The idea of the Nordic has witnessed significant attention in popular culture globally. However, little has been done to explore how Nordic brand actors perceive and enact Nordic values. We set out to explore this through a journey from southern Denmark to northern Norway, via Stockholm. The study was conducted as part of a collaborative project that focused on how myths work as a foundation for developing Nordic branding strategies. The results identified several symbolic resources which also revealed a number of cultural tensions, e.g. balancing modern Nordic aesthetics with Viking imagery and Norse mythology; egalitarian inclusiveness with fine dining/haute cuisine culture; traditional gendered fashion with post-gendered/LBTQ fashion; and ethnocentrism with multiculturalism. We discuss how brand actors try to construct compromises of these tensions, so that Nordic values as expressed in brands and products are amenable to the market, with branding strategies utilising a mode of sanitised Nordic mythology.

Purpose

This paper aims to develop place branding theory toward the accommodation of a multifaceted understanding of value and value negotiation by Nordic branding actors by way of answering the following question: How is Nordicness appropriated by Nordic branding actors and what value regimes are drawn on in the process?

Design/methodology/approach

Using field data from a selection of branding actors and sectors in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, a qualitative analysis of Nordic branding performances is used to unpack the negotiations of valuation of worth.

Findings

The analysis identified three principle orders of worth behind Nordicness (civic, green and inspired) that are negotiated through compromises between orders of industry and domestic and by contesting the orders of fame and market. The findings indicate how Nordicness is performed as principle worths and tensions and how these are rendered meaningful as propositions of “value as difference” as they are performed in practice by brand actors.

Originality/value

Several studies focus on how place branding “adds value;” however, few studies have been aimed at unpacking how a “value universe” is negotiated as a more complex understanding of worth or “value.” This study thus opens up for branding heterogeneity, which signifies awareness of competing notions and orders of worth among small- and medium-sized enterprises and other central stakeholders; this could further inspire interdisciplinary, value-based research into the potential contingencies of (product) branding and place branding in other contexts and regions.

The Swedish food retail industry is one with fierce competition, small product differentiation and increasingly disloyal customers. Consequently in order to create and retain loyal customers many of the stores offer some kind of loyalty schemes. The effectiveness of loyalty programs have been questioned, but it is proposed that in order for a loyalty program to be successful it must offer benefits that are perceived as valuable by customers. Thus the purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate how customers value loyalty programs and how this might affect them in a context where many companies reward their loyal customers. Customer perception of loyalty programs are considered to be grounded in multiple factors such as the design of the loyalty program as well as the competition in the industry. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with twelve respondents that shopped in a suburban area of Stockholm. The process of the study was influenced by the Grounded theory of method and as coding was used as the method of analysis, three themes related to how customers perceive reward components of loyalty program emerged: Offset of what I give and what I gain, Plan to have control of one’s finances and My perception of value is grounded in me.The findings of the study propose that a customer’s perception of reward components are influenced by what they are offered and by the overall design of the loyalty program. The most significant factor is however the customer self and where she is in life. This is displayed as different customers stated to have different reasons to join a loyalty program, mentioned different reward components as the most valuable one, highlighted different disadvantages as well as perceived the same reward components very differently.

Purpose

The present paper aims to add to the literature by exploring how curvilinear manifestations of user engagement can be explained in the setting of fashion-oriented social media.

Design/methodology/approach

This study analyses how ten Swedish fashion brands have been integrated in expressions of user engagement in social media. In total, a material of 11,173 user-generated contents from different types of social media applications over a period of 12 weeks was collected and analysed.

Findings

The results of this paper show that user engagement fluctuates considerably over time in social media. It also shows that the degree of engagement varies between different forms of social media applications.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on fashion marketing and user engagement by adding empirical support for the suggestion that expressions of engagement found in social media are curvilinear in their nature. It also concludes that highly involved and engaged users, instead of being brand activists, tend to be variety seekers in the studied setting that when taken together represents an emerging managerial challenge for the fashion industry and particularly fashion firms.

In this introduction, the authors argue for applying the concept of the imaginary in order to throw new light on the institutional and institutionalizing relationship between the consumer, the state, and the market in the Nordic context. Based on a reflection on foundational elements of the Nordic imaginary, notably a distinction between inclusion and exclusion, they outline how this and other elements in the Nordic imaginary are unfolded in the individual contributions to this volume. Finally, a set of reflections are presented on the role of this volume as a manifesto for a Nordic approach to contemporary consumer culture.

