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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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) Block Farm Credit Programme (BFCP) participation on crop output in four districts in the Northern region of Ghana.

Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 240 beneficiary and non-beneficiary farmers of BFCP. The treatment effect model that accounts for selectivity bias was employed to examine the socioeconomic determinants of farmers’ decision to participate in the BFCP and the effect of BFCP participation on crop output.

Even though the BFCP participation increases output, inadequacy and late delivery of BFCP inputs, low publicity about the programme and difficulty in accessing the inputs from the districts agricultural officers are factors that prevent the full realization of the benefits of the programme. Improving extension services to create more awareness and a re-introduction of the BFCP to make inputs available and affordable to farmers can help boost farm productivity.

The positive effect of the BFCP means that the provision of low-cost production credit has the potential to increase productivity and improve incomes. Hence, MoFA should endeavour up scaling and properly managing the scheme.

This study is the first to evaluate the BFCP in Northern region of Ghana, particularly in relation to its contribution to crop value. The findings are very useful to advise policy by taking account of the programme deficiencies and enhance effectiveness.

Since their introduction, generic grocery products have been a major centre of controversy. Statistics indicate that the rapid growth phase for generics has ended and that this concept has now entered the maturity phase of its life cycle. Since generics have now become a permanent feature of the grocery industry, retailers and manufacturers must formulate their marketing strategies carefully, whether these strategies are for offensive or defensive reasons. These critical strategic questions are focused on and recommendations for future strategies now that generics have reached maturity are made.

While normally the formation of thermally induced residual stresses is seen mainly as detrimental side effect from production processes like welding or casting, the well-directed introduction of thermal residual stresses can also be used as tool to retard fatigue crack growth (FCG). In the presented paper, the use of a defocused laser to modify the residual stress state, and by that to retard the FCG, is examined. The focus lies on the simulation-based optimisation of the heating line position for achieving a maximum fatigue life. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In the presented work, the developed prediction methodology for the FCG coupling process simulation and subsequent fracture mechanics analysis is used to identify the optimum positioning of either one or two heating lines on a C(T)100 specimen that leads to a maximised total lifetime. Afterwards, the prediction results are validated experimentally for selected cases.

The predictions match the experiments within the experimental scatter indicating the correct identification of the optimum heating line positions. This demonstrates the large potential for reducing the experimental effort needed for design optimisation using the proposed strategy.

The used methodology of coupling of welding simulation with subsequent fracture mechanics analysis in order to optimise the FCG behaviour of structures is innovative and only very few published studies addressed parts of similar approaches.

This article discusses the consequences of unethical leadership, particularly, the leader-follower relationship in the delivery of agricultural advisory services in Tanzania. It analyses the means through which ethical leadership framework can be used to address the problem of unethical leadership in this context.

The article uses a comparative case study design to explain the position of ethical leadership in the delivery of agricultural advisory services in two local governments: Morogoro Municipality in Eastern Tanzania, and Hai District in Northern Tanzania.

The research shows that the delivery of agricultural extension services in Tanzania is guided by formal rules, which define the roles and responsibilities of local government officials and field workers. These roles and responsibilities are driven by national-level guidelines written by the Ministry of Agriculture. The guidelines define the key responsibilities of village, Ward and District level Agricultural Extension Officers. In developing the working schedule, agricultural extension workers at the village and ward levels are guided by an annual calendar that defines the seasons of the year and the relevant knowledge required by farmers. Nevertheless, the implementation of these schedules is compromised by a lack of resources and morale of field workers who in turn, cope through charging for the services, which is considered as their prime motives.

The findings can be of interest to national and local government policymakers and officials dealing with the delivery of agricultural advisory services in Tanzania.

Effective project learning can prevent projects from repeating the same mistakes; however, knowledge codification is required for project-to-project learning to be up-scaled across the temporal, geographical and organisational barriers that constrain personalised learning. This paper explores the state of practice for the structuring of codified project learnings as concrete boundary objects with the capacity to enable externalised project-to-project learning across complex boundaries. Cross-domain reconceptualisation is proposed to enable further research and support the future development of standardised recommendations for boundary objects that can enable project-to-project learning at scale.

An integrative literature review method has been applied, considering knowledge, project learning and boundary object scholarship as state-of-practice sources.

It is found that the extensive body of boundary object literature developed over the last three decades has not yet examined the internal structural characteristics of concrete boundary objects for project-to-project learning and boundary-spanning capacity. Through a synthesis of the dispersed structural characteristic recommendations that have been made across examined domains, a reconceptualised schema of 30 discrete characteristics associated with boundary-spanning capacity for project-to-project learning is proposed to support further investigation.

This review makes a novel contribution as a first cross-domain examination of the internal structural characteristics of concrete boundary objects for project-to-project learning. The authors provide directions for future research through the reconceptualisation of a novel schema and the identification of important and previously unidentified research gaps.

The purpose of this paper is to show how manufacturers evolve when aiming at increasing customer value via the service addition path. More specifically, it aims to identify drivers and inhibitors as well as trajectories to reach “ideal” service addition types.

This paper employs a multiple case study design. In total 12 in‐depth interviews were conducted with managers from machine building manufacturers resulting in five longitudinal case studies of “best practice” companies. The paper is grounded in the “integrated solutions” research paradigm.

Four types of service addition can be identified based on this multiple case study. Diverse drivers push companies to higher degrees of customization and to less tangible offerings via different trajectories. On these trajectories, though, they are likely to encounter inhibitors.

