ED Entreprise Economie Société
Building and measuring the brand reputational capital: empirical experiences in the wine industry
by Antonio SPIGA (BSE - Bordeaux sciences économiques)
The defense will take place at 14h00 - Salle des thèses 16 avenue Léon Duguit Pessac
in front of the jury composed of
- Jean-Marie CARDEBAT - Professeur - Université de Bordeaux - Directeur de these
- Davide GAETA - Associate Professor - Università di Verona - Rapporteur
- Foued CHERIET - Maître de conférences - Sup Agro Montpellier - Rapporteur
- Juliette DUCROS-PASSEBOIS - Professeur - IAE Bordeaux - Examinateur
- Franck CELHAY - Professeur - Montpellier Business School - Examinateur
In a postmodern society, brands are increasingly becoming a crucial factor in economic, social, and political terms to the extent that they are becoming the main device for immaterial representations (Arvidsson, 2006). The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines the brand as a collection of tangible and intangible elements such as names, terms, designs, symbols, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The International Organization of Standardization (ISO) adds an intangible dimension, defining the main function of a brand to establish a distinctive identity for the entity on the market. There is consensus around the fact that the brand lies within the whole intangible dimension of companies (Belbi et al., 2010), and it represents its major driver (Lev, 2001; Philippe et al., 2014). Brand identity and brand image, imbued with symbolic meaning, counterbalance the mere utilitarian value of a brand. Shaping the brand's symbolic universe is among the key future directions in the marketing research agenda (Rokka, 2021). The symbolic value of a brand corresponds to its capacity to convey deeper meanings to consumers, moving beyond the mere functional value or benefits of its products. These meanings are both valued individually and socially shared. The concept of symbolic value plays a crucial role in understanding how consumers perceive and interact with products and brands. It extends beyond the tangible attributes of a product to encompass the meanings and associations that products hold for consumers. This work explores first the general concepts of symbols, symbolism, and symbolic value and delves deep further into these concepts in application to marketing and brand management, specifically how these concepts manifest in the wine industry, and offers a model to better identify symbolic meanings and integrate them functionally into a specific framework. It is essential to specify that the multidimensionality of brand identity, along with the contingent polysemic nature of symbols (Womack, 2005), justify the multidisciplinary approach of this work, especially in its attempt to explore the multifaceted dimensions of symbolism applied to brand identity management. Still, marketing and brand management themselves are widely recognized as practices, and their very permeable nature remains relevant today. Perhaps even more than ever. Thus, approaching symbols and symbolism from different perspectives appears here necessary, as well as clarifying the position of this work for each of these. In conclusion, this work, increasing the knowledge of a brand's symbolic assets, its global readiness, its cultural and social pertinence, and its readability, highlights the urgency for wine brands to re-balance their identity architecture. Thus, it appears necessary for brand managers to integrate the necessary competencies and use the most appropriate tools to match the brands' symbolic potential for appropriate production (affordances) and consumption (salience). The dematerialization of the discourse of wine brands appears in this study as a clear and vital necessity. The importance of moving beyond the referential paradigm and mere attributive symbolism, embracing inspirational modalities of brand discourse production, co-construction, meeting consumers' inspirational needs, and reinforcing the brand-stakeholders-consumers relational chain is more than palpable as long as the implicit, however urgent demand from brand managers for more specific tools of brand analysis and development. In line with these elements, backed by a theoretical background and field experiences, this work has highlighted the need to build a theory-based and operationally effective tool for symbolic value scanning and development and, in response to this, offers a purposefully constructed brand identity framework.
globalization, resilience of territories and global value chains
by Lucas ZIMMER (BSE - Bordeaux sciences économiques)
The defense will take place at 10h00 - Salle de séminaire 16 Avenue Léon Duguit, Bâtiment H, 33608 Pessac
in front of the jury composed of
- Jean-Marie CARDEBAT - Professeur des universités - Université de Bordeaux - Directeur de these
- Flora BELLONE - Professeure des universités - Université Côte d'Azur - Rapporteur
- Fabien CANDAU - Professeur des universités - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - Rapporteur
- Daniel MIRZA - Professeur des universités - Université de Tours - Examinateur
- Raphaël CHIAPPINI - Maître de conférences - Université de Bordeaux - CoDirecteur de these
This thesis examines how the economic interdependencies of globalization affect the ability of firms and territories to withstand and adapt to external shocks and negative externalities. The first chapter clarifies concepts often conflated: dependence, vulnerability, and resilience. The analysis shows that resilience encompasses vulnerability, which in turn includes dependence. We highlight that dependence has a contrasting effect on vulnerability and identify a "balanced dependence zone." We argue that resilience depends not only on vulnerabilities but also on the capacities that regions can mobilize, resulting in a dynamic adjustment between vulnerabilities and capabilities. The second chapter explores how sustainable development influences the geographic distribution of economic activities. We argue that its rise is reshaping consumption patterns, favoring food products over industrial goods. Drawing on New Economic Geography, our findings suggest that this paradigm shift promotes the regionalization of trade (a symmetric equilibrium), characterized by reduced negative externalities. We identify theoretical combinations of key model parameters that steer economic activities toward this equilibrium. In the final chapter, we use a difference-in-differences approach to study the propagation of input shortages in global value chains, using the Tohoku earthquake as a natural experiment. Our results show an 8% relative decline in imports for French firms sourcing from Japan, with sharper decreases for highly dependent firms. This is accompanied by a 12.8% increase in imports from China for these firms, primarily driven by the largest 5% of companies. Only firms with the lowest stock levels experienced declines in exports and contributed to the propagation of the shock. However, despite the disruptions, firms largely maintained their "just-in-time" strategies.