A solution to the problem of brand definition

Purpose This paper aims to critically evaluate the definition of the brand concept, support the critique with an empirical study and provide a definition to resolve the problems that have been identified. Design/methodology/approach This paper combines a conceptual critique with empirical research using a sample of 730 journal papers to analyse the scope and number of brand-related concepts in extant literature. Findings The brand concept has evolved to become problematic with no clarity of definition. There has been an explosion in the number of brand-related concepts that make the brand concept opaque and unwieldy. Based upon the findings, the authors argue that it is necessary to return to a “label and associations model” of the brand concept to ameliorate these issues. Research limitations/implications The empirical research presented examines only 730 papers from a much wider body of brand literature. Nonetheless, it illustrates the fact that researchers and theorists are not talking about the same concept when using the term “brand”. Practical implications Practitioners are not being served by academic branding literature because no two researchers appear to be studying the same entity. This prevents a body of research from being built to guide practitioners. Originality/value This paper makes an original contribution by combining a conceptual critique and empirical study to examine the problems arising from the absence of an agreed definition of the brand concept and uses this as a foundation for creating a resolution to the problems.

Labour Exploitation in Human Trafficking Law

The 2000 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime provides the first internationally agreed definition of the human trafficking. However, in failings to clarify the exact scope and meaning of exploitation, it has created an ambiguity as to what constitutes exploitation of labour in criminal law. <br>The international definition's preference for an enumerative approach has been replicated in most regional and domestic legal instruments, making it difficult to draw the line between exploitation in terms of violations of labour rights and extreme forms of exploitation such as those listed in the Protocol. <br><br>This book addresses this legal gap by seeking to conceptualise labour exploitation in criminal law.

Intent-Driven Network and Service Management: Definitions, Modeling and Implementation

<div>Cognitive Autonomous Networks require the network to be able to derive and execute intelligent decisions, and thereby elevating the human operator's role to a higher level of abstraction where the operator can only specify the desired outcomes from the network. These abstract inputs, called intents, must be supported by corresponding intent-driven capabilities in the network or its management functions.</div><div>Although, Intent-Driven Management (IDM) has been published in multiple works, there is still no globally agreed end-to-end view of such IDM systems, let alone a globally agreed definition of intents. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion on the core aspects of IDM systems and combines them into an end-to-end system view with the related example solutions. Contrasting against a short review of related scientific and standards literature, the paper introduces a flexible, generic definition of intents and an End-to-End IDM System Architecture as well as the related modeling of intents to support their standardization. The paper also introduces implementation examples fitting the architecture and discusses advanced IDM features that need to be provided, including the ability to detect and resolve conflicts among intents.</div>

Intent-Driven Network and Service Management: Definitions, Modeling and Implementation

<div>Cognitive Autonomous Networks require the network to be able to derive and execute intelligent decisions, and thereby elevating the human operator's role to a higher level of abstraction where the operator can only specify the desired outcomes from the network. These abstract inputs, called intents, must be supported by corresponding intent-driven capabilities in the network or its management functions.</div><div>Although, Intent-Driven Management (IDM) has been published in multiple works, there is still no globally agreed end-to-end view of such IDM systems, let alone a globally agreed definition of intents. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion on the core aspects of IDM systems and combines them into an end-to-end system view with the related example solutions. Contrasting against a short review of related scientific and standards literature, the paper introduces a flexible, generic definition of intents and an End-to-End IDM System Architecture as well as the related modeling of intents to support their standardization. The paper also introduces implementation examples fitting the architecture and discusses advanced IDM features that need to be provided, including the ability to detect and resolve conflicts among intents.</div>

Planning for Human-Wildlife Coexistence: Conceptual Framework, Workshop Process, and a Model for Transdisciplinary Collaboration

