Portfolio-Werbung als Technik des Impression Management: Eine Untersuchung zur gegenseitigen Stärkung von Dachmarke und Produktmarken in komplexen Markenarchitekturen

In recent years, the importance of the corporate brand (e.g. P&G, Nestlé, Unilever) has grown significantly and companies increasingly strive to strengthen their corporate brand. One way to strengthen the corporate brand is portfolio advertisement, in which the corporate brand is presented alongside with several product brands of its portfolio (e.g. VW with its product brands Touareg, Touran, Golf and Polo). The aim of portfolio advertising is to generate a positive image spill-over effect from the product brands onto the corporate brand in order to enhance the consumers’ perceived competence of the corporate brand. In four experimental settings Christian Boris Brunner demonstrates the great potential of portfolio advertising and highlights the risks associated with portfolio advertising in practice. In a first experiment, he compares portfolio advertising with single brand advertisements. Moreover, in case of portfolio advertising he manipulates the fit between the product brands, because the consumer has to establish a logical coherence between the individual brands. However, asconsumers have limited capacity for processing information, special attention should be paid to the number of product brands and to the processing depth of the consumer during confrontation with portfolio advertising. These key factors are taken into consideration in a second extensive experiment involving fictitious corporate and product brands. The effects of portfolio advertising on a product brand are also examined. Furthermore, the strength of product brands, i.e. brand knowledge as well as brand image and consumer’s knowledge of the brands, must be taken into consideration. In a third experiment, both the brand strength of real product brands as well as the fit between product brands are manipulated. Portfolio advertising could also have a positive image spill-over effect when companies introduce a new product brand under the umbrella of the corporate brand while communicating all product brands together. Based on considerations, in a fourth experiment, Christian Boris Brunner shows that portfolio advertising could also have a positive image spill-over effect on a new (unknown) product brand. Concluding his work, Christian Boris Brunner provides implications for future research concerning portfolio advertising as well as the management of a corporate brand in complex brand architectures. Concerning practical implications, these four experiments underline a high relevance to marketing and brand managers, who could increase corporate and product brands’ potential by means of portfolio advertising.

Portfolio advertising as an instrument to strengthen the corporate brand in a complex brand architecture

In recent years, the importance of the corporate brand has significantly grown and companies increasingly seek to strengthen their corporate brand. The corporate brand image can be strengthened through portfolio advertising as a technique of impression management. This mechanism works only if important variables are considered, such as the fit between product brands, the number of product brands as well as the processing depth of the consumers. Based on three experiments, the benefits of portfolio advertising for the corporate brand and its product brands are shown and practical implications are discussed.

Evaluating business value of IT towards optimisation of the application portfolio

Information technology has become heavily embedded in business operations. As business needs change over time, IT applications are expected to continue providing required support. Whether the existing IT applications are still fit for the business purpose they were intended or new IT applications should be introduced, is a strategic decision for business, IT and business-aligned IT. In this paper, we present a method which aims to analyse business functions and IT roles, and to evaluate business-aligned IT from both social and technical perspectives. The method introduces a set of techniques that systematically supports the evaluation of the existing IT applications in relation to their technical capabilities for maximising business value. Furthermore, we discuss the evaluation process and results which are illustrated and validated through a real-life case study of a UK borough council, and followed by discussion on implications for researchers and practitioners.

Digital technology and creative arts career patterns in the UK creative economy

The creative industries have attracted the attention of academics and policy makers for the complexity surrounding their development, supply-chains and models of production. In particular, many have recognised the difficulty in capturing the role that digital technologies play within the creative industries. Digital technologies are embedded in the production and market structures of the creative industries and are also partially distinct and discernible from it. This paper unfolds the role played by digital technologies focusing on a key aspect of its development: human capital. Using student micro-data collected by the Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) in the United Kingdom, we investigate the characteristics and location determinants of digital graduates. The paper deals specifically with understanding whether digital skills in the UK are equally embedded across the creative industries, or are concentrated in other sub-sectors. Furthermore, it explores the role that these graduates play in each sub-sector and their financial rewards. Findings suggest that digital technology graduates tend to concentrate in the software and gaming sub-sector of the creative industries but also are likely to be in embedded creative jobs outside of the creative industries. Although they are more likely to be in full-time employment than part-time or self-employment, they also suffer from a higher level of unemployment.

