Consumer-based brand equity conceptualization and measurement:a literature review

Although there is a large body of research on brand equity, little in terms of a literature review has been published on this since Feldwick’s (1996) paper. To address this gap, this paper brings together the scattered literature on consumer based brand equity’s conceptualisation and measurement. Measures of consumer based brand equity are classified as either direct or indirect. Indirect measures assess consumer-based brand equity through its demonstrable dimensions and are superior from a diagnostic level. The paper concludes with directions for future research and managerial pointers for setting up a brand equity measurement system.

Peer mentoring in higher education:a literature review

A review of the literature in the area of peer mentoring.

Institutional entrepreneurship:a literature review and analysis of the maturing consulting field

With few exceptions (e.g. Fincham & Clark, 2002; Lounsbury, 2002, 2007; Montgomery & Oliver, 2007), we know little about how emerging professions, such as management consulting, professionalize and establish their services as a taken-for-granted element of social life. This is surprising given that professionals have long been recognized as “institutional agents” (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Scott, 2008) (see Chapter 17) and professionalization projects have been closely associated with institutionalization (DiMaggio, 1991). Therefore, in this chapter we take a closer look at a specific type of entrepreneurship in PSFs; drawing on the concept of “institutional entrepreneurship” (DiMaggio, 1988; Garud, Hardy, & Maguire, 2007; Hardy & Maguire, 2008) we describe some generic strategies by which proto-professions can enhance their “institutional capital” (Oliver, 1997), that is, their capacity to extract institutionally contingent resources such as legitimacy, reputation, or client relationships from their environment.

Supply chain knowledge management:a literature review

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the role of knowledge management in supply chain management by reviewing the published literature. A total of 58 selected referred journal articles were systematically analyzed. This review identifies various theoretical and methodological characteristics of the way in which knowledge management applications are proposed in the supply chain context. The review shows that little evidence exists of the positive relation between the use of IT solutions and firms’ performance. Some issues remain unexplored such as the problem of knowledge obsolescence in supply chain management. A deeper understanding of the knowledge accumulation process could give new insights. The paper concludes with some future directions for theory construction and empirical research.

The servitization of manufacturing:a systematic literature review of interdependent trends

Purpose: The servitization of manufacturing is a diverse and complex field of research interest. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative and organising lens for viewing the various contributions to knowledge production from those research communities addressing servitization. To achieve this, the paper aims to set out to address two principal questions, namely where are the knowledge stocks and flows amongst the research communities? And what are generic research concerns being addressed by these communities? Design/methodology/approach: Using an evidenced-based approach, the authors have performed a systematic review of the research literature associated with the servitization of manufacturing. This investigation incorporates a descriptive and thematic analysis of 148 academic and scholarly papers from 103 different lead authors in 68 international peer-reviewed journals. Findings: The work proposes support for the existence of distinct researcher communities, namely services marketing, service management, operations management, product-service systems and service science management and engineering, which are contributing to knowledge production in the servitization of manufacturing. Knowledge stocks within all communities associated with research in the servitization of manufacturing have dramatically increased since the mid-1990s. The trends clearly reveal that the operations community is in receipt of the majority of citations relating to the servitization of manufacturing. In terms of knowledge flows, it is apparent that the more mature communities are drawing on more locally produced knowledge stocks, whereas the emergent communities are drawing on a knowledge base more evenly distributed across all the communities. The results are indicative of varying degrees of interdependency amongst the communities. The generic research concerns being addressed within the communities are associated with the concepts of product-service differentiation, competitive strategy, customer value, customer relationships and product-service configuration. Originality/value: This research has further developed and articulated the identities of distinct researcher communities actively contributing to knowledge production in the servitization of manufacturing, and to what extent they are pursuing common research agendas. This study provides an improved descriptive and thematic awareness of the resulting body of knowledge, allowing the field of servitization to progress in a more informed and multidisciplinary fashion. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Supply chain integration framework using literature review

Definitions and measures of supply chain integration (SCI) are diverse. More empirical research, with clear definition and appropriate measures are needed. The purpose of this article is to identify dimensions and variables for SCI and develop an integrated framework to facilitate this. A literature review of the relevant academic papers in international journals in Logistics, Supply Chain Management and Operations Management for the period 1995-2009 has been undertaken. This study reveals that information integration, coordination and resource sharing and organisational relationship linkage are three major dimensions for SCI. The proposed framework helps integrate both upstream suppliers and downstream customers with the focal organisation. It also allows measuring SCI using both qualitative and quantitative approach. This study encourages researchers and practitioners to identify dimensions and variables for SCI and analyses how it affects the overall supply chain (SC) performance in terms of efficiency and responsiveness. Although there is extensive research in the area of SCI, a comprehensive and integrated approach is missing. This study bridges the gap by developing a framework for measuring SCI, which enables any organisation to identify critical success factors for integrating their SC, measures the degree of integration qualitatively and quantitatively and suggest improvement measures. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Effects of extreme weather events on SMEs:a literature review and synthesis

Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs), which generate more than one half of the employment (58.9%) and turnover (51.9%), form an important sector of the UK economy. Although they are the main drivers of the UK economy, they are also said to be the most vulnerable to the impacts of Extreme Weather Events (EWEs). The world in recent years has experienced a significant number of EWEs, and SMEs have suffered significant economic losses as a result. The now apparent climate change, which is mostly attributed to human interference with the environment over the past few decades, is believed to have a strong link with the increase of EWEs in the recent past. Threats of EWEs are expected to further increase due to their increased frequency and magnitude and increased vulnerability to their effects. Interestingly, EWEs seem to present businesses with various business opportunities and positive consequences as well, besides the much feared and overwhelming threats and negative consequences they present. Understanding such impacts has become a necessity to improve the resilience of SMEs so that they will be better prepared to minimise the negative consequences and maximise the positive consequences posed by EWEs. This paper attempts to bring together and evaluate the current knowledge with regard to the effects of EWEs on SMEs. The paper establishes the case for more in-depth study with this regard and concludes by stressing the need for improving the resilience of SMEs to EWEs.

Outsourcing in Ireland:a literature review, survey and case study perspective

This paper investigates what is happening in Ireland at the moment regards outsourcing. It looks into the literature review and the survey conducted. The research took place over a period of two years, initially as a literature review, and then the survey was conducted through the mediums of e-mail and the postal service. The survey analysis found that Ireland was the most likely place for Irish companies to outsource to, and that nearly 40 percent of the companies that have been surveyed have started on their latest outsourcing initiative since 2004. This indicates that outsourcing is still important on the Island on Ireland, and is important management strategy in terms of SCM (supply chain management). It further shows that Irish companies have confidence in the fact that outsourcing can help their companys’ in some way. The purpose of the literature review and the survey was to come up with an outsourcing roadmap for companies that are considering outsourcing. It builds on what is already in the literature to provide what is felt a comprehensive guide for companies that outsource.

Outsourcing in Ireland:a literature review, survey and case study perspective

Outsourcing, or offshoring as it is now known, has been around for many decades. In the beginning it was only the very peripheral activities that were blue-collar (lower skilled) work outsourced, but this is now all changing with the outsourcing of white-collar jobs. Historically outsourcing was used when organisation could not perform to world-class excellence in all sectors of the organisation due to incompetence of staff and/or management, lack of capacity, financial pressures, and/or technological pressures. The research currently underway is initially focusing on a literature review of current outsourcing applications in the market place and what impact outsourcing has on business performance. This paper will present the findings of the initial literature review. It will also discuss the methodology being followed to explore the Irish Industrial Sector.

Resource-efficient supply chains:a research framework, literature review and research agenda

Purpose: To define a research agenda for creating Resource-Efficient Supply Chains (RESC) by identifying and analysing their key characteristics as well as future research opportunities. Design/methodology/approach: We follow a systematic review method to analyse the literature and to understand RESC taking a substantive theory approach. Our approach is grounded in a specific domain, the agri-food sector, because it is an intensive user of an extensive range of resources. Findings: The review shows that literature has looked at the use of resources primarily from the environmental impact perspective. It shows a lack of understanding of the specific RESC characteristics, and concludes more research is needed on multi-disciplinary methods for resource use and impact analyses as well as assessment methods for resource sensitivity and responsiveness. There is a need to explore whether or not, and how, logistics/supply chain decisions will affect the overall configuration of future food supply chains in an era of resource scarcity and depletion and what the trade-offs will be. Research limitations/implications: The paper proposes an agenda for future research in the area of resource–efficient supply chain. The framework proposed along with the key characteristics identified for RESC can be applied to other sectors. Practical implications: Our research should facilitate further understanding of the implications and trade-offs of supply chain decisions taken on the use of resources by supply chain managers. Originality/value: The paper explores the interaction between supply chains and natural resources and also defines the key characteristics of RESC.

