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Business marketers' sales and promotional costs continue to escalate. These marketers face complex problems in identifying and reaching key influencers in targeted prospect organizations. This article links current developments in industrial buying behavior theory and research to the problem of allocating sales and promotional resources. It defines a customer‐driven approach, specifying that marketer actions be linked to the prospect organization's buying activities. Specifically, the phase or stage of the buying process, the makeup of the decision‐making unit over time, and the roles played by buying participants, particularly stakeholders, should all dictate the content, timing, and targeting of sales and promotional efforts. An outline framework for allocating these resources is proposed and an overview of how buying and selling activities interact is presented.

The make‐up, structure, functioning and outputs of multi‐person buying decision‐making units, commonly referred to as “buying centers,” have received substantial attention in the business marketing literature. Although most business buying decisions are non‐static in nature, theorists and researchers have been hard pressed to effectively capture the dynamic nature of business buyers’ decision‐making processes. This paper presents a synthesis of recent buying center research and reports the findings of a study which attempted to capture “process effects” in buying center structure during the buying process. Study findings affirm the widely held belief that buying centers change over time and provide interesting insights regarding how these decision‐making units change in structure and make‐up over time. The resulting implications and caveats of these findings for business marketers are discussed.

The ability of business marketers to monitor, strategically adopt and manage new technologies is an important predictor of long‐term competitiveness. Expanding on recent work this paper develops a framework linking the technical knowledge of a firm’s managers to its ability to gain and hold competitive advantage. This paper presents the proposition that market driven firms with technically knowledgeable managers should be better positioned to gain and hold competitive advantage. Implications for firm strategy are discussed, from both a procurement and marketing perspective.

The ascendancy of the shopping mall as a significant shopping, social interaction and/or entertainment destination has had a major impact on retail strategies and the retail landscape in numerous countries, especially the USA. Shopping malls are not nearly as well established in developing and newly industrialized countries, however. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to assess international consumer behavior in regards to shopping malls in a non‐Western country, specifically, Malaysia.

A survey of Malaysian university students was conducted to assess the mall‐directed shopping habits and shopping orientations of young adults in that country. A total of 132 usable surveys were obtained from five university campuses in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia, a region with a numerous institutions of higher learning.

Malaysian students were motivated to visit malls primarily by the interior design of the mall; products that interested them; opportunities for socializing with friends; and convenient one‐stop shopping. Further analysis showed that younger respondents have more favorable dispositions or shopping orientations towards malls than somewhat older respondents. Post‐secondary students in the Klang Valley of Malaysia were frequent and long‐staying visitors to shopping malls, typically visiting six stores per 2.5 h mall visit. And, more than one‐third of respondents visited three or more different shopping malls during the previous 30 days. Generally, the observed Malaysian shopping behavior was similar to that observed of Western shoppers in prior shopping studies.

The sampling frame for this research was limited to students in the Klang Valley regions in Malaysia. Study findings, although interesting, are clearly not generalizable to all populations of non‐Western consumers or even all Malaysian consumers. The non‐probabilistic convenience sampling methods used in this research due to time and resource constraints may have lead to biases in selection of respondents. It is recommended that future research utilize random sampling methods to ensure the generalizability of results. Future research should also consider a broader demographic profile (not just students) representing multiple geographical locations in Malaysia as well as other countries in the Asia‐pacific region given that consumers' shopping‐related perceptions and expectations are likely to differ across countries or cultures throughout the world.

The data indicated the primacy of certain shopping motives over others in explaining why respondents visited shopping malls. The results of our study have several implications that should be of benefit to the retailing industry, and mall management, specifically.

Given that even modest increases in customer satisfaction and retention typically translate into significant gains in revenues and profits, many businesses are using the Internet to expand their reach, improve customer service and develop and maintain closer relationships with their customers. For example, customer relationship management (CRM) software enables marketers to offer online interactions that are customizable to the individual customer, allowing online marketers to better match their offerings and the online experience to consumers’ needs, wants and preferences, even in markets with millions of prospects and customers. Thus, a successful Web site can be instrumental in its impact on the marketing effectiveness of a firm and significantly add to the bottom line. Yet, in order to determine what constitutes a successful Web site, one must be able to understand how users perceive and utilize it. This paper presents the results of a survey conducted to assess consumer perceptions and preferences for commercial Web sites. To address the paucity of e‐commerce research undertaken in the Asia‐Pacific region, as compared to Western countries, the data were collected in Singapore. The attracting, informing, positioning, and delivering (AIPD) model provided the conceptual foundation for the research. Survey findings reveal that Singaporean consumers have distinct preferences when visiting commercial Web sites, ranking security and privacy as their most valued attributes, for example. In contrast, cross‐marketing, via banner advertising and affiliate programs, were least valued. Many other features of Web sites were evaluated. Managerial and research implications of the study are then discussed.

Although considerable consumer research has focused on family purchase decision‐making in families in Western countries, only limited attention has been paid to family purchase decision‐making within Eastern cultures. This study was designed to explore for the possible differences and similarities in spousal influences in different cultural environments by comparing Singaporean family purchase decision‐making process to that of US families.

Quota sampling was adopted to generate primary data for the examination of Singaporean spousal influence in family purchase decision‐making; data previously reported on US spousal families was used to compare with the primary data collected in Singapore.

Differences in marital values between Singaporean husbands and wives were found to be associated with differences in perceived patterns of influence throughout the family decision‐making process. The findings indicate that family purchase decision‐making is a culture‐specific phenomenon. The study found that the level of egalitarianism, which usually indicates a more syncratic or cooperative family purchase decision‐making, was associated positively with higher levels of education and income.

This study revealed a positive relationship between joint decisions and the level of egalitarianism, however, such evidence is still limited. To depend the understanding of spousal influences in family purchase decision‐making in different cultural environments, future research may need to go beyond demographics to include more cognitive, psychological as well as social environmental factors, such as the involvement level, the time a spouse spent alone for shopping, the love, affection, trust and confidence a spouse would have for or earned from another spouse, the importance a spouse would attach to his or her marriage and family, etc.

The paper offers insight into family purchase decision‐making within Easlern countries.