Much to be said for insomnia, having read Teresa da Silva Lopes' post-Chandlerian
Global Brands: The Evolution of Multinationals in Alcoholic Beverages (Cambridge University Press, 2007) as a diversion overnight.
The book is promoted by Cambridge as
Brands help explain why, in a world focused on science and technology, several of the world's largest multinational corporations have little to do with either. Rather they are old firms with little critical investment in patents or copyrights. For these firms the critical intellectual property is trademarks. Global Brands explains how the world's largest multinationals in alcoholic beverages achieved global leadership, the predominant corporate governance structures and why these firms form alliances with direct competitors. Brands also determine the waves of mergers and acquisitions in the beverage industry. Not only do they have personalities of their own, but brands also have the capacity to have independent and eternal lives.
Fortunately, unlike other undead they don't have a direct vote.
da Silva Lopes defines a brand as
a legally defensible proprietary name, recognised by some categories of consumers as signifying a product with dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need. A common characteristic of global brands is that even if their sales originate from a small number of markets they are available in many markets.
She explains that her study is "timely" because it shows the power of brands in determining the growth of large multinationals that are not capital-intensive and technology-driven (the focus of much literature), because the industry has created homogeneous consumption patterns among a large number of consumers across the world and because it offers an analysis of the process by which industries move from being national and locally focused to being dominated by a small number of firms active globally.
She explores several themes -
- general patterns that might explain growth and independent survival of multinational firms
- why most of the leading alcoholic beverage multinationals are "family owned", challenging Chandlerian assumptions
- a view of channel management: "a dynamic story about the changing relationship between producers, wholesalers and retailers"
- diversification strategies used by the leading multinationals in alcoholic beverages in the face of changing environmental circumstances
- the growth of enterprises through mergers and acquisitions in relation to brands and marketing knowledge, given that brands "are often assets that can be easily traded" and are a strong determinant of concentration
- the impact of firms on the life of brands, including the "distinct roles played by the entrepreneurs and managers who created and developed" global brands.
On to
The Business School and the Bottom Line (Cambridge University Press, 2007) by Ken Starkey and Nick Tiratsoo, evaluating claims that business schools fall between two schools: "lacking in academic rigour yet simultaneously derided by the corporate world as broadly irrelevant".
