John Branch

Postmodern Consumption and the High-Fidelity Audio Microculture

As [Alexander Graham] Bell raced to perfect his telephone, he was also writing up specifications to be filed with the United States Patent Office in Washington. On March 7, 1876, he was issued patent number 174,465. Meanwhile, Bell had discovered that a wire vibrated by the voice while partially immersed in a conducting liquid, like mercury, could be made to vary its resistance and produce an undulating current. In other words, human speech could be transmitted over a wire. On March 10, 1876, as he and Mr. Watson set out to test this finding, Bell knocked over what they were using as a transmitting liquid – battery acid. Reacting to the spilled acid, Mr. Bell is alleged to have shouted, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want you!” (PBS, 2003)

Lexicon Rhetoricae: the narrative theory of Kenneth Burke and its application to marketing

The purpose of this article is to propose Lexicon Rhetoricae, the narrative theory of Kenneth Burke from the discipline of literary criticism, as a comprehensive model which helps to explain how symbolism and nonconscious processes influence the consumption experience, and which helps to reconcile the psychology of the consumption experience with the more observable stimuli of the marketing environment.

Interest plurality and institutional work: An ethnography of rural community organizing

Purpose – The institutional work literature has paid little attention to cognition and interests in the creation, maintenance, and disruption of institutions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the construct of interests as it relates to institutional work projects. The authors frame interests as recognitions situated within broader institutional meaning systems, with a specific focus on interest plurality. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted an 18-month ethnography exploring institutional work projects within a rural chamber of commerce. The authors aimed to understand how projects contributed to community survival on a micro-level and institutional change on a macro-level. Rural chambers of commerce represent a unique example of emergent public-private partnerships, challenging traditional commercial logics of chambers of commerce. The research design included qualitative data collection, coding, and analysis of field notes, interviews, and archival sources. Findings – Purposive act...

Concepts: a review

Concepts serve critical functions in science, through their descriptive powers and as the building-blocks of theory. When concepts are undeveloped, therefore, science suffers. Philosophical understanding of concepts, however, is relatively limited in most scientific disciplines, including management. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to review the literature on concepts. It begins by establishing the link between concepts and science. It then highlights the lack of emphasis on concepts in the management discipline. It continues by discussing the role of concepts and cognition. Finally, it defines and discusses the different philosophies of concepts.

Brand Management in Emerging Markets: Private Labels in Croatian Grocery Retailing and the Case of Dona Trgovina D.O.O.

Brand management is a fundamental business practice of any company. In a globalized world economy, however, brand management has become more challenging, especially in emerging markets which have attracted much attention from multinationals, and which have spawned their own internationally competitive companies. Private labels - sometimes called house branding - are a subform of brand management which have their own peculiarities and which, in emerging markets, are racing to catch up to that of the developed world. This chapter provides a brief overview of brand management and private labels in emerging markets. The evolution of private labels in Croatian grocery retailing is then outlined. Finally, the case of Dona Trgovina D.O.O., one of the leading Croatian manufacturers of private grocery labels, is presented.