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Presents a services selling model which acknowledges the unique difficulties faced by service sector salespeople. Identifies two classes of activities as having significant input to the success of service salespeople. Remedies some deficiencies of an earlier model and provides an improved normative framework for further testing and development.

Impulse buying — can it be predicted or even encouraged? Merchandisers are known as the “silent salesmen” and their skills cannot be ignored.

Presents survey results which are derived from the most comprehensive investigation ever undertaken of UK companies certificated to ISO 9000. Reports an analysis of the willingness of certificated companies to recommend the standard to other, similar companies. States that the 4,250 certificated organizations mail surveyed, 1,220 (28.7 per cent) responded. Indicates that the companies most willing to recommend ISO 9000 were those most satisfied with the organizational impacts of the standard and these were of three major kinds: profitability impacts, process improvements and marketing benefits. Reports that companies also willing to recommend were those whose expectations had been met, and those who believed the standard to be cost‐effective. Proposes that these results should help deflect criticism about the perceived value of the standard, and motivate companies to pursue certification.

Business markets are complex. Sellers have to deal with customised demand, both passive and active markets, multi‐person interactions and interconnected relationships. Reports the case study of HDoX, a producer of hydrogen peroxide, an industrial chemical that has wide applications from the disinfecting of equipment in the foodstuffs industry to the bleaching of paper pulp. Focuses on HDoX’s practices for retention of its business customers, specifically, its industrial bulk users of hydrogen peroxide, through adaptation and bonding. HDoX’s customer retention practices are not part of an explicit retention plan but, instead, emerged as a result of HDoX’s continuous adaptation to customers and other members of its business network. The process of retaining industrial business customers is dynamic and contextualised and involves managing multi‐dimensional bonds between the seller, customers and other members of the business network.

The aim of this monograph is to identify principles of retail space allocation (RSA), and discuss their role in sales creation. A number of considerations make an understanding of, and ability to apply, these principles more important today than before. Significant amongst these are the domination of multiples in a growing number of retail sectors, the continuing trend towards self‐service, the diminishing number of retail outlets, the pressure on retail margins and shifts in shopper buying behaviour.

This paper utilises the findings from the largest‐ever national, omni‐sectoral survey into the impacts of ISO 9000 on UK business and specifically examines the real estate sector, contrasting the findings with those found for the larger universe. Analysis across all sectors shows that while companies’ expectations of ISO 9000 are not met in full, they are generally satisfied with the contribution made to their organisation. While the real estate sector differs in points of detail from the larger universe, statistical analysis indicates that there are no significant differences.

Many consumer and industrial goods manufacturers practise test marketing before launching innovative products on a national or wider scale. The commercial value of such testing is a direct function of both the accuracy with which the test results are interpreted, and the nature of the research design which is used to conduct the test, yet many companies fail at this most vital stage.

In this paper the authors present a theoretical framework that shows how interaction between two or more companies depends on its context of performance. Reflexivity between two or more levels of context potentially leads the parties to a situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature: paradox. The authors study the manner in which such situations occur and are resolved.

The data in this paper comes from a three‐year‐long multiple case study investigation. Data was gathered from 15 different organizations through interviews, participant observation and document reviews.

Context‐bounded interaction between organizational actors can be interpreted in different, sometimes contradictory, ways, which can create paradox. Parties cannot stay in paradox for long because it may produce adverse personal and social consequences. Thus, resolution of paradox potentially causes significant changes to the structural attributes of relationships.

Paradox has potentially significant and destructive consequences for the quality of business‐to‐business relationships. Organizational actors who understand that paradox has been encountered can develop strategies for exiting paradox and maintaining high‐quality relationships with their partners.

This paper presents a novel theoretical framework that explains how business interaction can lead to paradox, the experience and resolution of which potentially makes significant changes to the structure of business relationships.

Customer retention has been a significant topic since the mid‐1990s, but little research has been conducted into management processes that are associated with excellent customer retention performance. This research investigates the associations between customer retention outcomes and a number of management processes including customer retention planning, budgeting and accountability and the presence of a documented complaints‐handling process.

This is carried out using a quantitative survey of 170 companies in Australia. Participants represented all major standard industrial classification (SIC) codes.

It was found that excellence at customer retention is positively and significantly associated with the presence of documented complaints‐handling processes. None of the other variables is significantly associated with the dependent variable.

This research has limited generalisability to other regions and the self‐report nature of the data is not independently corroborated.

The research emphasises the importance of developing and implementing documented complaints‐handling processes. Future research should examine whether standardised processes such as those embodied in ISO 10002 are more effective than ad hoc processes.

The major contribution of this paper is the clear link that it establishes between customer retention performance and the presence of a documented complaints‐handling process.

This research paper seeks to investigate the different types of attachment that customers develop towards retail banks.

The approach blends literature reviews, in addition to qualitative and quantitative methods. The primary research programme analyses data from seven focus groups, 39 one‐on‐one interviews and 1,058 individual consumer questionnaires.

Identifies three forms of positive attachment, based on three different foundations: the credibility of the organisation, compatibility between the values of the organisation and those of the consumer, and interpersonal or relational considerations. Presents a statistically valid and reliable scale that can be used to measure these three forms of attachment. Also identifies other forms of customer‐bank attachment grounded on less positive associations, including inertia and alienation.

The scale can be used to identify customer‐organisational attachment profiles that transcend or complement customer satisfaction, and provide a basis for relationship longevity.