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The use of own label requires complete dedication and commitment by all levels of management retailing the product; it must also be backed by constant and rigorous quality control to ensure that customer confidence is built on a solid foundation. Mr. Bennion was speaking at a recent symposium organised by the CIES on the subject of Assortment Management, attended by 115 delegates from ten countries.

Reviews the trading environment and the implications of changes for each element within it in light of the recent inflationary period. Looks particularly at the strain between manufacturer and retailer. Reveals future trends which take into account demographic and environmental influences in addition to economic pressures.

A nostrum much quoted in traditional contract law courses is ‘caveat emptor’ (let the buyer beware). Buyers had to look after themselves and protect their own interests. The laissez‐faire philosophy which lay behind this maxim took the view that the operation of unrestrained market forces was the best method for protecting consumers as a whole. Emphasis was placed on free competition providing alternative choices as the best way of satisfying consumer wants. In reality, even in the mid‐19th century when this philosophy was dominant, the consumer was not left without the protection of the law. Freedom of contract notionally existed and much judicial rhetoric was expended on justifying it but in reality the courts were quite astute in protecting consumers in situations where they were the victims of fraud, trading malpractice or unequal contracts.

Reviews the roots of management theory, and discusses how, in the early part of this century, an overlooked, different interpretation of Max Weber’s work could have affected those roots. Examines Lowell L. Bennion’s dissertation, Max Weber’s Methodology, published in 1933, which is the first book‐length interpretation in the English language of Weber’s sociological thought. Maintains that this interpretation of Weber is central to the argument that the greater contribution of Weber to management theory lies in the central role of power and conflict in relationships, and the important question of “Why do people obey?”. Concludes that this view of Weber prompts a rich array of research questions confirming the importance of Weber’s thinking for management scholars today, and demonstrates the relevance of Weber far beyond his contribution of bureaucracy as an efficient organizational form.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

At the risk of sounding like an over‐cautious civil servant I should make it clear that any opinions or interpretations I give in this paper are mine and not necessarily those of the Library Association. The Draft Code of Professional Ethics—the green paper that appeared in the October L.A.R.—is not yet L.A. policy. Indeed as far as our members are concerned, the consultation that is now taking place is an integral part in the formulation of a code of professional ethics. It is my privilege as a Chairman of the Working Party to listen to, and respond to members' views and then to communicate them to our working group.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the price and volatility transmission between natural gas, fertilizer (ammonia), and corn markets, an issue that has been traditionally ignored in the literature despite its significant importance.

The authors jointly estimate a vector error correction model for the conditional mean equation and a multivariate generalized autoregressive heteroskedasticity model for the conditional volatility equation to investigate the interactions between natural gas, ammonia, and corn prices and their volatility.

The authors find significant interplay between fertilizer and corn markets, while only a mild linkage in prices and volatility exist between those markets and natural gas during the period 1994-2014. There is not only a positive relationship between corn and ammonia prices in the short run, but both prices react to deviations from the long-run parity. Furthermore, the lagged conditional volatility of ammonia prices positively affects conditional volatility in the corn market and vice versa. This result is robust to a specification using crude oil price as an alternative to natural gas price to account for the large transportation cost built into ammonia prices. Results for the period of 2006-2014 indicate virtually no linkage between natural gas prices and those of fertilizer and corn during that period, while linkages in price level and volatility between the latter remain strong.

This paper is the first in the literature to comprehensively examine the role of fertilizer on corn prices and volatility, and its relation to natural gas prices.

Tests the relevance of positioning within the domain of business marketing through the application of a new typology of positioning strategies. The proposed typology is tested in a well‐established market sector which is characterised by commodity products and consequently the research deals with positioning as applied to actual companies rather than specific brands. Our results offer strong support as to the stability of the proposed typology and the relevance of the concept of positioning in business markets. The authors suggest that although business positioning is predominantly determined by hard criteria (e.g. product quality) and relationship building factors (e.g. personal contact), other considerations such as company structures (i.e. geographical coverage), breadth of offerings and degree of integration (i.e. location in the distribution chain), also play an important part. Finally, we offer support to the claim that, level of familiarity with a specific company is a contributing factor to perceptions of the pursued positioning strategies.

Customer service represents a significant opportunity for segmenting markets. This article reviews the importance of customer service and the conceptual issues associated with segmenting industrial markets on the basis of customer service. A methodology is presented which can be used by managers to classify a market into segments with different customer service needs. Empirical results from a high‐technology industry are also presented. The article emphasises the need to recognise the differing customer service requirements of segments of customers when establishing priorities for customer service expenditures.