Based on the related literature in economics, organizational sociology and the sociology of finance, this article constructs a novel conceptual explanation for corporate short-termism, that is, the tendency of corporate managers to sacrifice long-term investments to improve short-term earnings (STEs). We theorize about how such corporate short-termism emerges, at least partly, from systemic, self-reinforcing processes across various communities of actors including investors, the media and managers themselves. In doing so, we refute the common notion that corporate short-termism is caused by an inherent preference of investors or other actors to focus on STEs. Consequently, the systemic perspective offered by this article questions some conventional assumptions about the roots of corporate short-termism and emphasizes the influence of coordination mechanisms and behavioural biases in giving rise to self-reinforcing loops.

This research introduces attitude towards the endorsement as a mediating variable in the relationships between celebrity source and endorsement factors and brand attitude. It also includes perceived celebrity motive, a variable rarely studied in the previous literature, as an endorsement factor. In a survey study, respondents evaluated four celebrity endorsement campaigns. Mediation analyses show that attitude towards the endorsement mediates the effects of three variables on brand attitude; these variables are celebrity expertise, celebritybrand fit, and perceived celebrity motive. Moreover, results show that if consumers perceive that the celebrity was motivated to do the endorsement not only by money but also by product quality, this has a significant positive effect on attitude towards the brand.

The function of cities in the knowledge economy and the concept of creative cities has been elaborated on in the literature. It has been maintained that local policymakers can play a part in preparing cities for the knowledge economy. The literature however glances over how this is carried out, and how it relates to city branding and international positioning. The aim of the present study is to elaborate on how cities in the knowledge economy are marketed and branded making use of notions like innovation and sustainability. The Chinese mega-cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen are focused on in a multiple case study. The main elements in the case studies of these three cities are semi-structured interviews, observations, documentation and netnography. Chinese mega-cities – and Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in particular – are interesting to focus on because they are central in China’s creation of, and move towards, a knowledge economy (e.g. through science-based innovation). These three cities moreover increasingly engage in city branding and international positioning, and integrate the notions of innovation and sustainability in their city branding practices. The study shows how three Chinese mega-cities make use of the notions of innovation and sustainability, in line with theirs and China’s move towards becoming a knowledge economy. The study contributes to the city branding literature, and offer insights to city managers and other practitioners involved in the development and branding of cities and places.

Purpose: The aim of the present study is to add to the existing research on online city branding by studying how metropolitan cities are internationally positioned using the Internet and online branding. The focus is on objectives and strategies, method and expression (including five illustrations), and challenges in online city branding.

Design/methodology/approach: The article relies on a single-case study approach, using the Chinese city of Chengdu as a case and illustration. Methods used are interviews, observations and documentation (including online material).

Findings: The study illustrates how Chengdu uses online city branding in its international positioning. Chengdu’s online branding is influenced by certain imagery, as well as challenges. Collaboration and endorsement crystalize as central elements in Chengdu’s online city branding.

Implications: This article and study can be seen as an important element in broadening the understanding for online city branding to international audiences. The study offers insights to practitioners on how online city branding is carried out in a Chinese context and in the city of Chengdu.

Originality/value: The study can be regarded as an important contribution to an area of practice and research which still is fairly new and unexplored, and an area that hitherto has not been well covered in the international literature.

Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to study how the Chinese city of Chongqing is

meeting the mission of the Chinese central government, to solve the imbalanced

income gap in Chongqing, and assist in solving the imbalanced development between

the east and west of China – while simultaneously developing and branding the city.

Method:

The study is based on a qualitative case study carried out in September

2011, including interviews, observations and documentary evidence.

Findings:

The study describes the city development and city branding efforts

undertaken in Chongqing. It also includes some findings relating to the China context

and to city branding in China.

Practical implications:

The study provides practitioners with a case of city branding

in a large Chinese city, offering an example of city branding in a Chinese context.

Originality/value:

The city of Chongqing has previously not been studied

extensively from a city branding point of view, thus offering an interesting case.

Introducing legitimacy and auto-communication, in addition to city branding, as

lenses in this case, offer interesting insights.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the underlying rationale for why companies participate in mega-events in general, and in mega-events in emerging economies – such as the 2010 Shanghai Expo – in particular. Of particular interest are the ways that companies use an event to advance their own purposes, and how experiences are created that use aspects of an event setting such as Expo 2010.

Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on a participatory, ethnographic and longitudinal field study focusing on the VIP section of the Swedish Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, using additional data from other national pavilions and respondents with insight into Expo 2010 and its organization.

Findings: The study indicates that even though companies operationally used the World Expo and the VIP section in many different ways, an underlying element appears to be to use the event for the “practice of communification”.

