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This paper focuses on the problems inherent in the use of student samples in business research.

The subject is examined through the opinions of prior researchers, and the pros and cons are presented. The issues of internal and external validity are discussed, and the dangers of theory development without proper application are highlighted.

Business researchers are cautioned, especially in the case of scale development and cross-cultural research, to avoid the use of student samples.

While this subject has been the source of debate for many years, business researchers are still regularly using student samples for their research. The dangers are too great to simply be ignored because the price is right.

Uses an upscale female sample to extend previous research on women′s perceptions of their role portrayal in advertising media. Indicates that serious disenchantment with perceived portrayal of women still exists for this important group of consumers. Measures various attitudinal, company image, and purchase intention responses in addition to salient demographic and role orientation variables. Discusses the implications for advertisers using female models in their advertisements.

Compares adult women’s perceptions of sex role portrayals in advertising across demo‐graphically‐diverse samples from the USA, New Zealand, Japan and Thailand. Tests a structural equations model using EQS. The findings indicate that there were varying degrees of criticism across the samples with regard to sex role portrayals, company image and purchase intentions. Finds a significant structural linkage between criticality of role portrayals and company image as well as between company image and purchase intention. Identifies the existence of “feminist consciousness” across the various samples and also examines its impact on perceptions and intentions to purchase. Presents implications for global advertisers.

This paper aims to examine the effect of intercultural accommodation efforts on service quality perceptions among ethnic minority consumers. Specifically, the paper postulates that during an intercultural service encounter, the impact of the service provider’s language and ethnicity on the consumer’s service quality perceptions is moderated by the level of service involvement, consumer acculturation and perceived discrimination, which, in turn, influence purchase intent.

A 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design with an online nationwide consumer panel of Hispanic consumers was conducted where 377 participants were randomly assigned to a series of service encounter scenarios in the banking service context to manipulate accommodation efforts (yes vs no) and the level of involvement with the service (high vs low).

When such language and ethnicity accommodations were offered, highly acculturated minority consumers regarded the service encounter less favorably than low acculturated minority consumers. Moreover, during low-involvement service encounters, intercultural accommodations positively impacted consumer’s service quality perceptions compared to situations involving high-involvement services. Also, minority consumers with perceptions of past discrimination had less favorable evaluations of the service quality than when such perceptions were nonexistent when intercultural accommodation efforts were made by the service provider.

The findings add to the sparse literature that examines the effectiveness of intercultural accommodation and focuses on the combined use of service provider’s language and ethnicity as a means to enhance service quality.

The study delivers cautions for service firms not to generalize the receptivity of intercultural accommodation efforts. Given the increasingly sizable segments of minority customers, this study offers insights for service providers to develop suitable recruitment strategies and training programs when devising effective ethnic targeting strategies.

This research is among the first to explain why the effect of target marketing is not homogenous by expanding the research on intercultural accommodations toward a new context considering service involvement levels among varied minority consumer groups.

Intense competition in higher education in many different countries mandates the need for assessments of customer‐perceived service quality for differentiation purposes. An instrument developed specifically from a business education setting was employed utilizing an importance/performance approach with seven determinant choice criteria groupings. A sample of business students in New Zealand and the mid‐Atlantic region of the USA participated, and some important problems in perceptions were noted. Strategic implications for the universities involved and suggestions for future research are provided

To examine the impact of culture on customer service expectations, specifically, how individualists and collectivists use internal and external sources of information to formulate their service expectations.

The context was the airline industry and the subject pool consisted of experienced consumers. A survey was employed to measure individualism/collectivism, various internal/external information sources, and the functional and technical dimensions of “should” and “will” service expectations. Hypothesized relationships were tested using a structural equations modeling approach.

Both individualists and collectivists relied more on external information sources in formulating their service expectations, gave variable weight to the functional and technical components, and used more realistic “will” expectations to judge service offerings. Internal (external) information sources were relatively more important in forming expectations for collectivists (individualists) than for individualists (collectivists), and “will” (“should”) expectations were more diagnostic for collectivists (individualists) than for individualists (collectivists).

