Reports on a preliminary study which examined the impact of membership fees on consumer attitude and choice. Consumers participated in a computerized simulated shopping experiment in which repetitive choices were made from a set of videotape rental stores. Paying a membership fee had a...

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the instrumental perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in practice and theory by relying on sociological analyses of a well known organization: the Italian Mafia. Legal businesses might share features of the Mafia, such as the...

In contrast to content-based models of corporate social responsibility (CSR), we propose a process model of organizational sensemaking explaining how managers think, discuss, and act with respect to their key stakeholders and the world at large. We also propose a set of cognitive, linguistic,...

Past decades have witnessed the growing success of branding as a corporate activity as well as a rise in anti-brand activism. While appearing to be contradictory, both trends have emerged from common sources - the transition from industrial to post-industrial society, and the advent of...

This article explores the challenge of merging brands successfully following corporate mergers. It develops a framework for corporate and product branding strategies, as well as for creating the appropriate brand identity among the merged firm's target consumers. A critical key to successful...

Traditional western society is based on a balance between private and public interests, the economic and the social spheres of life. However, in recent years this balance has been completely upset, in favour of the private and economic. This has driven six wedges between business and society,...

A brand management framework is routinely advocated in gaining market share leadership within a product market, with consequent advantages accruing to the leading brand. The specifics of such a marketing-mix-based approach often fail to explain the absolute market dominance of a leader over all...