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Describes a project organized by the Community Education Development Centre on preparation for parenthood. Five schools were chosen to try out different models of education for family life and parenting. Gives some examples of how the schools tackled this challenge. Concludes that parents′ attitudes to their children changed as they gained a better understanding of what their children did in school.

The consumer culture in recent times has evolved into one of the most powerful ingredients shaping individuals and societies. Although the behavioural intentions and purchase decisions related models continue to dominate research and managerial practice, a deeper look indicates that most studies do not take the complete picture in account and study parts of the above mentioned phenomena. Furthermore, consumers operate in a dynamic and ever‐changing environment which in itself demands a re‐examination of their behavioural intentions and purchase decision influences from time to time. This paper aims to focus on these issues.

Using the context of the young adults market, this study looks into how contextual factors vis‐à‐vis loyalty and switching impact consumer purchase intentions. The study involved both qualitative and quantitative research methodology.

The findings suggest that contextual factors have the strongest influence on purchase decisions. Furthermore, contextual factors influence the brand loyalty and switching behaviour.

The findings provide important insights with regards to the factors on which practitioners should focus to better tailor their content and approaches.

The study supplies unique learning to managers and researchers alike, through conceptualising and subsequently empirically verifying the issue of purchase decision, brand loyalty and switching with regard to contextual factors.

EVEN if rates and rents tend to equal one another nowadays the general impression we receive is that libraries have fared not badly in the annual estimates this year of library authorities. In fairly large towns average library rates are about sixpence in the pound although some are more or less. That in itself does not give the actual amount spent by individual towns as in not a few cases towns which appear to be very highly rated have very low assessments. Some have increased their book funds and if, as is inevitable, few of us have got all we want, indeed need to realize an adequate service as we see it, there has been little sign of the panic about rates which was common only a few years ago, except at Stepney where, as recorded by Mr. Enser in his columns last month, the book fund was halved.

This article undertakes a case study‐based analysis of the Tesco Clubcard loyalty scheme that seeks to re‐conceptualise the role of loyalty schemes by focusing on the role of loyalty schemes in branding and brand webs.

The article takes a case study‐based approach. Tesco Clubcard has been chosen as the case under study, because it is a significant scheme, and because Tesco have a reputation for innovation in relation both to the use of technology and to approaches to delivering customer value. The analysis describes the features of Clubcard, with specific reference to the network of relationships facilitated through the scheme and the actual or potential value that Tesco and its partners, be they customers or other organisations, derive from the scheme.

Tesco Clubcard builds relationships on additional dimensions, through: the option to collect Clubcard points through transactions with other retailers; the option to use reward points with a range of leisure and associated outlets, and, the e‐loyalty element of the scheme accessible through the internet. This multidimensional approach to relationships builds a visible relationship web that is central to marketing communication and brand building associated with the Tesco brand. Both brand perceptions and experiences are built as customers make choices regarding the paths through which they will travel. The brand web operates at the three levels of experience, community, and customer data and knowledge.

The research question, “Do loyalty schemes work?”, needs to be reframed to encompass this extended model of the role of loyalty schemes, to surface questions associated with the effect of loyalty schemes on brand perceptions and associated consumer behaviour.

The aim of the research is to identify the impact of the Tesco Clubcard on customer loyalty. The secondary aim is to contrast customer perceptions of the Clubcard, staff and “feeling valued” to identify which factor has the greater impact on customer loyalty to store.

Quantitative analysis was used based on 60 questionnaires conducted with randomly selected customers in Tesco Metro Dundee in 2005. Tesco were not involved in the research other than to provide approval at a store level for the research to take place outside their premises.

A positive moderate relationship was found r=0.388, p=0.01 between the owning of a Clubcard and loyalty to store. It was also found that there was a positive moderate relationship between the Clubcard returns and customer loyalty, with r=0.334, p=0.01. The research, however, found no relationship between loyalty and customers feeling more valued by Tesco, nor did the research reveal a significant relationship between Tesco staff and customer loyalty.