Practical implications: The study provides practitioners with a conceptual framework and tools to manage the co-creation process of experiences at events. This is done by supplying an empirical example from World Expo 2010 and the VIP area of the Swedish pavilion. This is a needed addition to the current knowledge on how customers engage in co-creation of experiences and how companies manage the co-creation process.

Originality/value: The “communification” concept is used to denote the simultaneous building of community while communicating business-related issues to strengthen and build relationships with customers over time, with exclusivity and co-creation of experiences as important components.

Purpose: Lend support to the idea that city branding is not just an economic activity inspired by market considerations, but also related to social and cultural goals. Study whether Shanghai is an inclusive city and how is it internally in order to be inclusive.

Method: Case study approach using secondary materials such as policy documents, news articles, online data, etc. The empirical context is the mega-city of Shanghai.

Findings: The study shed light on the way inclusiveness plays out in the city of Shanghai, and show that Shanghai – through visions, strategies and concepts as well as the World Expo 2010 – is moving in the direction of being more inclusive, and striving towards becoming a city for old and new Shanghai residents.

Research implications: The research on city branding towards internal audiences is to be further explored. So is research on how and in what ways city branding can steer a city towards social and cultural goals, and created positive change of society.

Practical implications: The study can supply city brand managers with insights into the importance of branding a city for social and cultural goals, and highlight the importance of having an inclusive approach towards city residents.

Originality/value: Contributing with a theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature on internal city branding.

This paper looks at the international media portrayal of two Chinese mega-cities – Beijing and Shenzhen – to better understand the contemporary China brand. During the last two decades, China started to leave its closed-door policies in the international arena, and showed signs to participate in the global economy. Politically and economically, China started to increase the quantity and intensity of its relations with the rest of the world. As mentioned in the country’s official five-year plans, China sees its’ mega-cities as an integral part of its relations with the rest of the world through social, cultural, and economic transaction. It has moreover been claimed that Chinese mega-cities can be regarded as tools in China’s nation branding. This research conceptualizes international print media as a crucial platform to promote city and nation brand images for branding professionals and administrators, as well as a significant information source for target audiences. Subsequently, two research questions are posed to analyze place brand images. Initially, we look at how Chinese cities are portrayed in the international arena by official Chinese resources. Secondly, we look at selected international newspapers for their portrayal. Through an inductive content analysis, we identify images, narratives and characteristics of Chinese mega-cities promoted to international target audiences. We also seek whether there are significant differences between Chinese and international media coverage through a quantitative content analysis. The findings of this research shed light on the components and imagery of the contemporary China brand, elucidate how the branding of Chinese mega-cities relates to the branding of China, and propose a method to measure the effectiveness of Chinese place branding campaigns.

This study analyzes a particular ideology of austerity as it spreads across Europe and reappears across diverse discourses. This ideology mobilizes the figure of the feckless consumer, who has overspent, who must come to regard their consumption as stupid, and therefore will accept austerity; not just as an inevitable outcome of bad decisions, but as holding the potential for moral redemption. We argue that ideology correlates this micro-frame of the feckless consumer with the macro condemnation of government expenditure and therefore is a hinge upon which the dissemination of austerity turns. The argument is developed by contrasting a Swedish television programme called Luxury Trap with the so-called ‘bail-out’ of the Irish state, as well as broader experiences of a pan-European discourse. Just as Luxury Trap’s hapless debtors are obliged to recognize their own stupidity through a process of brutal mortification, we argue that the Irish population has been mortified by an elite-driven narrative that measures consumption and expenditure as a gross average that reveals universal guilt and consumer excess. We see this powerful narrative implicating entire nations, obfuscating critical political economic analysis, and setting the ideological scene through which deep austerity programmes, ruinous to households and social infrastructures and starkly punitive to individuals, are pushed through. Critical to our argument is the over-determined status of the commodity itself whose invocation is central to the interpellation of a populace as excessive consumers. Instead of analysing social relations and neoliberalism’s contradictions, resentment and critique focusses upon material things, as though, for example, a plasma television was in itself a dangerous problem.

