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When the UK went into the EEC, there was quite a lot of speculation that before long we would be seeing the development of truly multi‐national retailing; Fine Fare and Tesco would stalk across Europe, Hema and Hertie would invade Manchester and Cardiff. It hasn't happened like that. To be sure, Marks & Spencer and Mother‐care have made some successful forays, and from the other side of the Channel, GB‐Inno‐BM has made its appearance over here — in partnership, of course, with Sainsbury. Why hasn't it happened? At a recent conference in London on Pan‐European Consumer Advertising and Marketing, organised by Macfariane Conferences, Roderick White offered some answers. In this slightly edited version of the paper he presented at the conference, Roderick White concludes that genuinely multi‐national retailing seems likely to advance only slowly in Europe. He also takes the view that international retail expansion seems unlikely to develop through the large‐scale spread of retail brands on an internationally integrated basis. And the detail of merchandise policy will remain determinedly national.

Organizational learning (OL) is receiving increasing attention from researchers and practitioners alike. In fact, some have suggested that the only sustainable competitive advantage is a firm's ability to learn faster than its competitors. In spite of OL's promise, the field has been slow to evolve. The primary impediments to the development of OL theory are that inconsistent terminology is used for comparable concepts and that different definitions are used to describe the phenomenon. Furthermore, many theorists have neglected to make explicit their underlying assumptions about the phenomenon. Employing an inductive approach, this review surfaces the implicit and explicit assumptions of OL researchers, identifying three key dimensions that differentiate perspectives: (1) unit of analysis—individual, group, organizational, and inter organizational; (2) cognitive/behavioral emphasis; and (3) the learning‐performance relationship.

In this wide‐ranging article the author is frank in his assessment of the next ten years, and the problems of direction facing the retail trade at the moment. What are the demands of the consumer? What is the challenge of technology? How important is product quality? What about own label? How much choice does the shopper want, what about new product development? And there is the nagging question of diversification. We are presented with many possibilities, much change; Mr White knows that the '80s will be difficult for supplier, retailer and consumer. We should be aware of all the options. And we should know that success today contains the seeds of its own destruction tomorrow. This is an abridged version of a paper presented at the Oyez/IBC Conference “Retailing in the Eighties” in London at the end of March.

How should diversified, multibusiness companies organize to implement the many different business strategies their organizations require? Twenty years ago the answer to this question was relatively straightforward—divisionalize. Once the scope of individual operating units making up a diversified firm became too large and too complex to administer within a single system, most of these firms switched to a more decentralized decision‐making divisional structure.

The paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The paper reveals that time was when “Made in China” labels on some goods sold in the west were a euphemism for “Cheap, badly‐made rubbish”. These days such attitudes reveal a somewhat blinkered attitude towards emerging economies which have come a long way in a relatively short time – and are forging ahead even faster.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

To provide a social‐theoretic framework which explains how e‐commerce affects social conditions, such as availability of information and equality of access to information, influences actors' behavior, shapes e‐commerce business models, and in turn impacts industry structure.

Empirical investigation based on one‐hour interviews with owners/managers of nine vehicle dealerships and six vehicle buyers in a large US metropolitan region. The hermeneutic method of understanding was used, involving a circular process from research design and attentiveness to data, to data collection and interpretation. This circular process exemplified the dialectic relationship between the theoretical framework (derived from Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action) and empirical data, through which interpretation and theoretical explanations grounded in the data emerged.

Demonstrates that e‐commerce gives rise to increasing competition among the dealers, decreasing prices and migration of competition to price, decreasing profitability of the average dealer, and erosion of traditional sources of competitive advantage. Moreover, e‐commerce emancipates and empowers vehicle purchasers while reducing the power of automobile dealers.

The research findings focus on the effects of e‐commerce on the automobile distribution industry. However, one could argue that a number of the findings extend to other retailing‐based industries.

The paper illustrates a research methodology that may be useful to study other e‐commerce applications.

This paper illustrates the application of Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action to studying the effect of e‐commerce.

The paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

According to the theories of renowned English naturalist Charles Darwin, only the strongest species will survive. His sentiments certainly ring true in today's ultra‐competitive business world, where the ability to constantly innovate product offerings and marketing activities can hold the key to success. Brands and organizations that fail will often be unceremoniously swept aside either by established competition or some new kid on the block. It is a sobering thought that only around 20 percent of all new products go on to make the grade and achieve the level of sales predicted. And findings suggest that this figure holds regardless of product category or market. No wonder so many companies take the easy option of making superficial changes to the tried and trusted as a way of minimizing the obvious risks involved. However, simply adding new flavors or varieties is all well and good but such an approach clearly has limited currency in the longer term.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

The most significant event for the School has been the announcement of the creation of the National Centre for Management Research and Development. The Centre is due to open in 1986 and will provide research facilities for up to 20 major projects designed to improve the competitiveness of Canadian business practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the way the message source and presence of positive social cues influence the evaluations (attitude toward the corporate social responsibility (CSR) message and company, and word-of-mouth intention to support the campaign) of the decreased use CSR messages on Facebook.

In the context of Facebook, this study adopted 2 (message source: a CSR message in a sponsored ad format vs a CSR message posted by another Facebook user) × 2 (social cue: highly salient, positive social cues vs no social cues) factorial experimental design.

The main effects of message source types and presence of positive social cues on decreased usage CSR campaigns proved to be effective in generating better consumer responses to the company and campaign.

The findings are expected to advance the CSR literature by offering a detailed understanding of CSR campaigns that discourage consumption of the company’s own product to support a social cause. It is suggested to test the effects with other CSR examples to increase the ability to generalize the results further.

The results suggest campaign strategies on social media for public relations practitioners and corporate managers who work for companies conducting social responsibility campaigns that discourage consumption of their own products.

This study contributes to the CSR literature by examining the concept of CSR campaigns that advocate decreased usage, which has received scant scholarly attention to date.