The human-resource management practice of retail branding: an ethnography within Oxfam trading division

Purpose – While the charity retail literature emphasizes the richness of human resource practices among charity retailers, it rarely makes the link between these practices and their interest for establishing charity retailers' brands. Simultaneously, while the retail branding literature increasingly emphasizes the central role of human resource practices for retail branding, it rarely explains how retailers should conduct such practices. The purpose of this study is to test the recent model proposed by Burt and Sparks in 2002 (the “fifth generation of retail branding”) which proposes that a retail brand depends on the alignment between a retailer's substance (vision and culture) and its perceived image by customers. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on an ethnographic study conducted within the Oxfam Trading Division, GB from October to December 2002. Findings – The study supports the Burt and Spark's model and makes explicit the practice of human resource for branding. The study demonstrates that it was the alignment between the vision of Oxfam's top management and its new customer‐oriented culture, two elements of its core substance mediated to customers by store employees, which has enabled an improved customers' perception of the brand. The study also seeks to elaborate upon the Burt and Spark's model by specifying an ascending feedback loop starting from customers' perception of Oxfam brand and enabling the creation of a suitable culture and vision again mediated by store employees. Research limitations/implications – New research should explore whether and how retailers create synergies between human resource and marketing functions to sustain their brand image. Practical implications – If the adoption of business practices by charity retailers is often discussed, this study highlights that commercial retailers could usefully transfer human resource best practices from leading charity retailers to develop their retail brand. Originality/value – The paper is of value to commercial retailers.

Adaptation of Rhizobium leguminosarum to pea, alfalfa and sugar beet rhizospheres investigated by comparative transcriptomics

Background The rhizosphere is the microbe-rich zone around plant roots and is a key determinant of the biosphere's productivity. Comparative transcriptomics was used to investigate general and plant-specific adaptations during rhizosphere colonization. Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae was grown in the rhizospheres of pea (its legume nodulation host), alfalfa (a non-host legume) and sugar beet (non-legume). Gene expression data were compared to metabolic and transportome maps to understand adaptation to the rhizosphere. Results Carbon metabolism was dominated by organic acids, with a strong bias towards aromatic amino acids, C1 and C2 compounds. This was confirmed by induction of the glyoxylate cycle required for C2 metabolism and gluconeogenesis in all rhizospheres. Gluconeogenesis is repressed in R. leguminosarum by sugars, suggesting that although numerous sugar and putative complex carbohydrate transport systems are induced in the rhizosphere, they are less important carbon sources than organic acids. A common core of rhizosphere-induced genes was identified, of which 66% are of unknown function. Many genes were induced in the rhizosphere of the legumes, but not sugar beet, and several were plant specific. The plasmid pRL8 can be considered pea rhizosphere specific, enabling adaptation of R. leguminosarum to its host. Mutation of many of the up-regulated genes reduced competitiveness for pea rhizosphere colonization, while two genes specifically up-regulated in the pea rhizosphere reduced colonization of the pea but not alfalfa rhizosphere. Conclusions Comparative transcriptome analysis has enabled differentiation between factors conserved across plants for rhizosphere colonization as well as identification of exquisite specific adaptation to host plants.

Using proxies to calculate the carbon impact of investment into electricity network assets

Replacement and upgrading of assets in the electricity network requires financial investment for the distribution and transmission utilities. The replacement and upgrading of network assets also represents an emissions impact due to the carbon embodied in the materials used to manufacture network assets. This paper uses investment and asset data for the GB system for 2015-2023 to assess the suitability of using a proxy with peak demand data and network investment data to calculate the carbon impacts of network investments. The proxies are calculated on a regional basis and applied to calculate the embodied carbon associated with current network assets by DNO region. The proxies are also applied to peak demand data across the 2015-2023 period to estimate the expected levels of embodied carbon that will be associated with network investment during this period. The suitability of these proxies in different contexts are then discussed, along with initial scenario analysis to calculate the impact of avoiding or deferring network investments through distributed generation projects. The proxies were found to be effective in estimating the total embodied carbon of electricity system investment in order to compare investment strategies in different regions of the GB network.

