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THE British Tourist Authority, which entered its second decade of operations in 1980, traces its origins to the Come To Britain Movement inaugurated in 1926 by Sir Francis Towle, the managing director of a chain of hotels. Like countless other private initiatives, before and since, this soon attracted government interest and, after a public meeting at the Mansion House in December 1928, when it was agreed that an organisation designated as the Travel Association of Great Britain and Ireland should be formed, the President of the Board of Trade announced that the government intended to ask Parliament for the sum of £5000 during the forthcoming financial year to support the association's activities. The official purposes of the new body, formally registered in April 1929, were to increase the number of visitors from overseas and to stimulate the demand for British goods and services.

The current study seeks to explore ethnic diversity in Britain by investigating the strength of ethnic identity and acculturation levels of two British ethnic minority groups – Indians and African Blacks. The study also aims to examine the role of demographic characteristics in explaining the strength of ethnic identity and acculturation levels between the surveyed ethnic groups.

The study utilized a survey research design. Data was collected using a personally administered structured questionnaire from a convenience sample of 365 married ethnic members.

The results of t‐tests revealed that both Indians and African Blacks are strong ethnic identifiers and highly‐acculturated. Further results based on step‐wise regressions showed that age and income offer more explanatory power of ethnic diversity among African Blacks and Indians respectively.

The study highlights the complexity and importance of ethnicity in the development of multicultural strategies in Britain.

Research relating to ethnic diversity in Britain is relatively limited and of the very few studies available, there has been more emphasis on qualitative research approaches. This study also offers findings on ethnicity at a time when there is growth in the population of ethnic markets in Britain.

Aims to examine the issue of industrial strategy (IS), paying particular attention to the case of Britain. Sets out to assess the possibility and nature of an industrial strategy for Britain, in Europe, and within the global scene, taking into account the world we live in as we see it. Accordingly, the perspective is driven and shaped by a quest for a realistic, feasible and sustainable industrial strategy. In order to achieve these objectives, first examines the theoretical arguments behind much of British, and more generally, Western industrial policies. Following this, outlines and assesses British industrial policy post‐Second World War then compares and contrasts British industrial policy with that of Europe, the USA, Japan and the newly industrialized countries. Then examines recent developments in economics and management which may explain the “Far Eastern” miracle, and points to the possibility of a successful, narrowly self‐interested, IS for Europe and Britain, based on the lessons from (new) theory and international experience. To assess what is possible, develops a theoretical framework linking firms in their roles as consumers and/or electors. This hints at the possibilities and limits of feasible policies. All these ignore desirability which, in the author′s view, should be seen in terms of distributional considerations, themselves contributors to sustainability. Accordingly, discusses a desirable industrial strategy for Britain in Europe which accounts for distributional considerations, and goes on to examine its implications for the issue of North‐South convergence. Concludes by pointing to the limitations of the analysis and to directions for developments.

This article presents an estimation of the incidence and the impact on wages of employer provided training in two countries with different legal systems concerning this type of vocational training, France and Britain. A selectivity bias correction method is used to estimate the real impact of training on wages. This shows that, if the selection in training processes are quite similar in the two countries according to the statistically observable characteristics, this is not the case according to statistically non observable characteristics. Our results show that the “less efficient” workers (level of education, seniority, experience, firm size … being equal) are more likely to be trained by their employers in France, which does not seem to be the case in Britain. We explain this result by the fact that the two countries have a different legal system concerning employer provided training.

Considers the way in which UK and American pension schemes are structured for women’s poverty and social exclusion in later life. Analyses recent trends in women’s employment and the impacts on current pension structures. Looks at the impact of different pension schemes and goes on to cover the effect on different classes and ethnicities. States that childcare is currently uncrecognised within pension systems as it is unwaged work and can lead to serious adverse financial impacts on women undertaking this role.

This is the second part of a detailed annotated chronology of significant events in the history of money in the context of social, economic, political and technological developments from the dawn of civilization until the closing years of the twentieth century. Part 2 covers events from the start of the industrial revolution onwards. This period saw major changes in the relative importance of coinage, paper money and bank money, as well as the beginnings of electronic money. These changes, and the financial effects of the Napoleonic and World Wars, the rise and decline of the British Empire, the emergence of the United States and Japan, decolonisation and Third World debt, and moves towards a single currency in Europe, are all covered.

