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Examines the relationship between competitive strategy and firm size in the UK estate agency industry, by presenting evidence from a recent empirical study of the industry in South West England. The analysis indicates that the industry is generally characterised by differentiation strategies rather than price competition and suggests that this may be attributable to a relative lack of economies of scale and the localised nature of the market. However, different types of firm place a greater emphasis upon different strategic positions. Suggests that small firms wishing to establish a long‐term position in a market in which larger firms are operating need to assess both the market environment and the market position of their rivals if they are to discover particular market niches in which they can develop competitive advantage.

This study aims to investigate how attributes associated with local food (intrinsic product quality; local support) motivate purchase behaviour. Previous research assumes heterogeneity in consumer motivation, but this has never been formally assessed. As such, the influence of local food attributes in motivating product use is integrated into a model in which consumer values and personal characteristics/situational variables are specified as moderators.

Eight hypotheses are tested using data collected from a quota sample of respondents recruited via an online panel of 1,223 shoppers. A three-stage analysis is used using structural equation modelling. Moderation effects are tested using both latent interactions and multiple-group analysis.

Shoppers purchase local food more frequently as a consequence of local support rather than intrinsic product quality. Unpicking these relationships reveal that local support has an amplified effect when local identity is higher, and when the shopper is either female or of an older age (55 years plus). Surprisingly, the influence of intrinsic product quality is equivalent by gender, age and location (rural/urban).

Marketers promoting locally produced foods should focus on both the intrinsic attributes of local food as well as the role it plays within the local community. The latter is more likely to be successful with communications aimed at women and older consumers.

With previous studies focusing on how local food attributes influence favourable consumer behaviours, the current study unpicks these relationships by examining heterogeneity in responses. This is the first study to concurrently use attributes, values and personal characteristics/situational variables in explaining shopping behaviour for local food.

This study aims to investigate the way in which small retailer performance is influenced by strategy at different levels. It also aims to propose that business level strategy is more important to success than functional level strategy in small retail firms, as this is what enables them to distinguish their business from competitors and effectively set about competing in their markets.

Data were collected from a mail survey of 305 independent retailers in the UK. Multivariate statistical methods were used to develop appropriate variables and explore the relationships between level of strategy and performance.

The results indicate that business level strategy variables have a significant influence on performance whereas functional levels do not when their combined effects are analysed using hierarchical regression modelling.

The caveats normally associated with survey methods apply, as do those related to the use of cross‐sectional, self‐report, and managerial perceptions data. Implications for retail strategy theory and small retailers' performance are addressed.

The importance of business level strategy generally and its specific elements are considered with a view to providing guidance to management decision makers and policy advisors.

Reliable measures for retail strategy variables are developed in the paper. The research distinguishes the performance effects of retail business strategy from retail functional strategy and supports the view that business strategy decisions are superior in their market significance over operational retail mix decisions.

Despite growing awareness of ethical and social responsibility (E&SR) issues in academia and industry, investigation of their influence on consumers' buying decisions has been limited. To help fill this gap, this paper reports the findings of a preliminary investigation to establish the key E&SR factors affecting grocery shopping behaviour.

The study drew upon existing literature in the areas of ethics, social responsibility, shopping and store image to identify the individual elements of E&SR. An exploratory qualitative study of E&SR consumers (E&SRC) was then conducted, using seven focus groups, and a typology of key factors of concern to these consumers was derived from analysis.

The findings identify seven core categories, containing seventy‐one sub‐categories. These interlink to form three main clusters: food quality and safety, human rights and ethical trading, and environmental (green) issues. Shoppers trade off these E&SR factors against standard retail purchasing factors, in particular convenience, price and merchandise range when deciding which shops to use and what products to buy.

The typology derived from this exploratory research may be used alongside conventional store image factors in future research, to help predict those factors that influence purchasing behaviour. Similarly, it may assist brand and retail managers in profiling, and meeting the needs of, E&SRC.

The research distinguishes differences in how shopper types vary in their behaviour, and proposes a set of implications for managers of the research and areas for further investigation.

Measuring service quality in higher education is increasingly important for attracting and retaining tuition‐based revenues. Nonetheless, whilst undergraduates have received substantial academic exposure, postgraduate‐based research has been scant. Consequently, the objectives of this paper are threefold: first, to identify the service factors used by postgraduates in their quality evaluations. Second, to analyse the appropriateness of importance‐performance analysis (IPA) in the measurement of service quality and, final, to provide a working example of IPA's application in a UK‐based university.

Convergent interviews were used to elicit attributes of service that were deemed important by taught postgraduate students. These findings were then tested using an online survey. Exploratory factor analysis was used to group the service attributes into latent “service factors”. Each service factor was then tested for service quality using Martilla and James's IPA technique.

About 20 service attributes were educed from the qualitative stage. From these, four service factors emerged; being, academic, leisure, industry links and cost. Using IPA in a UK university, the findings suggest that the “academic” and “industry links” aspects of service quality are the most critical to postgraduates. The paper's conclusions suggest that IPA is an appropriate tool for measuring service quality in postgraduate education.

Through the application of the IPA framework presented in this research, practitioners can successfully identify areas of service priority and thus allocate appropriate resources to encourage continuous service improvement.

This research provides a valuable insight into the service quality needs of the UK postgraduate segment and also a potential conceptual framework for policy makers to use when evaluating their service delivery.

Building operation and maintenance (O&M) service, which embraces a wide range of specialist trades, has been increasingly outsourced through discrete contracts. This paper aims to study the issues critical to outsourced O&M contracts for commercial buildings.

The paper takes a transaction cost approach to analyse the findings from face‐to‐face interviews with 22 O&M practitioners in Hong Kong.

The analysis revealed that they practitioners generally had limited understanding about the concepts of contract. Lacking a standard form for O&M contracts, some contracts were formed rather loosely and irregularities in contract conditions are common. Disputes frequently arise from the scope of work although the practitioners considered well defined work scope is paramount to a successful contract.

Besides the need to study how to improve practitioners' knowledge about O&M service contracts, further studies are required to investigate which or which combination of the contract concepts would be suitable for particular types of O&M contracts where their scale and complexity are dependent on the trade of work required to serve the building.

This paper uncovers a number of contractual issues that are critical to the performance of outsourced O&M service for commercial buildings.

This study aims to examine the effects of environmental knowledge, healthy food and healthy way of life of on young consumer ecological behaviour. The influence of control variables (i.e. gender and age) on young consumers’ ecological behaviour is also investigated.

The research used a hierarchical regressions for data analysis across a sample of 200 young respondents that practising ecological behaviour such as recycling, buying green products, etc. Their participation is purely voluntary.

Empirical analysis via hierarchical regressions confirmed that a healthy way of life and environmental knowledge jointly influenced young consumer ecological behaviour. Demographic profiles such as gender and age showed contradictory results.

Respondents were randomly drawn from the students in a public higher learning institution in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia that practising ecological behaviour such as recycling, buying green products, etc. Thus, may not represent the entire population of Malaysia.

This research should contribute significantly to manufacturers, retailers and marketers in boosting young consumer ecological behaviour and environmental knowledge by promoting positive perceptions towards organic products and quality for increased green product market sustainability and acceptance which is helpful for better market segmentation, targeting and positioning of green products that are not harmful to the environment and could promote consumer demands.

The results of this study offer a new forward motion to the findings of prior studies on young consumer ecological behaviour, which is not much covered in the literature in Malaysia context by examining the effects of environmental knowledge, healthy food and healthy way of life on young consumer ecological behaviour, within the Malaysian context.