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Evaluates, empirically the attitude of African‐American consumers towards US and Japanese made automobiles. Outlines the rationale and urgency for the study of this population, before looking at the hypotheses which are considered important both from a sociocultural and a managerial perspective. Presents the data and draws conclusions including the limitations of the study and outlines further research in the area.

Data collected from 202 large and 92 small consumer goods manufacturing firms were analysed to examine the perceptions and experiences of these companies with test marketing as part of their new product development strategy. Seventy six per cent of the large companies and twenty four per cent of the small firms in the study test marketed their new products before full‐scale introduction. Chi‐square analysis indicated a relationship between firm size, type of business/industry, the scope of marketing operations, and whether the firm conducted test marketing or not. Cost, time constraints, and the generic nature of the product were the most prominent reasons cited by all firms for not conducting test marketing. In addition, small firms cited their size as amajor reason they did not engage in test marketing.

Presents the results of an empirical investigation into American executives’ perceptions of business climates in India and China. Addresses six distinct issues cocnerning economy, management, marketing, government, labour and finance. Attempts to establish the homogeneity of internal consistency of the shortened version of Buntzman’s 31 item scale used in the study. Surveyed 110 US businessmen working in these countries. Suggests that findings show India to possess a more favourable business climate but perceive China’s economy to be better.

Previous research in the area of distributor performance proposed different scales, mostly in western, developed country context. These studies also lacked the consideration of dynamic interaction between variables, which determine the distributor’s performance. This paper proposes a composite Distributor Performance Index (DPI) to evaluate distributors’ performance based on at the “Enables” and “Results”, taking a system dynamics approach. The model results have been discussed and validated, in business marketing channel. The context of this study is India, an emerging market.

Describes the efforts of the owner/directors of a private limited company to put into place a succession strategy. Considers three major themes: second generation entrepreneurs/management succession; action learning as a human resource development strategy and philosophy; and the learning organization. Concludes that people (and organizations) “learn” best from the priorities of the business, once they have been identified, and that organizational learning is really based on institutionalization of what has been learned – requisite learning.

Perhaps the first whisper of the British Library(hereinafter BL) may be found in the report of the Parry Committee which recommended the formation of a national policy in regard to libraries and the provision of information. This was swiftly followed by the Dainton Committee report, a White Paper, and finally the British Library Act, which came into force on 1 July 1973 when the Board of the new BL formally took over responsibility for the library departments (excepting Prints and Drawings) and the Science Reference Library from the Trustees of the British Museum, plus the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the former National Central Library. To this weighty nucleus were added the major responsibilities of the former Office of Scientific and Technical Information, in April 1974, forming the basis of a new Research and Development Department, and the British National Bibliography, in August 1974, as the foundation of the new Bibliographic Services Division. The way for this very considerable re‐shaping of the country's library resources had been thoroughly prepared by a body familiarly known as BLOC (British Library Organizing Committee) between January and July 1973. There are a number of accounts of the creation of the new library which do not differ in substance. Later developments can be studied from the series of annual reports which provide the most authoritative data available, although it should be noted that statistics provided are not always compatible from year to year.

A point repeatedly brought forward for the defence, or at all events for the purpose of mitigating the fine, in adulteration cases, is the statement that defendant's goods have been analysed on former occasions and have been found genuine. As illustrating the slight value of analyses of previous samples may be taken the average laudatory analyses on patent or proprietary foods, drinks, or medicine. The manufacturer calculates—and calculates rightly—that the general public will believe that the published analysis of a particular specimen which had been submitted to the analytical expert by the manufacturer himself, guarantees all the samples on the market to be equally pure. History has repeatedly proved that in 99 cases out of 100 the goods found on the market fall below the quality indicated by the published analyses. Not long ago a case bearing on this matter was tried in court, where samples of cocoa supplied by the wholesale firm were distributed; but, when the retailer tried to sell the bulk of the consignment, he had repeated complaints from his customers that the samples were a very much better article than what he was then supplying. He summoned the wholesale dealer and won his case. But what guarantee have the general public of the quality of any manufacturer's goods—unless the Control System as instituted in Great Britain is accepted and applied ? Inasmuch as any manufacturer who joins the firms under the British Analytical Control thereby undertakes to keep all his samples up to the requisite standard; as his goods thenceforth bear the Control stamp; and as any purchaser can at any time submit a sample bought on the open market to the analytical experts of the British Analytical Control, free of any charge, to ascertain if the sample is up to the published and requisite standard, it is plain that a condition of things is created which not only protects the public from being cheated, but also acts most beneficially for these firms which are not afraid to supply a genuine article. The public are much more willing to buy an absolutely guaranteed article, of which each sample must be kept up to the previous high quality, rather than one which was good while it was being introduced, but as soon as it became well known fell off in quality and continued to live on its reputation alone.

In this section we look at banking in the single market, new directions in financial services marketing, the validity of the 4Ps for services marketing, measuring the marketing culture of a service firm, the erosion of bank margins, Citibank's global consumer banking network, and the pricing of services.

This study aims to address the question of how the unified theory of acceptance and utilization of technology (UTAUT) model explains the use of ICT by medical practitioners in private hospitals in Osun State, Nigeria.

Data were collected from a systematic random sample of 211 medical practitioners in 135 hospitals using a questionnaire.

The respondents were more comfortable with mobile phones than they were with any other technologies. The significance of the relationship between age of respondents and use of ICT reduced with increasing age of respondents higher than 39. Availability of ICTs and the social worlds of the medical practitioners, together with ICT implementation contexts, positively and significantly explained the use of ICT in the hospitals.

An expanded study focusing specifically on how social influence promotes ICT use by medical practitioners in private hospitals in the state will be a necessity.

The medical practitioners seemed to have overcome the challenges of individual and technological factors in using ICT in the hospitals, but not so for implementation context, which explained ICT use, supporting the need for improved community‐hospital relationship.

Information technology use models have been used extensively in various studies in Nigeria, but none have deployed the recent version of the technology acceptance model in the hospital sector.