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A better understanding of the response of shoppers in developing countries to inevitable product stock‐outs would help logisticians to put structures in place to reduce the disruption. The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in orientations that characterize shoppers’ responses to stock‐outs in retailing environments by comparing an emerging economy, Malaysia, with a developed economy, Australia.

Randomly selected adult grocery shoppers across Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were surveyed to examine shoppers’ behavioural response to a most recent stock‐out of their preferred dairy item. This study followed the methodology and reporting framework adopted in an Australian study.

When responding to stock‐outs of their preferred grocery items, shopping lists serve as instruments that give archetypical Malaysian shoppers, unlike their Australian counterparts, a framework to adjust their budgets and seek alternatives within the store itself rather than venture to another store. Most Malaysian shoppers’ reactions to an out‐of‐stock situation, just as their Australian counterparts, appear to be underpinned by their household size. If their preferred item is not available, the frugal and observant among Malaysian shoppers, however, are not inclined as much as their Australian counterparts, to buy more of their alternative choice, even if these substitute items are discounted.

Insight into Malaysian shoppers’ behavioural response to inadequate shelf life of perishable products, considering that they might feel impelled to act as per their shopping lists, would give members of the supply chain confidence to adopt inventory management policies that make a judicious balance between avoiding stock‐outs and ensuring stock availability with acceptable shelf life.

Malaysian frugal and observant shoppers when responding to stock‐outs of their preferred items might allow the opportunity to let a bargain pass on alternative brands or variants, because these shoppers, guided by their shopping lists, are possibly hamstrung, by budgetary constraints in not being able to make heavier purchase outlays and by likely storage constraints in their living accommodation. Retailers in Malaysia have a greater challenge than Australian retailers to dispose of stocks of grocery products that are fast approaching their expiry dates through discounting, because Malaysian shoppers may resist buying more than their immediate need.

Malaysian shoppers, inclined to carry memory scripts to assist them in their shopping efforts, are conditioned to stay within their planned budgets and when confronted with a stock‐out of their preferred item, are likely to resist buying anymore than what they had planned to buy.

The link between population proliferation and environmental degradation continues to be a critical issue in many developing countries. Such a link has dented the development process and produced unpleasant marks on the socio‐economic fabric of the society. These marks are quite distinct to rural and urban regions. Any efforts to rectify the situation first require regional‐wise identification of the problems and the causal socio‐economic factors. Based on this information a sustainable development approach can be formulated, with environmental concerns such as protection of natural resources from depletion and degradation and ensuring an adequate resources base to secure a decent standard of living. Further, implementation of this kind of integrated strategy needs commitment from institutions ranging from local to international level.

The distribution literature provides support for examining product returns from a customer-based perspective. Based on this need, the purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying causes of product returns based on a survey of 308 Wal-Mart and Target customers who engaged in product returns.

Structural equation modelling was used to verify and test the relationships examined.

It was found that dissatisfaction with a product results in an emotional dissonance that is positively related to product returns. Two primary reasons for return were examined, the expectation of the customer not being met and the customer finding a better product or price. Both reasons for return were found to influence the frequency of returns. It is also reported that gender, but not store brand moderated these relationships. Males had higher levels of product dissatisfaction and subsequent emotional dissonance than females. Males however did not have higher rates of return than females.

The research provides new knowledge in the management of retail returns by identifying their underlying causes as well as specific reasons for returns. This knowledge can assist managers in identifying the behavioural influences on product returns and in developing methods to minimize those returns.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the interrelationship between factors conducive to rural tourism development. This touristic segment has enormous potential but still lacks consistent means and measures to ensure rural tourism's holistic development in India.

The study identified 14 factors, of which nine are from the literature review and five are from interaction with the experts, which influence rural tourism development. The research design comprises three segments, i.e. identifying factors from the literature and expert opinion, conducting interviews with the academic experts and managers, and analyzing the responses recorded. Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique is used to determine the interlinkage between the factors and develop a hierarchical relationship.

The results indicate that infrastructure development, growing environmental conscience, support of local government and community, availability of funds with the government and participation of the private sector are the primary factors channelizing rural tourism development. Also, attitudes of locals to adapt, tourist travel motives, marketing of the destination, destination characteristics and recommendation by others are the major dependent factors identified. The findings broaden the knowledge on suitable channels for rural tourism development and provide vital information for the formulation of flexible strategies for developing rural tourism in India.

This paper's originality lies in providing information to clarify the relationships between factors conducive to rural tourism development, an area where limited research has been done.

This paper aims to highlight the imperatives for sustainability marketing (SM) adoption in the emerging markets (EMs), identifies challenges that are encumbering them from adopting SM orientation, and proposes research agenda for better understanding of the construct in the EMs.

The paper draws from literature and experiential knowledge of the author in the EMs to address the objective of the paper.

Pressure from the global market system, incidence of poverty in the EM, and unsupportive local conditions are argued to be inimical to the adoption of SM orientation in the EMs.

Given the heterogeneity of EMs, the conclusions in this paper may apply to various EMs differently. This must be borne in mind when generalizing the conclusions.

This paper emphasizes the urgent need to modify existing public policies in EMs and to equally redirect the attention of organizations and consumers in EMs to foster sustainability behaviour as a strategic choice for development rather than seeing it as an option.

Apart from bringing to light the imperatives and challenges of SM in EM, the paper offers a blueprint that would guide research in this area.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to estimate the export demand equation for China with appropriate specification that incorporates exchange rate in the relative price variable. Design/methodology/approach – Alternative time series techniques such as general to specific and Johansen maximum likelihood are used with annual data from 1974‐2004. The augmented Dicky–Fuller and Elliot–Rothenberg–Stock methods are also employed to test the time series properties of the variables. Findings – The paper confirms that there is a cointegration relationship between real exports, real income and relative prices in China. The long‐run income elasticity is around 1.3 and the relative price elasticity is around −1.5. In addition, the export demand functions are temporally stable in China. Research limitations/implications – The structural breaks and trade shock analysis were ignored because that would have made this paper much longer. Practical implications – The results imply that exports are an engine of growth in China. China's exports are competitive in the international market and it has the option to devalue its currency to promote export earnings. However, the paper argues that in current global economic crises, trade promotion policies such as subsidies, tax exceptions and special credit lines should be encouraged. Originality/value – The paper assesses the magnitudes of export elasticities with a specification that includes exchange rate in relative price variable.

Much work about health reform and systems improvement in healthcare looks at shortcomings and universal problems facing health systems, but rarely are accomplishments dissected and analyzed internationally. The purpose of this paper is to address this knowledge gap by examining the lessons learned from health system reform and improvement efforts in 60 countries.

In total, 60 low-, middle- and high-income countries provided a case study of successful health reform, which was gathered into a compendium as a recently published book. Here, the extensive source material was re-examined through inductive content analysis to derive broad themes of systems change internationally.

Nine themes were identified: improving policy, coverage and governance; enhancing the quality of care; keeping patients safe; regulating standards and accreditation; organizing care at the macro-level; organizing care at the meso- and micro-level; developing workforces and resources; harnessing technology and IT; and making collaboratives and partnerships work.

These themes provide a model of what constitutes successful systems change across a wide sample of health systems, offering a store of knowledge about how reformers and improvement initiators achieve their goals.

Few comparative international studies of health systems include a sufficiently wide selection of low-, middle- and high-income countries in their analysis. This paper provides a more balanced approach to consider where achievements are being made across healthcare, and what we can do to replicate and spread successful examples of systems change internationally.