The organizational paradox in advertising and the reconfiguration of project cooperation

In recent literature, projects are mostly seen as an efficient form of organization which is particularly suited for mastering tasks of high complexity and creativity and adapting to changing economic and institutional conditions. This paper challenges the assumption that inter-firm projects are persistent organizational arrangements of production in the advertising industry and presents a novel argument about the potential threats to forms of project organization in crisis situations. By exploring the cases of Frankfurt/Main and Leipzig (East Germany), we show that the organization of production is substantially affected by periods of economic crisis or political transformation. We demonstrate that inter-firm projects might be replaced by more durable organizational configurations or might not be viewed as viable options in situations of severe rupture. This applies particularly to the cooperative arrangements in the creative process and leads to an organizational paradox. Although creativity is often a pivotal force to gain competitive advantage, the advertising agencies respond to the challenges of crises by reducing cooperation with external partners to a minimum and sometimes fully rely on in-house personnel. This threatens the potential of the respective firms to develop innovative and creative ideas which would enable the firms to acquire new customers and market segments. Instead of trying to overcome crises by focusing on their creative capabilities, many advertising agencies develop a cost-cutting strategy and rely on more durable network-forms of organization instead of inter-firm projects.     

Repackaging globalization: A case study of the advertising industry in China

This paper analyzes the transformation of China’s advertising industry as a result of China’s economic reforms and the globalization of the advertising industry. Spatially clustered in the city-regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the industry has been structurally and operationally integrated with the global advertising giants, as well as developing local strategies to attract the interest of local consumer markets. While the entry of global multinational advertising businesses has compelled China’s advertisers to accept and adapt to the industry’s globalized institutions, standards, operational procedures and corporate culture, the transformation of China’s advertising industry is best understood as a consequence of the interaction between globalization and localization.     

上海市户外广告三维规划审批关键技术研究与应用

户外广告的管理已成为目前城市管理中最为主要的一项任务,然而以往户外广告管理手段相对较为落后,规划审批效率较低。本文针对目前户外广告规划管理中存在的问题,提出了利用三维GIS实现户外广告规划审批,研究了基于户外广告规划控制盒的城市户外广告三维规划审批关键技术,并将该技术成功应用于《上海市户外广告监查管理系统》项目中,实现了对上海市重点地区户外广告规划审批的精细化、高效化、形象化管理。