Professionals' awareness of operational antibiotic prescribing controls in UK NHS hospitals

In recent years, there have been increasing recommendations for multidisciplinary collaboration between clinical pharmacists and medical microbiologists in an attempt to control the quality (and quantity) of antibiotic prescribing. A questionnaire addressing the utilization of antibiotic prescribing controls was sent to the chief pharmacist and medical microbiologist in UK NHS hospitals. Responses were received from both the chief pharmacist and the medical microbiologist employed in the same hospital from 83 hospitals (a 30% response rate from two independent studies). A high level of disagreement and poor awareness was identified between the interprofessional staff groups regarding the existence of antibiotic formulary (with disagreement between the two groups, or not known by one or both respondents, in 46% of the paired hospitals, N=38) and guideline documents (13%, N=11), performance of antibiotic prescribing audits (40%, N=33), and whether pharmacists (52%, N=43) and medical microbiologists (77%, N=64) monitored physician compliance with antibiotic prescribing control documents. This study has identified poor knowledge of the existence of basic antibiotic prescribing control mechanisms and the role of professional colleagues. It is suggested that there is some way to go before 'Agenda for Change' principles of flexible and collaborative roles are met. © 2004 The Hospital Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How brand attribute typicality and consumer commitment moderate the influence of comparative advertising

This study examines how product attribute typicality and brand commitment influence the effects of comparative versus non-comparative ads on brand attitudes. Employing perspectives from the literatures on typicality and commitment, the study examines the effects of commitment to the comparison brand on the effectiveness of comparative versus non-comparative advertising. A between-informants experiment uses data from 466 student informants. It is hypothesized that (a) when the attribute under consideration is typical (atypical), among comparison brand committed informants, a non-comparative ad is more (no more) persuasive than a comparative ad, (b) when the attribute under consideration is typical, among comparison brand non-committed informants, a comparative ad is more persuasive than a non-comparative ad, and (c) when the attribute under consideration is atypical, among comparison brand non-committed informants, a comparative ad is likely to be more persuasive than a non-comparative ad, but the effect will be weaker than in the case of a typical attribute. Hypothesis (a) is supported while (b) has directional support. The results support a three-way interaction between consumer commitment, attribute typicality, and type of advertisement. The findings are relevant to a variety of contexts, such as markets characterized by high levels of market share and commitment for the market leader as well as fragmented markets where market share and commitment levels are low.

Real options in multinational decision-making:managerial awareness and risk implications

This paper addresses the theme of real options decision-making in multinational corporations (MNCs) and stresses the role of real options attention and managerial learning in company performance. Using a sample of 278 large MNCs with categorised degrees of managerial real options awareness, we examine the risk implications of switching options in multinational operations, and explore the extent to which the real options logic can be classified as “best practice” in decision-making and risk management. Our results reveal that MNCs which have high managerial awareness about their real options are able to reduce their downside risk through multinationality, organisational slack and other firm characteristics. This finding does not apply fully to MNCs without evidence of such an awareness. Also, although real options awareness does not systematically guarantee lower downside risk from operations, supplementary results indicate that MNCs with evidence of significant investment in the acquisition of real options knowledge tend to outperform competitors that are unaware of their real options. This suggests that if real options are explored and exploited appropriately, real options decision-making can result into superior performance for MNCs in the long-term.

Brand-driven leadership for change management in retailing

Change management theorists largely overlook using the brand as a vehicle for change. Similarly, while branding has become an increasingly popular research and business topic, the branding literature appears to neglect change management. Our research bridges this gap through the development of brand identity as the main driver of organizational renewal. In the article we provide insights into brand-driven leadership for change which have been develope by collaborative action research with CEOs and owners of retail firms over a twenty year period. In contrast to the usual planning of change attempting to fit the firm to external trends and considering internal resources our brand-driven approach is based on resonance with consumers by the use of external socio-cultural meanings in society. We highlight phases in the development of brand identity by reference to a prototypical retail case study and presenta framework to help managers with brand-driven leadership for change.

