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Professional service organizations are finding themselves increasingly involved with marketing in order to develop and maintain relationships with their clients. Restricted by professional standards, and hindered by a lack of experience, firms are struggling to understand marketing and implement marketing programs. Nowhere is this struggle more evident that in the accounting profession, where firms are regulated by professional standards and guidelines. Based on a series of one‐on‐one interviews with accounting professionals, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants standards and guidelines, and information from both practitioner and academic literature, this research identifies the extent to which firms are following the prescriptive advice. Discussions of initiatives are provided as guidelines for further implementation of marketing strategies in the accounting profession and other professional service firms that are following in the accountants’ footsteps.

This study of professional accounting firm clients identifies a set of common expectations, examines the opportunities to exceed expectations, and considers the potential of exceeding expectations and “delighting” clients.

Using a subsample of accounting firm clients, common activities and behaviors thought to have the greatest potential for delivering exceptional service were identified. Two larger samples of business clients in the US Midwest were interviewed and they rated their accounting service provider on eight activities and then described an outstanding service encounter.

Descriptive statistics showed that the strongest service expectations involve meeting deadlines, relating well to the client's employees, being available, and being knowledgeable about the client's firm and industry. The content analysis of the open‐ended question identified competency and expertise as areas where expectations were exceeded. Comments identified a few instances of client “delight.”

Sample size and the focus on one industry was a limitation. Given the competitive nature of professional services today, more studies from a variety of service providers in multiple settings (domestic and foreign) need to be conducted to assess whether other service providers exceed expectations and how they delight their clients to keep their loyalty.

The results indicate that service providers are meeting and exceeding client expectations, but may stop short of delighting them. The study found that there is no one way to create delight. Service providers need to know what causes client problems and listen to their desires, so that these clues can provide direction as to ways to create delight through cost‐effective endeavors.

For the past several decades women have been moving into the United States workforce in greater numbers and they have been gaining access to the types of jobs that were, traditionally, performed exclusively by men. Despite this progress, they are still having difficulty penetrating the so‐called “glass ceiling” into upper management positions (Alimo‐Metcalfe 1993; Tavakolian 1993). Many reasons have been advanced, but the most compelling of these concerns the “glass walls” that support the “glass ceiling”. The “glass walls” refer to those invisible barriers that limit the ability of women and minorities to gain access to the type of job that would place them in a position to break through the “glass ceiling” (Townsend 1996). If women are to gain parity with men in the workforce, they need to succeed in the positions that lie inside the “glass walls” that will enable them to rise through the “glass ceiling” to upper management.

Maintains that women in the USA have much more leadership chances, less harassment and more respect from subordinates than Japanese women (who live in a male‐dominated world), who are reluctant to make decisions or take risks without consultations. Observes that women from Taiwan seem to have a much more transactional leadership style – taking risks and making rapid decisions. Discusses, in great detail, using extensive research via a multiple‐item scale to measure each item and lays out the results using figures and tables with great detail. Concludes with full results of the study and what they mean.

To date, research on sponsorship in general, and sport sponsorship in particular, has focused on sponsorship effects (Business-to-Consumer) and the managerial uses of sponsorship. This paper addresses a gap in the sport sponsorship literature by examining sport sponsorship from a Business-to-Business (B2B) perspective, and the use of sport sponsorship as a Critical Sales Event to help the B2B sales force move customers through the relationship life cycle stages proposed by Dwyer, Shurr and Oh (1987). The authors propose and discuss a framework for implementing Critical Sales Events into the relationship marketing life cycle using sport sponsorship; discuss how sport sponsorship can impact buyer-seller relations at pertinent stages of the life cycle; and provide recommendations for future research.

Consider, judge, believe, exercise the mind to make a decision, focus attention, and be capable of conscious thought. All good, solid, reliable words or phrases which any business organization would want in its lexicon, whether to encourage employees to be conscious of their responsibilities or to persuade customers that they will be dealing with a company who cares for quality. And they’re all a definition of the word “think”. What a pity, it must have crossed some entrepreneur’s mind, that you have to share this useful word with the entire English‐speaking world and you can’t patent it for your own exclusive use. Of course you can use it in a brand name, or a slogan, or an advertising strategy and maybe make a common and humble five‐letter word a multi‐million dollar asset.