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Strategic planning is concerned with defining an organization's philosophy and mission, establishing long‐ and short‐range objectives to achieve that mission, and selecting the strategy to be used in achieving those objectives. As part of this process, developing an organization's philosophy and mission is crucial. Such a statement establishes the values, beliefs, and guidelines for the way the organization conducts its business and determines its relationship with its stakeholders—employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, government, and the public at large.

The negative framing and context of performance has received significant attention in decision research. At the same time, historical success appears to reduce openness to radical learning and the exploration of new, alternative approaches. This study elicited individuals’ implicit paradigms within a historically successful, progressive decision situation. Individuals, given the opportunity to re‐allocate time, gave more time to below performing ventures and took time away from above performing ventures. “Illusion of control” and “satisficing” theories were used to explain the individuals’ implicit paradigms.

In this paper we present a model that shows how ability, efficacy, motivation and desirability affect performance in the task of recognizing new environmental opportunities. Drawing on decades of research, ranging from Bandura’s landmark studies of self‐efficacy to Lindsley et al. model of efficacy‐performance spirals, we provide a series of propositions for future research and identify a range of practices for achieving increased performance through enhanced ability, efficacy, motivation and desirability.

This paper explores the advertising strategy of crockery importers and dealers in relationship to their origins and backgrounds. This is a departure from earlier ceramic-history literature which tended to focus on the Staffordshire producers, with limited awareness on how the identity of importers and dealers influenced what products were sold, and their individual approaches to marketing.

Within a context of historical marketing research, this paper analyses newspaper advertising and commentary. It combines an examination of marketing practices with a wider consideration of the cultural identities of ceramic importers and dealers. The digitalization of historical records, combined with sophisticated search engines, makes it more feasible to examine a broader range of sources. Thus, modern research methods can enhance our understanding of production and demand and reveal how marketing strategy was diverse.

Awareness on how advertising was influenced by the backgrounds and socio-political views of importers and dealers demonstrates ways in which Anglo-American ceramic trade could be far more market-led. More significantly, marketing approaches were not necessarily responding to American demand, but rather that importers could engage in commissioning goods which reflected their own views on politics, religion or slavery.

Examining the advertising of importers demonstrates the complex relationship between production and ceramic demand. This paper opens up debates as to how far the advertising of other merchandise in the USA shows evidence of taking a more individual approach by the 19th century.

The authors welcome the debate hosted by the British Food Journal on the likely size of the outbreak of New Variant CJD, if it is caused by eating BSE‐contaminated beef. We are pleased that there is a substantial measure of agreement between our estimates and those of Ferguson et al., for the most likely number of deaths, even if there is disagreement on the upper bound. We note that our low predictions for vCJD deaths based on vCJD data to the end of 1997 continue to be borne out by figures available at the time of writing, one year later.

The former speaker of the U.S. House, Thomas P. O'Neil, remarked “all politics is local”. We would elaborate upon these wise words by adding “all innovative teaching is local”. As instructors who use interactive distance learning, we stress that successful teaching results when links are established between campuses and local communmities. These partnerships, assisted by modern technology, create advantages for all individuals who participate in projects such as the ones discussed in this article.