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As a result of several high profile food scares in recent years, the practices of key players in the UK food industry have been called into question on ethical grounds. These practices include a range of operational activities including those concerned with supply chain management which form the focus of this study. This paper utilises an interpretive methodology to examine the buyer‐supplier relationships in the food industry from the perspectives of manufacturing managers and food regulators. The paper utilises the transcripted data from 20 interviews with senior officials from the UK’s food regulation services and from marketing and quality managers working in the food processing and production industry. The study demonstrates the application of interpretive analysis and interview technique to establish the issues concerning the food industry network in the UK today. This is set against Craig Smith’s model of ethical stance and decision making which serves as the backdrop to explicating the respondents’ perspectives on the food industry of the UK. Reveals coercive practices at work in the supply chain and details how this manifests in the lives of regulators and manufacturing managers and in the operations of the companies they work with.

Business is increasingly coming under attack by pressure groups. Many managers, and particularly those in marketing functions, are having to respond to these challenges. Others are at least having to take cognisance of pressure groups. The nature of pressure groups, their role, the different types that may be found and how they operate are considered. Pressure group actions involving business are also discussed, but activity is emphasised. Managers are urged to seek an understanding of pressure groups, especially those groups likely to take an interest in their business.

The article examines the nature of pressure groups, their effect on corporate action and on managers. The importance of seeking an understanding of pressure groups is emphasised. Although pressure groups can be responsible for constraining corporate action, they can also sometimes present business opportunities.

Based on the belief that it is behaviour which constitutes risk rather than procedures, the paper focuses on the awareness of behavioural aspects in risk management techniques and the consequences that arise out of this awareness. It questions the traditional thinking that risk management is predominantly a set of procedures in the control of risk. The paper also considers the part played by public policy in managing risk and changing behaviour. The paper concludes that it is behaviour, and not the set of procedures, which is the risky factor; therefore in risk management there is need to focus on developing human behaviour that is capable of being flexible in an event.

Consumer boycotts are a powerful way to get businesses to change their policies, if rather difficult to harness. The author looks in detail at the position of Barclays Bank in South Africa, and at Nestlé′s marketing of baby milk to the Third World. The author concludes that management should be aware of their social responsibilities not least because of the economic and corporate image damage which can be inflicted by a concerted consumer campaign.

Consumer boycotts may be understood as consumer behaviour, and the concept of consumer sovereignty is identified here as the implicit paradigm for the marketing desciple, this is then applied to illustrate and explain the workings of consumer boycotts which are seen to have two dimensions: degree and domain, information is shown to be important in determining the domain of consumer sovereignty and pressure groups may play an important role in providing this. Three case examples of boycotts support the argument.