The definition, theoretical modelling and empirical research of front-line service employee corporate identity within a UK national grocery retailer:determining the FLE corporate brand identification construct

Over the past forty years the corporate identity literature has developed to a point of maturity where it currently contains many definitions and models of the corporate identity construct at the organisational level. The literature has evolved by developing models of corporate identity or in considering corporate identity in relation to new and developing themes, e.g. corporate social responsibility. It has evolved into a multidisciplinary domain recently incorporating constructs from other literature to further its development. However, the literature has a number of limitations. It remains that an overarching and universally accepted definition of corporate identity is elusive, potentially leaving the construct with a lack of clear definition. Only a few corporate identity definitions and models, at the corporate level, have been empirically tested. The corporate identity construct is overwhelmingly defined and theoretically constructed at the corporate level, leaving the literature without a detailed understanding of its influence at an individual stakeholder level. Front-line service employees (FLEs), form a component in a number of corporate identity models developed at the organisational level. FLEs deliver the services of an organisation to its customers, as well as represent the organisation by communicating and transporting its core defining characteristics to customers through continual customer contact and interaction. This person-to-person contact between an FLE and the customer is termed a service encounter, where service encounters influence a customer’s perception of both the service delivered and the associated level of service quality. Therefore this study for the first time defines, theoretically models and empirically tests corporate identity at the individual FLE level, termed FLE corporate identity. The study uses the services marketing literature to characterise an FLE’s operating environment, arriving at five potential dimensions to the FLE corporate identity construct. These are scrutinised against existing corporate identity definitions and models to arrive at a definition for the construct. In reviewing the corporate identity, services marketing, branding and organisational psychology literature, a theoretical model is developed for FLE corporate identity, which is empirically and quantitatively tested, with FLEs in seven stores of a major national retailer. Following rigorous construct reliability and validity testing, the 601 usable responses are used to estimate a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model for the study. The results for the individual hypotheses and the structural model are very encouraging, as they fit the data well and support a definition of FLE corporate identity. This study makes contributions to the branding, services marketing and organisational psychology literature, but its principal contribution is to extend the corporate identity literature into a new area of discourse and research, that of FLE corporate identity

Market-awareness in service-based systems

Service-based systems are applications built by composing pre-existing services. During design time and according to the specifications, a set of services is selected. Both, service providers and consumers exist in a service market that is constantly changing. Service providers continuously change their quality of services (QoS), and service consumers can update their specifications according to what the market is offering. Therefore, during runtime, the services are periodically and manually checked to verify if they still satisfy the specifications. Unfortunately, humans are overwhelmed with the degree of changes exhibited by the service market. Consequently, verification of the compliance specification and execution of the corresponding adaptations when deviations are detected cannot be carried out in a manual fashion. In this work, we propose a framework to enable online awareness of changes in the service market in both consumers and providers by representing them as active software agents. At runtime, consumer agents concretize QoS specifications according to the available market knowledge. Services agents are collectively aware of themselves and of the consumers' requests. Moreover, they can create and maintain virtual organizations to react actively to demands that come from the market. In this paper we show preliminary results that allow us to conclude that the creation and adaptation of service-based systems can be carried out by a self-organized service market system. © 2012 IEEE.

Aligning employee service recovery performance with brand values:the role of brand-specific leadership

This study investigates the effects of brand-specific leadership on employees' brand-aligned service recovery performance (SRP). In order to do so, we empirically test a conceptual model of relationships between brand-specific transformational leadership (TFL) and transactional leadership (TRL), trust in leader and in corporate brand, brand identification, and SRP from employees' perspectives. It is the first study to incorporate trust in corporate brand into the framework. Results from a study of 246 customer-contact employees show that brand-specific TFL has a positive impact on all variables studied, while brand-specific TRL is ineffective in fostering brand-building behaviours. More specifically, brand-specific TFL's effects on employee SRP are mediated by trust in the leader, trust in the corporate brand, and brand identification. Implications and future research directions are discussed. © 2013 Copyright Taylor & Francis.

