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Children use various influencing tactics to persuade the parents to comply with their requests. Parents' responses vary from outright denial to total acceptance. A sample of 255 parents selected from the Fiji Islands, Tonga and the Cook Islands were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to measure the effects of children's influence on the parental decision making process. This preliminary investigation suggests that the children in the Pacific Islands have not moved from parent‐centered family environment to the modern, mostly Western, child‐centered family environment. The second part of the research was designed to identify the demonstrated influence tactics used by the children in the island nations. The findings indicate that the children are less demanding and more persuasive in their attempt to obtain parental approval. Details of statistical analysis of the study are given. The implications of the findings for marketing management are also discussed in the paper.

The data were collected from a sample of 266 subjects comprising management students and practitioners in Sydney, Australia. The cognitive moral development stages of the subjects were examined using the defining issue test. Consistent with prior research, age, education, religious affiliation and religious commitment were found to have influenced moral judgement of the respondents. Vocation, gender and the firm ownership did not seem to influence the moral judgement levels. Students and practitioners demonstrated the same level of sensitivity to ethical dilemmas. A comparison of the data with similar findings in the USA revealed a marked difference between the Australian and the US subjects. Implication of the findings and directions for future research are discussed in the paper.

Employee involvement (EI) initiatives have become increasingly popular in Anglo‐Saxon corporations over the past decade, but little is known about their appeal in Asia. A study was conducted in Hong Kong to examine the extent to which businesses were using EI practices. The data was compared with that from a similar study in the USA. The findings indicate wide variations in the operation of EI schemes and their impact on performance. Compared to the USA, the rate of adoption of EI initiatives in Hong Kong is slow and most organizations used EI programs only as morale‐boosters and motivational tools. Although EI was reported to have yielded some positive results in some companies, major obstacles to adoption include short‐term performance pressure, resistant culture and indifferent middle management. On the whole, US corporations are at an advanced stage of realizing the potential of EI programs compared to their Hong Kong counterparts.