Philip Gross addresses a new opportunity for growing brands that may reside within a sponsorship alliance. Typically, brands vie for image transfer from an event or other property when entering a sponsorship engagement. Yet this practice leaves a valuable part of a sponsorship alliance unexploited. Specifically, the author infers from theories of social and cognitive psychology to propose and test a research model that accounts for a sponsor to also gain from brand attitude and personality traits innately tied to a co-sponsor of the same event. The results provide evidence for direct image transfer between two sponsor brands. Hence, pairing with a co-sponsor might fortify or dilute a sponsor brand's image depending on the expediency of the image conveyed by that ally.

Marketing to the 90s Generation is based on original research conducted by sociologists and psychologists on generational cohorts, how they come about, what defines them and what it means to society, its institutions and companies.

In Germany's Economic Renaissance, veteran European correspondent Jack Ewing of The International New York Times explains how a country with some of the highest labor and energy costs in the world beat the odds to become the third-largest exporter of manufactured goods, after China and the United States. Men and women who manage German companies both big and small explain how any company can behave like a multinational, as well as the secrets of conquering the high end of the market where quality is more important than price. Both informative and entertaining, filled with rich character studies, this book is essential reading for everyone wondering how to bring factories - and the jobs they provide - back to American shores.

Coping with Retail Giants critically analyzes the modern retail market and identifies how businesses gain the competitive edge over the major retailers that currently control the market. Dr. Samli argues that as society advances economically, consumers will seek better values generated by the retailing sector.

Jan Hauke Holste analyzes how a company can innovate and change its business model to the degree that it can climb up the value chain. His research synthesizes a combination of the global value chain and the business model literature to create a new framework of local firm upgrading. The findings of an empirical test of the model indicate that local firms are more than just a link within a global value chain. Each firm has a choice and inter-firm differences indicate that there is a strong firm level factor. Next to other factors, the founder is the key driver of local firm upgrading. He is possibly the most important element within a firm.

In this book, Alexander Hantzschel presents the benefits of organized networks and provides a first-ever overview of German-Sino business networks. Based on more than 20 expert interviews and research of 30 different cases, the analysis covers the different forms of organization, their target groups and members, services and activities, and accessibility and membership fees. Complementary to the analysis, the results of a survey bring forward the experiences and expectations of professionals involved in such networks. With this Springer Brief, business professionals get a quick and useful overview of the leading networks such as the German Asia-Pacific Business Association, the German-Chinese Business Association, and the Asian Social Business Community.

The theoretical and empirical literature to date has fallen short of reaching a consensus as to whether granting more managerial discretion to managers tends to enhance, not alter or diminish organizational performance (the discretion puzzle). This book aims to build a bridge between these contradictory results by synthesising principal-agent theory, stewardship theory, and managerial discretion theory into a new empirically-validated model. Using a representative sample of 'double-blind' interviews with managers of 467 firms in China and applying partial least squares path modelling (PLS), the study identifies a potential cause of the discretion puzzle: the failure of the extant literature to account for granularity in the way that managers use their discretion. This generates far-reaching implications for theoretical and empirical research as well as practical recommendations for managing managers in multinationals and Chinese companies.

The student's future as a knowledge worker is the starting point of this book on the philosophy of science. With this in mind, the book combines a review of philosophical positions and problems with practical examples and perspectives gained from everyday challenges faced by knowledge workers in their businesses and organisations.

Big Social Mobile shows that big data, along with social and mobile media, can improve enterprise performance significantly, but only when implemented in a holistic fashion. This book offers an integrative process that has helped a wide range of businesses enhance what has traditionally made them unique, resulting in transformative results.

Africans Investing in Africa explores intra-African trade and investment by showing how, where and why Africans invest across Africa; to identify the economic, political and social experiences that hinder or stimulate investment; and to highlight examples of pan-African investors.

Now, more than ever, customer experience plays a pivotal role in the success and longevity of a company. Based on rigorous scientific tools and global data, this book offers a simple but thorough guide on how to master the challenges of the market, and how to deliver superior performance through effective customer experience management.

Advances in software, auction-based media, analytics, and big data have made it possible for the average marketer to compete with marketers with 100 times the spending power. Taking Down Goliath profiles the ways in which digital marketing can level the playing field, if you know how to use it.

This book analyzes in detail differing interpretations of the rule of law in Western legal systems and in the People's Republic of China. As the rule of law is seen by many as a prerequisite for China's future development, politicians, activists and entrepreneurs from China and from the West alike have long been calling for adherence to this principle, which is constitutive of Western democracies. All these groups use the same words, but do they truly share the same idea? In order to address this question, the book compares the "Rule of Law with Chinese characteristics," as propagated by Chinese leaders and in official Chinese publications, to different applications of the rule of law as it is understood in Western civilization. In particular, the author takes a closer look at the implementations of recognized core elements of the rule of law in representative Western countries, which include the separation of power, the supremacy of law, the protection of fundamental rights, and the independence of the justice system.