An integrative approach to developing an intercultural awareness strategy in a multicultural university

Universities are increasingly diverse places; in terms of staff and students, their nationality, ethnicity and religious backgrounds. HEIs need to find ways of ensuring that this diversity adds to the life of the institution and to the development of graduates as employees in a global workplace. The paper offers a case study of one way of developing an intercultural strategy at a UK university. The university concerned has a highly multicultural and multinational staff and student population. Over many years the university has worked to celebrate and embed this diversity into the culture and values of the institution; in its learning, teaching, business operations and relationships. The university wished to develop its intercultural awareness strategy in an inspirational and vibrant way, one which was informed by research and practice. The paper proposes a new integrative approach to developing an intercultural strategy, and summarises some reflections on the process of creating the intercultural awareness strategy which may be of use to other institutions. Analysis showed that in order to make the strategy effective there had to be commitment from senior management to match innovative practices at an individual level. It is also clear that such a strategy must include formal policies and procedures, as well as more informal channels to allow people to express intercultural differences and shared values. The critical role of middle management in strategy implementation is also discussed.

The provision of quality awareness programmes amongst companies and organisations seeking BS5750 registration

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Negative brand personality:the construct, its antecedents and outcome variables

By evolving brands and building on the importance of self-expression, Aaker (1997) developed the brand personality framework as a means to understand brand-consumer relationships. The brand personality framework captures the core values and characteristics described in human personality research in an attempt to humanize brands. Although influential across many streams of brand personality research, the current conceptualization of brand personality only offers a positively-framed approach. To date, no research, both conceptually and empirically, has thoroughly incorporated factors reflective of Negative Brand Personality, despite the fact that almost all researchers in personality are in agreement that factors akin to Extraversion (positive) and Neuroticism (negative) should be in a comprehensive personality scale to accommodate consumers’ expressions. As a result, the study of brand personality is only half complete since the current research trend is to position brand personality under brand image. However, with the brand personality concept being confused with brand identity at the empirical stage, factors reflective of Negative Brand Personality have been neglected. Accordingly, this thesis extends the current conceptualization of brand personality by demarcating the existing typologies of desirable brand personality and incorporating the characteristics reflective of consumers’ discrepant self-meaning to provide a more complete understanding of brand personality. However, it is not enough to interpret negative factors as the absence of positive factors. Negative factors reflect consumers’ anxious and frustrated feelings. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the current conceptualization of brand personality by, firstly, presenting a conceptual definition of Negative Brand Personality in order to provide a theoretical basis for the development of a Negative Brand Personality scale, then, secondly, identifying what constitutes Negative Brand Personality and to what extent consumers’ cognitive dissonance explains the nature of Negative Brand Personality, and, thirdly, ascertaining the impact Negative Brand Personality has on attitudinal constructs, namely: Negative Attitude, Detachment, Brand Loyalty and Satisfaction, which have proven to predict behaviors such as choice and (re-)purchasing. In order to deliver on the three main contributions, two comprehensive studies were conducted to a) develop a valid, parsimonious, yet relatively short measure of Negative Brand Personality, and b) ascertain how the Negative Brand Personality measure behaves within a network of related constructs. The mixed methods approach, grounded in theoretical and empirical development, provides evidence to suggest that there are four factors to Negative Brand Personality and, tested through use of a structural equation modeling technique, that these are influenced by Brand Confusion, Price Unfairness, Self- Incongruence and Corporate Hypocrisy. Negative Brand Personality factors mainly determined Consumers Negative Attitudes and Brand Detachment. The research contributes to the literature on brand personality by improving the consumer-brand relationship by means of engaging in a brandconsumer conversation in order to reduce consumers’ cognitive strain. The study concludes with a discussion on the theoretical and practical implications of the findings, its limitations, and potential directions for future research.

Does the importance of value, brand and relationship equity for customer loyalty differ between Eastern and Western cultures?