What matters in business incubation? A literature review and a suggestion for situated theorising

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to provide a critical assessment of the literature on business incubation effectiveness and second, to submit a situated theoretical perspective on how business incubation management can provide an environment that supports the development of incubatee entrepreneurs and their businesses. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a narrative critical assessment of the literature on business incubation effectiveness. Definitional issues, performance aspects and approaches to establishing critical success factors in business incubation are discussed. Business incubation management is identified as an overarching factor for theorising on business incubation effectiveness. Findings – The literature on business incubation effectiveness suffers from several deficiencies, including definitional incongruence, descriptive accounts, fragmentation and lack of strong conceptual grounding. Notwithstanding the growth of research on this domain, understanding of how entrepreneurs and their businesses develop within the business incubator environment remains limited. Given the importance of relational, intangible factors in business incubation and the critical role of business incubation management in orchestrating and optimising such factors, it is suggested that theorising efforts would benefit from a situated perspective. Originality/value – The identification of specific shortcomings in the literature on business incubation highlights the need for more systematic efforts towards theory building. It is suggested that focusing on the role of business incubation management from a situated learning theory perspective can lend itself to a more profound understanding of the development process of incubatee entrepreneurs and their firms. Theoretical propositions are offered to this effect, as well as avenues for future research.

The effects of store atmosphere on shopping behaviour - A literature review.

This paper provides an insight into how the atmospherics of a retail environment influence shopping behaviour. Its objective is to support researchers and practitioners by summarizing the current state of knowledge and identifying gaps and avenues for future research. The scope covers studies in retail marketing and environmental psychology published during the last 35 years. It has been shown that environmental cues (music, scent etc.) have an effect on the emotional state of the consumer, which in turn causes behavioural changes, both positive (approach, buy more, stay longer etc.) and negative (not approach, buy less, leave earlier etc.). Most studies make reference to the PAD model, which proposes that the relevant emotions in this process can be measured along three dimensions Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance (Mehrabian, A. & Russell, J.A.,1974, An approach to environmental psychology, Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press). Since then, significant advances have been made to understand the effect of individual cues, their interaction, as well as the role of moderators, such as gender, age, or shopping motivation. However, there are a number of opportunities for further research. Too little is known about the moderating effects of Arousal and Dominance and how they interact with each other and with Pleasure dimension. Also a number of other moderators, such as gender and culture, should be integrated into the model.

Szervezeti kultúra kutatások a termelési folyamatok szervezésében – irodalom-feldolgozás = Organizational culture researches on the filed of operations management – a literature review

A műhelytanulmány célja, hogy megalapozzon egy, a lean menedzsment és a szervezeti kultúra kapcsolatát vizsgáló empirikus kutatást. Máig ritka a szűken vett témában született publikációk száma, ezért tanulmányunkban olyan forrásokat dolgozunk fel, amelyek a lean menedzsmenten túl a termelésmenedzsment más koncepcióit, gyakorlatait (minőségmenedzsment és a fejlett termelési rendszerek), az általuk elérhető teljesítmény és a szervezeti kultúra kapcsolatát értelmezi, vagy vizsgálja. A források módszeres áttekintésével azonosítjuk a kutatásokat indokoló tényezőket, az érintett termelésmenedzsment koncepciók értelmezéseit, a szervezeti kultúra értelmezéséket és a kutatási eredményeket. Mindezek alapján bemutatjuk, hogy melyek lehetnek azok a kérdések, melyek egy, a szervezeti kultúra és a lean menedzsment kapcsolatát vizsgáló empirikus kutatás során figyelmet érdemelnek. Bemutatjuk továbbá, hogy milyen egyéb tényezőkre kell figyelemmel lenni egy ilyen kutatás tervezése során. Önmagában a lean menedzsment, mint téma újszerű a szervezeti kultúrával kapcsolatos kutatások területén. Ezen túl a nagymintás és az angolszász területeken kívül eső kutatások kecsegtetnek jelentős új ismerettel. További újdonságot jelente a termelésmenedzsment koncepció és a szervezeti kultúra kapcsolatának megragadásán túl a kapcsolat természetének (a hatás irányának) feltárása. ______ The aim of this paper is to provide a solid base for a study that would examine the relationship between lean management and organizational culture. Since there are only limited number of publications in this topic, in our study we examined publications, which interpreted or examined the relationship among organizational culture, organizational performance and - beyond lean management - any operations management concepts or practices (but mainly quality management and advanced manufacturing technologies). Rigorously reviewing the selected sources, we identified the main questions justifying the researches, interpretations of the involved operations management concepts, interpretations of organization culture, and research results. Based on our review, we highlight those questions that are worth to examine within a research targeting to study the relationship between the organizational culture and lean management. Moreover, we identified other important factors to be considered when designing such research. Lean management by itself a novelty in the research field related to organizational culture. Moreover, large sample studies conducted outside the Anglo-Saxon territory likely to bring notable novelty. Further new knowledge may emerge if beyond capturing the existence of relationship among organizational culture and any operations management concept the nature of the relationship (the direction of the influence) was also investigated.