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The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed and critical look at the evolution of online survey research since Evans and Mathur’s (2005) article on the value of online surveys. At that time, online survey research was in its early stages. Also covered are the present and future states of online research. Many conclusions and recommendations are presented.

The look back focuses on online surveys, strengths and weaknesses of online surveys, the literature on several aspects of online surveys and online survey best practices. The look ahead focuses on emerging survey technologies and methodologies, and new non-survey technologies and methodologies. Conclusions and recommendations are provided.

Online survey research is used more frequently and better accepted by researchers than in 2005. Yet, survey techniques are still regularly transformed by new technologies. Non-survey digital research is also more prominent than in 2005 and can better track actual behavior than surveys can. Hybrid surveys will be widespread in the future.

The paper aims to provide insights for researchers with different levels of online survey experience. And both academics and practitioners should gain insights.

Adhering to a strong ethics code is vital to gain respondents’ trust and to produce valid results.

Conclusions and recommendations are offered in these specific areas: defining concepts, understanding the future role of surveys, developing and implementing surveys and a survey code of ethics. The literature review cites more than 200 sources.

The future of online business education seems quite bright. Three‐fifths of the 1,700 US institutions of higher learning that are engaged in distance education – 55 percent of which offer credit‐bearing business courses – already use some form of Internet‐based technology. Nonetheless, there have been no large‐scale studies of potential online business students in terms of their traits and desires. In this article, the background of distance education is presented. Then, the results of a major survey, involving NPD’s Online Research Panel, are discussed. In all, 2,651 adults participated in the survey, 1,945 of whom indicated some interest in online business education. Eight propositions are tested, relating to demographics, courses versus programs, reasons for enrolling or not enrolling, desired features, customer service expectations, tuition, prestige and value, and institutional attributes.

Many companies are placing greater emphasis today on the marketing of their mature brands. Notes several reasons for that trend persisting well into the future. Little has been written about how companies can more methodically plan and enact marketing strategies for these brands. Addresses the marketing of mature brands by: (1) providing a guide to the key (and sometimes misunderstood) terms involved with branding decisions; (2) describing a continuum comprised of ten strategic alternatives available to firms with mature brands; and (3) presenting recommendations as to when best to apply the various strategic alternatives.

To empirically study the performance of large retailers in terms of the strategic profit model and the retail performance index over time.

This study looks at how well the largest public US retailers performed financially from 1982 to 2001. Several measures are employed, including sales and profit growth, profit margins, asset turnover, return on assets, financial leverage, and return on net worth. The performance of Wal‐Mart is broken out.

As a group, the largest public US retailers have not performed very well across a number of measures. They have not been “high performers.” Wal‐Mart has outperformed other very large retailers for virtually every financial measure. It has been a “high performer” by not losing its edge as it has grown.

Only public retailers were included in the study. Retailers reported financial data using different fiscal years. The federal government converted its data from SIC to NAICS codes during the time frame of the study; the data were converted based on a model from Retail Forward.

As the largest firms seek to heighten their marketplace concentration, they have to be careful not to fall into a growth trap. They need to be more devoted to driving up their financial performance.

The paper reports the results of a comprehensive longitudinal study of the largest public retailers, and focuses on applying two under‐researched retail performance tools: the strategic profit model and the retail performance index.

To provide a thorough analysis of the role of the internet in survey research and to discuss the implications of online surveys becoming such a major force in research.

The paper is divided into four major sections: an analysis of the strengths and potential weaknesses of online surveys; a comparison of online surveys with other survey formats; a discussion on the best uses for online surveys and how their potential weaknesses may be moderated; and an overview of the online survey services being offered by the world's largest research firms.

If conducted properly, online surveys have significant advantages over other formats. However, it is imperative that the potential weaknesses of online surveys be mitigated and that online surveys only be used when appropriate. Outsourcing of online survey functions is growing in popularity.

The paper provides a very useful source of information and impartial advice for any professional who is considering the use of online surveys.

The paper synthesizes the vast literature related to online surveys, presents original material related to survey methodology, and offers a number of recommendations.

Somewhere along the line marketers got off track, especially at the academic level. At its core, the discipline is one of persuasion and influence. Yet the concept of power is conspicuously absent from most works on the nature of the marketing effort. That's a hit like trying to teach skydiving by ignoring gravity. Sometimes the results are also similar, in dealing with policy and strategy. The author provides a brief history of the demise of the power concept in marketing and offers a contextual argument for its inclusion as a central tenet of the discipline's conceptual core.

The article examines business student attitudes in four countries ‐ Norway (n 337), the United States (n 295), Germany (n 109) and Spain (n 137). Certain differences by subsample are presented and then questioned, suggesting tra ditional third variable control to check if bivariate inter‐sample differences “stand” third variable controls by potentially relevant attitude variables.

The concept of institution has been used by scholars from across a number of disciplines to explain a wide variety of phenomena. However, the philosophical roots of this concept have not been well examined, nor have implications for contemporary institutional analysis been fully appreciated. Returning to the works of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty reveals a depth of thinking that has otherwise been overlooked by institutional theorists. In particular, the author’s analysis reveals two critical insights. First, whereas organizational scholars have closely linked the concepts of institution and taken-for-grantedness, these two concepts were originally understood to be phenomenologically distinct. Second, a detailed examination of Merleau-Ponty’s later work poses the concept of flesh – the twining of the visible and the invisible – as the basis for the interplay of institutions. In turn, the idea of flesh as the foundation of institution invites a more radical reimagining of the growing bifurcation between microfoundations and macrofoundations.

Consistent with traditional internationalization theory, we argue that, when a firm chooses franchising to achieve market penetration, market propinquity/similarity matters. Using a modified gravity model, we examine six country characteristics believed to enhance the flow of franchise activity among 39 nations. Our findings support the notion that market propinquity facilitates the flow of franchises between nations. Franchise expansion is greatest when the home and host nations are similar in terms of geography, culture, media availability, and political risk. The management implications of these findings are discussed in detail.