Coexistence, as a concept and as a management goal and practice, has attracted increasing attention from researchers, managers and decision-makers dedicated to understanding and improving human-wildlife interactions. Although it still lacks a universally agreed definition, coexistence has increasingly been associated with a broad spectrum of human-wildlife interactions, including positive interactions, transcending a conservation focus on endangered wildlife, and involving explicitly considerations of power, equity and justice. In a growingly complex and interconnected human-dominated world, the key to turning human-wildlife interactions into large-scale coexistence is thorough planning. We present an approach for evidence-based, structured, and participatory decision-making in planning for human-wildlife coexistence. More specifically, we propose (i) a conceptual framework for describing the situation and setting the goals, (ii) a process for examining the causes of the situation and creating a theory of change, and (iii) a model for transdisciplinary research and collaboration integrating researchers, decision-makers and residents along with the interests of wildlife. To illustrate the approach, we report on the workshop considering the Jaguars of Iguaçu, a conservation project whose strategy includes the improvement of the relationship between ranchers and jaguars outside Iguaçu National Park, Brazil.

Intelligence as Information Processing: Brains, Swarms, and Computers

There is no agreed definition of intelligence, so it is problematic to simply ask whether brains, swarms, computers, or other systems are intelligent or not. To compare the potential intelligence exhibited by different cognitive systems, I use the common approach used by artificial intelligence and artificial life: Instead of studying the substrate of systems, let us focus on their organization. This organization can be measured with information. Thus, I apply an informationist epistemology to describe cognitive systems, including brains and computers. This allows me to frame the usefulness and limitations of the brain-computer analogy in different contexts. I also use this perspective to discuss the evolution and ecology of intelligence.

Methods of Studying Pathological Demand Avoidance in Children and Adolescents: A Scoping Review Protocol

The construct of pathological demand avoidance (PDA) is relatively new and contested. Clinical reports indicate a population who obsessively resist everyday demands and have a need for control which is pervasive and extreme in nature. Individuals struggle in their daily lives with significant impact on families. The construct has no agreed definition, and the diversity of conceptualisations of PDA have impacted the research on PDA and clinical guidance for PDA. The proposed scoping review aims to map this initial evidence base with a focus on how PDA is conceptualised, and the methods used to study PDA, in samples of children and adolescents. The methodological framework provided by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and the PRISMA-ScR checklist will be employed. There is a need to identify rigorous and reliable methodological approaches to support future researchers in making balanced judgements about how to research PDA and to provide guidance for clinicians who are supporting a vulnerable group.

Constructing a criteria-based classification for Small Island Developing States: An Investigation

What makes an island a Small Island Developing State or SIDS? There is no universally agreed definition, so what are the characteristics that single out these islands from the thousands of others? The variety of classifications being used by the United Nations and other International Organisations suggests that the label Small - Island - Developing – States does not adequately describe those characteristics. This article investigates what those characteristics might be and whether a criteria-based classification for Small Island Developing States is feasible.

What Is Animal Welfare?

The two main reasons it has been so difficult to arrive at an agreed definition of animal welfare are the ‘complexity problem’ (so many different measures of welfare now available) and the ‘consciousness problem’ (conscious experience is itself so difficult to define). There is, however, a relatively simple definition of welfare that provides a solution to both of these problems. Defining animal welfare as ‘health and animals having what they want’ can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what many existing definitions are trying to say anyway and provides the ‘valence’ needed to validate the long list of welfare measures we now have available. Above all, it shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice.

Animal Welfare: The Science and Its Words

Despite growing public concern over the way humans treat animals, there is still no agreed definition of what ‘animal welfare’ is. This lack of a proper definition has been detrimental to animals themselves and has made the whole subject of animal welfare look vague, unscientific and unclear about its core concept. Real improvements in the lives of animals would be greatly helped by a definition of welfare that can be agreed to by everyone, scientists and non-scientists alike, and that could bring together the many different ways in which ‘welfare’ is now measured. The aim of this book is to give such a definition and to make the case that any attempt to definition should be animal-centred and take into account the animals’ own point of view.