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The purpose of this paper is to explore and identify the cues that shape the purchase of local retail apparel clothing brands in an emerging economy. The study further develops a conceptual framework for the cues that shape the purchase of local retail apparel clothing brands.

A focus group methodology is used for data collection from the local retail clothing consumers in Bangladesh. Data collected for this study were coded and categorized using inductive reasoning methods and similar responses were identified from a prepared data matrix. The results were presented in narrative while preserving the authenticity of participant response.

Three cues were identified that shape the purchase of local retail apparel clothing brands in Bangladesh. First, consumers buy local retail apparel clothing brands due to the product authenticity (product quality, product uniqueness, apparel fittings, apparel durability, color combination, attractive design, comfortability and reasonable price). Second, consumer cosmopolitanism (urbanization of people, migration and overseas travel, and access to cable television and international channels) positively related to the purchase of local retail apparel brands in Bangladesh. Third, consumer ethnocentrism (superiority of local made brands over imported foreign brands, moral obligation for purchasing local products and patriotism) is a contributory cue responsible for the success of local retail apparel clothing brands in Bangladesh.

This study is a first of its kind to significantly enrich the consumer behavior literature related to local retail apparel branded companies and their implications.

The international marketing field has witnessed many studies related to “country of origin” (COO) effects or the “made in” concept over the past few decades. Yet COO research is deeply rooted in the so-called “production-related” approach, which mainly accounts for production- or technology-based factors. Barely considered is the “consumption-related” perspective, which reflects consumers' proclivity to base their buying decisions on foreigners' product choice. In this paper, we propose the “country of reference” (COR) concept, in which consumers deliberately imitate the product choices of consumers from another country, to whom the former (i.e. the imitators) attribute superior or more prestigious personas.

Unlike the made in concept, which emphasizes favored product qualities from superior manufacturing countries, we believe product preferences may arise from cross-border benchmarking or “cross-country referencing.” Pivoting on the optimal distinctiveness theory, this paper suggests a COR framework that incorporates the system justification theory and the self-discrepancy concept, along with decision heuristics and mental simulation effects. The proposed framework aims to explain consumers' inclination to “buy what certain foreigners buy.”

We suggest critical propositions related to the COR concept, discuss its marketing implications, and pinpoint further research issues.

COR may become a coping strategy through which low-status consumers perceiving themselves as less privileged than their high-status counterparts can narrow this gap by means of decision mimicking.

THE Librarian faces one of the turning times in library history. The flow of progress has not yet begun, the shortages and consequent imperious demands for food, housing and clothing stand in the way of the beginning, except on paper. How long the interregnum will last none can say. The authorities, which are a reflection in some ways of the Parliamentary party in power, are well‐disposed towards libraries; the official handbook of the Labour Party proves that; but the clamour of the needs we have mentioned deafens everybody to library needs—except in certain instances. For example, the rebuilding and enlarging of the staff at Holborn is an encouraging sign. Of more potential significance is the working out of the so‐called National Charter. It has involved many towns in the task of creating an establishment for each public department. Thus, in one library system we hear that each branch or department may claim a librarian and a deputy both on the A.P.T. scale, but all the assistants are either general or clerical. Some assistants we hear have applied to be of clerical grade as the maximum salary is greater than in the general. This we suggest is putting cash before status because it is accepted as an axiom that a clerk has only clerical qualifications and potentialities, while a general assistant may aspire, when there is a vacancy and if he have certificates, to the professional status. The grading in the particular library mentioned has rather a petrifying effect in that no assistant can get into the professional grade unless his librarian or deputy departs. Possibly this sort of thing may alter, but the fact remains for good or ill—it is not all ill by any means—that no library is able to attract men from another except to a definitely higher post.