The research is restricted in so far as it only considers Tesco Clubcard in the grocery retail sector and as it is an exploratory study the research is limited in so far as the number of participants is only 60. A further limitation surrounds the issue of generalisability as only one Tesco retail outlet in Dundee was used. Further research needs to include other Tesco formats and contrast with grocery retailers who do not use loyalty cards.

It is suggested that Tesco consumers are influenced by having a loyalty card in so far as it contributes to making them loyal. However, other factors need to compliment such a card, with consumers seeing the Tesco “provision” as inter‐related.

The paper is useful to both practitioners and academics in the fields of relationship marketing and loyalty. The research provides some initial insight into consumer perspectives in the value of loyalty cards.

Loyalty cards have become a popular strategy among retailers for collecting information about customer purchases and for offering “‘reward points” and other promotions. Many commentators have, however, been skeptical about the value of loyalty cars and, in particular, their ability to cultivate and promote the attitudes and behaviour associated with loyalty. This case study‐based article describes a new application of loyalty cards, which is being piloted in selected Sainsbury’s stores. Loyalty cards are swiped through a slot in a public access kiosk, located in store, to provide customer access to a range of selected benefits. These benefits include recipes, special reductions, information on videos, and other customer service options. The customer selects options by choosing from a simple touch screen. Special offer coupons or recipes are printed on small pieces of paper. Is this new application the basis for an enhanced role for loyalty cards? The article argues that this potential will only be realised if loyalty cards can become an integral part of the relationship with the customer, and cease to be no more than an “‘add‐on”.

Customer loyalty as a concept is inherently attractive to retail businesses. In many companies however, customer loyalty is operationalised through the activities of an often part‐time and transient workforce. The case illustration presented here, and in particular the analysis of employee responses on issues of loyalty scheme construction and operation, raises two main issues. For any retailer operating a loyalty scheme, these findings raise considerable management implications.

From a regulatory point of view, as explained by Dimson and Marsh [1994, 1995], the amount of capital required by a financial institution to ensure an acceptably small probability of failure should depend on the risk associated with the assets detained in its portfolio. Dimson and Marsh [1994] conduct an empirical study on long and short equity trading books of securities firms acting as market makers. They consider different existing regulations: the comprehensive approach, as applied in the United States by the Securities and Exchange Commission; the building‐block approach, as proposed by the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision, and incorporated in the European Community [1992] Capital Adequacy Directive (CAD); and the portfolio approach, which in the U.K. forms part of the rules of the Securities and Futures Authority [1992]. All three methods are compared via the position risk requirement (PRR) that determines the amount of capital that financial institutions have to put aside. As shown by the authors in their empirical study, the methods proposed by the international regulators are barely related to the risk of the portfolios! Only for the national U.K. rules, the PRR and the risk of a portfolio show positive correlation.

Within the past 20 years hiking and backpacking have enjoyed rapid growth among Americans as favorite outdoor activities. From 1965 to 1977 the number of hikers almost tripled, from 9.9 million to 28.1 million, while national forest visitor days among hikers and mountaineers increased from 4 million in 1966 to 11 million in 1979. Accompanying this growth in interest has been a boom in books about the sport. These include both “how‐to‐do‐it” volumes and guides to specific geographical areas. Each year brings another spate of books, yet to this compiler's knowledge no bibliography of hiking guides to the Rocky Mountains, one of North America's premier outdoor regions, has yet been attempted. This bibliography is an effort to correct that situation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why outsiders, rather than incumbents, are able to take advantage of technological discontinuities.

The paper employs a case study of a single innovation that transformed the technology of Formula 1 motor racing.

The findings show how social capital made up of “weak ties” in the form of informal personal networks, enabled an outsider to successfully make the leap to a new technological regime.

The findings show that where new product development involves a shift to new technologies, social capital can have an important part to play.

It is widely accepted that radical innovations are often competence destroying, making it difficult for incumbents to make the transition to a new technology. The paper's findings show how the social capital of outsiders can place them at a particular advantage in utilizing new technologies.