Security branding and digital narrations. Security issues representation on Twitter

In the contemporary multicentric world, sovereign states have to manage carefully the construction of their image, defining their role and aspirations. With the re-definition of the state centric politics, stories become relevant: communication is a form of power, and networked forms of communication are becoming progressively a way to conquer the transnational public spheres. Through strategic narratives of foreign politics, states try to set up the ‘tales’ of international affairs and foreign strategies, to suggest a world vision, a causal interpretation, determining frames that affect transnational actors’ position in the international environment. Sovereign states develop these kind of frame using tools and theories referred to the commercial branding tradition to promote and support their own policies and identity. We decided to investigate how that process is made through information diffusion on digital platforms.

In this work, it has been analyzed the content presented through Twitter posts by the Foreign Ministries accounts of four different States dissimilar for geopolitical positioning and security concerns (USA; Israel; France; Sweden), for a period of three months (9/1/2015-11/30/2015); leading to the identification of different models and characteristic patterns of self-representation.

The thematic content analysis, based on the identification of macrocategories and micro-issues, has led to the identification of different models and characteristic patterns of self-representation, determined by domestic vicissitudes, and has shown some regularities, caused by the branding vocation of autobiographical online contents.     

基于伯克认同理论的品牌命名研究

品牌名称的恰当与否影响消费者的购买行为,关系到企业品牌文化形象。以西方修辞学为切入点,在伯克认同理论的基础上,探讨品牌命名认同建构的必要性,设计品牌名称的认同方式。通过分析品牌命名与消费者、目标市场的认同实现途径,以期推动企业品牌文化建设。     

The relationship between reputation,employer branding and corporate social responsibility

Reputation management requires coordination between internal understanding and external expectations (Cornelissen, 2011). The focus of this study were external expectations of potential employees. The main goal of the study was to contribute to the understanding of corporate reputation and its connections with perceived corporate social responsibility and employer brands. All three concepts were investigated amongst 550 senior college business students. The units of analysis were top twenty national organizations, rated according to a syndicated study on employer attractiveness. The results show that students assign good reputation to those organizations that are perceived as socially responsible and with a good employer brand. Reputation, at least according to our results, seems to be the umbrella concept that encompasses both perceived corporate social responsibility and perceived employer brands. Organizations that develop different strategies, policies and practices with regards to socially responsible behavior and nurturing employer brands have higher levels of perceived reputation among students. Additionally, students' perceptions and position on the list of the most attractive employers is consistent.     

Inequality in Social Insurance Participation and Generosity: Do Firm Characteristics Matter?

Income inequality in China has been much documented and debated. However, one important aspect of income inequality – social insurance inequality – has been largely understudied. We use a large national panel of firm data to examine the possible influence of various firm characteristics on the inequalities in social insurance participation and generosity in the period 2004–07. Our findings reveal substantial ownership sector and regional gaps in social insurance provision by firms, with the private domestic sector and those in the central region lagging behind. Unionized firms, larger firms, and firms with greater market shares also tend to provide better social insurance to their employees. While being an exporting firm is linked with greater social insurance participation and generosity, being a purely exporting firm, however, is associated with reduced social insurance generosity. Lastly, highly educated workers receive substantially better social insurance coverage than their less educated peers. These social insurance inequalities are highly relevant as China pushes forward with establishing a unified social insurance system across urban‐rural boundaries, ownership sectors and industries.     

On ‘flip‐flopping’: Branded stance‐taking in U.S. electoral politics1

This article examines stance in U.S. political discourse, taking as its empirical point of departure Democratic candidate John Kerry's epistemic stance‐taking in the televised 2004 presidential debates. Kerry's stance‐taking is shown to help display the characterological attribute of ‘conviction’ and serve as a rejoinder to critics who had branded him as a ‘flip‐flopper.’ His stance‐taking is thus not primarily ‘to’ or ‘for’ copresent interactants, but is largely interdiscursive in character. ‘Conviction’ and its opposite, ‘flip‐flopping,’ suggest further how stance‐taking itself has been an object of typification in the agonistic dynamics of candidate branding and counter‐branding. In moving from epistemic stance‐taking in discourse to models of the stance‐taker as a social type, this article addresses questions about the units and levels of analysis needed to study stance in contemporary political discourse.     

What Determines the Extent to which Employers will Comply with their Social Security Obligations? Evidence from Chinese Firm‐level Data

This article aims to extend understanding of employer responses to social protection regulations enacted by government to ensure the well‐being and security of employees. By utilizing firm‐specific data collected from Shanghai we explore the relationship between firm characteristics, employer behaviour, and the effectiveness of compliance mechanisms that have been adopted to contain contribution evasion by employers. We offer empirical evidence about the impact of the size of the firm, ownership structure, and incidence of risk on employer evasion behaviour in social protection payments. These results should enable enforcement agencies to improve compliance levels and also contribute to building theory as regards the significance of social policies to employers and the impact of social protection on human resource policy.     

Globalization and the advertising industry in China

The rapid recent growth in the size of the advertising market in China has been unprecedented, fulfilling the prediction that it will be second only to that of the United States by the Olympic year of 2008. Major Japanese and Western‐based global advertising agencies have been making their presence felt via joint‐venture arrangements with Chinese agencies since 1979, and now increasingly are serving not only their global clients, but working with large Chinese advertisers as well. This article traces recent developments in the advertising industry in China, with particular attention to the marketing strategies being pursued by global advertisers, and to the social, cultural and geographical barriers which they must overcome. Conversely, the analysis gives insight to the comparative advantages the Chinese advertisers and their agencies enjoy in this respect, although they also face challenges in establishing brands and otherwise transforming China into a harmonious nation of consumer‐citizens.     

Networks,firms and upgrading within the blue‐jeans industry: evidence from Turkey

Abstract Since the late 1980s, industry characteristics, country‐specific contingencies and international conditions have come together and turned Turkey into a major exporter of jeans. It now has a 6.5 per cent share of the world's market. In this article, I explore this transformation and point out that it has created, especially in the 1990s, significant upgrading opportunities for Turkish firms. A large number of Turkish manufacturing firms are now full‐package contractors for a diversified list of brand‐name jeans. Some of these manufacturers are also experimenting with functional upgrading by developing their own brands and selling them abroad. Local firms, despite their subordinate position in the value chain, can go beyond low value‐added manufacturing and encroach on the core competencies of lead firms.     

增城市小楼镇菜心产业实施农产品品牌化经营的研究

经过二十多年的改革与发展,中国农业和农村经济进入了一个新的发展阶段,农业增效、农民增收已经成为当前农村和农业经济中的主要问题。改革和实践都证明,农业产业化是解决这一问题的主要出路,而农业产业化又必须以品牌化作为途径。因此,本文运用农产品品牌化的相关理论,分析了增城菜心这一特色农产品的品牌化经营现状及其运行机制和政策措施等,从而得到一些有益的启示,并就下一步如何改进提出相关的建议。     

关于绍兴市开发购物旅游的几点思考

随着旅游业的不断发展,购物旅游在旅游中所占的比重越来越大。本文在对绍兴市购物旅游资源作系统概括的基础上,分析了购物旅游的特征和意义,并对绍兴市开发购物旅游提出了几点建议。