Identification and analysis of employee branding typology using fuzzy c-means clustering

A Cognitive Systems Engineering Approach Using Unsupervised Fuzzy C-Means Technique, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Network Analysis-A Preliminary Statistical Investigation of the Bean Counter Profiling Scale Robustness

A bean counter is defined as an accountant or economist who makes financial decisions for a company or government, especially someone who wants to severely limit the amount of money spent. The rise of the bean counter in both public and private companies has motivated us to develop a Bean Counter Profiling Scale in order to further depict this personality typology in real organizational contexts. Since there are no scales to measure such traits in personnel, we have followed the methodological steps for elaborating the scale's items from the available qualitative literature and further employed a cognitive systems engineering approach based on statistical architecture, employing cluster, factor and items network analysis to statistically depict the best mathematical design of the scale. The statistical architecture will further employ a hierarchical clustering analysis using the unsupervised fuzzy c-means technique, an exploratory factor analysis and items network analysis technique. The network analysis which employs the use of networks and graph theory is used to depict relations among items and to analyze the structures that emerge from the recurrence of these relations. During this preliminary investigation, all statistical techniques employed yielded a six-element structural architecture of the 68 items of the Bean Counter Profiling Scale. This research represents one of the first scale validation studies employing the fuzzy c-means technique along with a factor analysis comparative design.

New business capacity of developed, developing and least developing economies: inspection through state-of-the-art fuzzy clustering and PSO-GBR frameworks

Purpose

It is essential to validate whether a nation's economic strength always transpires into new business capacity. The present research strives to identify the key indicators to the proxy new business ecosystem of countries and critically evaluate the similarity through the lens of advanced Fuzzy Clustering Frameworks over the years.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use Fuzzy C Means, Type 2 Fuzzy C Means, Fuzzy Possibilistic C Means and Fuzzy Possibilistic Product Partition C Means Clustering algorithm to discover the inherent groupings of the considered countries in terms of intricate patterns of geospatial new business capacity during 2015–2018. Additionally, the authors propose a Particle Swarm Optimization driven Gradient Boosting Regression methodology to measure the influence of the underlying indicators for the overall surge in new business.

Findings

The Fuzzy Clustering frameworks suggest the existence of two clusters of nations across the years. Several developing countries have emerged to cater praiseworthy state of the new business ecosystem. The ease of running a business has appeared to be the most influential feature that governs the overall New Business Density.

Practical implications

It is of paramount practical importance to conduct a periodic review of nations' overall new business ecosystem to draw action plans to emphasize and augment the key enablers linked to new business growth. Countries found to lack new business capacity despite enjoying adequate economic strength can focus effectively on weaker dimensions.

Originality/value

The research proposes a robust systematic framework for new business capacity across different economies, indicating that economic strength does not necessarily transpire to equivalent new business capacity.

A Typology of Winery SME Brand Strategies with Implications for Sustainability Communication and Co-Creation

The article explores SME (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) brand strategies as a means to position and successfully engage in competitive markets. A derived typology of brand strategy types deals with social profiling and sheds light on brand strategy internalization of two current managerial paradigms—sustainability and co-creation. N = 895 German SME wineries were examined, leaning on a netnographic analysis of predominantly websites and social media interactions. A two-step clustering method thereby identified eight winery SME brand strategy types. The importance of sustainability across the identified eight brand strategy types is significant. Co-creation turned out to be a key profiling trait characterizing one brand strategy type. The typology illustrates strategic richness, with brand strategies leaning predominantly on traditional values, on sustainability, on external reputation, or on more innovative customer centric concepts such as co-creation. Hereby, the typology and the identified brand levers invite to strategically design brand management, governance, and sustainability. Wineries which focus on traditional positioning and legitimacy were found to be cautious in deploying co-creation through social media. Winery brands that are characterized by engagement in digital co-creation apparently either tend to expand their scope or partially combine it with traditional values, making them the most diverse type identified. Sustainability obviously needs to be addressed by all brand strategies. Despite industry and country focus, the analyses illustrate the relevance of socially-oriented profiling and highlights that sustainability has reached a status of a fundamental business approach still allowing to differentiate thereon. Furthermore, the business models of the SMEs need to deliver communicated values.