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The purpose of this paper is to attempt to trace the origins and early history of the development of the market research practice in India. It covers the period 1955-1975.

A search of key terms in databases such as Google Scholar and ABI-INFORM indicated there was limited data in the public domain on the subject and that the information gleaned was not adequate to trace the birth of the market research practice in India. As there was very little recorded history, the researchers decided to initiate a recording of the history using the available literature, on the reminiscences of the authors and, to a limited extent, contemporaries of the pioneers in the field.

The origins of market research in India can be traced to its supporting role in gauging the efficacy of advertising. Examination of the history of advertising leads to the conclusion that marketing research arrived in India in the decade of the 1950s, initiated by Burmah-Shell’s needs for market research. S. H. Benson (London) Ltd was selected to undertake the pioneering market research that led to the birth of Indian Market Research Service, headed by Krishnaier Parameswaran. Marketing research in India presented numerous challenges (that were overcome) because the operating environment was very different than in advanced countries.

Because of the paucity of information in the literature, this investigation as per the authors’ knowledge represents the first attempt to record the birth and early history of marketing research in India. The recording of history is limited by the fact that many of the early pioneers and collaborators are no longer alive and because of the difficulty in retrieving archival mostly proprietary information.

In determining the future of a practice, it is important to know the history of the practice. It helps determine whether history proceeds in a random manner or whether it proceeds following some discernable patterns. In an area that has been ahistorical, this research identifies the origins of the practice. It is hoped that other researchers build upon this construction of the early history of marketing research in India based on their experiences and knowledge of the pioneering companies and practitioners and using sound historiographical tenets.

How to enter and expand in a newly emerged foreign market is less understood. Should multinational enterprises move fast or slowly? In this study, the authors take China as the context to investigate what factors will lead to a fast expansion strategy in a foreign market. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether fast expansion benefits firms’ performance in a rapidly emerging market.

Based on insights from field interviews, the authors developed a theoretical framework. Then, the authors collected data from surveys of managers of multinational enterprises from Western countries to test their hypothesis. This research context is based on the experience of multinational enterprises in China which opened up to foreign direct investment in 1979.

This study shows that internally, strategic long-term investment goals, top management team commitment and externally switching costs and the growth in the demand market which will push firms to expand fast in the newly emerged China market. Faster pace of expansion benefits the performance of multinational enterprises in a newly emerged market.

Based on the onsite interviews followed by the survey of top managers of multinational enterprises located in China, this study provides a fine-grained analysis of the importance of pace and its key antecedents. Thus, the results provide new insights to decision-makers of multinational enterprises when considering expanding in an emerging market at its early stages of growth.

The effects of acculturation and assimilation are significant parts of consumer research. However, a void exists in cross‐cultural research with a near‐absence of assimilation studies involving country‐of‐origin (CO) images. The current study fills this void by examining the extent of assimilation of host country CO stereotypes. CO stereotypes are examined for immigrants, first generation and more rooted citizens. The results of confirmatory factor analysis of CO perceptions regarding two different products from two different source countries endorse the potential value of assimilation/acculturation as a segmentation dimension. Our findings also indicate that the assimilation process is more gradual than can be expected based on the melting‐pot theory.

Manufacturer price reduction pressure on suppliers is an important contributor to helping a manufacturer maintain a strong competitive position by keeping costs low. The benefits of trusting supplier working relations also help strengthen a manufacturer's competitive position. The purpose of this paper is to determine if manufacturer price reduction pressure and trusting working relations with the pressured suppliers, typically considered to be mutually exclusive, can co‐exist.

A structural equation modeling approach was used to analyze data covering 946 production buying situations involving 279 suppliers and six NA automotive OEMs.

Manufacturer price reduction pressure and trusting working relations with the pressured suppliers, are not mutually exclusive, they can co‐exist.

The research found that it is not the pressure that impacts the manufacturer – supplier relations, but rather it is the manner by which the manufacturer goes about pressuring its suppliers that impacts its supplier working relations. The research, however, does not directly address how a manufacturer can achieve both ends simultaneously.

Manufacturers no longer have to choose between exerting price reduction pressures on suppliers or working to achieve trusting relations with suppliers. They can successfully do both. At the same time, suppliers must recognize that these conditions may occur and when applied simultaneously ultimately benefit both parties.

This research adds to the critically under‐researched B2B pricing processes and pricing impact areas, while helping to influence managerial actions, an area in which academic B2B research is considered to be lacking.

Managing service operations has continued to assume greater importance in most developed economies. This is in view of the ubiquity of service organizations and operations, the associated large workforce, and the substantial contribution of the service sector to the gross domestic product of most of these countries. In order to be successful, it is extremely important for service managers to be able to appraise their activities over time by using pertinent information derived from their customers. This paper demonstrates the use of the importance‐performance analysis framework to assist management of a campus food service organization to improve its services. It also studies the relative effects of implicit and explicit weighting methods on importance ranking as well as the grid‐classification of service quality attributes. Furthermore, analysis of the factor structure of the attributes indicates, like some other reported studies, that the five‐dimensional factor structure postulated for services in the literature was not confirmed for the campus food service scenario studied.

Management writings in the Middle East region are scarce and scattered. This is due to the lack of doctorate programmes offered by educational institutions, the weak links between academia and the business world, limited formal and informal networks, the lack of status given to the field of management by national bodies and the lack of a publication culture. A bibliography of management‐related writings in the Middle East is presented, which includes other functional areas such as marketing, finance and accounting. It aims to draw the students' attention to a variety of sources. In compiling the bibliography a review of the literature in Arabic, English and Turkish was undertaken, followed by a survey of the top officials of academic institutions offering management/commerce, business administration degree programmes in the region.

Selected differences observed among segments of the public in terms of socio‐economic and sociographic characteristics, raise the hope that donors of voluntary contributions can be defined through behaviouristic giving variables, which can be profiled and accessed. Data collected from telephone interviews in Indiana regarding giving behaviour and socio‐economic/sociographic characteristics of the sample, plus individuals' media exposure, suggests that such surveys can isolate segments which are different in their giving orientations, and can aid the targeting of marketing/advertising strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how China’s rapid growth and increasing resource dependence have changed its relationship with India and their respective defense strategies. In particular, we consider China's Belt and Road Initiative, India's “Act East” policy and the strategic and economic value of the Indian Ocean and South China Sea regions.

The authors find no econometric evidence of interactions between China and India’s military spending using a Richardson-Baumol arms race model. Likewise, in a cross-county panel data study of military spending, they find that China’s military spending has no independent effect on military spending in other countries. The authors also show that once wage costs and other sources of military inflation are accounted for, the pattern of real defense spending growth is much less intense than is suggested by nominal data. Nevertheless, they show that China has been undertaking intense military modernization with rapidly rising capital-labor ratios in its defense spending.

The authors find little evidence of a traditional arms race, but also show that China, and to a lesser extent India, have been realigning their military capabilities to these new security risks while maintaining overall military burden on the economy.

Econometric analysis is limited by data availability and is necessarily historical, whereas the security situation is very fluid and may change in the short term.

The paper identifies factors that are likely to influence China and India's attitudes to defense spending in the coming years.

The paper finds that there is not an arms race in the traditional sense but may be an arms race in terms of new technologies and military modernization.

This is a very much underexplored topic in economics. The authors take an interdisciplinary approach showing how economics tools can be used to help understand this important issue in international relations.