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The authors explore the nature of commitment, job satisfaction and job characteristics, and the nature of the interrelationships among these variables concerning expatriate employees in Saudi Arabia. An examination of a sample of 504 expatriate employees reveals that these employees are, by and large, indifferent with respect to their perceptions of commitment, job satisfaction, and job characteristics. In addition, the results provide strong support for (1) the influence of job satisfaction on commitment, (2) the influence of job variety on commitment, and (3) the influence of job autonomy, identity, and feedback on job satisfaction.

Discusses the perceived gap between theory and practice in the discipline of marketing. Asserts that the gap between the worlds of academia and practice is increasing and this is due to marketing academics not really being interested in its practice. Considers that many view marketing as a means of undertaking research in areas of their own theoretical interest.

Recently many EC countries have expressed an increasing interest in the development of strong trading companies (TCs) which will assist in the growth of national exports. However, a lack of clear direction for the envisaged TCs′ development has been observed. Attempts to identify the mechanisms by which TCs change their structure and strategies. A set of internal and external factors which influence TCs′ development and change has been identified and combined in a comprehensive conceptual framework. Both institutional and competitive (market) approaches are included. Based on this theoretical framework the direction of European TCs′ development route across a number of possible dimensions is explored. The research involved a sample of large EC TCs and a sample of EC environmental agents which were found to influence directly or indirectly TCs′ development.

To examine the lessons that may be learned by both academics and practitioners from a dispassionate review of the history of the marketing profession.

One of the founding fathers of marketing as a subject for academic study in the UK thinks aloud about what he has observed during more than 30 years in a leading UK business school.

The conclusion is that marketing academics exhibit one negative feature of scholarship: failure to take the historical perspective. A mutated variety of the notorious “marketing myopia” causes them to disregard anything written in what they regard as the distant past, and, therefore, to fail to see the larger picture.

Academic researchers in marketing need to look for more basic principles and better rules of thumb, rather than esoteric irrrelevances fit only to grace the pages of the Journal of Obscurity.

If academics thus take a narrow and currently fashionable view, future marketing strategists, at present their students in graduate business schools, will in all probability do likewise.

A “viewpoint” from a privileged vantage point on the high ground.

A recent focus of attention in the new product development literature has been the need to quicken the process of development in order to decrease “time‐to‐market”. Various amendments to the traditional activity‐stage models have been proposed, but few deal directly with the key aspect of speedier time to market, namely cross‐functional information management and horizontal management of the new product development process. Expands this argument and proposes “multiple convergent processing” as an appropriate conceptual framework in which to view new product development tasks. The anatomy of multiple convergent processing is examined in greater detail, showing how its focus on interaction among several parties and information exchange is an appropriate manner in which to encourage both the necessary technical and marketing inputs to the NPD process and the speed necessary for successful competitive new products. Finally, key elements of network analysis are proposed as an effective conceptual framework in which to study new product development.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the factors influencing wine consumption in Turkey. Since a wine consumption culture is a recent development in Turkey, there is a need to examine consumer factors that affect wine consumption to better understand consumers’ buying processes.

This study presents the findings of a field study conducted in Izmir which has the highest alcohol consumption per capita in Turkey. A sample of 431 wine consumers is used to identify the factors influencing consumers’ behaviour on wine consumption.

The wine market has been blooming in Turkey in recent years. Wine consumption is influenced by cultural, demographic, consumer attitudes, consumption habits as well as other different factors. A number of socio‐economic and demographic consumer characteristics indicate that these factors influence wine consumption and consumers’ preferences. The study offers important insights into the characteristics of wine consumption and the target market in Turkey.

As an exploratory study, both the scope and the use of convenience samples limit the generalizability of the findings. Further research exploring consumer attitudes to factors such as taste, aroma, certification etc. and a more robust sampling methodology is called for.

This is the first research conducted in Turkey to define the factors influencing wine consumption and provides useful insights into the topic as well as a basis for future studies.

The ability to predict future demand is a need that businesses work towards irrespective of their size. Creating a favourable competitive stance for firm’s output is also a crucial goal of businesses. These two goals are of particular importance for enterprises operating in an environment characterised by rapid changes, shortened lead‐times, and exponential innovative activities. This study aims to elaborate on branding as a marketing principle relevant to the entrepreneurial quest for stimulating demand and creating competitive advantage. It also aims to highlight the appropriateness of branding to SME practices and to identify relevant guidelines that SMEs could follow in building a successful brand.

This study empirically explores one of the important channel issues – the relationship between various channel support given to channel partners and the perceived (by managers) goal‐orientation of a firm. Results from an emerging market, India, indicate that perceived orientation towards both profitability and market share is not associated with any of the channel support considered. Growth orientation however is strongly associated with most of the channel support activities – both business (e.g., business advice, pricing and ordering assistance, and personnel training) as well as marketing (advertising support, sales promotional material, and inventory management assistance) oriented activities. In contrast, perceived sales volume orientation is only associated with advertising support and business advice, however, the relationship is negative. These findings have interesting implications for channel management and channel motivation.