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Research has shown that for young adults, marital attitudes (e.g., desire, importance, and expectation) are associated with relationship quality. However, how this association plays out for young adults of color is less known. Additionally, the influence of skin tone perception on the relationship between marital attitudes and relationship quality remains understudied. To explore these associations, the authors examined African American and Latinx young adults (N = 57, M_age = 20.71 years, SD = 1.28; 75.4% female) attending a Midwestern university. Exploratory results indicated that marital expectations were positively associated with relationship quality in that young adults who expected to marry one day, reported greater relationship satisfaction, commitment, and intimacy in their current relationships. Additionally, skin tone perception moderated the association between marital attitudes and relationship quality in two ways (i.e., between expectations and satisfaction and between importance and intimacy). Collectively, findings suggest that differing levels of marital attitudes and skin tone perception contributes to young adults’ perceptions of relationship quality. Considering these psychological factors of attitudes, skin tone perception, and relationship quality, together with systemic racial/ethnic discrimination, the authors discuss future research and practice considerations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which growth-oriented small and micro-businesses (SMBs) are affected by regulations. Case studies from North-West England are used to investigate the relationship between attitudes and responses to regulation and the characteristics of business growth.

This research examines the relationship between regulation and growth using eight case studies of SMBs. The selected cases are proactive in seeking new market opportunities and innovative in terms of product development or business process.

Case studies confirm that owner-managers of SMBs experience high levels of regulatory burden. However, some growth-oriented businesses also recognise the advantages in being proactive in seeking regulatory knowledge. These advantages were particularly prevalent in cases where growth is driven by product innovation in relatively new product markets.

The study is based on a limited number of case studies in one region of England. Even so, interviews facilitate probing to increase understanding of the underlying reasons for attitudes towards regulation. The cases demonstrate that even very small businesses can use regulatory knowledge as a basis for business growth.

The findings suggest that networking in order to engage with regulatory regimes can generate competitive advantages and open up new market opportunities for small businesses.

This research contributes towards the debate on the impact of regulations on the economy at the micro level and in doing so highlights important nuances in the relationship between business growth and the regulatory environment.

Understanding the nature and distribution of influence within buying centres is of critical importance to researchers in organisational buying behaviour (Dawes, Lee, & Dowling, 1998). However, the effects of the Internet on organisational buying behaviour remain rather vague. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effects of the Internet on the distribution of influence within buying centres. In particular, the study aims to identify the changes in levels of influence among key players at each stage of the organisational buying process due to the introduction of the Internet as a means of gathering information. Two groups of companies, representing high-internet-usage and low-internet-usage companies are identified. Results show that there is a significant difference in the distribution of influence within buying centres between the two groups where the level of influence of general managers tend to decline while functional managers tend to enjoy increased levels of influence in high-internet-usage companies.

With the world gradually evolving into a global economy, Africa is playing an increasing role both as a major supplier of commodities and a huge consumer market for products from other parts of the world. Hence, it has become necessary for organisations to understand logistics and supply chain management (SCM) practices in Africa. For organisations that operate in Africa or have business dealings in Africa, it has become a strategic competitive priority to understand the current state of logistics in Africa and identify the challenges and opportunities inherent in the system. Finally, it is essential to learn how to overcome the challenges and maximise the opportunities. This chapter provides a historical and contextual basis for some of the logistics and SCM practices in sub-Saharan Africa. It reviews the current state of logistics management in Africa and identifies the challenges and opportunities that confront anyone interested in doing business in Africa. We reviewed the indigenous management practices that pervade the logistics discipline and highlighted cultural, unique and anecdotal evidence of practices and characteristics peculiar to the African countries. In addition, a comparative analysis of the logistic performance of countries in the region was provided to help readers situate the discussion. We concluded the discussion with some practical suggestions on how to get the best out of the African logistics system.

Purpose – Differential racialization experiences influence ethnic and racial self-identification. This research assesses how ethnic self-identification colors perceptions perceived discrimination and how this in turn influences adolescent depressive symptomatology.

Methodology/Approach – We use the second wave of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) to examine the children of Caribbean immigrants. This research uses descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multivariate analyses to test hypotheses. The primary statistical method used is linear regression with OLS estimators.

Findings – Variations in the depression score exist among the racial/ethnic groups, with those identifying as non-black Antillean experiencing greater depression than the other three groups, and those identifying as white Cuban experiencing the lowest depression levels. The findings also show that some of this association is due to perceived discrimination.

Research Limitations/Implications – Future research should examine the association between discrimination and mental health longitudinally. We did not explore this option due to the lack of availability of relevant variables across multiple waves of the study.

Originality/Value of Paper – The results have implications for better understanding the second generation and elucidate how race and ethnicity shape adolescent perceptions of discrimination, and how these perceptions, in turn, are associated with mental health.

North Kirklees, an urban area in the East of England, known to have a 6.8 per cent incidence of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), embarked on a nurse‐led CHD primary prevention service in order to improve residents' health. This paper seeks to investigate this serice.

Keen to utilise the principles of performance management, the team applied the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model RADAR logic believing that it would strengthen their “results orientation”. This paper investigates the results.

Using RADAR, the team identified baseline data for CHD health indicators. The teams were then equipped to set targets for continuous improvement, thereby increasing their potential to progress local residents' health. The case‐study findings enable others to adopt a similar approach in their pursuit of excellence.

The CHD Primary Prevention team focused only on performance results in the first instance and did not look at other EFQM Excellence Model results areas.

The paper describes an original case study into how nurses applied RADAR, which gives insight into the team's experiences during their 18‐month journey.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the retail store decision criteria of customers in founder member states of the European Union and customers in Central and Eastern European (CEE) accession member states.

Based on the literature review we theorize that significant differences will exist between founder member state customers and CEE accession member customers and that retailers would be wise to forego a standardized retail mix in favour of strategies more precisely adapted to individual national markets. Utilizing a well‐established retail customer decision criteria scale, the authors collected data from 1,221 Eastern and Western EU customers.

It was found that CEE shoppers hold very high expectations of what they desire in a retail store. Indeed, their expectations were higher than those of founder member state customers on 21 of the 22 dimensions measured.

Because of the convenience nature of the data collection method utilized in the current study, future research that examines these two groups might want to employ a more stratified sampling approach across all the countries. Other limitations that provide fertile ground for future studies include specific explorations of the retail decision criteria with more complex measurement scales, which tap each sub construct more thoroughly.

It is apparent that retailers should thoroughly evaluate new target markets, especially when they are distant and unfamiliar and they should pursue country‐adapted strategies when entering the new CEE accession states.

The paper presents some of the first empirical research that examines the diversity of retail preferences across the enlarged EU.