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There are a number of traditional business strategy theories that have been used to discuss business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commerce strategy: Transaction Cost Economics, Resource‐Based View, Porter’s Market Forces Theory, and Channel Theory. However, there currently exists no comprehensive framework linking these theories into a method to rigorously assess value delivery strategies, and in particular to determine how to maximise the impact of the Internet as a value delivery channel. This paper answers this shortcoming by introducing a framework that draws together the main theories of strategic choice in a systematic fashion. In particular, the paper examines how different ways of delivering the same form of value (rather than particular products) from producer to customer may allow exploitation of the desirable features of the Internet to different degrees. By using a novel distribution business model from a real‐life case study to illustrate this framework, the paper uncovers several novel ways the Internet can enhance B2B strategy. The main contribution of the paper is the development of a formal, semi‐quantitative model of value delivery strategy evaluation, which can be used as a starting point for practical evaluation of strategy choices in particular settings, and also as a theoretical tool for discussing the role of the Internet in B2B e‐commerce in a more rigorous way.

The role of tourism/hospitality industry management in ensuring service quality is now generally regarded as being of considerable importance. Notwithstanding this, relatively little is known about the preconceptions and expectations regarding the management role that potential tourism/hospitality industry employees bring to the workplace. This study has examined the expected problem‐solving styles of hospitality industry management when faced with a complaint about visitor‐staff conflict. The sample was drawn from school leavers in a major district community, many of whom would soon seek employment and careers in the tourism/hospitality industry. Two major problem‐solving styles were identified, one involving Investigation of the complaint, and one involving Avoidance and possibly rudeness. Major Service Quality Ideals were also identified as predictors of each management problem‐solving style. Finally, the implications of these findings for tourism/hospitality industry management and for employees are explored.

IN the progress of a course of lectures on Elementary Bibliography, I found some difficulty in obtaining for my students, a brief and satisfactory list of some of the leading and most typical bibliographies. There are a number of bibliographies of bibliographies published, general and select, but none of them are available in handy form for class purposes. The following list of books on bibliographical subjects, represents the works which I described in detail to my students as representative and useful examples of books about books, and I also exhibited nearly the whole of them, so as to familiarize the students with the physical appearance and contents of the majority of the books. I have reprinted this list through the courtesy of the editor of the Library World, because it has been suggested that it may be useful to many librarians whose stock of bibliography is small, and to assistants who are studying the elements of practical bibliography. The list makes no pretence either to fulness or accuracy, and must be taken for what it really is, a working list of bibliographies prepared as a series of suggestions. Neither sections three or four are more than the barest outlines, but they contain representative books well worth study. I found difficulty in obtaining specimens of some of the older bibliographies like Mattaire, Panzer, Hain, &c., and as these works are becoming very scarce and costly, it will be a matter of impossibility for the municipal libraries to obtain copies either for love or money. Most of the British municipal libraries are poorly equipped with the leading bibliographical works of reference, and but for the kindness of Mr. Thomas Greenwood and others, I should not have been able to borrow for exhibition one half of those I was able to show. This seems to me a strong reason why the library of the Library Association should be equipped with all the necessary books for the study and teaching of bibliography and library economy. Bibliographical works are becoming so scarce, that students who have to work away from the large old established libraries, will find it difficult to make satisfactory progress.

Few developers of school‐based health education programs actively involve the primary and secondary target audience in their program’s development. Kidskin was a sun protection intervention study involving a cohort of 1,776 children recruited from 33 primary schools in Perth, Western Australia. A formative evaluation to develop the Kidskin sun safety classroom and home education program for grades 1 to 4 children and their families was conducted. Process data collected from teachers revealed high levels of satisfaction with the program with the majority agreeing that the activities were developmentally appropriate, effective and enjoyable for students. Mailouts to students’ homes, reinforcing sun safety messages, were used to successfully reach most students and their families during the summer school holidays.

Over the last 20 years we have witnessed the emergence of a large‐scale, world‐wide academic movement concerned with the management of services. This paper charts the role and impact of operations management on this movement and proposes that the current key focus for service academics should be with the application of frameworks and techniques. Also suggests that as the service movement has grown, with increasing overlap between the subjects of operations, marketing and HRM for example, there is a need to “return to roots”. Contends that service academics, in their bid to develop cross‐functional service management material, may have lost, or inadvertently ignored, the strength of their core disciplines. Re‐focusing on the traditional strengths of operations management, such as performance quality, design, and operational improvement, might help provide a greater rigour to the developing subject of service management. Discusses nine areas for service operations research and suggests specific research questions. The topics include linking operational performance to business drivers, performance measurement and operations improvement, service design, service technology, the design of internal networks and managing service capacity.

An examination is conducted of customer dependency followed by an analysis of what can create customer satisfaction. The problems caused for enhancing productivity are then explored in terms of customisation and standardisation, resulting in conclusions about system design to deliver both customer satisfaction and productivity.

BY way of introduction we shall explain that we have used the rather unwieldy term “composite‐engined aeroplane” to define the type of aircraft with which we at Ryan are working. This is one having two power plants of different kinds, which are, in the FR‐1, Fireball, a nine‐cylinder Wright Cyclone engine of 1,820 cubic inches piston displacement and a General Electric 1–16 turbo‐jet engine of 1,600 pounds static thrust.

An examination of the extent to which design principles based on commercial ideas of customer satisfaction and resource productivity are relevant in operating systems where there are multiple customers for the service, or where the customer is dependent on the service provider is carried out. Three types of dependency are identified: benefit‐related, professional and monopolistic. It is argued that, in the case of dependent customers, there are pressures which encourage the use of design principles based on customer satisfaction and resource productivity, but that there is little direct incentive to do so. Where there are multiple customers, identification of what constitutes customer satisfaction is complex, and the application of design principles based on customer satisfaction is difficult. One strategy used to accommodate multiple customer needs, professionally dependent customers, and resource utilisation demands is described. Some design features drawn from this case form the conclusion.

OUR pages continue the discussion on book‐display, about which all has not been said by any means. The ingenious librarian will always sharpen his wits upon the attracting of readers, and the main problem in the matter is merely: what sort of reader is it most desirable to attract? We do not apologise for this reiteration, because it is the fundamental subject now facing librarians. We are not in the least moved by a comment in a contemporary that we are decrying libraries when we assert, and in spite of him we do assert, that fiction issues nearly all over London show a decline. That decline, we repeat, is due to the slight increase in the employment of readers, and to cheap fiction libraries. What the public librarian has to decide is if he shall compete with such libraries or more definitely diverge from them. If a middle course is preferred—as it usually is by Britons—what is that course? Ultimately, is the educated reader to be the standard for whom the library works, or the uneducated? Or, to put it another way, is the librarian in any way responsible for the quality of the books his community reads? Our readers, young and not so young, are invited to help us to answers to these live questions.