The STRATADAPT scale: a measure of marketing strategy adaptation to international business markets

Purpose – The development of marketing strategies optimally adjusted to export markets has been a vitally important topic for both managers and academics for about five decades. However, there is no agreement in the literature about which elements integrate marketing strategy and which components of domestic strategies should be adapted to export markets. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new scale – STRATADAPT. Design/methodology/approach – Results from a sample of small and medium-sized industrial exporting firms support a four-dimensional scale – product, promotion, price, and distribution strategies – of 30 items. The scale presents evidence of composite reliability as well as discriminant and nomological validity. Findings – Findings reveal that all four dimensions of marketing strategy adaptation are positively associated with the amount of the firm's financial resources allocated to export activity. Practical implications – The STRATADAPT scale may assist managers in developing better international marketing strategies as well as in planning more accurate and efficient marketing programs across markets. Originality/value – This study develops a new scale, the STRATADAPT scale, which is a broad measure of export marketing strategy adaptation.

Institutional framing of CSR and social entrepreneurship interactions in South Africa

Objectives. This paper considers the intersection of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and social entrepreneurship in South Africa through the lens of institutional theories and draws upon a number of illustrative case study examples. In particular it: (1) charts the historically evolving relationship between CSR and social entrepreneurship in South Africa, and how this relationship has been informed by institutional changes since the end of apartheid, particularly over the last few years; (2) identifies different interactional relationship forms between social enterprises and corporates engaging in CSR, with an emphasis on new innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships; and (3) considers internal engagements with social responsibility by SME social enterprises in South Africa. Prior Work. Reflecting South Africa’s history of division, the controversial role of business during apartheid, and the ongoing legacies of that period, the South African government has been particularly pro-active in encouraging companies to contribute to development and societal transformation through CSR and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). Accordingly a substantial body of work now exists examining and critically reflecting upon CSR and BEE across a range of sectors. In response to perceived problems with BEE, efforts have recently been made to foster broader-based economic empowerment. However the implications of these transitions for the relationship between CSR and social entrepreneurship in South Africa have received scant academic attention. Approach. Analysis is undertaken of legislative and policy changes in South Africa with a bearing on CSR and social entrepreneurship. Data collected during fieldwork in South Africa working with 6 social enterprise case studies is utilised including qualitative data from key informant interviews, focus groups with stakeholders and observational research. Results. The paper considers the historically evolving relationship between CSR and social entrepreneurship in South Africa informed by institutional change. Five different relationship forms are identified and illustrated with reference to case examples. Finally internal engagement with social responsibility concerns by small and medium social enterprises are critically discussed. Implications. This paper sheds light on some of the innovative partnerships emerging between corporates and social enterprises in South Africa. It reflects on some of the strengths and weaknesses of South Africa’s policy and legislative approaches. Value. The paper provides insights useful for academic and practitioner audiences. It also has policy relevance, in particularly for other African countries potentially looking to follow South Africa’s example, in the development of legislative and policy frameworks to promote corporate responsibility, empowerment and transformation.

Protein precipitation behaviour of condensed tannins from Lotus pedunculatus and Trifolium repens with different mean degrees of polymerization

The precipitation of bovine serum albumin (BSA), lysozyme (LYS) and alfalfa leaf protein (ALF) by two large- and two medium-sized condensed tannin (CT) fractions of similar flavan-3-ol subunit composition is described. CT fractions isolated from white clover flowers and big trefoil leaves exhibited high purity profiles by 1D/2D NMR and purities >90% (determined by thiolysis). At pH 6.5, large CTs with a mean degree of polymerization (mDP) of ~18 exhibited similar protein precipitation behaviors and were significantly more effective than medium CTs (mDP ~9). Medium CTs exhibited similar capacities to precipitate ALF or BSA, but showed small but significant differences in their capacity to precipitate LYS. All CTs precipitated ALF more effectively than BSA or LYS. Aggregation of CT-protein complexes likely aided precipitation of ALF and BSA, but not LYS. This study, one of the first to use CTs of confirmed high purity, demonstrates that mDP of CTs influences protein precipitation efficacy.

Object-love at the Science Museum: cultural geographies of museum storerooms

The field of museum geography is taking on new significance as geographers and museum-studies scholars make sense of the spatial relations between the people, things, practices and buildings that make and remake museums. In order to strengthen this spatial interest in museums, this paper makes important connections between recent work in cultural geography and museum studies on love, materiality and the museum effect. This paper marks a departure from the preoccupation with the public spaces of museums to go behind the scenes of the Science Museum in London to explore its rarely visited, but nonetheless lively, small-to-medium-sized object storerooms at Blythe House. Incorporating field diary entries and interview extracts from two research projects based upon the museum storerooms at Blythe House, this paper brings to life the social interactions that take place between museum curators and conservators and the objects they care for. This focus on object-love enables scholars to consider anew what museums are and what they are for, the life of the museum object in the storeroom, and the emotional practices of professional curatorship and conservation. This journey into the storeroom at Blythe House makes explicit how object-love shapes museum space.

Understanding complexities in international accounting standard setting: agenda entry and the case of IFRS for SMEs

Earlier accounting works have shown that an understanding of agenda entry is critical to better understanding the accounting standards setting process. Consider Walker and Robinson (1993; 1994) and Ryan (1998); and more generally agenda entrance as theorized in Kingdon (2011). In 2003, the IASB placed on its agenda a project to promulgate a standard for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). This provides our focus. It seemed to be a departure from the IASB’s constitutional focus on capital market participants. Kingdon’s three-streams model of agenda entry helps to identify some of the complexities related to politics and decision making messiness that resulted in a standard setting project for simplified IFRS, misleadingly titled IFRS for SMEs. Complexities relate to the broader international regulatory context, including the boundaries of the IASB’s standard-setting jurisdiction, the role of board members in changing those boundaries, and such sensitivities over the language that the IASB could not agree on a suitably descriptive title. The paper shows similarities with earlier agenda entrance studies by Walker and Robinson (1994) and Ryan (1998). By drawing on interviewees’ recollections and other material it especially reinforces the part played by the nuanced complexities that influence what emerges as an international accounting standard.

IFRS for SMEs: the IASB’S due process

This study explores the role of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) due process in developing its International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS or SMEs)standard. There were tensions between the IASB’s desire to minimise divergence from full IFRS and preserve recognition and measurement principles, and the primary reasons for undertaking the project – to meet the needs of users of financial statements of SMEs and to reduce the financial reporting burden on SMEs. Examination of events during the development of the project reveals much that was not apparent from material in the public domain. Most significantly, the IASB recognised that the final title of the standard, IFRS for SMEs, does not necessarily describe the scope of the standard. This paper also shows that the due process followed in the case of the IFRS for SMEs project barely reflected the ‘will of people’ but was more inclined towards acting as a communicative function for the IASB without any commitment to change its stance on the SME standard.