Although branding is now widespread among UK universities, the application of branding principles in the higher education sector is comparatively recent and may be controversial for internal audiences who question its suitability and efficiency. This paper seeks to investigate how and whether...

Branding in universities has become an increasingly topical issue, with some institutions committing substantial financial resources to branding activities. The particular characteristics of the sector present challenges for those seeking to build brands and it therefore seems to be timely and...

Purpose. Branding in universities has become an increasingly topical issue among practitioners, with some institutions committing substantial financial resources to branding activities. Although it is receiving increased academic investigation, to date this has been limited. The particular...

Branding in universities is a topical issue, but arguably few UK universities have fully developed ‘successful’ brands in the manner of commercial organisations. This qualitative paper explores the opinions of forty opinion formers on which UK universities have successful brands and the...

Reputation and brand management are topical issues in UK higher education but previous research has often focused on marketing practitioners within higher education (HE) institutions rather than the senior, strategic leaders. This paper, however, examines university Chief Executives’...

This study tests whether the organic growth rates of United Kingdom (UK) life insurance firms are independent of size, as predicted by Gibrat's (1931) Law of Proportionate Effects. Using data for 1987–1996 and the three subperiods, 1987–1990, 1990–1993, and 1993–1996, we find that...

There are two main tax-related arguments regarding the use of reinsurance – the income volatility reduction and the income level enhancement arguments. The income volatility reduction argument contends that firms facing convex tax schedules have incentives to hedge in order to reduce the...

This paper examines the determinants of financial derivatives use in the United Kingdom life insurance industry. We estimate a probit regression model and a Heckman two-stage sample selection regression model using a sample of eighty-eight U.K. life insurers in 1995. Our results indicate that...

In the insurance industry, claims tend to constitute the major proportion of total annual outgoings across almost all product lines. This study develops a cost function of insurance claims and applies the model to 1988–93 data from the United Kingdom and New Zealand life insurance industries....