Search results

This research aims to undertake a business theory application into the political marketing context, examine the degree and nature of its theoretical and practical compatibility, and develop a preliminary conceptual marketing communications (MCs) framework for small political parties (SPPs) in developed countries.

The paper is conceptual and incorporates and interrelates the findings of existing business marketing research as applied to the context of political marketing. Through a comprehensive literature review, it adopts a multi‐perspective analysis and interrelation of three dimensions of existing theory: the behavioural, the contextual and the operational dimension. The paper eventually bridges the fields of political and business marketing, identifies the underlying causes of voter behaviour, and distils the critical factors of SPPs' marketing communications success.

The research identifies a number of critical factors of SPPs' marketing communications success and four principal SPPs' marketing communications findings: an increasing association between business and political marketing, an environmental context that stimulates and nurtures a symbiotic relationship between parties and voters, a predominant association of SPPs' critical factors of success with the concept of “perception management”, and the existence of a number of discrepancies regarding the application of classical marketing theory to SPPs. Based on these findings, the research finally develops a marketing communications framework for SPPs in developed countries.

While the conceptual nature of the research is a methodologically viable approach to understanding the complex interrelation of the elements involved, so early in the development of a contextually new theory, it is also its main limitation. Hence, the research considers the framework produced to be preliminary and that substantial primary research is further required to test and refine the individual framework components and to provide the necessary validity to the framework in its entirety.

The value of the paper relates to its focus on small political parties, which are largely overlooked by existing research. Additionally, the research adds considerable value to academic knowledge on the fundamental discussion on the applicability of business marketing theory to politics, also contributing an analogous political marketing framework to the existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to use firm-level data to examine whether the political cycle differentially relates to small vs large firms in New Zealand; a country that operates a unicameral political system has a short three-year political term and a right-of-centre stock market premium exists.

Using firm-level data from 1972 to 2010, the authors examine monthly returns during right-of-centre National governments and left-of-centre Labour governments. The authors apply Santa Clara and Valkanov (2003) regression analysis approach to examine the political cycle impact on firm returns.

Like in the USA, New Zealand’s political cycle premium is driven by small firms; however, the results are opposite. In New Zealand, periods governed by the right of the political spectrum produce significantly higher stock returns than those from the left and this finding is primarily driven by small firms who perform particularly poorly under left-of-centre governments.

Small firms were relatively heavily affected by the move to an open, deregulated economy; they were also less able to cope with tight monetary conditions, and periods of sharply falling inflation. New Zealand’s three-year political term may encourage newly formed governments to implement relatively fast moving shifts in policy where a more reasoned and steady approach would be warranted.

This is the first paper to use firm-level data outside of the USA to examine the political cycle impact.

The General Election of 1997 was marked by much political activity on the web. An analysis of 20 party web sites a year later on shows that most parties have kept a web presence although few are really capitalising upon the web technologies. Sites are too often stale, out of date and predictable. In no way can cyberdemocracy be seen to have arrived; the web is too often just a publishing vehicle and communication is largely one way. The smaller parties are proving to be the most innovative.

Through a comprehensive literature review and data analysis, the purpose of this paper is to adopt a multi‐perspective interrelation of different dimensions of existing theory to eventually bridge the fields of political and business marketing, identify the underlying causes of voter behaviour, and distil the critical factors of small political parties' (SPPs') strategic marketing communications (MCs) success. The research finally develops a preliminary conceptual strategic MCs model for SPPs that fits the context of developed countries and concentrates on the strategic aspects of MCs.

The paper is largely conceptual and is based on an extensive literature review and secondary data; strengthened through additional and focused quantitative and qualitative data.

The findings indicate an increasing association between business and political marketing, an environmental context that stimulates and nurtures a symbiotic relationship between parties and voters, an enhanced role of “perception management”, and substantial divergence of SPP reality from classical theory.

Further and focused primary research is required towards model testing.

A scientific basis is provided for practical strategic implementation of MCs by SPPs.