Based on an extensive national survey of workers and four separate industry-specific surveys, Generations and Work will examine and provide answers to the most common issues and problems of multi generational work by assessing differences and commonalities between and among generations.

Big Data is a growing business trend, but there little advice available on how to use it practically. Written by a data mining expert with over 30 years of experience, this book uses case studies to help marketers, brand managers and IT professionals understand how to capture and measure data for marketing purposes.

It is generally understood that some effective leadership behaviors of Chinese managers differ from those of Western managers. It has also been debated controversially whether Chinese learners can benefit from Western learning approaches. Taking these two aspects into consideration, Jingjing Wang examines whether a global leadership development program from Western countries has as much impact on Chinese managers as on Western managers. She conducts the empirical study within one global corporation originating from Germany and the data were collected from Germany and China. Based on the core results of the study, implications for the globalization of leadership development are discussed.

Philip Graves, one of the world's leading experts in consumer behavior, reveals why the findings obtained from most market research are completely unreliable. Whether it is company executives seeking to define their corporate strategy or politicians wanting to understand the electorate, the idea that questions answered on a questionnaire or discussed in a focus group can provide useful insights on which to base business decisions is the cause of product failures, political blunders and wasted billions. Consumer.ology exposes some of the most expensive examples of research-driven thinking clouding judgment, experience and evidence - from New Coke to General Motors, from Mattel to the Millennium Dome - and instances of success through ignoring market research, such as Baileys and Doctor Who. It also shows organizations the tools they should be using if they want to understand their customers. Using his unique AFECT approach, a set of five criteria to evaluate the reliability of any consumer insight, Graves asserts that it's time for a fresh approach that embraces this new understanding of human behavior.

Most studies of doing business at the "bottom of the economic pyramid" focus on viewing the poor as consumers, as micro-entrepreneurs, or as potential employees of local companies. Almost no analysis focuses on the poor as primary producers of agricultural commodities a striking omission given that primary producers are by far the largest segment of the working-age population in developing economies. Making Markets More Inclusive bridges the management literature with original research on agricultural value chains in developing and emerging economies. This exciting work is the first to delve into the skills, capabilities, strategies and approaches needed for inclusive value chain development. McKague shows how NGOs and companies can connect poor producers in developing economies with the right markets to better create social and economic impact. He also analyzes one of the leading agricultural value chain initiatives in the world, which is being replicated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in several different value chains in Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana, India, and Mali. Want more? Check out these compelling videos, which provide a glimpse into the stories and examples used throughout the book. Video Trailer for Making Markets More Inclusive. Farmer Training. Kallani Rani increased the productivity of her cows, become a cattle feed seller in her village (Chapter 6), and opened a fresh milk canteen in her local market (Chapter 7). She now trains other women farmers and works to improve opportunities for women in her community (Chapter 5). Animal Health Care Services. Asma Husna trained to be an animal health worker with CARE to provide important animal health services and education to local farmers on a fee-for-service basis (Chapter 6). Cattle Feed Shops. Fulera Akter started a business as a cattle feed seller after demand for nutritional animal feed grew due to farmers' improved knowledge of nutrition (Chapter 6). Savings Groups. Coauthor Muhammad Siddiquee, the Coordinator of Agriculture and Value Chain Programs at CARE Bangladesh, discusses the value of farmer savings groups (Chapter 6). Milk Collection. Sarothi Rani became a milk collector to earn an improved income for her family and provide an important service to other dairy farmers in her community (Chapter 7). Digital Fat Testing. Introducing digital fat testing machines into the dairy value chain helped reward farmers for making investments in producing higher quality milk, as well as ensuring transparent and timely payments (Chapter 7). Microfranchising. Supporting agricultural input shop owners with training, relationships to suppliers, common branding, and standardized customer services improves the productivity of smallholder farmers and the profitability of shops (Chapter 12). Bangladesh Dairy Value Chain Learning. Reflections from some of the 40 CARE staff from 17 countries who came to Bangladesh to learn from the experience of the dairy value chain project (Chapter 15).

Drawing on research from 30,000 individuals and their practical experience as intercultural management consultants, the authors provide insights into the broader landscape of intercultural management through their exploration of 4 competencies: Intercultural Sensitivity, Intercultural Communication, Building Commitment and Managing Uncertainty.

The global focus of corporations, government institutions, and NGOs have led to a defining question of the era: How do foreigners feel about working for Americans? Through surveys with over 700 Foreign Service nationals working within the US State Department, Benton examines perceptions of non-Americans working in overtly American environments.