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Although arguments – both pro and con – can be constructed regarding trade shows, evidence suggests that enhancements to these events may be necessary. Reports an exploratory study, in which exhibitors at an industrial regional trade show were queried concerning potential improvements to trade shows and the perceived impact of these changes on the elements of the personal selling process. Results demonstrate that attendee quality, attendee quantity and measuring trade show results should be increased. Although the net effect of these changes, in concert with nine others examined, would be to impact positively all aspects of the personal selling process, the exhibitor′s ability to establish goodwill with customers would significantly improve relative to all other personal selling dimensions. Additionally, significant improvements to communicating, intelligence gathering and prospecting would be achieved relative to selling and servicing.

The globalization of business is a fact of life that many managers are quickly waking up to. For firms, small and large alike, the move towards internationalization implies a different role for every aspect of the organization. One important function within the firm that is becoming more and more global in orientation is the purchasing department. Many corporations realize that in order to be successful and competitive, an expanded focus for this area is necessary. However, procurement activities on an international scale have unique considerations of which many of us may not be aware. Discusses several important developments in an effort to broaden our understanding in this area. Although somewhat diverse in nature, the underlying current is that the development of relationships is necessary in the international environment.

For firms, small and large alike, the move towards internationalization implies a different role for every aspect of the organization. One important function within the firm that is becoming more and more global in orientation is the purchasing department. Many corporations realize that, in order to be successful and competitive, an expanded focus for this area is necessary. However, procurement activities on an international scale have unique considerations of which many of us may not be aware. In an effort to broaden our understanding in this area, discusses several important developments. Although they are somewhat diverse in nature, the underlying current is that the development of relationships is necessary in the international environment.

Examines the traditional adversarial relationship between original equipment manufacturers and their larger corporate customers and compares it with the new partnership arrangement which is now overtaking much of manufacturing industry. Describes the advantages and disadvantages of these long‐term, trust‐based relationships and suggests ways to make them work successfully. Shows how partnerships are critical to the success of just‐in‐time purchasing on which competitive ability so often depends. Concludes that partnerships will continue to increase in number and that OEMs will certainly reap the benefits of what is necessarily an open, shared approach to business.

Interest in the total quality (TQ) concept has been gaining considerable momentum within North America. Total quality, which is founded on the belief that organizations can succeed by meeting the needs of their customers, traditionally has been a concern of line management. However, specialists in the area of human and industrial relations have been espousing some of the concepts touted by total quality converts for many years. Participation by these individuals in the implementation of a total quality approach can only help in this regard.

Mental health assessment in people with learning disability can be a challenging process for clinicians. The more severe the cognitive impairment and level of learning disability, the less likely it is that the clinician can reliably confirm the diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder. Coordinated, multi‐modal interdisciplinary team assessment is the way forward, as it draws together the bio‐psychosocial model of interviewing and mental health care planning. In this article we go through the psychiatric assessment structure and highlight the differences in assessing people with learning disability compared with their peers in the general population. We give special consideration to mental health assessments in emergency settings, and to people with challenging behaviour.

Although trade shows are a major portion of the marketing mix in the industrial marketplace, second only to personal selling and above advertising, very little has been researched on their function in industrial marketing. This paper reports the results of an extensive business survey of trade show usage, presents results, compares results to previous studies, provides analyses of the results, and recommendations to businesses to increase efficiency of trade show performance. Study indicates that few companies engage regularly and extensively in international trade shows, although most see the need. Also reports that the evidence suggests that some international companies generate as much as 70 per cent of their annual sales at trade fairs.

The closure of long‐stay National Health Service (NHS) hospitals has seen the placement of people with learning disabilities who offend or have offending‐type behaviours placed ‘out of area’ many miles from local services. This move of people out of area has made it difficult in many localities to develop local services and to monitor the quality of care for this group. This paper describes the start of an exercise to examine potential local care pathways for those who present with offending behaviours and to look at differences between the out of area group, and another receiving treatment locally. Within the two groups we found no significant differences regarding rates of psychiatric disorder, quality of life or levels of unmet need. The main difference was that the out of area group was largely characterised by a range of aggressive and challenging behaviour, necessitating the additional structure and securities provided by out of area placements.

Home visiting is a strategy widely implemented to support families following the birth of a baby. There is a broad consensus that home visiting programmes are successful. But there is little understanding of factors moderating this success. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between maternal involvement in a nurse home visiting programme, maternal depression, and adjustment to the parenting role.

A retrospective design was employed in which the medical records of 40 mothers who had been enroled in a nurse home visiting programme were examined. The number of nurse home visits from birth to six months, maternal depressive symptoms, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) and responsivity scores were examined. Mothers had been selected for the programme if they had a history of mental illness, were in a violent relationship, or reported drug or alcohol problems.

A significant, positive relationship was found between maternal involvement, positive HOME environment and maternal responsivity scores. Furthermore, the mothers with the highest scores for HOME environment and responsivity to their infant ' s cues at six months were mothers experiencing deteriorating symptoms of depression. These mothers had the highest levels of involvement with the programme. Despite their mothers’ deteriorating mental health, infants whose mothers received the greatest number of visits from a nurse received the greatest benefit ameliorating their risk for developing poor attachment and impaired behavioural, emotional and cognitive development.

This is the first study to examine the relationship between changes in maternal depression and programme outcomes in a home visiting programme. It is one of the first explorations of the relationship between maternal involvement and programme outcomes in a targeted nurse home visiting programme to prevent child maltreatment. The findings from this study are critical to future home visiting programme development and evaluation.

Interrelated conflict and transformation are associated with post World War II U.S. military. Conflicts within the command structure are depicted by military officers in their writings. Transformation, characterised by military sociologists as a process of “civilianisation,” has informed understanding over the past few decades. However, neither the officer‐writers‘ “close‐up” perspective nor, in retrospect, the sociologists’ sanguine formulations effectively interrelate structural transformation and conflicts in command. In this respect, these literatures suggest relevant analogies: officer‐writers reflect existential crisis not unlike many traditional peoples experiencing consequences of externally induced economic change; sociological characterisations of “civilianisation,” like those of “modernisation,” fail to account for adverse and conflictual consequences of such “development”. Both the “crisis in command” and sociological failures to explicate it may be related to political economy's transformation of the military. That is the argument entailed in this article.