The research value stems from its focus on SPPs, its contribution to the generic discussion on business marketing theory applicability to politics; its reinforcement of existing research on the subject through further data and analyses; and additionally to existing researches' focus, its concentration on the strategic aspects of the subject and its contribution to literature of an analogous strategic political marketing model.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse why Malta continues to show the highest level of turnout for European Parliament (EP) elections in a country where voting is not obligatory. By analysing the Maltese EP elections from 2004 to 2019, the paper seeks to understand why the Maltese engage with a second order election to the degree that they do.

The paper is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, first assessing the context of the 2019 elections, the historical trends and then the factors that help explain why the Maltese continue to engage with EP elections.

The paper finds that the Maltese political system, highly polarised and dominated by two parties, primarily galvanises people to engage with elections, that it is more about party leadership than actual engagement with Europe and that second order elections in Malta are often run as first order elections.

This paper is the only systematic evaluation of the 2019 EP elections in Malta, discusses categorically that EP elections are rarely about Europe while also showing clearly that political parties can make second-order elections appear as first-order elections should the stakes be high enough.

This study seeks to discover whether the existence of Web 2.0 applications introduced a more interactive approach to British parties and candidates’ use of the Internet during the 2009 European Parliament elections.

Research data were based on content analysis of the web sites of British candidates and parties during the 2009 European Parliament elections. The conceptual framework assesses whether there is evidence of a monologic versus dialogic approach, and normalisation versus equalisation between parties.

The paper finds that parties were not using Web 2.0 as a strategic device. The party list system meant that parties were twice as likely as candidates to use Web 2.0 applications and, overall, there is weak evidence of a third way of ebb and flow. Continuing the experience of previous elections there is evidence of a predominantly monologic approach; however, the debate is no longer simply between normalisation versus equalisation, a more sophisticated approach suggests a third way, where political campaigning has been altered. While the overall levels of interactivity and dialogue are not high, there is some evidence of the development of a Web 1.5 sphere offering more interaction, but within a controlled environment. This study notes that ideology is a factor, where it is the right wing parties which are most likely to adopt interactivity.

Previous literature on elections in general, and the European Parliament elections specifically, suggest that in the UK the Internet is primarily used for monologic communication and supporting the normalisation thesis. This study suggests, within an era of Web 2.0, a slight refinement to this interpretation.

This paper aims to explore patterns of business financing and adoption of blockchain technology in the agricultural industry. The adoption of blockchain technology in terms of recording, storing, validating and securing data can solve a variety of agricultural problems such as agricultural business financing. If the banking and insurance industries are connected in real-time to activity data in the agricultural industry, they can create better credit ratings and profile models. So, finally, all parties in the agricultural industry have a greater chance to get business financing from banks.

This paper uses a case study research approach with a framework of analysis of the theory of adoption of technology, organization and environment (TOE) and the theory of “mindfulness of adoption”. The case study method has advantages when verification is still questioned or the application of certain theories in practice as phenomena and contexts that occur in the field in accordance with the application of blockchain technology into a relatively new business, both technically and practically in the field.

The findings indicate that there are no barriers to the availability of blockchain technology for technology adoption. The characteristics of this technology are very suitable for solving financing and supply chain business problems in the agricultural industry. However, the adoption of blockchain technology in agriculture shows that there is complexity in the organizational context involving internal and external organizations. The number of organizations and small parties involved in the agricultural process challenges the adoption of blockchain technology as new technology. Then, the external environment of technology, especially government regulations in developing countries, is still an obstacle to the adoption of blockchain technology.

This study faces several limitations, namely, the limited case of implementation of the blockchain technology due to the novelty of technology and government regulation. So that further research related to the adoption of blockchain technology needs to be done using field data such as surveys. Research related to the connectivity of the banking industry and other financial institutions also needs to be explored further, especially in creating a data-based credit risk model of the blockchain system.

