchase intentions of consumers through the building of consumer–brand…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how perceptions of the globalness or localness of a brand affect the purchase intentions of consumers through the building of consumer–brand identification (CBI). This paper also explores the moderating effect of brand positioning (underdog vs top dog) on the relationship between perceived brand globalness or localness (PBG or PBL) and purchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed hypotheses were tested in two experimental studies. Data were collected through a set of structured questionnaires and analyzed using PROCESS modelling and analysis of variance.
Findings
The results show that CBI mediates the effect of PBG/PBL on purchase intentions. Moreover, the findings of Study 2 reveal that participants show greater purchase intention for PBL than for PBG in response to underdog positioning. However, in top dog positioning, the difference in purchase intention for PBL compared to PBG is attenuated.
Originality/value
This research investigates how CBI influences purchase intentions of consumers in regards to a brand’s perceived globalness or localness, which adds to the growing body of international branding research. This paper also addresses the effects of interaction between brand localness (globalness) and underdog (top dog) brand positioning on purchase intentions. Finally, this study concludes with a discussion of practical actions that international brand managers can take to enhance the effectiveness of their marketing strategies.
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