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Increasingly higher education institutions are expected to demonstrate their contribution to academia, society, and the economy. This is pertinent for business schools as a key purpose for them is to provide education that enhances management practice, with Doctorates in Business Administration (DBAs) being the highest-level qualification offered in pursuit of this goal. Yet there is scant research that captures the impact of DBAs beyond the individual and academia. This paper focuses on the important role of DBAs in generating and transferring knowledge from academia to practice and in creating wider impact in society and the economy. Based on 36 semi-structured interviews with DBA students and alumni, our research shows how DBA students are able to generate and exchange knowledge between academia and business, enabling a wide range of impacts to be achieved. We show how knowledge transfer is the outcome of a learning process in which DBA students and their supervisors learn to speak each other's language, enabling two-way communication. Facilitated by the power and associated credibility and legitimacy of the DBA students as practicing senior managers, the knowledge can then be transferred. Personal development in the form of analytical skills and increased confidence gained through the learning process results in a personal impact that acts as the precursor to other forms of impact, such as improved organisational performance and broader societal benefits. Research generated by DBAs is thus well-placed to offer opportunities for impact and contribute substantially to the research-practice conversation in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify factors that contribute to the success of current social marketing practices. These factors include setting clear behavior change objectives and segmentation that informs communication and messaging strategies. Other factors include rigorous research (consumer research, formative research, literature review), pre-testing of interventions, developing a partnership approach, using planning methodologies/theories, and monitoring and evaluation. These success factors could be used for policymakers, governments, agencies and social marketers delivering interventions focussed on healthy lives and well-being. The examples given in this study illustrate how these factors can be achieved, providing a focus for discussion and emulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies concerning aberrant consumer behaviour (ACB) are dominated by research conducted in the West. By examining the impact social and cultural factors have on the management and understanding of ACB in Libya, a Muslim country, this paper extends knowledge by exploring this issue in a different setting. Materials were collected by conducting in-depth interviews with 26 sellers in Libya and ACB was explored in three different contexts: grocery stores, computer stores and hotels. The study finds that the sellers use alternative marketplace behaviours to manage ACB to that described in the literature, namely informal, community-based approaches that reflect accepted societal and cultural norms. Furthermore, the study finds that not all activities reported to be ACB in the literature are perceived to be misbehaviour by the Libyan sellers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Corporate branding is a strategic issue for universities as the global higher education (HE) marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive and there is pressure to differentiate. Yet it is unclear how universities develop and manage brand strategies, and whether they draw upon any meaningful connections to the multiple stakeholders and sub-cultures engaged with a university's brand. Using qualitative data gathered from an education faculty within an established UK university, this study found the faculty and university had competing brand identities and images. A strong faculty brand emerged co-created through the shared teacher related values of staff and external partners. This study contributes to the brand strategy literature by applying branding concepts to the under-researched HE context and proposing a new, more nuanced brand architecture model not yet reported in the branding literature which more accurately reflects the management of sub and corporate HE brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to finance is a key constraint on the creation, survival, and growth of SMEs, and this issue has prompted governments to directly intervene in financial markets, but has also led to the development of new forms of financial intermediation and new players in the market encouraged by a desire to increase competition in the market. Today these new forms of financing and new players in the market are in part complementary to more established sources, but also potential substitutes particularly for those businesses that are most constrained. In this paper we use new data from a survey of local small businesses to assess whether access to a local loan and grant fund has added value to supported businesses. Our findings suggest that there are tangible benefits associated with local finance provision that are likely to generate a positive local economic multiplier that extends beyond the funding period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of talent management interventions in UK public sector organisations. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws upon the findings of a qualitative study of talent management in two UK public sector case study organisations. Findings – Implementing talent management was found to present particular tensions for public sector managers, particularly in terms of its alignment with well-embedded diversity and equality policies and their own perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace. Despite an acknowledgement that the sector needs to attract, develop and retain the most talented individuals to achieve its modernisation agenda, interventions which require singling out those individuals for special treatment challenges many of its established practices for recruitment and selection, employee development and career management. Practical implications – Public sector organisations need to invest both time and effort into developing appropriate and relevant approaches to talent management, which take proper account of line managers' perceptions of fair treatment and established organisational approaches to diversity and equality. Originality/value – Talent management is a topic of growing interest from employers concerned about their work force demographics, specific skills shortages and the retention of high potential employees but the concepts that inform talent interventions are often unclear or are an uneasy fit with the beliefs and understandings about fair treatment of those who have to implement them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]