Abstract
ABSTRACTThe tobacco market has been transformed by the arrival of e-cigarettes and array of alternative nicotine delivery systems (ANDS). Public health has struggled to cope with these changes and clear divisions are apparent, but less is known about the tobacco industry (TI) response. This first empirical study to examine TI and independent ANDS companies’ business strategies fills this gap. Primary data were collected through 28 elite interviews with senior/influential TI and independent stakeholders, triangulated with a documentary analysis of company reports, investor analyses, market research, and consultation responses (1022 documents). A deliberately emic analysis shows that tobacco multinationals were initially disconcerted by ANDS, but logic provided by the fiduciary imperative is enabling them to turn a potential threat into profitable opportunities. Interviewees argue market changes played to their strengths: customer links, expertise in nicotine, and enormous financial resources. This enabled portfolio diversification in which combustible and ANDS coexist; providing potential to develop robust scientific and regulatory positions and hope of retrieving corporate reputations. The principal threat for major tobacco players comes from the independent sector, which is prepared and able to satisfy bespoke consumer needs. Multinationals by contrast need to turn ANDS into a genuinely mass-market product appealing to its global customers. They are making progress. Given the continued buoyancy of the combustibles market, they have extensive resources to continue their efforts. Disruptive innovations are not unique to tobacco control. Equivalent technological solutions – with concomitant business opportunities − are emerging in obesity and alcohol fields with implications for public health.
Highlights
The last five years have seen major innovations in the tobacco and nicotine market (Bauld, Angus, de Andrade, & Ford, 2016)
This means that the massive changes in the market brought about by the arrival of alternative nicotine delivery systems (ANDS) are ‘not complicated’, as a tobacco industry (TI) representative noted, but ‘quite easy’ to address because ‘every activity going on is there to please the shareholder . . . as long as shareholder value is threatened, [the TI’s] gonna continue to protect it’ (Int6)
It does seem clear that after the initial shock created by the unexpected arrival of e-cigarettes and ANDS, which at one point might have represented an existential threat to their existence, the tobacco multinationals are doing all they can to turn this potential menace into a range of business opportunities
Summary
The last five years have seen major innovations in the tobacco and nicotine market (Bauld, Angus, de Andrade, & Ford, 2016). Grounded in critical debates concerning the relationship between corporate profit making and public health, it problematises tobacco control’s polarised positions on whether ANDS are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for public health (de Andrade, Spotswood, Hastings, Angus, & Angelova, 2017). It does this by critiquing an emic analysis of business strategies (from the perspective of interviewees) being deployed in the e-cigarette/ANDS market by both tobacco multinationals and independent companies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
