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Tries to determine what constitutes quality in higher education. Assesses who are the customers of higher education and what should be measured. Outlines the developments at Sheffield Business School which aim to provide a more satisfying learning experience for students.

The concept of relationship marketing is established in the general management and marketing literature. Almost all of the thinking and practice has emanated exclusively from marketing scholars and practitioners. A contribution towards better understanding the communication issues is presented by re‐considering the nature of managed human communication as a fundamental management function, and a re‐consideration of the social nature and function of human relationships. This requires recognition that the field of public relations also deals with relationships. Some implications for individual managers are identified which do not depend on the scgmentalist functional view of marketing as an economic tool of persuasion. As communication occurs within the context of the communicators' multiplex relationships and relational roles, and these relationships define how to interpret the content of communication episodes, business managers can benefit from awareness of the impact of relationship status on the communication process and of communication events on their relationships.

States that the emerging economic democracy driven by electronically‐mediating communication systems (information sharing technology) is decentralizing the decision process to informed, empowered stakeholders in coalitions over rights and responsibilities. Reports that the modern world is in the throes of creating an information age in which fragmentation, competition and division is giving way to unification and co‐operation as knowledge, technology, and capital flows across the world. Reveals that electronic technology is shifting the critical factor of production from capital to knowledge. The knowledge‐based world has different economic imperatives. Democracy and enterprise have become economically efficient. Information technology provides the communication for the system of complexity which is the knowledge society. Notes that the context of communication is irreversibly changing with the advent of relationships in networked constituencies. The corporate communicator will have to deal with, and be part of, social systems which can balance the opposing forces of community (conformity, belonging, association, and collaboration) and individualism (freedom, co‐operation, conflict, and competition). Corporate communication is a part of this.

An eclectic view of organisational performance is presented and the ability of mass media to influence it is addressed. A number of cases are considered in the light of this including Northampton Healthcare NHS Trust and the American Electric Power system. Comments are presented in relation to a number of organisations including General Motors, The Inland Revenue and Shell UK. Concludes that communication is a core competence activity in performance management.

Management literature is critically examined, and this finds an outmoded conception of human communication that is convenient when power is the central concern, but dysfunctional when constructive decision making is needed. Communication is widely taken to be the transmission of information and the reproduction of intended meanings. This view is premised on ancient classical assumptions of causality and linearity — of absolute and classifying categories, instead of relative and relational categories. Such a basis introduces intentions and causality into our understanding of communication. This reductionist thinking is seen vividly in stimulus‐response models of human influence that do not adequately explain human interaction. The critique examines social constructionist thinking that sees the world as a complex set of interrelated social phenomena constructed by people in interaction, ie in joint social action. A wealth of constructive thinking is discovered in Nordic, Germanic and Eastern sociologies and social philosophies. This is an alternative to the Western psychological perspective that is dominant and misleading in management thinking. Circular (transactional), rather than linear, models are more helpful in understanding human communication and what is required for responsive and responsible management of communication for productive business enterprise. Causal assumptions can be discarded in taking a view of communication in and of corporations (ie ‘corporative communication’) as both stimulator and stabiliser. Social, political and cultural phenomena can be more richly understood, however, if their linguistic and discursive (interactive) nature is addressed with a constructionist perspective on social reality. Communication cannot be understood without reference to knowledge, understanding, information, meaning and sense. A social constructionist theory of communication is a widened framework for the analysis of communication in a complex and holistic fashion.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that provides insights into major environmental and organizational forces underlying greater levels of organizational responsiveness to the environmental sustainability imperative by a growing number of firms, worldwide.

The paper is conceptual in its focus, and the proposed framework builds on extant literature from multiple literature streams.

Societal progress toward environmental sustainability is a shared responsibility of consumers, corporations, and the government at various levels. A potential avenue for societal progress toward environmental sustainability is fostering a macroenvironment that is conducive to the elimination of consumption certain products, reduction in consumption certain other products, and redirection of consumption of still other products from ecologically more harmful to ecologically less harmful substitute products (and relatedly, demand elimination, demand reduction, and demand redirection).

