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Suggests a list of TQ “giants”, with some notable exceptions (Deming, Taylor), and concludes that Joseph Juran was pre‐eminent among them.

This article examines the essence of the New Age movement: its reservations about the Judaic‐Christian heritage, its pantheistic/monistic orientation, its individualism, its search for the mystical experience, its skepticism of modern science and technology, its openness to androgyny, its ecumenicalism, and its prediction of a new dispensation. The article traces the New Age predecessors and influences: gnosticism, the Catholic potpourri, romanticism, the writings of C.G. Jung, and Theosophy. It speculates that the movement’s influence – given its individualism, skepticism of structure and organization, and hostility toward modern methodology – will be implicit and indirect. Finally, it notes the ambivalence of the core ideology, lending itself to both “progressive” and “non‐progressive” interpretation.

It has been difficult to find actual events for this diary. In the period under review there has been controversy in good measure—over the future of the prices and incomes policy, over advertising, over resale price maintenance in the confectionery industry, over decimal currency—but while marketers have debated, marketing itself has tended to be over‐shadowed by major events elsewhere. The dominant outside influences were the continuation of the ‘freeze’ in prices and incomes and the Government's decision to apply for full membership of the European Economic Community. Interest was, however, provided by the outbreak of a price war in petrol associated with the introduction of a new system of ‘star’ grading, by the Co‐ops embarking upon a period of what promises to be painful re‐organisation, by the follow‐through from the R.T.P. Court's detergent prices decision, and the continuation of the tobacco marketing war. The car industry began to attract attention following the Leyland‐Rover and Rootes‐Chrysler mergers in terms which suggest that major distribution changes are to be expected.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to test whether price and quality have any influence on customer repeat purchase probability. Managers should know the strategic determinants of repeat purchase probability to retain customers.

Primary data were gathered on repeat purchase, price and quality via a survey of 400 customers of two brands in the Business-to-customer (B2C) sector. Then 380 × 4 data points to a logit model were fitted to estimate the effects of price and quality on customer repeat purchase probability.

It was found that price, quality and price × quality influence customer repeat purchase probability substantially. Furthermore, the elasticities of repeat purchase probability to price and quality are quite high in both cases.

Managers should use elasticities to determine how to allocate funds between price and quality to maximize repeat purchase probability.

In view of the complexity of customer repeat buying behavior, this study deals with one aspect or feature of the total process, which does not mean that it has no value. By confirming two strategic determinants of customer repeat purchase probability and suggesting a simple rule of fund allocation, this work definitely adds some research of value to the relevant marketing literature.

Up until 1973 advertising by grocery retailers was not spectacular, but in 1974 it leaped ahead, especially that put out by the big multiples and voluntary groups. Clearly, a realisation of what advertising can do for the retailer has penetrated, if somewhat belatedly. But too many retailers, in their anxiety to emphasise price, fail to put over a sufficiently distinctive image which will make an impact on the housewife.

This comparative study qualitatively explores how linguistic minority immigrants and refugees experienced the 2010–2011 Canterbury and Tohoku disasters, including their coping mechanisms and their perceived vulnerabilities and resilience. The data used for this qualitative analysis was primarily drawn from 28 in-depth interviews with linguistic minority immigrants and refugees and their supporting organization staff conducted in 2015–2016. Additional material was drawn from two publicly available data sets. Immigrants and refugees are typically thought of as being more vulnerable in disasters. However, findings drawn from this research demonstrate the nonlinearity, complexity, and contextuality of social vulnerabilities in disasters, suggesting that they are not necessarily powerless help-seekers in some cases. Using Bourdieu’s capital theory, this study demonstrates how immigrants and refugees were active social agents in these disasters. Consequently, we need to reconceptualize the social vulnerability approach. Some study participants had experiences of going through wars and everyday disasters, which made them more resilient. This is conceptualized here as earned strength, which can be a significant resource in disasters for the socially vulnerable. This chapter hopes to answer some critical questions regarding the social vulnerability approach: how do we incorporate the structure–agency concept, how do we theoretically deal with the contextuality/nonlinearity of social vulnerability in disasters, and how do we conceptualize a research study that can seek more practical and generalizable findings, instead of event-driven and disaster-specific findings?

The purpose of this paper is to focus on organizational flexibility and explore its antecedents, organizational structure, and processes, as proposed by network organization theories. The study also explores the possible moderating effects of power distance (Pd) and cultural diversity.

Using self-report data from three different multinational military exercises and one laboratory experiment, the paper explored the relationships between perceptions of flat organizational structure, decentralized processes, and flexibility. The data from each of these studies were analyzed both separately and together.

The analyses revealed that decentralization had the most consistent relationship to organizational flexibility across each of the four studies. Moreover, when the data were analyzed conjunctively, significant positive relationships between decentralization and flexibility and between flat structure and flexibility were observed. No moderating effects of Pd or cultural diversity were found.

The results suggest that decentralizing processes and creating flatter hierarchies may contribute to achieving higher levels of organizational flexibility in military organizations.

The paper contributes to empirical support for the central theoretical propositions of network organizational literature, including moderating factors that are essential in multinational organizational contexts.

In India, religious beliefs and social values play an important role in the workforce’s perception of work, learning, and human relation. These factors affect how total quality (TQ) should be implemented. This paper attempts to provide insights on what management needs to know about the culture‐related values of India’s workforce. The Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award (RGNQA) is taken as India’s approach to TQ excellence. The approaches suggested for some of the RGNQA criteria are: leaders should hold authority with kindness; there should be careful/calculated planning and ethical practices; consider cultural background for human resource management, team building, and employee training; consider Gandhi’s teachings and selfless service to customers provide security and rewards; and promote harmony and respect for nature.

THE BOUNDARIES have been set now and re‐organisation has come upon the public library world at its set date, approaching, occurring and passing on, like a lunar eclipse.