The concept of flexibility has been recognized as an ambiguous and complex concept consisting of various dimensions. Antecedents and enablers of flexibility have also received much attention. However, research on the collaboration effects on the flexibility of industrial companies seems to be somewhat limited. Therefore, the research presented in this article contributes to the abundant literature on flexibility by qualitatively determining the effects of collaboration between industrial producers with their service distributors on the producer’s flexibility.The context of the present study is the collaboration between servitized industrial companies and their service distributors. The main levels of flexibility studied are strategic and tactical. The data are gathered through semi-structured interviews with the managers of four industrial companies and two of their distributors of industrial services and products.The results of this empirical study are presented and the findings discussed, determining the nature of the relation and the effects of the collaboration on flexibility. The findings and conclusions of the study expand the understanding of the enablers of flexibility and contribute to the completeness of the research on flexibility. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also presented.

Previous research on strategic flexibility offered a rather simplistic view of how firms act in regards to changes without emphasising the interaction between the natures of changes in the business environment, the actions of the firm, and the organisational factors that frame the actions. The purpose of this article is thus to provide a framework that explicates how firms handle changes in their environment, emphasising influences from the context of the situation. The article employs explorative case research and abductive reasoning. Ten situations requiring flexible actions in five large market-leading northern European firms are explored. The findings and the analysis highlight the interaction of these three elements, delineate changes as positive and negative and show how actions of firms are context-dependent. A framework showing these findings and emphasising how firms gather and process context-specific information and knowledge about the changes is presented as the main contribution of the article. The implications of the findings are presented in the discussion, followed by future research suggestions and practical implications.

Previous literature reviews of strategic flexibility have a number of shortcomings, such as an excessive definitional focus or a lack of a specific focus in the field. To overcome these shortcomings, this paper aims to systematically and critically analyse the literature on strategic flexibility by identifying its main characteristics and linking the different aspects together in a new conceptual framework. Various aspects of strategic flexibility in the relevant literature (149 contributions) are analysed in this comprehensive analytical model. Thus, the systematic and critical approach of this article offers a novel perspective in understanding strategic flexibility and contributes to the field by providing a consolidation of the literature and indicating future research avenues.

Responding to significant market changes, many industrial companies have been pursuing the strategy of ‘servitization’, i.e. transition from selling products to selling an integrated products and service offering that delivers value in use. Once undergone the first step in the process of servitization by adding simple after-sales service to their goods, the company can continue the transition towards more complex solutions.A fundamental premise of this paper is that service transition is regarded as an example of strategic flexibility in practice. However, in spite of the abundant literature on servitization, it remains largely disconnected from the literature on flexibility. The purpose of this paper is thus to explore the industrial companies’ transition towards services as strategic flexibility in practice and to expand the field of industrial service research by infusing ideas from another discipline. The parallels are drawn between strategic challenges of servitization and certain aspects of strategic flexibility, such as sources, antecedents, and market-focused strategic flexibility. A qualitative empirical study is presented, testing the propositions developed from the merge of the concepts. The paper thus opens new dimensions to understanding of the concept of servitization.

The interest of researchers and practitioners in e-Word-of-Mouth has accelerated with the rise of social media platforms. In the last decade it became more apparent that customers are not merely recipients of product and brand information, but also active participants in shaping product and brand perceptions. However, still no comprehensive understanding of customers’ desire to engage in positive and negative e-Word-of-Mouth has been found. Therefore, this study focuses on Customer Engagement in order to provide knowledge on what makes customers engage in e-Word-of-Mouth. We narrow our study to New Product Introductions due to their crucial role in both business success and failure. In order to study this topic, quantitative methodology using big data analysis of around 20 millions tweets in total, with text analysis of around three million items, obtained from Twitter has been applied. The findings indicate that Brand Benefits and Innovativeness Level are two important aspects that impact Attitudinal Engagement which enables Customer Engagement Behavior.

Recent Chinese growth and development has had a tremendous impact on the world economy, especially in terms of the absorption of a significant amount of global foreign direct investment (FDI). Most of this FDI has taken the form of joint ventures between local and foreign firms. Some researchers typically see this as a race by local firms to learn from and eventually outperform foreign firms. The aim of this paper is to explore the evolving experiences, concerning acquired knowledge, resourcing, and control activities, of managers in Sino-Swedish joint ventures. For this purpose, a theoretical framework based on Buckley, P. J., Glaister, K. W., and Husa, R. [(2002). International Joint Ventures: Partnering skills and cross-cultural issues. Long Range Planning, 35, 113-134] and Child, J., and Yan, Y. [(2003). Predicting the performance of International Joint Ventures: An investigation in China. Journal of Management Studies, 40(2)] is developed. Within this framework - The Actor Oriented Approach-four propositions emerge. These are then tested against nine Swedish cases in China. The cases are based on data from a study of Swedish expatriate CEOs. Based on the findings a five stage, sequential approach to foreign firm entry and evolution into foreign markets is constructed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the model's more general applicability and suggestions for further research.