Generalizability of the findings is limited due to the specific industry under study (airlines), the sample (two geographically‐proximate sub‐cultures), and the scope of the cultural variables considered (individualism/collectivism).

Whether managers should leverage the functional and/or technical components of services depends in part on the cultural orientation of their customers. Managers should also recognize that customers’ usage of various information sources in forming service expectations is also, in part, culturally determined.

In this era of globalization, researchers and managers alike need to consider the subtle influences of culture on marketing theories and the formulation of service expectations respectively.

In today’s global economy, increasing numbers of companies are entering the international marketplace. The quality of managerial actions in salesforce hiring and training greatly influences the overall success of the firm. Although most companies attempt to select and train the most appropriate global salespersons, mistakes are difficult to repair and can lead to business failure. Examines selection and training procedures in a global environment, discusses specific problem situations encountered in the field by the authors, and provides guidance to assist sales managers make more successful hiring and training decisions for their worldwide sales team.

Looks at consumer research in Greater China including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Maps out the contributions within this area and guides future research. Examines the state of the art over the 1979‐97 period, with particular emphasis on the topics that have been researched, the extent of the theory development in the field and the methodologies used in conducting research. Uses content analysis to review 75 relevant articles. Suggests that, while a considerable breadth of topics have been researched, there remains much to be done, there is further room for theoretical development in Chinese consumer behaviour studies; and the methodologies used need improvement and further refinement.

This research is the first to examine disruptive marketing, a subset perspective of entrepreneurial marketing, and unintended consequences of marketing in the context of the nonprofit arts sector.

This exploratory research has two components: development of a body of knowledge and conceptual model of disruptive marketing, its predictors, and its intended/unintended consequences based on pertinent literature and input from arts organization executive directors, artistic directors, and marketing managers; and preliminary assessment, with a qualitative study, of the operationalization of disruptive marketing and related factors in arts organizations.

The study categorizes and analyzes qualitative study structured interview responses to outline commonality/lack of commonality among them and provide insight into perceptions of arts organization executive directors.

This initial study inaugurates an academic research stream on the topic of disruptive marketing which has the potential to make a significant contribution to the body of marketing knowledge. Future opportunities include scale development and quantitative testing of the proposed theoretical model, broadening the research scope to include multiple input sources from a wide variety of arts organizations and longitudinal research to assess the model factors over time.

Analyses of both preliminary input from arts organization managers and qualitative study responses of arts organization executive directors indicate significant interest in application of creative and innovative approaches to arts sector marketing‐related situations.

This paper is the first to study perceived scope/characteristics of disruptive marketing and unintended consequences of marketing in the nonprofit arts sector, and it presents results of a qualitative assessment of those topics, including consequences.

Despite the rapid growth and internationalization of services, marketers of services realize that to successfully leverage service quality as a global competitive tool, they first need to correctly identify the antecedents of what the international consumer perceives as service “quality.” This paper aims to examine the differences in perception of service quality dimensions between developed and developing economies.

Parasuraman et al. proposed a framework consisting of ten determinants or dimensions of service quality: reliability, access, understanding of the customer, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, and tangible considerations. The authors propose 14 hypotheses emphasizing differences in the perception of these dimensions between developed and developing economies by linking these with economic and socio‐cultural factors. Extensive survey data are collected in the context of banking services from three countries: USA, India, and the Philippines and statistically tested using multivariate analysis of variance.

Of the 14 hypotheses, 13 were supported (five partially) in that the results for the USA were systematically and significantly different from those for India and the Philippines in the predicted direction.

While almost all of the hypotheses are supported, future research should look at multiple service sectors and include alternative service quality models to further validate this study.

Despite limitations, current results have significant implications for international marketing in service strategy formulation, service development, pricing, communications, and service delivery.

International service managers need to understand the value of environmental differences between countries in terms of economic development and cultural value system and accordingly emphasize the various dimensions of service quality differentially.