This chapter introduces the two main topics of ‘entrepreneurial policing’ and ‘criminal entrepreneurship’ and begins in Section 1.1 by considering the concept and scope of entrepreneurial policing around which this monograph is organised. Its definition and ontological development are considered. Thereafter, the author briefly discuss what entrepreneurship is (and is not) and set out examples of entrepreneurship of interest to policing, including – ‘Corporate’ and ‘Team’ Entrepreneurship, ‘Intrapreneurship’, ‘Social Entrepreneurship and Animateurship’, ‘Civic Entrepreneurship’, and ‘Public Service Entrepreneurship’. The author then discusses why entrepreneurship is of critical importance to the police service and discuss worked examples. Having developed a basic understanding of the power and utility of entrepreneurship, then in more detail what the term entrepreneurial policing means and how it evolved in practice and in the academic literature are considered. In Section 1.2, the foundations of entrepreneurial policing considering its ontological and epistemological development from ‘New Public Management’ to ‘New Entrepreneurialism’ and also the influence of the merging literatures of ‘Criminal Entrepreneurship’ and ‘Entrepreneurial Leadership’ are critically examined. In Section 1.3, our consideration to include a more nuanced understanding of the what is referred to as the ‘Entrepreneurship–Policing Nexus’ including consideration of the influence of dyslexia on policing and crime and the power of the ‘Entrepreneurial’ and ‘Gangster’ dreams on entrepreneurial motivation and propensity are expanded. In Section 1.4, an attempt is made to identify who the stakeholders of this new policing philosophy are? Finally, in Section 1.5, the chapter takeaway points which both articulates and confirms the inherent importance of entrepreneurship in policing and criminal contexts are discussed and detailed.

The purpose of this paper is to revisit the growth mechanism of Indian sugar industry by deploying quantitative and qualitative metaphors.

The research paper has been composed through comprehensive primary research survey using a structured questionnaire, and qualitative discussion following semi- structured interviews with industry professionals on emerging issues across the whole value chain of sugar industry. Respondents regarding primary survey were selected using the purposive sampling, and this collected quantitative information has been verified on the lenses of multiple stream modelling (MSM).

To support the data analysis, MSM – a policy-making framework has been developed which found that government being a central construct exerts a profound presence across whole value chain; in suppliers’ mechanism, marketing of sugar and sugar mills’ infrastructural expansions. Nationwide uniformity in sugar policy instead of states’ monopolistic policies, rational and mutual benefits-based decisions collectively by the government, mills management and sugarcane growers, and diversification in production processes are enumerated as the proposed solutions against the chronical industry problems.

This study enriches extant Asian sugar industry literature. For policymakers, the proposed results should be of help in identifying specific policies to support the competitiveness of local systems and individual manufacturing companies in the Indian sugar industry suggesting that the development of growth mechanisms can contribute simultaneously to improve the financial, market and operational performance of both individual firms and supply chains.

Cyclicality in production, rising sugarcane farmers’ problems and resulting severe financial distress of mills are some of the topical issues of Indian sugar industry, and the study has explored these issues factually, quantitatively and qualitatively in proximity of industry professionals and described in this depository with the help of document analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether multiple stakeholders imbue a single or multiple meanings to a city brand.

The branding literature hints at multiple stakeholders but most studies take a single stakeholder perspective. A two‐stage quantitative study was used to examine similarities and differences between two stakeholder groups. The context for the study is city branding.

The evidence suggests that different external stakeholders do have different brand meanings associated to a city brand. Each stakeholder group applies their own filter to interpret the meaning of the city brand. Essentially, a new conceptualisation of the city brand is provided.

Although the samples are reasonably large, it is important to apply the framework to other city brands to test for generalisability. Future research might also test the filter concept in the more general context of corporate branding.

Organisations need to recognise the multi‐faceted, multiple meanings of the brand as a whole. Corporate communication requires adjustment from a convergence approach to one that recognises different brand purposes for each stakeholder group. The ideas are readily usable in not‐for‐profit communities.

The paper joins a small number of studies that challenge the conventional wisdom that convergence of brand meaning across stakeholder groups is an ideal state. The paper develops a filter concept as a way of showing that different stakeholder groups might use a different filter or lens to interpret a city brand.