Exploring discourse-based organizational change in Japan: practicing between dominant and alternative discourses

The primary objective of this study is to respond to Grant and Marshak’s (J Appl Behav Sci 47:204–235, 2011) call for a move toward change perspectives that emphasize the generative nature of discourses, narratives, and conversations and how change practitioners discursively facilitate emergent processes. This article attempts to explore the question, “Can we specify the conditions and sources which make generative conversations emerge and may lead to a successful change effort in Japan?” The abductive inquiry into the question indicates that the generative change process convinces change sponsors that changing the dominant discourses and welcoming alternative ones can lead to the long-term development of the organization and the members. With respect to the sources of alternative discourses, psychological safety and trust in the external authority figure are generally required. The importance of survival anxiety and talent diversity may vary across the broad contexts on which organizations depend.

The concentration of power in the market for contemporary art: an empirical analysis of ArtReview’s “Power 100”

Art experts and intermediaries play a crucial role in art markets. Artworks are goods whose quality is difficult to determine. Therefore, it seems necessary to restrict competition in the market for art experts to a certain extent, but not too much, in order to provide high-quality know-how. This paper contains an empirical analysis of the extent to which the market for art experts is concentrated. To this end, different methods for measuring the market concentration are applied, with an emphasis on the determination of the distribution function of a newly defined Power Index. The annual Power 100 ranking in the magazine ArtReview from 2002 to 2019 is used to study concentration in the art expert market. The results reveal not only several indications of a hierarchically tiered, but also highly concentrated market power in this market. First, the selection of nationalities of the so-called power members is biased, given that particularly Americans and western Europeans are overrepresented in relation to their world population shares, in contrast to underrepresented Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans. Second, although there is considerable variability in the low tiers of the ranking, the top positions in the rankings are very stable, as shown by the Power Dominance Index. Third, the main empirical result of this paper is that the Top 99 ranking positions follow an extreme value Fréchet distribution with a fat tail. This is interpreted as an indication of excessive concentration on the highest tier of art experts. Liberalizing the art expert market to a certain extent may provide more diversity and less dominance in high-end art markets.

A real-time network-based approach for analysing best–worst data types

Best–worst scaling is a widespread approach in market research used for collecting data on the needs and preferences of people. However, the current preparation of its design and the analysis of the data depends on complex statistical methods. One of the most commonly used models for estimating individual preference probabilities is the hierarchical Bayes model, which can only be applied after the data collection phase. This type of calculation needs more infrastructural background and a large sample to provide accurate estimations. Here, we introduce a new application that enables fast calculations and individual-level real-time estimations, which also has a great potential to ask additional questions depending on the respondent’s answers during live interviews. Our network-based approach (integrating the PageRank algorithm) works well for online surveys, and it supports our dynamic and adaptive, real-time evaluation (DART) of best–worst data types, and results in more relevant decision making in marketing.

Online casinos: advertising and avoidance among Generation Y consumers in Sweden

Online casinos are one of Sweden’s largest gambling sectors. Increased advertising investment and advertising frequency have sought to attract Generation Y consumers to these casinos, yet it has been suggested that advertising can contribute to avoidance behaviours towards products and services, including online casinos and specific gambling brands. The various advertising aspects used in gambling advertising and their impact on behaviour have not been widely researched. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the use of creative strategies in casino advertising and how it contributes to the avoidance of online casinos, specifically among Swedish Generation Y consumers. As an exploratory study, qualitative methods were used. Initially, 13 casino advertisements were analysed to identify the strategies used in the advertisements. These were then presented to Generation Y consumers in three focus groups and six in-depth interviews. The analysis of the advertising shows the use of people and characters in presenting the casino brand. Male voice-overs were utilised in addition to music and other casino-related sounds. The advertising also used bright colours to attract attention. The impact of these advertisements is that the content, the auditory cues rather than just music, the emotional response, and the frequency of the advertising were found to contribute to the avoidance of casino brands. Furthermore, the ethics and general attitudes to the industry impact the decision to avoid these brands. The managerial implication of this research shows the impact of advertisements on the decision to avoid a brand, specifically a casino brand.