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Labor movements have played a central role in promoting democracy, the expansion of welfare states, and improvements in working conditions in many regions of the world during the last century (Jose, 2002). Despite the central social, political and economic role of labor movements, labor union memberships have declined in many world regions during the last quarter-century. Labor union memberships have declined with increasing global economic competition and capital mobility, the advent of neo-liberal macroeconomic policies, privatization of public services, changes in production technology, the substitution of casual, flexible and contingent employment arrangements for formal, bureaucratic internal labor markets, the restructuring of national economies from manufacturing to services, and mounting employer resistance to unionization (Clawson & Clawson, 1999; Cornfield & Fletcher, 2001; Griffin et al., 1990; Jose, 2002; Olney, 1996; Western, 1997, 1998).

The purpose of the paper is to build a sociocultural perspective of brand revitalization. Maintaining brands and bringing them back to life in the market has received much less interest than their creation. Moreover, the existing literature is dominated by the marketing management paradigm where the company’s role is emphasized. This paper addresses the phenomenon of brand revitalization from a sociocultural perspective and examines the role of consumer collectives in the process.

Using a data-driven approach, the study builds on the case of a consumer brand of footwear that has risen to unprecedented popularity without traditional marketing campaigns. Data were generated using an inductive theory building approach utilizing multiple methods, including interviews, participant observation and cultural materials.

The paper presents a conceptual model of cultural brand revitalization that has four stages: sleeping brand, spontaneous appropriation, diffusion and convergence.

Implications for companies in consumer markets are discussed, suggesting ways to facilitate the process of sociocultural brand revitalization.

The paper contributes to the literature first by offering a sociocultural brand revitalization scenario that highlights the interplay between the actions of consumers and the company, second, by examining the interaction between the symbolic meanings associated with the brand and the practices used by consumers and, third, by offering insights into the relevance of national identity in creating brand meaning.

This research article aims to understand the role of brand image, service quality and price (charge) in revitalising functional mass brands into prestigious mass brands.

The empirical research framework was developed by synthesising the past literature on masstige marketing and brand extension. Data was collected using a survey questionnaire from 396 respondents availing M-Wallet. Structural equation modelling was used to validate the brand revitalization attributes; further, the binary logistic regression model examined the effect of revitalization attributes on the chance of increasing customer's perception of masstige.

The exploratory study suggested brand image, service quality and value for money pricing as essential attributes to revitalize mass brands into masstige brands; furthermore, path analysis validated the positive effects of these attributes on the perception of masstige. The proposed binary logistic regression model suggested brand image as sensitive attributes, increasing the odds ratio by 9.39 times in favour of perceiving brand as masstige followed by the perceived service quality that is 5.87 times. The prediction capability of the proposed binary logistic regression model is found to be 96%.

The methodology of this study provides the basis for future researchers to advance research on masstige. This study will assist the marketers of mass brands to make better marketing decisions related to how masstige image can be sustained or a new or less known brand can be revitalized into a prestigious brand.

This study is the first to provide empirical evidence of how the mass brand can be revitalised as masstige brands by considering image, quality and price attributes.

This article revealed the difficulties that lie ahead of implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

This article performed a systematic analysis of the difficulties ahead of implementation of the rural revitalization strategy on the basis of three factors, namely, people, land and money.

This article concluded that it is necessary to revitalize the rural human resources by introducing skilled labor; managing the farmer–land relationships through deepening the land reform and facilitating multidimensional investment that includes fiscal, financial and social factors.

For the first time, this article systematically explored the solutions to the problems related to people, land and money in the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of the rural revitalization strategy, from the perspective of the fundamental functions that should be served by China’s rural areas in the implementation of this strategy.

Theoretical and comparative analyses of the functional relationship between China’s rural development and urban development, between China’s agricultural development and industrialization and that between China’s traditional culture and rural development today are conducted to identify the fundamental functions that should be performed well by China’s rural areas in the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

Three fundamental functions of China’s rural areas are identified: first, the function of ensuring national food security and the supply of important agricultural products; second, the function of providing effective ecological barriers, a good eco-environment and high-quality ecological products; third, the function of inheriting the extraordinary traditional Chinese culture.

This paper is the first to systematically summarize the fundamental functions China’s rural areas should perform during the process of rural revitalization.

We still know very little about how the Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way of interpreting the business process management inside and outside firms and this topic is progressively becoming increasingly hot in the leading managerial literature (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 2000). Furthermore, management scholars are aiming at investigating the impact and the role of the IoT on the business process management in terms of promotion of knowledge flow, innovation and competitiveness. Likewise, management researchers aim at understanding how the IoT fosters innovation within organizations and which implications this phenomenon may have on the business process management and competitiveness of firms (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 1999). The purpose of this paper is to offer a literature review on the topic, by considering the technological revitalization through the IoT as a key driver for the business process management of the industrial firm.