An implication for corporate sustainability responsibility is that firms while planning and formulating strategies for increasing their market footprint must also concurrently plan and formulate strategies for decreasing their environmental footprint. An implication for government sustainability responsibility is that even under conditions of high levels of commitment by a large and growing number of firms and consumers to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviors, in the absence of supporting infrastructure for engaging in such behavior, they may find it necessary to engage in environmentally unsustainable behaviors.

Issues relating to environmental sustainability have been the focus of a large body of recent research in a number of academic disciplines including marketing. A cursory examination of numerous articles published in scholarly journals on issues pertaining to environmental sustainability, and in the business press pertaining to the myriad environmental sustainability initiatives of firms worldwide is indicative of its growing importance.

This paper reviews recent developments in marketing-related sustainable business practices (SBP) that macromarketing scholars have researched and debated for four decades. Such SBPs should be regarded as positive steps toward a future where business does more good than harm in society.

Using the approach of a literature review, this paper highlights the actions of entrepreneurs and firms to implement SBPs resulting from analysis of the interplay between markets, marketing and society. Such analysis is in the tradition of macromarketing scholarship.

The study identifies important developments about an important shift toward adopting SBPs among many firms, as well as among consumers − especially, in developed countries of the world.

The study suggests that taking a macromarketing view offers scholars a broad lens on current complex marketplace phenomena that will prove effective in better understanding sustainability issues.

The results of the study underline the value of macromarketing scholarship through the last four decades. By being daring enough to consider other stakeholders other than marketers and owners of firms, macromarketers have provided scholars a more holistic understanding of business’ role in society.

Today, enlightened practitioners who utilize knowledge from macromarketing scholarship can gain a competitive advantage as they navigate markets increasingly influenced by a wider set of stakeholders. Such influential stakeholders include partner firms, employees, society and local communities, NGOs, media, government, as well as the environment and future generations. Scholars can gain perspective on the phenomena they investigate with such a macromarketing lens.

This paper aims to investigate the conceptualisation of corporate communication management (CCM) and its dimensionality from the practitioners’ perspectives. It proposes to validate an operational definition and dimensions of the CCM construct, which have not been identified in the literature.

The initial concepts are based on academic literature and followed by 12 face-to-face interviews with corporate communication practitioners and consultants from Malaysia to confirm the practicality of each dimension. QSR Nvivo Version 9.0 software is used to analyse the qualitative data. Then, the data are classified through deductive content analysis based on key words or themes.

The diverse perspectives are shown from the practitioners and consultants on the dimensionality of CCM. Most of the interviewees suggest that CCM dimensions include corporate advertising, corporate affairs, investor relations and employee communication within the corporate communication and other departments. They also found the public relations and media relations are clearly under corporate communications manager’s supervision. This research confirms the concept of CCM and its dimensionality to operationalise the CCM construct. The CCM dimensions also offer opportunities for further research to develop the measurement scales.

This research contributes to the clarification on the subject matter by developing clear concepts of the CCM and by offering insights about the role of the CCM dimensions, which help managers to more successfully incorporate the CCM dimension into the corporate management strategy. This paper also examines the concept of CCM and confirms its dimensionality, which helps in developing the CCM measurement for further quantitative research.

The common view of communication is of something that is not really communication. To be effective, communication effort must be seen in its holistic social context, and be managed — planned, co‐ordinated, integrated — and understood. Modern organisational communication, ie interpersonal communication in an organisational setting, must be recognised as a social integrator rather than as a mechanistic management tool. This requires managers to hold a particular concept of interpersonal communication. Evidence of the prevailing concept is provided, a more appropriate view is discussed, and a research agenda is outlined.

A postal survey of directors and managers of corporate communications, communications, public relations, human resource management and marketing was con‐ducted among over 1,000 UK organizations, resulting in the views of over 200 directors and managers being captured and reported. The survey was conducted by members of a UK university research unit which focuses or the development of the emerging field of corporate communications management and the survey was spon‐sored by the UK Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Collates and interprets the data generated in order to explicate a snap‐shot view of the structure, operation, and evolution of the embryonic management field of corporate communications. Researchers recognized that many practitioners are working ahead of any major developments in significant underpinning principles of theory. The needs and possibili‐ties for future development of the field were to be exam‐ined from the results of the study.