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Despite the fact that citrus industry is growing in Pakistan where production is dominated by small-scale citrus growers, no research has been done to evaluate and analyse the marketing channel choice decision-making process of these citrus growers. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing factors affecting decision making of small-size citrus growers in citrus supply chain in Pakistan and also measures and analyses the factors that affect the marketing channel decisions of these small size growers.

A multivariate decision analysis technique, conjoint analysis, was used to analyse and evaluate the major factors affecting marketing channel choice decisions of small-size citrus growers.

It was concluded that among nine very important factors, six factors played a major role in the marketing channel choice decision making. Only three factors namely, “price”, “time of complete fruit picking” and “number of fruit pickings” were considered highly important factors and reflected that citrus growers not only want to secure his payments but also to save their orchards for next season(s).

The research would provide valuable information about citrus grower’s marketing decision-making process and thus would contribute to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of citrus industry in Pakistan.

This analysis would suggest them to make rational decisions and help choosing them the most appropriate combination of different levels of different factors which would increase their profits. This study identifies the most relevant factors and their levels which citrus growers and pre-harvest contractors preferred in citrus marketing channel choice decision making, thus, server as a guideline for the buyer’s to deal with them accordingly. This would improve the efficiency and reduce the transaction cost along the citrus supply chain in Pakistan.

The purpose of this study is twofold. The first is to provide a structured review of the vast amount of outsourcing literature that has accumulated in the past two decades using a decision support framework. The second purpose is to statistically analyze the contents of the studies to identify commonalities as well as gaps, in order to suggest directions for future research.

The contents of more than 200 publications are analyzed using a variety of approaches. A decision support framework is used to first classify whether the studies address outsourcing benefits, risks, motivations or factors. Next, each classification is further described by the type of benefits, risks, etc. Additional relevant contents such as type of organization, and the location of the outsourcing practice are also considered. Multivariate analyses consisting of cross tabulations, chi‐square testing and cluster analysis are used for categorizing the studies with the aim of identifying relationships among the studies which are not apparent when they are considered individually.

A number of trends and relationships are identified. For example, most studies focus on US for‐profit organizations and are typically theoretical, discussing benefits, risks and motivators. On the other hand, the research on outsourcing practices of non‐profit organizations, where objectives for outsourcing are typically politically driven, is found to be scarce. Furthermore, the results of the cluster analysis indicate that the studies can be grouped into six clusters where the five small clusters are characterized by strong relationships with a few variables while the large cluster is characterized by variables that are not addressed in the studies.

Outsourcing has become commonplace in today's businesses. In addition to outsourcing in profit seeking organizations, there is considerable outsourcing effort in governmental and non‐profit organizations also. It is not easy for managers who are exploring outsourcing opportunities for the very first time and academicians who want to build upon existing studies to search the literature to find what they are looking for. This study addresses this difficulty by providing different classifications of the literature based on a variety of research criteria.

This study is a first attempt to organize the outsourcing literature using statistical as well as decision support tools. Using cluster analysis and discriminant analysis to explore the relationships among the contents of the studies is a new approach.

It is important to remain creative when conducting segmentation research, as many different ways to segment a market can exist. Five main bases are discussed: geographic, demographic, psychographic, behaviouristic and image. This is followed by an overview of the main techniques used to establish and verify segments, including automatic interaction detector, conjoint analysis, multidimensional scaling and canonical analysis.

The chapter briefly reviews the eight volumes in my Legend series – organizational buying behavior, consumer behavior, product and new product management, marketing strategy, market segmentation, global marketing, marketing research and modeling, and the future of marketing. In addition, the chapter highlights the three driving forces of much of my research: (a) the real world challenges facing corporations and organizations, (b) the search for new methodological developments, and (c) the continuous challenge of the prevailing marketing concepts and approaches. The chapter concludes with some reflections on the evolution of marketing in the past five decades and my wish list for the discipline and my future activities.

