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Introduction Everyone agrees that increasing levels of economic development is good, but hardly anyone agrees on how to achieve it. Theorists cannot even agree on what constitutes economic development; each writer on economic development uses his own measure or measures of development. Many of these measures represent attempts to assess levels of production and/or consumption in the economies studied. Thus, it would seem that the achievement of higher levels of production and consumption is a common goal of economic development theorists. The production‐consumption thesis is an accepted tenet in economic development planning. Unfortunately, most of the production‐consumption theories and planners have focused their attention entirely on developing the productive capacity end of the equation, under the assumption that increases in consumption will automatically follow increases in production. (See Figure I for an illustration of this dichotomy between theory and policy.)

Using the supermarket technology in Hong Kong as an example, the article shows that the transference of the retail technology from one market to another is highly dependent on the socio‐cultural environment. In effecting an international transfer a retailer may have to be satisfied with an incomplete transfer, proceed in a gradual, evolutionary process and maintain an adaptive interaction with the environment.

The article investigates the incidence and regularity of performance of marketing‐mix activities in Third World business contexts. The results support a relatively high level of incidence and regularity of performance of marketing‐mix activities — thus implying their “applicability”. However, the results suggest that corporate factors influence the performance of marketing‐mix activities.

This monograph progresses from a consideration of definitional issues to the development of a conceptual model for marketing‐logistics interaction and finally to a discussion of the issues of implementation of the model within the context of marketing strategy. Thus, following an introduction, Part II begins with definition of the field and examines the position of physical distribution in relation to marketing. Part III discusses the relationship of physical distribution and macro‐marketing, and is thus concerned about the social, aggregative goals of logistics systems, including the costs of distribution. Part IV continues this argument, examining specifically the influence of physical distribution on channel structure. Part V then focuses on the assumptions underlying the customer service function, asking how physical distribution can influence final demand in the market place. Part VI presents a conceptual model of marketing‐logistics demand stimulation. The operational issues concerned with its implementation are shown in Part VII; and a summary of the relevant points is presented in Part VIII. The concern has been not with presenting either new computational models nor empirical data but with presenting a new perspective on the marketing‐logistics interface. There is a need to reduce the barriers between these fields and to present more useful ways for co‐operation.

Industrial buyers' willingness to buy foreign products is influenced in proportion to the political freedom of the country of origin, as opposed to its level of economic development. Countries at the same level of development as the buying country are perceived more or less favourably according to degree of political freedom. US buyers, for this reason, seem to favour Japan out of ten South East Asian countries, according to a random sample drawn from a membership list of a leading purchasing managers' association. The most favoured sources of products are those countries which are both developed and free.

The purpose of this research is to (1) examine the relationship between pre‐search decision making and external information seeking in consumer durable purchases and (2) to construct consumer profiles corresponding to the different levels of pre‐search decision making. The term “pre‐search decision making”is used to denote those decisions that consumers make before they actively start searching for (and collecting) information on product alternatives. The latter process is referred to here as “external information seeking.”

High‐technology markets are characterized by rapid evolution that alters the emphasis existing in some traditional marketing decisions. This article examines the nature of these markets and suggests certain factors for special consideration in the pricing decision. First, it relates the economic, technological, and competitive factors that affect the firm's objectives. Then, it examines these factors and offers alternative strategies in view of high‐technology dynamics.

Reports exploratory research which examines the relationship between the extent to which executives have a positive attitude towards a foreign culture and the level of competence they have achieved in that language. Suggests that this was a weak correlation but a much stronger one existed between these two factors within the Spanish market. Cites that cultural liking may be a positive factor in foreign language acquisition but only in some circumstances or cultures and ecnourages further research in this area.