For the first time in the history of FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association), the football (soccer) World Cup held in Germany 2006 specifically addressed environmental concerns. By doing so, the German Organizing Committee did not have the objective of creating a short-term vision, but rather of making a long-term and lasting contribution to the improvement of environmental protection in hosting a mega-sporting event. By taking the football world cup in Germany as a case study, we will provide insights into the so-called 'Green Goal' programme and its four main areas: water, waste, energy, and transportation. From a global point of view, climate protection was added by the Organizing Committee as the fifth area of action and was recognised as a cross-sectorial task. Finally, questions are addressed on how to apply those measurements in the planning and organisation of other mega (-sporting) events.

Sponsorship of mega-sporting events such as the Olympic Games the Football World Cup has become a multi-million dollar business. Established multinational enterprises and brands such as VW or Coca-Cola use such events as an international marketing platform. But sponsoring mega-sporting sporting event has also developed as a strategic way for local companies to enter new markets or to prove themselves as being ready for the world market. This is especially the case, when the event takes place in an emerging economy. Most sport sponsorship research has focused on the markets in North America, Europe or Australia, thus covering a different economic development and representing not the same market conditions. This research aims to fill the gap by describing and analysing the advertising behaviour of the sponsoring partners to the Beijing Olympic Games. A means-objective framework of sponsoring focussing on six factors was applied to analyse 739 advertisements, articles and press releases collected from Chinese newspapers and Chinese official web pages between 2001 and 2008. By applying a qualitative content analysis, we discovered eight dominant means-objectives combinations leading to different sponsor advertising strategies depending on the lead time to the Olympic Games and the level of internationalization of the sponsoring company.

Sponsorship of mega-sporting events such as the Olympic Games the Football World Cup has become a multi-million dollar business. Established multinational enterprises and brands such as GE, VW or Coca-Cola use such events as an international marketing platform. But sponsoring mega-sporting sporting event has also developed as a strategic way for local companies to enter new markets or to prove themselves as being ready for the world market. This is especially the case, when the event takes place in an emerging market. Most sport sponsorship research has focused on the markets in North America, Europe or Australia, thus covering a different economic development and representing not the same market conditions. This research aims to fill the gap by describing and analysing the advertising behaviour of the sponsoring partners to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. A means-objective framework of sponsoring focussing on six factors was applied to analyse 739 advertisements, articles and press releases collected from Chinese newspapers and Chinese official web pages between 2001 and 2008. By applying a qualitative content analysis, we discovered eight dominant means-objectives combinations leading to different sponsor advertising strategies depending on the lead time to the Olympic Games and the level of internationalization of the sponsoring company.

Mega-sporting events today are central stages that not only feature professional athletes representing their country in competing for excellence, but also provide host nations with a universally legitimate way to present and promote their national identities and cultures on a global scale. This introduction to the special issue of Asian Business & Management on `Mega-sporting events in Asia' suggests insights into the emerging field of research related to mega-events and sport and summarizes the history of mega-sporting events in Asia, linking the topic to the growing importance of sports and the interest shown by national governments and cities in staging sporting events in Asia. It also offers a general framework for understanding a range of conceptual and methodological issues related to defining and measuring the impact of mega-sporting events, indicating potential directions for further research.

The Olympic Games are an event that attracts the focus of the media and the attention of the entire world for two weeks every four years. The Games are one of the largest international marketing platforms in the world. From the opening ceremony of the XXIXth Olympiad in Beijing 2008 to the moment that Beijing bade farewell, this mega-sporting event was the biggest broadcast event in history. The Beijing Olympic Games were made available across the world, with broadcasts in 220 territories and an estimated potential TV audience of 4.3 billion people. The sporting performances helped drive not only television audiences, but also internet and mobile phone downloads, to new levels. The Beijing Olympics Global Television and Online Media Report (IOC, 2008a) announces that a total of more than 61,700 hours of dedicated Beijing 2008 television and 72 per cent of coverage (44,454 hours) were aired on free-to-air terrestrial channels (all other coverage was aired on either pay TV cable/satellite platforms or free-to-air digital channels). According to the report, the region to enjoy the most dedicated TV coverage in 2008 was Europe with 21,292 hours of coverage. This represents a 46 per cent increase over the 14,602 hours of broadcasting that were reported to have been aired in 2004 during the Athens Games in the European time zones. It is also stated that of the 6.7 billion people globally there was a total of 4.3 billion people who had home access to dedicated Beijing 2008 TV coverage aired by official broadcasters.