The impact of career capital on expatriates’ perceived marketability

We examine how the development of three types of career capital (knowing how, knowing whom, and knowing why) during an international assignment affects the perceived marketability of organizational expatriates. Using the perceived marketability perspective and long-term follow-up data, we show that knowing how is seen as the most transferable type of career capital, while the development of other aspects of career capital has little impact on perceived marketability. We also show that career capital development is more recognized in the external market than by current employers. Our findings expand our understanding of long-term career marketability among people who have completed international assignments.

Can institutional investors bias real estate portfolio appraisals? Evidence from the market downturn

This paper investigates the extent to which institutional investors may have influenced independent real estate appraisals during the financial crisis. A conceptual model of the determinants of client influence on real estate appraisals is proposed. It is suggested that the extent of clients’ ability and willingness to bias appraisal outputs is contingent upon market and regulatory environments (ethical norms and legal and institutional frameworks), the salience of the appraisal(s) to the client, financial incentives for the appraiser to respond to client pressure, organisational culture, the level of moral reasoning of both individual clients and appraisers, client knowledge and the degree of appraisal uncertainty. The potential of client influence to bias ostensibly independent real estate appraisals is examined using the opportunity afforded by the market downturn commencing in 2007 in the UK. During the market turbulence at the end of 2007, the motivations of different types of owners to bias appraisals diverged clearly and temporarily provided a unique opportunity to assess potential appraisal bias. We use appraisal-based performance data for individual real estate assets to test whether there were significant ownership effects on performance during this period. The results support the hypothesis that real estate appraisals in this period reflected the differing needs of clients.

One step forward, and two steps back: women and career progression in academia during times of uncertainty

While there is an extensive and still growing body of literature on women in academia and the challenges they encounter in career progression, there is little research on their experience specifically within a business school setting. In this study, we attempt to address this gap and examine the experiences and career development of female academics in a business school and how these are impacted by downsizing programmes. To this end, an exploratory case study is conducted. The findings of this study show that female business school academics experience numerous challenges in terms of promotion and development, networking, and the multiple and conflicting demands placed upon them. As a result, the lack of visibility seems to be a pertinent issue in terms of their career progression. Our data also demonstrates that that, paradoxically, during periods of downsizing women become more visible and thus vulnerable to layoffs as a consequence of the challenges and pressures created in their environment during this process. In this paper, we argue that this heightened visibility, and being subject to possible layoffs, further reproduces inequality regimes in academia.

Essays on robust portfolio selection and pension finance

This thesis examines three different, but related problems in the broad area of portfolio management for long-term institutional investors, and focuses mainly on the case of pension funds. The first idea (Chapter 3) is the application of a novel numerical technique – robust optimization – to a real-world pension scheme (the Universities Superannuation Scheme, USS) for first time. The corresponding empirical results are supported by many robustness checks and several benchmarks such as the Bayes-Stein and Black-Litterman models that are also applied for first time in a pension ALM framework, the Sharpe and Tint model and the actual USS asset allocations. The second idea presented in Chapter 4 is the investigation of whether the selection of the portfolio construction strategy matters in the SRI industry, an issue of great importance for long term investors. This study applies a variety of optimal and naïve portfolio diversification techniques to the same SRI-screened universe, and gives some answers to the question of which portfolio strategies tend to create superior SRI portfolios. Finally, the third idea (Chapter 5) compares the performance of a real-world pension scheme (USS) before and after the recent major changes in the pension rules under different dynamic asset allocation strategies and the fixed-mix portfolio approach and quantifies the redistributive effects between various stakeholders. Although this study deals with a specific pension scheme, the methodology can be applied by other major pension schemes in countries such as the UK and USA that have changed their rules.

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The career competencies of self-initiated and assigned expatriates: assessing the development of career capital over time

Building on a modern careers approach, we assess the effects of working abroad on individuals’ career capital. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies, we return to a sample of economics graduates in Finland eight years later. We measure changes in three dimensions of career capital; ‘knowing how’, ‘knowing whom’, ‘knowing why’ and find that company assigned expatriates learn more than self-initiated expatriates. All three career capital areas benefit from international experience and all are increasingly valued over time. Based on our findings we conclude that a dynamic notion of career capital acquisition and use is needed. Managerial implications include the need for a wider view of talent management for international businesses.

Women of Substance : The Aspect of Education, Career and Female Identity in Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones's Diary

Although two hundred years separate Jane Austen and Helen Fielding and, subsequently, also their portrayals of society, the similarities outweigh the differences. When juxtaposing Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary in the light of feminism it is evident that both books provide clear examples of the prevailing situation of women in each time and place. The aspects of the study, which are especially important today, show both the development and some degree of stagnation of women’s rights and identities.