The present paper offers a literature review of the most relevant contributions on IoT and business process management. It presents a qualitative approach to the discussion of the technological revitalization concept within industrial firms using IoT technologies.

The rising number of technical contributions using IoT shows that technologies are evolving and there is a learning and application process supported by standardization efforts. Easy installation, standardization, stoutness, configuration and servicing are essential to keep IoT systems operational and hence offering value for the business process management within every industry. From a business process management point of view, value creation from the IoT application to technological revitalizations is pivotal and will affect the use of IoT technologies in the industry, on a progressively higher scale, in the coming years.

There are still few contributions in the managerial literature that show the implications of the IoT on business process management of industrial firms and, particularly, on technological revitalization. The paper offers a literature review on the topic, at the same presenting some reflections on the application of the IoT to technological revitalizations, within industrial contexts.

This chapter reviews and synthesizes three major strands of recent research, alongside discipline-specific research design, from scholars of Language Issues in Comparative and International Education. The first strand is mixed methods research on the policy and practice of L1-based multilingual education programs, and their contribution to raising educational quality and addressing equity and inclusiveness worldwide. The second strand is qualitative, community-based research of educational programs aimed toward revitalization of minoritized, indigenous, and/or endangered languages. The third strand is empirical and theoretical research that seeks to document, contest, and reconceptualize the dynamics among dominant and non-dominant languages within and between international contexts. The authors explore points of synergy between studies, examine publication in the field from a meta-perspective, and suggest encouraging directions of future research, while highlighting the value of non-dominant languages as resources for education and life.

This study aims to identify the motivations, challenges and desires of the various actors working in contemporary downtown revitalization in mid-sized cities.

Using Spokane, Washington, as a case study, 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with key players in downtown redevelopment, including public administrators, private developers and non-profit representatives.

Results indicate that those conducting renewal projects are primarily motivated by economics, but additionally cite heritage preservation values and community development as significant factors. Moreover, contemporary renewal projects are found to be small-scale endeavours, undertaken by individual private investors, as government involvement has significantly diminished. Revitalizers tended to express frustration with a lack of investor and public awareness regarding renewal opportunities, suggesting that increased information dissemination might promote further renewal work within mid-sized urban downtowns.

Findings provide insight into issues with neoliberal policies in addressing contemporary urban issues, and suggest a more nuanced understanding of contemporary urban development processes beyond the narrowly defined profit-driven paradigm.

The purpose of this paper is to explore, through the analysis case, how the revitalization of a historic centre has been carried out and the role of tourism in this process.

This case study area is well-documented as there has been extensive fieldwork on the transformation of the commercial sector in the Monumental Zone of Pontevedra in the last three decades. In order to prepare this paper, a bibliographic review, in-depth interviews, premises registration data and population data have been used.

The findings show that the processes of change and revitalization do not conform to a single reality common to all historical centres, although similar strategies are developed, the role of the participating actors and, especially, the idiosyncrasy of these spaces change the outcomes. On the one hand, gentrification does not occur and the increase of residential uses is still a goal. On the other hand, the tourism strategy brings more visitors and complements the commerce activity and attraction.

The new challenge of these spaces, and the urban contribution from this research, is that in the appropriation of space by citizens, tourism may be a complement for commerce, and shops and hospitality (facilities) make these spaces more livable. Although tourism does not necessarily increase the number of residents, the revenue from tourism may prevent the reoccurrence of abandonment.

The paper focusses on both gentrification and touristification; processes that have led to the substitution of residents and activities and the conflict with the local population and the normalization of urban life. This case has been selected because despite a seemingly successful revitalization process, recently some old threats seem to be returning.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an exploratory examination of urban retail marketing and management strategies employed in six US cities with reputations for having central business districts (CBD) that are either flourishing or developing. It also investigates the roles played by urban retailers in working with CBD revitalization efforts.

Depth interviews were conducted with economic development managers and urban retailer owners/managers from each CBD. Content analysis, preceded by a comprehensive review of academic and trade literature, was used to identify key concepts. An iterative coding process resulted in identifying broad strategic themes and related strategies.

Strategies were classified into three urban retailing and five economic revitalization themes. These strategies varied depending on whether cities had flourishing or developing CBDs.

The study provided a systematic and comprehensive examination of strategies that may guide theory development and provide practical information on CBD redevelopment. Potential bias in results should be considered when evaluating results due to the use of qualitative methods and convenience sampling.

Information concerning similarities in the redevelopment efforts of six comparable US cities is provided.