Texas, like more than a dozen other states, offers an annual sales tax holiday. At the state legislative level, the Texas sales tax holiday is intended to provide tax relief to working families timed to coincide with back‐to‐school purchases and to give a boost to brick‐and‐mortar retailers. Focusing on the consumer, this paper presents the results of a 2004 mall‐intercept survey of 710 shoppers concerning the Texas State tax holiday and finds: 1) the holiday is not only incredibly popular, but also very important to the decision to shop; 2) the tax holiday is most important to consumers with household incomes between $10,000 and $40,000 and purchase intentions between $100 and $750; and 3) the customers most motivated by the sales tax holiday to shop assign less importance to product price and more importance to mall location in their shopping decision.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted global supply chains, revealing dreadful gaps and exposing vulnerabilities. Retailers are challenged to tackle risks and organise themselves to fit into the “new normal” scenario. This global outbreak has established a volatile environment for supply chains; it has raised the question of survival in the market, forcing companies to rethink resilient strategies to be adopted for the post-pandemic situation to mitigate the long-term effects of this virus. This study explores the priorities for retail supply chains (RSCs) to align their business operations and strategies for the post-pandemic world.

This study has utilised integrated full consistency model (FUCOM) – best–worst method (BWM) for assessment of RSCs to enhance their business performance irrespective of pandemic disruptions. The FUCOM has been employed to identify the priorities of determinants enhancing business performance, whereas RSC strategies are evaluated using the BWM method.

The current study identifies “Collaboration Efficiency” as the main criterion for accelerating the performance of RSCs in a dynamic social environment. Also, the study concludes that “Order Fulfilment” and “Digital RSCs” are the most appropriate resilient business strategies to mitigate the long-term effects.

Supply-demand balancing is a challenging task at the moment, but highly significant for the future. The pandemic disruptions have placed intense pressure on retailers to deliver products as per consumers' changing behaviours towards the purchase of essentials and other products. Hence, “Order Fulfilment” and “Digital RSCs” should be adopted for meeting customer requirements and to ensure sustainability in the post-pandemic business world.

This work sets out a comprehensive framework which will be helpful for accelerating RSCs performance against pandemic disruption by adopting resilient strategies to mitigate the long-term effects.

The authors draw on psychological reactance theory, collective mental programming, psychological profiles and financial vulnerability experiences to assess the possibility that the pandemic may induce transformative changes in households' behavioral intentions related to financial decisions after the pandemic is over.

Using a unique survey data drawn from four different countries located in North America, Europe, Africa and Latin America, the authors show that the stressful conditions that accompanied the pandemic have instigated a state of financial vulnerability and stimulated instinctual defensive mechanisms among consumers.

The study results indicate that households have intentions to make defensive decisions in spending, consumption, planning and investment. Furthermore, the authors report evidence that personal psychological heterogeneity (as an individual factor) and collective mental programming (as a cultural factor) play a significant role in shaping households' postpandemic financial intentions.

The study findings carry important practical implications. For financial institutions, marketers and financial advisors, the authors’ work implies that individual and collective factors affect people's perception and behavioral intentions in response to financial adversities. For social planners and legislators, the authors’ work shows that they should expect not only short-term but also long-term reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most research on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on households' financial behavior focuses on transitional adjustments made during the pandemic, and little emphasis has been placed on potential postpandemic adjustments. The authors contend that it would be a mistake to analyze the pandemic-induced crisis as a temporary financial hardship.

This paper focuses on the practice of evidence‐based healthcare by doctors, nurses, midwives and the professions allied to medicine in four NHS Trusts in and around London. This qualitative study, based on interviews and self‐efficiency ratings uncovered the extent of evidence based practice between different groups and between acute and community Trusts, the perceived obstacles to the adoption and implementation of EBHC, and throws light on the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for such practice. Five clusters of competencies were identified – personal attributes, interpersonal, self‐management, information management and technical knowledge skills – and these form the basis of a competency framework of measurable criteria to assess proficiency as well as staff training needs which it is hoped will enable NHS Trusts to devise strategies to meet the requirements and challenges of clinical governance from April 1999.

Discusses the model of industrial development, the S‐curve model and the model of technological life cycles. Shows that these three models are based on similar assumptions and are, therefore, closely related. The analysis shows, furthermore, that the models have significant implications for technology management. Finally, analyses the extent to which conventional methods of evaluating technological projects take these implications into account. Subjective evaluation techniques, risk/return analyses as well as portfolio methods are subject to critical appraisal. All in all, it becomes clear that these evaluative tools are, at best, of limited use.