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MBA programmes cannot escape changes; they must expand their curriculum to allow future managers to cultivate skills necessary to compete in a highly technical international environment. When managers lack fundamental skills the whole organization suffers. Outlines other changes that need to occur in MBA programmes to arm potential managers with the critical skills needed to guide businesses back to more productive manufacturing growth. Industry and business schools working together can overcome the shortcomings of future management and provide them with the necessary tools to meet successfully the needs of production and operations management.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the fragile link between a medium sized New Zealand wine business and a major overseas supermarket chain, and how a smaller business can survive market disappointments such as reduced supply contracts.

This case study is built on semi‐structured interviews with key informants, previous experiences, observations, documentary and web resources, combined in a process of triangulation to optimize reliability and content validity.

Establishing a successful long distance supply chain for a New Zealand wine does not guarantee long term business success. When that success was threatened by the supermarket reducing its order unilaterally the company concerned responded by restructuring its business operations to overcome a performance gap. A further chain has been developed to another UK based supermarket chain, ASDA, to move bulk wine and significant inroads have been made into the US market place through Total Wine & More, a US distributor/retailer. Long term relationships played key parts in all these developments. Establishing and maintaining customer contact and loyalty through regular interpersonal contact and close monitoring of the supply situation has had a central role.

This is only a single case of a Canterbury, New Zealand, enterprise, but it corroborates Beverland and Lindgreen's research, which examined the evolving patterns of relationships over time among New Zealand wineries, importers, retailers and customers.

This paper highlights the value of investing in and maintaining long term business relationships.

Previous articles have described the establishment of the original chain with Tesco. This one reviews how that chain has been rescued and other chains developed as part of a strategy of not “having all one's eggs in one basket”. The major innovation for this exporter has been gaining satisfactory access to the US market. Together with his UK chains this now provides assured markets for the majority of his production of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, by far the most important New Zealand varietal wine produced.

A brief historical account of women in science is given as introduction to discussion of their present situation in the USA. Factors affecting female achievement and interest in science and in scientific careers include education, socio‐cultural and personal factors. Obstacles and constraints for women during preparation for scientific professions are also described together with myths about women and recent trends. Strategies for increasing their participation are proposed.

To the extent that customer relationships with service providers provide value to service firms suggests that these relationships can be viewed as social capital. This paper seeks to use social capital as a theoretical framework to examine the effect of these relationships on customer loyalty.

Data were collected using an online survey of 342 adult consumers of services.

Results of structural equation modeling analyses indicate that social capital variables explain unique variance in customer responses. The effect of each of the three forms of social capital – structural, cognitive, and relational – are contingent on whether the service is personal (e.g. hairstylist, medical services) or non‐personal (e.g. mechanic, banker).

This research suggests that customer relationships can be viewed as social capital and that the form and content of such relationships are important in terms of influencing customer loyalty.

Managers can build “social capital” by focusing on its three forms – structural, cognitive, and relational social capital. The paper provides prescriptions for such relationship building activities. Such social capital translates into firm value/profits through customer loyalty.

This study uses a theoretical framework from research in social capital to help explain the value of customer relationships with individual service providers to the firm. The idea of social capital is compelling to service managers since it implies that investments in relationship building tactics have real results for firm profitability.

The majority of research in marketing now represents loyalty as a multi‐dimensional construct; however, agreement on whether it has two or three dimensions is lacking, and measurement of these dimensions has been inconsistent. The purpose of this paper is to utilize theory from the psychology literature on interpersonal relationships to provide theoretical guidance for examining the nature of service loyalty and to uncover its dimensionality.

This paper argues for and tests, using survey data from over 300 service customers, a multi‐dimensional conceptualization of loyalty based on theory from the interpersonal psychology literature.

The findings of this research highlight that service loyalty is similar to loyalty in interpersonal relationships, providing further evidence for the notion that service provider‐consumer relationships can approximate friendships or even romantic partnerships in terms of loyalty‐like responses. It also suggests that to identify truly loyal customers firms should, at the very least, measure loyalty‐related outcomes from both dimensions.

The study was limited to consumer‐based services.

This paper identifies several manifestations of loyalty such as altruism, identification, advocacy, willingness to pay more, and strength of preference that are all‐too‐often ignored in commonly used marketing metrics. Viewing service loyalty in the same manner as pro‐relationship behaviors that develop in friendships and romantic relationships shows promise for the understanding of service loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of whether or not there are three distinct targets of commitment in consumers' relationships with their service providers; commitment to the service company, commitment to the individual service provider, and commitment to the individual provider as a friend or acquaintance.

Initial theories regarding targets of commitment in service relationships are developed with reference to the literature in psychology, organizational behavior, and marketing. Exploratory research into the commitment construct in service relationships is conducted using a prototyping approach. The prototyping approach involves the exploration of natural language concepts including the identification of a concept's attributes, and the concept's relationship to other concepts.

The results of the prototyping analysis give us preliminary evidence to suggest that that the three targets of commitment while related, are independent. Each target of commitment has a number of unique and central attributes.

Commitment is an important variable in the study of relationship marketing; however, in most marketing studies, the target of a customer's commitment is not clearly defined, nor have potential differences between various targets of commitment been fully explored. This research highlights the fact that relationship commitment is a multi‐level variable. In addition, this research demonstrates the effectiveness of the prototyping methodology in the exploration of abstract concepts and the relationship between them.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the current status of prison libraries, their role, services and collection in Pakistani context. It also attempts to highlight the main problems faced by selected libraries.

The qualitative research approach was adopted to achieve the study objectives. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews to find out respondents’ views about libraries in prison.

Findings of the study confirmed that inmates’ library queries are mostly related to the legal matters, and it is quite natural. One of the significant services of the Pakistani prison libraries is to help prisoners in their education. The main role of the library caretaker was to educate and offer rehabilitation programs. Unavailability of library space, lack of professional staff, limited collections, poor budgetary situation and censorship issues are the major challenges that Pakistani prison libraries are facing.

The study findings further implicate that open libraries and access to books would promote positivity within society and reduce criminal and immoral acts.

It is the first of its kind and unique study that presents the current situation of prison libraries in the Pakistani context. The study has practical implications for policymakers to give importance to prison libraries in terms of finance, professional staff and the availability of information sources.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

The complexity of customer relationships has been recognized in the relationship marketing literature. Yet, the understanding of how this complexity impacts on the formation and development of different relationship forms is limited. Focusing on the development of customer‐service provider relationships in a financial services context, this paper aims to critically examine the nature and formation of business‐to‐consumer service relationships.

Qualitative methods were employed, with in‐depth interviews undertaken with a sample of UK bank customers.

The complexity of customer relationships was documented by approaching relationships as multidimensional, dynamic and contextual. A relationship typology based on four key relationship components (trust, commitment, buyer‐seller bonds, and relationship benefits) is proposed. This typology suggests that for a relationship to exist it does not necessarily have to encompass an emotional dimension. Moreover, the paper demonstrates the importance of the fit between customers' relational expectations and their experiences with service providers in developing long‐term committed relationships.

The study was limited to the UK context. The extension of this study to other sectors or financial institutions operating in different regulatory and technological environments needs to be tested.

It is crucial that relationships are viewed as multidimensional, taking into account various relationship components. Since different relationship components influence relationships differently, organisations need to develop different relationship marketing strategies for each consumer segment according to consumers' relational expectations.

Building on preceding research, this paper broadens understanding of the complexity of customer‐firm relationships by presenting insight into the affective element of relationships and highlighting the role of the fit between customers' relational expectations and their experiences in relationship development.