J.R Anchor

Consumer perceptions of own brands: international differences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how relatively little is known about the consumer perceptions of own brands in the newly emerging markets of central and eastern Europe. The paper attempts to fill a gap in knowledge by investigating various aspects of consumer perceptions of Tesco own brands in the Czech Republic.Design/methodology/approach – The key data for this research were collected by structured questionnaires from Tesco supermarket customers in the Czech Republic and the UK. Non‐probability quota sampling was used and the sample was stratified according to gender, age and income.Findings – The results of the research indicate that the general view of Tesco own brands is slightly less positive among Czech than among British customers. However, significant differences emerge when these are examined in terms of income. Increases in income lead to a decrease in the favourability with which own brands are viewed in the Czech Republic – the opposite to the position in the UK. The age of con...

Strategic alliances in the European defence industry

Reports on research into the relationship between European defence manufacturing firms and their experience of cross‐border strategic alliances. The research takes in 135 cross‐border strategic alliances involving UK and European defence manufacturing firms, ranging from firms heavily dependent on defence contracts to firms whose defence interests make up less than 10 per cent of overall business. These firms manufacture telecommunications, transport, information, lethal platforms and components for the operation of these platforms for military organisations. A main aim is to ascertain the extent of participation in strategic alliances, the types of alliances being used and the major problems experienced by the partners.

The use of political risk assessment techniques in Jordanian multinational corporations

This paper describes and explains the use of political risk assessment techniques in Jordanian multinational corporations (MNCs). A multi‐method approach to collect data was followed. A self‐report questionnaire was delivered by hand to the general managers of all Jordanian MNCs which were identified as operating internationally. Semi‐structured interviews were used as a means of elaborating on the findings from the questionnaire. The study identified the extensive use of heuristic political risk assessment techniques (due to their flexibility, simplicity and low cost). Scientific techniques, on the other hand, were used by only a minority of MNCs. As has been the case in earlier studies, flexibility, simplicity and cost considerations were all found to be influential in this regard. However, the study also found that key decision‐makers in Jordanian MNCs believe that official data are subject to censorship and are therefore not reliable. This undermines the efficiency of using highly sophisticated scientific techniques. Since there are a number of other countries in the Middle East – and elsewhere – in which these considerations also apply, this finding has important implications for international businesses which operate in these countries, whatever their home country.

Does Competition Only Impact on Insolvency Risk? New Evidence from the Chinese Banking Industry

The impact of competition on the risk-taking behavior has been examined extensively by the empirical research. However, most of the studies focused on European banking sector and there is no empirical study testing this issue with regards to Chinese banking industry. The current study contributes to the empirical literature by investigating the impact of competition on credit risk, liquidity risk, capital risk, security risk as well as insolvency risk in Chinese banking sector over the period 2003-2013. Three different bank ownership types are considered which are state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks and city commercial banks. The insolvency risk is cross checked by stability inefficiency and Z-score, which is supposed to provide the most accurate results. In order to check the robustness of the results, the competition is measured by Lerner index and cross checked by Panzar-Rosse H statistics. The empirical findings suggest that city commercial banks have the highest credit risk and security risk compared to joint-stock commercial banks and state-owned commercial banks, while the liquidity risk of state-owned commercial banks is the highest. In terms of the capital risk, it is found that city commercial banks is lower than state-owned commercial banks, while the findings suggest that the insolvency risk of state-owned commercial banks is higher than joint-stock commercial banks and city commercial banks. In addition, the results show that higher competition within each bank ownership type leads to higher credit risk, higher liquidity risk, higher capital risk, higher security risk but lower insolvency risk.

Strategic decision implementation in an emerging market: “The nature of the beast?”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the institutional context impacts on strategic decision implementation in an emerging market. Previous studies of strategic decision making in emerging markets have not examined decision implementation. Given the changes in the world economy during the past decade, and in particular the growing importance of emerging market multinationals, this is an increasingly salient issue. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were delivered to general managers in all Jordanian publicly quoted industrial firms. A 53.7 per cent response rate was achieved. The structure of the questionnaire built on earlier studies in developed markets and, in particular, Alexander’s (1985) seminal study. Findings – The strategic decision implementation problems which are found in Jordan are similar to those found in developed economies. However, external shocks are a more important influence on strategic decision implementation that has been found to be t...

Continuity Culture: A Key Factor for Building Resilience and Sound Recovery Capabilities

This article investigates the extent to which Jordanian service organizations seek to establish continuity culture through testing, training, and updating of their business continuity plans. A survey strategy was adopted in this research. Primary and secondary data were used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with five senior managers from five large Jordanian service organizations registered with the Amman Stock Exchange. The selection of organizations was made on the basis of simple random sampling. Interviews targeted the headquarters only in order to obtain a homogenous sample. Three out of five organizations could be regarded as crisis prepared and have better chances for recovery. The other two organizations exhibited characteristics of standard practice that only emphasizes the recovery aspect of business continuity management (BCM), while paying less attention to establishing resilient cultures and embedding BCM. The findings reveal that the ability to recover following major incidents can be improved by embedding BCM in the culture of the organization and by making BCM an enterprise-wide process. This is one of few meticulous studies that have been undertaken in the Middle East and the first in Jordan to investigate the extent to which service organizations focus on embedding BCM in the organizational culture.

The international strategies of universities: deliberate or emergent?

ABSTRACT The internationalisation of higher education, which has developed from a number of separate initiatives to become a strategic objective in its own right, has not been investigated from a strategic organisational perspective. Case studies of four English universities were developed via a Grounded Theory methodology. Mintzberg and Waters’ [1985. “Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent.” Strategic Management Journal 6 (3): 257–272] ‘deliberate’ and ‘emergent’ strategies were used to analyse the trajectories of the international strategies of the case study universities. It was found that the international strategies were deliberate in each strategic period, whereas they were emergent over a longer time frame. Internationalisation has gone through three phases, as the approaches of universities to this phenomenon have matured and progressed from operational to strategic. A conceptual model which describes the trajectory of the international strategies of these English universities is developed and is a major addition to the internationalisation literature. Future research should examine the applicability of the model to other countries.

Transition Economies in the Middle East: the Syrian Experience

Abstract There have been no in-depth studies of the post-socialist transition in the Middle East. Syria’s experience is a useful one to explore given its historically important role in the region and its distinctive characteristics. The Syrian economic transition, from the early 1990s to 2011, was in two phases: an incremental liberalisation phase and a transition to a social market economy phase. During both phases, Syrian policymakers showed a preference for a gradualist approach to economic transition, rather than a big-bang approach. This was facilitated by oil revenues and subsidies from the Gulf States. The Syrian experience therefore has its own distinct characteristics, as well as elements in common with the transitions in other post-socialist economies.