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Trade shows have played a prominent role in the corporate communication mix for many years. Enterprises use these multifunctional communication platforms to pursue a wide variety of objectives. The purpose of this paper is to, on the one hand, to examine the extent to which trade shows are suitable as an instrument of live communication to meet specific communication objectives during the customer relationship cycle. On the other hand, it examines the way in which these objectives interrelate with each other.

Telephone surveys of around 400 marketing decision‐makers have been conducted every year since 2004. For analysing the data, bi‐variate longitudinal comparisons with t‐tests on significance were used as well as a correlation analysis with Spearman's Rho.

The results indicate that trade shows are suitable primarily as an instrument to nurture confidence in brands and to sustain customer loyalty, but less as an instrument to increase awareness levels. To improve the effectiveness of trade shows, complementary objectives should be targeted simultaneously.

The results can help marketing managers and exhibitors to combine all customer channels efficiently and fine‐tune the allocation of marketing resources in order to optimise “customer transfer” through every phase in the customer relationship cycle.

Though trade shows are widely acknowledged to be a valid multifunctional communication platform to pursue a wide variety of objectives, this paper is the first one to theoretically and practically address and analyse possible relationships which might occur between multiple communication objectives.

This paper aims to explore key factors that will shape the future of trade shows as a marketing instrument until the year 2020. Using multi‐stage scenario analysis, the paper seeks to provide a background for the discussion of strategic decisions made by trade show companies when they respond to the challenges ahead.

The underlying research draws on scenario analysis involving experts who represent exhibitors and trade show organisers. In total, 50 leading executives were involved. The majority of them are located in Germany, but they are exposed to the international trade show business. The probability that the identified scenarios will materialise was assessed using a representative survey of 400 German managers of exhibiting companies.

Within the study, three distinct scenarios were identified. Each scenario shows a different level of importance for trade shows as a marketing tool in the future. None of the scenarios predicts that trade shows will be completely replaced by other means, but all of the scenarios forecast a highly competitive market for trade show organisers.

The paper evaluates the trade show itself as a marketing instrument rather than predicting the development of the global trade show industry. As projections are determined by the characteristics of trade shows themselves, the results can add to the discussion of strategic decisions globally, even though the scenario study predominantly involved German experts.

The research provides practitioners with a list of important factors that influence the performance of exhibitors and trade show organisers and hence insights into the future of trade shows as a marketing instrument.

The paper provides a useful multidimensional perspective on what the future may hold for trade shows.

This study aims to explore an exemplar of the design and application of a systemic framework for higher education. The field of application is in the social sciences and the perspective long-term, covering three generations of faculty and many generations of students.

This study is exploratory. It contains a conceptual component and an empirical component with a long-term case study from a European university.

A cybersystemic approach to higher education has been shown, at the focal university, to be a powerful amplifier of individual and institutional capabilities, and it still has great potential. The crucial prerequisite is that the approach is virtuously designed and implemented.

A case study ranging over 50 years is presented. The respective university has been a role model for other educational institutions for many years. Its influence in the German-speaking countries, and more recently also internationally, has become significant.

Health service quality is an important determinant for health service satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate requirements of e‐health services and to develop a measurement model to analyze the construct of “perceived e‐health service quality.”

The paper adapts the C‐OAR‐SE procedure for scale development by Rossiter. The focal aspect is the “physician‐patient relationship” which forms the core dyad in the healthcare service provision. Several in‐depth interviews were conducted in Switzerland; first with six patients (as raters), followed by two experts of the healthcare system (as judges). Based on the results and an extensive literature research, the classification of object and attributes is developed for this model.

The construct e‐health service quality can be described as an abstract formative object and is operationalized with 13 items: accessibility, competence, information, usability/user friendliness, security, system integration, trust, individualization, empathy, ethical conduct, degree of performance, reliability, and ability to respond.

Limitations include the number of interviews with patients and experts as well as critical issues associated with C‐OAR‐SE. More empirical research is needed to confirm the quality indicators of e‐health services.

Health care providers can utilize the results for the evaluation of their service quality. Practitioners can use the hierarchical structure to measure service quality at different levels. The model provides a diagnostic tool to identify poor and/or excellent performance with regard to the e‐service delivery.

The paper contributes to knowledge with regard to the measurement of e‐health quality and improves the understanding of how customers evaluate the quality of e‐health services.