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On‐site interviews were conducted with distribution managers in 20 technology‐based manufacturing firms located in Canada. The managers were asked to indicate the thoroughness with which they identified, selected, and recruited middlemen. Perceptions of the importance and success accorded each activity were also obtained. The results indicate that although many criteria are used or consulted, the thoroughness with which the activities are undertaken is significantly less than maximum. Additional analysis suggests that success in conducting these activities may be related to the perceived importance of each activity, and the thoroughness of the processes employed.

Research examining attitudes towards offenders assesses the attitudes of professionals working with offenders, rather than attitudes of those without any experience with offenders. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether prejudice towards offenders would decrease after engagement with incarcerated serious offenders, and whether any improvement would be explained by increased empathic responding.

An experimental field study was conducted. A repeated measures questionnaire assessed empathy and prejudice at two time points: before and after engagement with serious offenders.

As predicted experiencing actual engagement with convicted sex offenders and murderers within a prison environment did increase empathy and decrease prejudice towards ex-offenders.

All participants were applied criminology students and (prison visited) is not representative of prisons within HM Prison Service. It could be argued that responding was influenced by previous knowledge of criminal justice and penal systems. Future research should consider examining the impact of engagement on empathy and prejudice with a larger, naïve sample and across different prisons.

As the first (to the authors knowledge) to empirically examine attitude change of individuals with no personal experience of offenders this research has value to any person considering how social exclusion may be reduced at a societal level.

The existence of so-called non-participants is a cultural policy problem in the UK and beyond. Yet, the very notion of a cultural non-participant seems nonsensical against the palpable evidence of lived experience. The purpose of this paper is to understand “who” a cultural non-participant is by first comprehending “what” the cultural non-participant is and why it exists.

Drawing on primary data generated in the form of 40 in-depth qualitative interviews, this paper employs a discursive methodology to explore the critical logics (Howarth, 2010) that underlie the problem representation (Bacchi, 2009) of cultural non-participation and in particular the discursive subject identity of the cultural non-participant.

Beginning with a discussion about how cultural non-participants are represented as socially deprived and hard to reach, the paper moves on to highlight how they are also presumed to lack knowledge and understanding about what they are rejecting. Their supposed flawed subjectivity is then contrasted with the desirable model of agency claimed by the cultural professionals who seek to change the cultural participation patterns of others. The paper concludes with a consideration of how the existence of the cultural non-participant subject identity limits the extent to which those labelled as such can meaningfully contribute to the field of cultural policy and obscures the extent to which such individuals are culturally disenfranchised.

Because of the chosen research approach and the geographical limitations to the data generation, the research makes no claim to generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the discursive logics identified at alternative discursive sites.

This paper proposes a change in the language used by cultural professionals accompanied by changes in practice that abandoning the identity of the cultural non-participant would demand.

This paper challenges a taken for granted assumption that cultural non-participants exist “in the real”.

Investigates “cruising” (how homosexual men move around to various meeting sites), and how men keep this from intruding into their “normal” lives. Highlights how Laud Humphreys researched this phenomenon through, initially, observing 12 “tearoom” regulars, while acting as a lookout. Herein the author primarily observed a highway rest area, but also urban parks, tearooms and commercial sex clubs – interviewing 19 regulars. Gives more specific details in the article. Concludes that cruising sites are not constant and uniform.

The Australian brewing sector has been subject to ever‐increasing concentration over recent years. Yet one firm, Coopers Brewery of South Australia, has managed to expand its market share in a highly competitive trading environment. This paper aims to consider how Coopers, one of the few family firms “of stature” in that sector, has succeeded.

The paper adopts a case‐study approach to illustrate the various factors which have contributed to the firm's success. Fieldwork took place at Coopers' headquarters in Adelaide and secondary data sources are also drawn upon.

With fifth‐generation family members in charge at the company, Coopers has been able to distinguish itself from its main competitors in the sector, two multinational conglomerates with a combined market share of around 90 per cent. Coupled with investment in production facilities, the case‐study firm's expansion into new domestic and international markets has proved to be profitable. Part of Coopers' success lies in the niche marketing strategies it has employed – strategies which emphasise the company's unique products and stress their history and traditions. The concept of the extended family is highlighted through the company's approach to its consumers and staff members. Philanthropic activities also enhance the company's reputation in the community at large.

For managers, the case provides clear indications of the various successful niche marketing strategies which a family business in the brewing sector has adopted.

The case provides evidence of how one company has been able to draw on its traditions whilst at the same time maintaining its relevance to the market.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the concept of innovative marketing and how it manifests itself in the context of small‐to medium‐sized enterprises.

The literature relating to the characteristics of SMEs, and innovative marketing are reviewed to identify the key elements of innovative marketing and SMEs. This review and the key elements identified contribute to an overall conceptualisation of innovative marketing for SMEs.

The discussion considers and provides a description of innovative marketing in SMEs. Innovative marketing does not just relate to products, new product development, and technological development but is also evident in other aspects of marketing related activities and decisions and is very specific to the context and needs of the SME.

The focus of this paper is on taking the relevant themes from the literature and considering them in the light of SME marketing and in the context of SME business activities.

The purpose of this paper is to appraise the spread of supermarkets in Canada during the mid‐twentieth century. It examines how corporate chains altered the organization of distribution, reconfigured shopping experiences, and promised gains realized through greater business volume.

The paper utilizes a mix of primary and secondary sources to compare how companies responded to opportunities for mass marketing that emerged in the post‐war era. The perspective is grounded in the theory of managerial capitalism, which was originally elaborated by Alfred D. Chandler.

The paper highlights how mass food retailing in Canada shared some attributes normally associated with the rise of managerial capitalism, but it also reviews the variations and highlights the difficulties faced by firms despite their jump to giant size. In particular, it stresses how the leading companies did not build secure positions.

Corporate archives in Canadian retailing either did not survive or remain inaccessible. The essay therefore draws upon a mix of sources including company publications and government investigations. The paper highlights the inability of companies to realize permanent gains commonly associated with large firm size or mass retailing. It stresses that there was no one “model” of corporate development.

This paper illustrates the complexities associated with developing strategic leadership in retailing and therefore should be valuable to educators and practitioners.

Semi‐structured data are commonly represented by labeled flat db‐graphs. In this paper, we study an extension of db‐graph model for representing nested semi‐structured data. This extension allows one to have db‐graphs whose vertex labels are db‐graphs themselves. Bringing the data model closer to the natural presentation of data stored via Web documents is the main motivation behind nesting db‐graphs. The importance of nested db‐graphs is similar to the importance of nested tables in relational model. The main purpose of the paper is to provide a mechanism to query nested semi‐structured data and Web forms in a uniform way. Most of the languages proposed so far have been designed as extensions of SQL with, among others, the advantage to provide a user‐friendly syntax and commercial flavor. The major focus of the paper is on defining a graph query language in a multi‐sorted calculus like style.

THE responsibility for materials handling methods, as for all other production methods, should be made the clear responsibility of the head of Work Study. The reasoning behind that firm conclusion is very logical. Industry in general depends for its success upon the application of some process such as machining or finishing of raw materials. Every such operation adds to its value and builds up a firm's turnover. It is therefore obvious that the more time there is devoted to conversion the less will be wasted on profitless storage or unproductive transport from one part of the works to another.