Entrepreneurship and innovation through experience:student and employer perspectives of the value of work-based learning in promoting entrepreneurialism

The 'internationalisation' of Business and Management education, reflective of EU enlargement and the unprecedented globalisation of education, has resulted in growing numbers of overseas students adding a diversity and richness to the learning environment within many contemporary European Higher Educational Institutions (Green, 2006, Sliwa & Grandy, 2006). However, cross-national studies analyzing the impact that the internationalisation of business education has on the employability of business and management graduates are rare. Furthermore, there exists a notable gap in research aimed at identifying and conceptualising the generic business skills and competencies required by European employers of business and management graduates. By proposing a conceptual framework based upon a working model of business graduate employability, this goes some way to addressing this gap.

Employer perceptions of skills gaps in retail:issues and implications for UK retailers

Purpose – This paper seeks to identify the skills gaps associated with retail employees in SME and multiple retail companies, and to investigate the potential training and business implications that arise from these skills gaps, from the point of view of retail employers. Design/methodology/approach – Research was conducted within one geographical region and across five counties within the UK. Telephone and face-to-face interviews and focus group workshops were conducted, resulting in responses from 52 retailers. Findings – The key issues and areas of concern to emerge were: the industry image and impact on recruitment and retention; employee and management skills gaps; and barriers to training. Research limitations/implications – The findings highlight the need for UK retail industry to raise the image of the sector, to identify the skills sets for specific roles, and to clarify the retail qualifications and training required delivering these. Originality/value – Succeeds in identifying the skills gaps associated with retail employees in SME and multiple retail companies and in investigating the potential training and business implications arising from these skills gaps.

Brand equity and purchase intention in fashion industry:a cross-cultural study in Asia and Europe

This research is the leading brand for purchase of assets, and analyzing the factors based on brand asset components and the relationship between the brand and brand assets assets impact factors and purchase intent on uncovering the relationship between components and trademarks centered on South Korea and the United Kingdom, by comparing the asset management plan would generate. The study, information navigation product knowledge affects of constant (+), brand attitudes and knowledge of the brand loyalty and brand value to the constant trademark (+). Brand value and brand loyalty and purchase intent-(+) in the United Kingdom, on the other hand, of the impact that do not affect that.

Brand personality perception - regional or country specific

Brand personality is a key determinant of brand equity. Consumers seek brands with congruent personalities and use brands’ personality to define their sense of self. However, far from being universal, previous researches found that European (Spanish) brand personality dimensions differ from those in America and Asia (Japan). Are these typical of the region or do they reflect national variations? This study examines brand personality dimensions among Chinese consumers with consumers responding to 10 different commercial brands. This shows perceptions of brand personality are country specific, due to the differences found between Japanese’ and Chinese’. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Managing brand portfolios:How strategies have changed

The stock market response to corporate scandals and the use of the internet by pressure groups have sensitized boards to the risk of reputation loss. Particularly at risk are companies using corporate brands whose fame and spread makes them particularly vulnerable. This study looks at these and other pressures on branding and investigates if and how leading companies have responded in the deployment of their brand portfolios. A repeat audit of the use of brand portfolios by leading companies using exactly the same method used over a decade ago reveals much change. Brand structures of the 20 companies investigated have indeed changed but not uniformly in extent or direction.

Brand extensions in emerging markets:theory development and testing in China

Brand extensions are increasingly used by multinational corporations in emerging markets such as China. However, understanding how consumers in the emerging markets evaluate brand extensions is hampered by a lack of research in the emerging markets contexts. To address the knowledge void, we built on an established brand extension evaluation framework in the West, namely Aaker and Keller (1990)1. Aaker , D. A. and Keller , K. L. 1990 . Consumer evaluations of brand extensions . Journal of Marketing , 54 ( 1 ) : 27 – 41 . [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®] View all references, and extended the model by incorporating two new factors: perceived fit based on brand image consistency and competition intensity in the brand extension category. The additions of two factors are made in recognition of the uniqueness of the considerations of consumers in the emerging markets in their brand extension evaluations. The extended model was tested by an empirical experiment using consumers in China. The results partly validated the Aaker and Keller model, and evidence that both newly added factors were significant in influencing consumers' evaluation of brand extensions was also found. More important, one new factor proposed, namely, consumer-perceived fit based on brand image consistency, was found to be more significant than all the factors in Aaker and Keller's original model, suggesting that the Aaker and Keller model may be limited in explaining how consumers in the emerging markets evaluate brand extensions. Further research implications and limitations are discussed in the paper.

How brand portfolios have changed:a study of grocery suppliers brands from 1994 to 2004

This study examines the changes in brand structures based on a repeat audit of brand portfolios by leading grocery product suppliers. It compares results from content analyses of four hundred leading suppliers' brands sold to Tesco and Sainsbury's in 1994 and 2004. The brand structures used have changed although not uniformly in extent or direction. There is now more complexity in the way brand names are used. An extended typology of brand structures is incorporated. Propositions drawn from latest thinking on the use of brand portfolios are compared with the findings implications discussed.

City branding:can goods and services branding models be used to brand cities?

