Alexandra Broillet

An Internet based distribution strategy of luxury products and services grounded on qualitative Web discourse analysis

Nowadays Internet userspsila behavior when using Web 2.0 technologies is mostly ignored in marketing research, and therefore is, in particular, absent in the luxury internet strategy literature. This paper contributes to answering the following research question: Can Netnography be used as a research method and how can it be used efficiently in order to design internet strategy such as online communication and distribution? Different blogs dedicated to luxury products were analyzed in order to test this research method in the luxury sector. What Internet users interested in luxury goods and services were saying and writing in different blogs dedicated to luxury products was analyzed with the netnography methodology. Postings discussing luxury watch brands, luxury cars, luxury travel and art objects were analyzed through the frequency of particular terms in order to give an idea of the most stated opinions and the perception of the products and services. Results showed that Web 2.0 can no longer be ignored and should be fully integrated in the communication and distribution strategy, even in the case of luxury products and services.

“What and how do we learn from LinkedIn forums?” An exploratory investigation

This study examines several academic and professional LinkedIn forums, and using a grounded theory perspective, observes three key lifelong learning interactions for participants-(a) problem solving through shared learning and helping processes,” (b) a technical features learning center for learning new interfaces and features, and (c) social networking. These three interactions offer a preliminary understanding of the potential for LinkedIn forums as a lifelong learning space, and an innovation space where weak ties and transactive memory systems have the potential to affect multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research practices, as well as create economic value for higher education by connecting active researchers to industry and other researchers.

The change announcement: Implications for communicating change using organizational culture

Shifting the focus in Change Management as a Field from the best way to send messages to the experience and understanding of the receivers offers a new direction that goes beyond a Management-centric perspective on Change Management Communication. To do this, we examine 61 interviews with employees experiencing change about a key communication aspect in Change Management, the Change announcement. These interviews were gathered by professional students as part of the Change Management Course in the MBA program. We use patterns of change communication discussed in the interviews to offer a basis for a broader perspective on experiencing change, which includes interaction between the Change Managers and employees in the organization.

Visualizing an iterative, dynamic model for improving leadership-employee communication in the organizational change process

Change Management Literature addresses successful and unsuccessful change factors, but there is a conceptual gap that overlooks ways in which Leadership-Employee Communication can be operationalized. To deal with this concern, we address themes emerging from interviews focused on employees experiencing Change Management Implementation in Swiss organizations. We question whether the themes and guidelines can offer sound advice to leaders in organizations undergoing Change Management initiatives. We then explore the context in which change occurs, and discuss an approach to change using a designer/user metaphor from the technical communication field. These perspectives broaden Change Management to include production and reception of messages about change through a link to 1) sensemaking, 2) Change Management ethos and 3) cultural resources for action available in the organization. We use a series of visualizations to demonstrate the shift from the current Change Management Paradigm to a new paradigm that integrates enterprise and individual logics of change. The use of user-centered design principles offers Change Management the opportunity to broaden the basis for advising organizations going through change to include contextual analysis and action research addressing the interaction between change designers and change users at each step of the Change Management process.

Service design needs for luxury e-commerce: An empirical study

Nowadays, we are just in the launching phase of luxury e-business, it is not clear whether it should be served with a luxury service from a physical shop, or not. Do consumers especially wish a pre- and after-sales service which is taken in charge by a physical shop while buying on the official luxury website? After the opinion of luxury bloggers, we do know that there is a need for luxury service offer which comes with luxury e-commerce in general and specifically for pre- and after-sales services[1]. Our results are based on 168 questionnaires from international luxury e-shoppers. They show clearly that luxury consumers, who buy luxury goods via internet, do need a physical shop. Additionally this physical shop has to assume all pre- and after-sales issue. So, luxury e-commerce does not replace the physical independent wholesaler network, but has to be integrated in a complementary strategy with it.

Experiencing global culture in Vatel: Implications of using knowledge management concepts for approaching culture in professional communication

To explore the meaning of “global culture” in a professional communication context, this paper explores the “unsettled” global culture of Vatel, a private business school educating students from nearly 50 different countries for the hospitality industry. This paper explores the role of knowledge management in understanding global culture, arguing that the notion of “unsettled” cultures demonstrates how ideologies function in global settings and draw on national “settled” cultural resources. In unpacking different aspects of Vatels culture this paper questions assumptions built into cultural frames of reference by offering a global culture frame, drawing on cultural resources from country based “settled” cultural contexts, and reflects on how global cultural contexts can benefit from a knowledge management approach to this dynamic between “settled” cultural contexts and “unsettled” cultural ideologies that frame global cultural experiences. This approach to culture offers an opportunity for professional and technical communicators to reflect on global cultural contexts in the workplace.