The qualitative nature of this paper acts as a basis for future research efforts. On the one hand this paper has traditional shortcomings typical of interpretive studies. On the other, future research is stimulated as the exploratory but rich and longitudinal findings suggest further testing and development.

A strategy of service addition is frequently used by industrial companies to seek customer value and escape price pressure. This paper offers a framework that helps managers chose from the potential set of service addition types. The paper also identifies difficulties (the so‐called “inhibitors”) companies might encounter when pursuing this strategy.

The rich case‐based methodology enables the development of a preliminary model that identifies types of service addition and corresponding transition trajectories. The paper adds to the emergent “theory on service business for manufacturing firms” by offering a typology and an industry‐specific view on drivers and inhibitors of service addition along the different transition trajectories.

This study aims to explore the behavioral patterns of entrepreneurs, their cognitive styles and personality characteristics that can lead to a self-destructive chain of events during the transition from a fledgling business to one capable of long-term, profitable growth. This study adopts the self-regulation attitude theory to uncover the reasons for premature start-up scaling, which will help founders to study on their cognitive biases, emotions and behaviors and make efforts to do what does not come naturally to them.

The respondents for this qualitative study were selected from a group of entrepreneurs with extensive experience with technology start-ups that have either failed or succeeded during their development stages. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants, who were selected through snowball sampling, on the theme of understanding “How do premature scaling mistakes happen?”. Thematic analysis was used to unearth common themes.

The results of this study identified the following themes, “comparison,” “emotional over-reaction,” “impatience,” “mistaken customer priorities,” “overestimation” and “overconfidence,” which eventually leads to premature scaling. The underlying decision-making heuristics of entrepreneurs can be identified as engulfed in different cognitive biases and emotions resulting in negative behavioral patterns, as in the case of premature scaling. Of the six themes, “comparison,” “mistaken customer priorities,” “overestimation” and “overconfidence relates to cognitive bias” and “emotional over-reaction” and “impatience” relate to emotional factors.

The study was made possible with the support of the voluntary participants chosen by purposive and snowballing data sampling. The interviewee and interviewer biases could have also crept in as part of this qualitative approach. The study pertains only to start-ups in the information technology sector and further studies need to be done to generalize the results across industries as well.

This early-stage underestimation of unexpected obstacles in the entrepreneurship journey necessitates a focus on the entrepreneur too, as much as the concept. In these hectic and fast-paced circumstances, aspiring entrepreneurs must be taught how to deal objectively with themselves and others, as well as think strategically. Leaders who scale do so because they take purposeful measures to overcome their weaknesses through self-discipline, soliciting advice from others and using their right to change their attitude and points of view.

The study frames the new approach into the entrepreneurial literature, linking it to self-regulation attitude theory and adds to the nascent literature on neuroentrepreneurship which discuss entrepreneurial cognition, decision-making, and entrepreneurial behavior. This study attempted to explore the reasons behind the premature scaling of startups on an individual level. This study is pioneering in exploring the cognitive factors underlying an entrepreneur’s decision that results in premature scaling. This study provides insights for academicians, entrepreneurs and policymakers and helps understand the cognitive journey that leads to premature scaling.

Real options available to developers and leading to an active and dynamic development of real estate assets are numerous. The purpose of the article is twofold. First, a conceptual framework is proposed as a practical aid for recognizing and understanding some frequently recurring combinations of options (such as deferral and expansion options). Based on the definition and classification of real options available in real estate markets, a comprehensive valuation tool for quantifying the value of those options embedded in a real estate development project is thus developed using a portfolio view.

Based on standard option pricing techniques, the proposed conceptual methodology is validated by applying it to an actual case of an investment for the construction of a new, multi‐purpose building in the semi‐central zone of the urban area of Rome (Italy).

Based on a static land value of €34.7 million, a waiting mode (deferral option) at an early stage of developing a property accounts for 16 percent of the expanded land value of the project, with 8 percent of such value being contributed by the expansion option. A real options valuation of the options portfolio available to a real estate developer enables increasing the project value by 31.1 percent as opposed to a traditional DCF analysis. In line with financial options theory, values of real options increase as volatility rises.

The case‐based analysis highlights that: flexibility in real estate development may create additional value enabling real estate developers or funds to react to market trends as new information arrives and uncertainty on fundamental factors (e.g. property prices) unfolds; the extra value added by managerial flexibility is neglected by DCF/NPV techniques; contrary to the common criticism on its lack of rigor, option valuation theory is suitable for appraising real estate assets; a portfolio approach is crucial when multiple real options exist.

Active management of real estate investments in response to changing property market and technology conditions confers operating flexibility and strategic value to appraisal of development projects beyond what is traditionally captured by a DCF model. An options approach to valuing and managing real estate development may change the developer's perspective altogether. Based on the combination of an original classification and a portfolio view of options existing in real estate markets, a real options framework for assessing the value of strategic flexibility incorporated in a greenfield development project (also accounting for potential option interactions) is designed.

This paper analyses the marketing strategy, marketing mix and brand development of SF Paris rugby union club, which succeeded in attracting huge crowds (around 75,000 spectators) for several regular season games and in building strong brand equity. Parallels with American professional sports are drawn and differences from other European clubs highlighted. Finally, planning, consistency and in particular innovation are identified as key factors for success in implementation of the club's marketing strategy.