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The Internet is playing an increasingly important role in the marketing activities of organisations across a wide range of industries. While the opportunities afforded by this phenomenon seem readily apparent, there is still much debate and speculation on exactly what impact it will have on marketing. To shed some light on this uncertainty, the present study examines managers’ perceptions of the impact of the Internet on key marketing activities. It employs a quasi‐longitudinal research design involving mail surveys to Australian marketing decision makers. Findings suggest that expectations in 1999 may have been unrealistically optimistic and exaggerated. It would appear that the so‐called “dot.com crash” has led to more realistic and pragmatic expectations among practicing managers in 2001. The study then focuses on differences in perceptions between industries. As expected, divergent views emerge, particularly from within the services sector. Managerial implications are then considered, conclusions drawn and future research directions outlined.

Postal questionnaires are increasingly being used to gather health and research information. Various techniques have been shown to increase the response rate. This study used several of these techniques and also benefited from close working with general practitioners and their practices. Cross‐checking address and age against practice records reduced the number of wasted invitations to participants. The GP signature on the letter personally inviting patients to participate contributed to a response rate of 83%. Researchers carrying out postal questionnaire studies will benefit from engaging with primary care.

In the first decades of the nineteenth century to the first decade of the twentieth century, the US Federal and Supreme Courts heard several cases on the legal status of ships. During this period, Chief Justice John Marshall and Justice Joseph Story determined that a ship was a legal person that was capable to contract and could be punished for wrongdoing. Over the nineteenth century, Marshall and Story also heard appeals on the illegal slave trade and on the status of fugitive slaves crossing state lines, cases that raised questions as to whether enslaved peoples were persons or property. Although Marshall and Story did not discuss the ship and the slave together, in this chapter, the author asks what might be gained in doing so. Specifically, what might a reading of the ship and the slave as juridical figures reveal about the history of legal personhood? The genealogy of positive and negative legal personhood that the author begins to trace here draws inspiration and guidance from scholars writing critically of slavery. In different ways, this literature emphasises the significance of maritime worlds to conceptions of racial terror, freedom, and fugitivity. Building on these insights, the author reads the ship and the slave as central characters in the history of legal personhood, a reading that highlights the interconnections between maritime law and the laws of slavery and foregrounds the changing intensities of Anglo imperial power and racial and colonial violence in shaping the legal person.

Sir Raymond Streat, C.B.E., Director of The Cotton Board, Manchester, accompanied by Lady Streat. A Vice‐President: F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, British Museum. Honorary Treasurer: J.E.Wright. Honorary Secretary: Mrs. J. Lancaster‐Jones, B.Sc., Science Librarian, British Council. Chairman of Council: Miss Barbara Kyle, Research Worker, Social Sciences Documentation. Director: Leslie Wilson, M.A.

AS OUR subscription‐renewal reminders for 1982 go out, may I offer you a cautionary note— though not, perhaps, the one you will be expecting of me from these introductory words?

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of fashion magazine content on consumer loyalty behavior and to analyze the differences in fashion magazine content preference and loyalty tendency toward fashion magazines among the identified fashion consumer groups according to their level of fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership.

A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data on the variables in the study. The data analysis consisted of exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and descriptive statistics including means, frequencies, and percentiles.

Six fashion magazine content dimensions were identified. The results revealed that fashion magazine content was significantly related to loyalty tendency toward a fashion magazine. In addition, respondents' preference for fashion magazine content and their loyalty tendency varied according to fashion consumer group and their level of fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership.

The study has practical implications for fashion magazine editors and marketers regarding how to incorporate fashion magazine readers' wants and needs in relation to the magazine's content, how to position their magazines for targeting different groups of shoppers, and how to allocate the features of fashion magazines in order to promote readership and loyalty toward the fashion magazine.

Despite the importance of fashion magazines as an information source, little research has been conducted to analyze fashion magazine content and its influence on loyalty tendency.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of an initial survey on the implementation of costs of quality (CoQ) programmes in the UK telecommunications industry and to discuss the findings in the context of sustainable competitiveness.

A postal survey was employed in order to investigate the breadth of use of CoQ programmes in the sector. A questionnaire was developed and distributed across a sample of companies with a UK SIC code of “6400 Telecommunications”.

The survey results revealed little interest in implementing such programmes in the sector. The most frequently cited reasons were: having a costing system that is already capable of monitoring quality costs; and not yet introduced to the concept of CoQ.

The results presented are limited by two factors: the low response rate; and the range of data gathered. Since the majority of the respondents were service providers, the results could be indicative of this type of company only.

The survey findings indicate that training and education in quality management should employ a more focused approach to the introduction of the concept of CoQ tracking.

To the knowledge of the authors the study presented is the first investigation performed to determine the breadth of use of CoQ programmes across the UK telecommunications sector. In addition, a new aspect of researching the capabilities of information systems in processing CoQ data has been identified.