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Noteworthy shifts in availability of raw materials, component parts and products have had a profound influence on customer service levels. Changes in these levels have dramatised the importance of and concern for effective management of customer service in distribution. As a result, adjustments in business procedure and organisational structure are necessary.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

“The customer service complaint is universal in physical distribution operations. It is inevitable that even the most efficient of distribution systems will occasionally have failures; it is equally inevitable that from these failures will emanate complaints. Only if an active and systematic effort is made to handle these complaints can they graduate … to become part of management's kit of tools in making its distribution system better and more responsive to the company's (and Its customers') needs.”

Analyses changes taking place within purchasing and its environment. Interpreting such trends wisely will be necessary to achieve an optimal relationship between purchasing and other organizational units. Addresses how changes in purchasing affect profit generation, securing of new and better suppliers, achieving higher “real value” in products bought, dealing with new and emerging forms of sales pressure (including related supplier strategies and tactics), improving price hike rationale assessment, and determining effective purchasing strategy relative to prevailing economic conditions‐all of which are leading to a broadened role and relevance of purchasing today. Discusses current, significant purchasing trends, how they will influence future decision making, and the need for purchasing to help establish and maintain strong cross‐functional ties with all relevant parties. Directs analysis and discussion towards all individuals and groups affecting or being affected by the purchasing function domestically and abroad.

Purchasing continues to be asked to keep prices down while securing more and better services. Operating under rapidly changing conditions, purchasing personnel are experiencing anxiety due to constraints that are not easily controlled. Such uncertainty calls for improvements in operational and strategic purchasing. To buy more for less under such uncertain conditions requires considerable discipline in buying. Yet, it can offer a valuable hedge against increasingly stiffer competition.

Customer service is a prerequisite for both developing and maintaining lasting buyer‐seller relationships. Long‐term benefits have been proved over time. As a strategic element of the marketing mix, it is no longer dismissed on the basis of cost. Customer service issues involved, including the importance of evaluating the service price tag correctly, guarantee of supplies and transport are discussed, and actions required to provide industrial marketeers with a differential advantage and a strong hedge against competitive pressures at home and abroad are presented.

The performance of the industrial purchasing department must be reconsidered and re‐evaluated in the light of the recent importance found in quality orientation, persistent economic uncertainty, supply shortages and expected service commitment. There is a need to determine feasible price‐service options. The price objectives of suppliers now include impact on organisational image, and the effects of prices charged on investment, market share and profit maximisation. Pricing tactics, rather than other cost‐related concerns, are used to gain market share, so industrial buyers need to be aware of suppliers' strategies, and must also assess service levels and performance quality. This examination of the factors in purchasing strategy suggests that it must be capable of reaching to a complex environment.Both buyer and seller must re‐think (a) the value the buyer places in the product, (b) the costs incurred and (c) the price structure and behaviour of competitors.

Industrial buyers must help keep prices down while securing better services: to buy more for less requires considerable discipline but may be a hedge against competition. A systematic approach is increasingly attractive.

A new era for management is emerging. Staying closer to the business of the company's primary expertise with an action‐based, value‐driven philosophy is being emphasised. A simple flexible organisational form directed at generating customer satisfaction is becoming more dominant. This requires more effective supply management than ever before. An enlarged role with greater significance for purchasing is resulting.

Customer service is a pre‐requisite for both developing and maintaining lasting buyer‐seller relationships. Long‐term benefits have been proved over time. As a strategic element of the marketing mix it is no longer dismissed on the basis of cost. Customer service issues involved, including the importance of evaluating the service‐price tag correctly, guarantee of supplies and transport are discussed, and actions required to provide industrial marketers with a differential advantage and a strong hedge against competitive pressures at home and abroad.