Exploring methods to evaluate the carbon impact of network investment deferral

Replacement, expansion and upgrading of assets in the electricity network represents financial investment for the distribution utilities. Network Investment Deferral (NID) is a well discussed benefit of wider adoption of Distributed Generation (DG). There have been many attempts to quantify and evaluate the financial benefit for the distribution utilities. While the carbon benefits of NID are commonly mentioned, there is little attempt to quantify these impacts. This paper explores the quantitative methods previously used to evaluate financial benefits in order to discuss the carbon impacts. These carbon impacts are important for companies owning DG equipment for internal reporting and emissions reductions ambitions. Currently, a GB wide approach is taken as a means for discussing more regional and local methods to be used in future work. By investigating these principles, the paper offers a novel approach to quantifying carbon emissions from various DG technologies.

Big social data and political sentiment: the tweet stream during the UK General Election 2015 campaign

The General Election for the 56th United Kingdom Parliament was held on 7 May 2015. Tweets related to UK politics, not only those with the specific hashtag ”#GE2015”, have been collected in the period between March 1 and May 31, 2015. The resulting dataset contains over 28 million tweets for a total of 118 GB in uncompressed format or 15 GB in compressed format. This study describes the method that was used to collect the tweets and presents some analysis, including a political sentiment index, and outlines interesting research directions on Big Social Data based on Twitter microblogging.

Otherworlds: fantasy and history in medieval literature

This book offers a new perspective on the otherworlds of medieval literature. These fantastical realms are among the most memorable places in medieval writing, by turns beautiful and monstrous, alluring and terrifying. Passing over a river or sea, or entering into a hollow hill, heroes come upon strange and magical realms. These places are often very beautiful, filled with sweet music and adorned with precious stones and rich materials. There is often no darkness, time may pass at a different pace, and the people who dwell there are usually supernatural. Sometimes such a place is exactly what it appears to be-the land of heart's desire-but, the otherworld can also have a sinister side, trapping humans and keeping them there against their will. Otherworlds: Fantasy and History in Medieval Literature takes a fresh look at how medieval writers understood these places and why they found them so compelling. It focuses on texts from England, but places this material in the broader context of literary production in medieval Britain and Ireland. The narratives examined in this book tell a rather surprising story about medieval notions of these fantastical places. Otherworlds are actually a lot less 'other' than they might initially seem. Authors often use the idea of the otherworld to comment on very serious topics. It is not unusual for otherworld depictions to address political issues in the historical world. Most intriguing of all are those texts where locations in the real world are re-imagined as otherworlds. The regions on which this book focuses, Britain, Ireland and the surrounding islands, prove particularly susceptible to this characterization.

The political economy of bovine tuberculosis in Great Britain

A brief history of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and its control in Great Britain is presented. Numerous diverse policies to control the disease in man, cattle and wildlife have been pursued over the last 100 years and many millions of pounds have been spent. After notable success in reducing the incidence and prevalence of bTB in cattle in GB from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, the number of cattle slaughtered has increased with increased geographical spread continually since that time with a high point of bTB incidence in 2008. This increase appeared to coincide with changing policy regarding the control of the disease in badgers with a more humane approach adopted and with strengthened protection for badgers through legislation. Indeed, much controversy has been involved in the debate on the role of badgers in disease transmission to cattle and the need for their control as vectors of the disease with various commissioned research projects, trials, public consultations and media attention. The findings of two social science investigations presented as examples showed that citizens generally believed that bTB in cattle is an important issue that needs to be tackled but objected to badgers being killed, whilst cattle farmers were willing to pay around £17/animal/year for a bTB cattle vaccine. It is noted that successes regarding the control of bTB in other countries have combined both cattle and wildlife controls and had strong involvement from industry working with government.