A city's branding is investigated using generic product and services branding models. Two generic branding models and tourism segmentation models guide an investigation into city branding 'as it should be' and 'as it is' using Birmingham, England as a case study. The unique characteristics of city brands are identified and Keller's Brand Report Card provides a theoretical framework for building a picture of the brand-building activity taking place in the city. Four themes emerge and are discussed: 1) the impact of a network on brand models developed for organisations; 2) segmentation of brand elements; 3) corporate branding; and 4) the political dimension. A conclusion is that city branding would be more effective if the systems and structures of generic branding models were adopted.

Go/no-go criteria during grocery brand development

Past research into new product screening criteria have largely centered on industrial new products. This study investigates the criteria that managers use for screening and evaluating new grocery products or brands. Theory suggests that the branding, promotional, and trade needs of grocery brands mean that screening criteria for grocery product development will differ from those applied to industrial goods. Our methodology departs from earlier research in gathering information on the accept/reject criteria during new product development rather than examining the reasons for success and failure after launch. The results endorse many findings from the extant literature on new product development. However, we highlight a set of factors that new product managers regard as important to the go/no-go decision in new grocery product or brand development that differs significantly from previous studies. From a research perspective, our study findings make an important contribution to the field by developing measurement scales for addressing NPD in the grocery sector.

How screening criteria change during brand development

Purpose - Despite the increasing sophistication of new product development (NPD) research, the reliance on traditional approaches to studying NPD has left several areas in need of further research. The authors propose addressing some of these gaps, especially the limited focus on consumer brands, evaluation criteria used across different project-review points in the NPD process, and the distinction between "kills", "successes", and "failures". Moreover, they propose investigating how screening criteria change across project-review points, using real-time NPD projects. Design/methodology/approach - A postal survey generated 172 usable questionnaires from a sample of European, North American, Far Eastern and Australian consumer packaged-goods firms, providing data on 314 new product projects covering different development and post-commercialization review points. Findings - The results confirm that acceptance-rejection criteria vary through the NPD process. However, financial criteria dominate across all the project-review points. Initial screening is coarse, focusing predominantly on financial criteria. Fit with organizational, product, brand, promotional, and market requirements dominate in the detailed screen and pre-development evaluation points. At pre-launch, decision-makers focus on product, brand, and promotional criteria. Commercial fit, production synergies, and reliability of the firm's market intelligence are significant discriminators in the post-launch review. Moreover, the importance of marketing and channel issues makes the criteria for screening brands different from those of industrial markets. Originality/value - The study, although largely descriptive and involves a relatively small sample of consumer goods firms, offers new insights into NPD project evaluation behavior. Future, larger-scale investigations covering a broader spectrum of consumer product sectors are needed to validate our results and to explain the reasons behind managers' decisions. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Ownership effects in consumers' brand extension evaluations

In this paper, we examine how brand ownership status affects consumers’ evaluation of brand extensions, using an experiment. In evaluating both brand extension and parent brands, brand owners differ from both nonowners and nonusers of a brand's product category in important ways. While the functional similarity between a brand and its extension impacts on all three groups’ brand extensions, its effects on nonowners and nonusers are more significant than those on brand owners. For brand owners, the most important consideration in their evaluation of brand extensions seems to be the image consistency between a brand and its extensions. Furthermore, there is an interaction effect between brand image consistency and product similarity for brand owners, whereas this effect is nonexistent for nonowners and nonusers.

The semiology of changing brand image

This article considers the attempted change to the image of an established brand by studying the semiotics within the brand’s historical advertising campaigns. The use of semiotics to study the interpretation of messages is discussed, and the link between interpretation of messages and advertising effectiveness in changing brand image is explored. The authors deconstruct advertisements of a brand to provide a model containing opposing dialectics that may aid managers by highlighting alternative symbolic messages contained in advertisements. Oncwe identified, these alternative symbolic messages may be used to help change brand image and influence advertising effectiveness. Although the study focuses upon a major brand of beer, this is an industry in which there are numerous small firms, and many of those have constrained marketing budgets, and thus need to make sure that their advertising is effective. Equally, entrepreneurial marketing is not to found only in the small firm, and the case study discusses a radical and imaginative brand repositioning of a well established product.

Workplace crime and the informal economy in Ukraine: Employee and employer perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the criminal workplace activities of both employers and employees in Ukrainian enterprises. It challenges traditional definitions of corruption and suggests that the practices that can be observed fit into the category of organised crime because of the country's economic framework. The paper also explores how the practices are partially a legacy of Soviet economic processes. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 700 household surveys were completed in three cities, Kyiv (where 450 surveys were completed), Uzhgorod (150) and Kharkiv (100). To complement these, approximately 25 in-depth interviews were undertaken with workers in each region. Furthermore, ethnographic observations and “kitchen table” interviews also played an important role in the research. Although the research was oriented towards those working in informal economies, business owners (both formal and informal) were also interviewed. Findings – As well as revealing the endemic nature of corruption in Ukrainian workplaces and the high levels of informal activity undertaken by workers, the research found that many people wish for their workplace to become more regulated. Research limitations/implications – Further interviews could have been carried out with state officials and in more locations. The implications are multiple but mainly they demonstrate the difficulty that those charged with economic reform in Ukraine must face. Originality/value – It is one of the first studies to explore these issues in Ukraine using a variety of research methods.