The use of the customer equity framework as a focal marketing strategy to increase customer loyalty has emerged as an important topic. Despite a growing number of investigations, previous studies are limited by their strong U.S. and European orientations. Research into Western consumers cannot necessarily predict the behaviour of Eastern consumers though. Therefore, this study investigates whether the link between customer equity drivers (value equity, brand equity and relationship equity) and loyalty intentions is sensitive to the cultural environment. A sample of 1553 Chinese and 1085 Dutch consumers in the banking and supermarket industries reveals that all three customer equity drivers exert a greater impact in Western than in Eastern cultures. This study also shows that Eastern consumers in general have higher loyalty intentions than Western consumers. © 2013.

Consumer engagement with self-expressive brands:brand love and WOM outcomes

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore attitudes of consumers who engage with brands through Facebook "likes". It explores the extent to which these brands are self-expressive and examines the relationship between brand "liking" and brand outcomes. Brand outcomes include brand love and advocacy, where advocacy incorporates WOM and brand acceptance. Design/methodology/approach: Findings are presented from a survey of Facebook users who engage with a brand by "liking" it. Findings: Brands "liked" are expressive of the inner or social self. The study identifies a positive relationship between the self-expressive nature of brands "liked" and brand love. Consumers who engage with inner self-expressive brands are more likely to offer WOM for that brand. By contrast, consumers who engage with socially self-expressive brands are more likely to accept wrongdoing from a brand. Research limitations/implications: The research is exploratory and is limited to consumers who are engaged with a brand through "liking" it on the Facebook social network. Practical implications: The study offers suggestions for managers seeking to enhance brand engagement through Facebook "liking", and to encourage positive brand outcomes (such as WOM) among consumers already engaged with a brand on Facebook. Originality/value: This paper provides new insights into consumer brand engagement evidenced through Facebook "liking". It charts the relationship between "liked" self-expressive brands and brand love. Distinctions are drawn between brand outcomes among consumers who "like" for socially self-expressive reasons, and consumers who are brand engaged by "liking" to express their inner selves. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

A taxonomy of measures for consumer-based brand equity:drawing on the views of managers in Europe

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the components of consumer-based brand equity from the perspective of experts in brand management in the UK, Germany and Greece. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with senior brand consultants and managers, five in the UK, five in Germany and five in Greece. Findings: The findings suggested four categories of measures which can be used to define brand equity. These are the consumers' understanding of brand characteristics; consumers' brand evaluation; consumers' affective response towards the brand; and consumers' behaviour towards the brand. Specific dimensions are identified as indicators of each category. Research limitations/implications: Although the focus of this study is Europe, data were only collected from the UK, Germany and Greece, countries representing three of the five European cultural clusters. The resultant taxonomy adds to the fragmented literature on brand equity measurement by proposing four categories to gauge brand equity. Practical implications: The suggested taxonomy provides indicators of a framework managers could use when assessing brand equity. Originality/value: There is little agreement on what constitutes brand equity and therefore measures of brand equity are fragmented. To date, the views of practicing managers have not been taken into account in research. This paper draws on the views of practitioners and academics to suggest a taxonomy of categories of measures for brand equity. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Brand orientation and brand values in retail banking

This exploratory study seeks to provide an appreciation of brand orientation in retail banking. Through in-depth interviews at head office and branch level, we explore managers' brand mind-set. We also surface managers' views about the relationship between market and brand orientation. Further, we examine managers' perceptions about the role of brand values as resources in creating a brand orientation. In a large-scale study of front-line employees, we examine the level of agreement with brand values, and describe differences in brand buy-in across employee clusters. © 2013 Copyright Westburn Publishers Ltd.

Developing and applying a place brand identity model:the case of Slovenia

This paper reviews the concept of place brand identity within the supply side aspect of place branding. With no widely accepted model of place brand identity, the paper proposes a new model, which has its roots in marketing, tourism and sociological theory. The model focuses on the country brand of Slovenia, representing the first systematic branding process in Slovenia's short history. The development of a research program followed a holistic approach involving key influencers and enactment stakeholders. This novel approach has several advantages over the previously uncoordinated country branding attempts. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.