On the practical side, case studies of technology adoption and its relationship with the financing of agricultural business are still little explored so this study contributes to exploring the application of blockchain technology in the agricultural industry. The adoption of blockchain technology has an impact not only on farmers but also on all parties involved in the supply chain including banks, insurance and other financial institutions. In addition, the distributed data exchange business model using blockchain technology is a new business model in the agriculture industry.

Suggests that the concepts of partnerships and strategic alliances are increasingly emphasized in literature and “real life”, which might lead managers to believe that partnership‐style relationships, as opposed to arm′s length relationships, are necessary for a firm to compete successfully. Explores why, how, and when to establish a wide range of possible business‐to‐business relationships. The inter‐organizational relationship literature suggests six reasons for forming relationships: necessity, asymmetry, reciprocity, efficiency, stability, and legitimacy. Compares this framework with six partnership characteristics based on the partnership‐building literature: planning, sharing of benefits and burdens, extendedness, systematic operational information exchange, operating controls, and corporate culture bridge building. Suggests that firms should concentrate on how to develop “good business relationships”, which may have varying levels of partnership characteristics.

Remanufacturing is a process whereby value from old products is recovered by replacing and recovering used components to bring such products to a new or like-new state. Today, both original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and third parties are engaged in remanufacturing activities, investing in many locations throughout Asia. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for initiating remanufacturing activities as well as the location determinants for the remanufacturing sector in Asia.

The authors conduct a multiple case study. Triangulation is applied to gain objective views from interviewing three OEMs, one logistics firm, and three local small enterprises. Real options theory is the theoretical lens used to examine the location choice of the OEMs.

Firms engaged in remanufacturing tend to co-locate facilities with existing manufacturing facilities, and those investing in new sites for remanufacturing view the regulatory environment as the most important factor. OEMs tend to leverage on existing manufacturing facilities or third-party remanufacturers to reduce their cost of commitment when starting remanufacturing at new locations.

The sample size is still small for the generalization of the results. Further empirical study is needed to test the propositions from this paper.

This paper could assist managers and decision makers in the multinational corporations to design appropriate logistics-related solutions for remanufacturing in Asia.

The authors work contributes to the theory on remanufacturing location determinants. It shows that OEMs and third-party remanufacturers can have a collaborative relationship instead of the commonly assumed competitive one, which is currently not found in the literature.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of using proportional representation system on the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system within the period from 1997 to 2017, in which Algeria has experienced five legislative elections regularly every five years by testing a hypothesis about adopting the proportional representation system on the basis of the closed list during the foregoing legislative elections has obviously influenced the exacerbation of the Algerian party system’s fragmentation, compared to other factors.

The essence of the theoretical framework of this study is to address the effect of the electoral system as an independent variable on the party system as a dependent variable. The starting point for that framework is to reassess the “Duverger’s law,” which appeared since the early 1950s and has influenced the foregoing relationship, and then to review the literature on a new phase that tried to provide a more accurate mechanism for determining the number of parties and their relative weight, whether in terms of electoral votes or parliamentary seats. This means that researchers began to use a measure called the effective number of parties (ENP) for Laakso and Taagepera since 1979. The study elaborates the general concepts of the electoral system and the party system. It used Laakso, Taagepera index of the “ENP” to measure the phenomenon of fragmentation party during the five legislative elections from 1997 to 2017 in Algeria.

The results of the study reveal that the proportional representation electoral system – beside other factors – had clear impacts on the fragmentation of the Algerian party system by all standards, whether on the level of the apparent rise in the number of the parties represented in the Algerian parliament from 10 parties in 1997 election to 36 parties in 2017 election or according to the index of Laakso and Taagepera (ENP). The average number of effective number of electoral parties in the five elections was around 7.66, and the average number of effective number of parliamentary parties in the five elections was around 4.39, which puts Algeria in an advanced degree of the fragmentation of the party system.

This study about the phenomenon of the fragmentation of the party system, which is one of the new subjects in the field of comparative politics – globally and in the Arab world. Hence, the value of this study aims to shed light on this mysterious area of science, the fragmentation of the party system in the Algerian political system during the period from 1997 to 2017.