Religion's influence in consumer research remains under‐researched. This paper aims to explore religiosity's effect on culture and consumption by comparing Indians living in Britain, with Asian Indians and British Whites. The paper is relevant to both academics and practitioners who wish to understand the role of religion's influence regarding culturally determined consumer behaviours.

A questionnaire measuring family, self‐identity, materialism, possessions as status symbols and reference groups was administrated in London and Mumbai. Religiosity was measured by religious institution attendance and the importance of religion in daily life. A total of 415 questionnaires were submitted to factor analysis, identifying six factors. These factors were then submitted to Multinomial Logistical Regression (MLR), with the two religiosity themes used as influencing variables on the factors.

The analysis indicated that Indians living in Britain and British Whites sample groups were culturally less group‐ and consumption‐oriented than Asian Indians. Declining levels of religiosity produced mixed results for Indians living in Britain, when compared to Asian Indians, indicating that: attendance at a religious institution is not akin to viewing religion as an important aspect of daily life, a diversity of religiosity determined consumer behaviours across the Indian sample groups, and religion is an acculturation agent. The research, however, is limited owing to the small sample group and the need to maintain cross‐cultural methodologies.

Marketing practitioners should recognise the importance of religion in culture in Eastern cultures, while in Western cultures they should focus on the centrality and the need to use consumption to maintain the individual's sense of individuality.

This research paper aims to examine the global trends in publishing in the leading marketing journals between 1964 and 2008, focusing on how public policy intervention in the assessment and funding of academic research has influenced Britain's relative productivity in the world's leading marketing journals.

The method was an audit of contributions to the leading journals based on the authors' affiliation, country of origin and country in which they obtained their doctoral training.

The results show that the proportion of leading marketing publications by authors affiliated to British universities have held steady at about 2 per cent, while the productivity of several other countries has accelerated past Britain. However, to retain that share, Britain has increasingly depended upon importing people whose PhD is not British. This contrasts with some other European countries that are now more productive than Britain, but mainly recruit locals with local PhDs. The pattern of decline in the UK is related to the impact of Britain's research assessment exercise and the continuation of relatively weak social science research training.

The analysis is limited by only looking at one academic discipline and only the top few academic journals in the field.

The findings have implications at several levels. At a national policy level it questions the value of the research assessment exercises that appear to have presided over a decline in research productivity. For institutions, it questions the value in investing in developing local talent when success has come to those who buy talent internationally. Perhaps, the major implication arises from Britain's academic productivity declining while neighbouring countries have grown in international excellence.

At a time when the continuation of expensive university research assessments is being questioned the research findings add value to the current debate in showing how that very process has accompanied academic decline.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the careers of skilled migrants from Indian Punjab. This study complicates the normalization of skilled migration as a “win‐win” situation by examining the career trajectories of skilled migrants from the Indian Punjab who are trying to establish themselves in Britain.

The paper examines 20 life history interviews undertaken with skilled migrants from the Indian Punjab to Britain, in IT, media, law and hospitality industries, health and welfare professionals, and student migrants.

Skilled migrants were able to migrate on their own auspices through migration economies in Punjab. Once in Britain, however, they were directed to universities and labour markets in which they were not able to use their skills. They experienced under‐employment, devaluation of their qualifications and downward mobility, which forced them into ethnic and gendered markets within their home networks and created ambivalence about migrant success and issues of return.

The study emphasizes the need to take a transnational lens when looking at skilled migration, address how migrants’ career trajectories are limited by racism, anti‐immigration sentiment and gender inequality, and consider temporality and uncertainty.

The paper raises questions concerning the ways in which rapidly changing “managed migration” policies in Britain have burdened individual migrants.

To explore self‐directed expatriates' relationships with their home and host countries by drawing on an existing model of expatriate managers' allegiance to home and host organizations.

Using a qualitative methodology and thematic analysis, the study draws on interviews with 30 expatriate academics in four countries. Specifically, the paper draws on Black and Gregersen's model of allegiance to home and host organizations to explore the different dimensions and the strength and weakness of those relationships.

The findings suggest that, while the model of allegiance presents a useful starting‐point, further modifications are required in order to cater for the complexity and dynamism of relationships with home and host countries.

Whereas the paper focuses on UK expatriates, it may be that other nationals may experience different relationships with their home and host countries. Moreover, it may be useful to explore the relationships of other self‐directed expatriates such as managers and corporate executives, or medical personnel.

The specific value of the paper is that it explores a hitherto under‐researched theme and provides an insight into the identified dimensions of self‐directed expatriates' relationships with their home and host countries.