Limited Editions as a Marketing Strategy

The term “Special Edition” or “Limited Edition“; when used in marketing management, intends to give the product something new and previously unseen in the regular edition. Limited Edition marketing strategy carries a sense of immediacy and exclusivity as the products would only be available for a short time and/or in limited numbers. The term “Limited Edition” has its origin in the publishing industries where limited numbers of copies   of books are printed with top quality impressions. These limited editions are sold at a premium price. Although limited edition are sold at   premium, there are many FMCG companies which have implemented this concept minus the premium price. The industries which are using limited edition marketing strategy  are automobiles and luxury lifestyle products such as wrist watches, designer wear, etc. There can be variety of motivations for a marketer to launch products as limited or special editions. The reason can Continue reading

The Service Recovery Paradox

The present key business strategy eyes on keeping the current customers and developing relationships with the new ones. Providing services to the customers or the consumers is very difficult. Unfortunately the services provided to the customers can never be perfect, the failure can be due to unprompted employee actions, failure to respond to specific customer needs or also due to core service facilities. Hence the companies try their best to reduce the mistakes from repeating again and in satisfying the customers needs. This article discusses about the “service recovery paradox” steps that is being followed by the organizations to recover from their service failures. According to McCollough and Bharadwaj 2002, service recovery paradox can be said as the situation at which the customers post failure expectations exceed pre failure expectations. This is like the organization taking preventive steps to satisfy their customers by reducing their failures and also in not Continue reading

Earnings Management – Definitions, Reasons and Examples

Earnings Management (EM) is the term used to describe the process of manipulating earnings of the firm to meet management’s predetermined target. The flexibility of accounting standards may cause some variability in earnings to occur as a result of the accounting choices made by management. However, earnings management that falls outside the generally accepted accounting choice boundaries is clearly unethical. The intent behind the earnings management also contributes to the questionable ethics of the practice. Some managers use EM as a means of deceiving shareholders or other stakeholders of the organization, such as creating the appearance of higher earnings to increase compensation or to avoid default on a debt covenant. The intent to use EM to deceive stakeholders implies that it can be unethical, even if the earnings management remains within the boundaries of GAAP or IAS. Earnings management has been defined as management’s exploitation of accounting flexibility to meet Continue reading

Innovation in Large versus Small Firms

In 1940s, Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter argued that large firms would be more effective innovators and he point out that better able to obtain financing for R&D projects and better able to spread costs of R&D over large volume. Large size firms may also enable for greater economies of scale and learning effect and taking on large scale or risky projects. However, large firms might also be disadvantaged at innovation because; R&D efficiency might decrease due to loss of managerial control Large firms have more bureaucratic inertia More strategic commitments tie firm to current technologies Small firms often considered more flexible and entrepreneurial. Many big firms have found ways of “feeling small” because break overall firm into several sub-units and can utilize different culture and controls in different units. A large firm gains experience in choosing and developing innovation projects, it may learn to make better selections of projects that Continue reading

Basic Principles of International Taxation

Rapid economic development happens to be one of the primary objectives of all developing economies and India is not an exception. This is possible mainly through the accumulation and proper use of capital. The developing economies lack adequate basic infrastructural facilities. In order to develop these, the government takes upon itself the responsibility for building up capital formation, through sound taxation policies. There are two basic principles followed by different countries in International taxation 1)  Residence Based Taxation The principle of residence-based taxation asserts that natural persons or individuals are taxable in the country or tax jurisdiction in which they establish their residence or domicile, regardless of the source of income. In the case of non-natural persons such as companies or firms, the place of incorporation or the place where control or management is exercised is deemed to be the place of residence. In the context of income tax, the Continue reading

Project Management Basics

Project management is defined as process of initiating, planning, executing and delivery of a product with a group of a team to achieve a goal on time. In project management the main things to consider are start and end date of a project. For every project there will be a risk factor which should be taken care. Any project needs following four factors: Time, Budget, Quality and Feedback from the stakeholders. Also, project management is an important and significant contribution in delivering the business benefits through projects. It also has been seen that organizations these days are following a strategic way to achieve the goals of the project. Project management also plays a vital role in preparing a strategic plan to get the project from the customers and justify the requirements or funding but unlike any projects in a realistic way the goal of the project to achieve and be Continue reading