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This paper aims to investigate the history and distribution of trade ceramics in Southeast Asia over a thousand-year period stretching from the ninth to the early nineteenth century CE.

The study takes a material culture approach to the writing of marketing history by researching the ceramics trade from the starting point of artifacts and their social context. It draws from literatures on Chinese and Southeast Asian ceramics art history and archaeology. It also is informed by first-hand experience inspecting surviving artifacts in shops, talking to dealers and taking in museum displays.

After a brief historical overview of the ceramics trade in Southeast Asia, the research further explores topics in physical distribution (transportation routes, hubs and local marketplaces and ships, cargo and packing) and product assortments, adaptation and globalization of consumer culture.

The art history and archaeological literatures provide a good overview of the ceramics trade and analysis of surviving material artifacts, but only limited information about distribution and consumption. Many questions remain unanswered.

This study contributes to international business and marketing history by documenting a thousand years of trade among China, mainland and insular Southeast Asia, and a long-standing cultural exchange facilitated by seaborne commerce. It also shares a marketing perspective with the fields of Southeast Asian art history and archaeology. Research in marketing history has neglected this region. To fully understand the development of marketing in the pre-industrial era, accounts from civilizations outside the West must be included.

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.

This paper, a case study, aims to illustrate the application of Six Sigma in a small-scale ceramic manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the empirical application of DMAIC methodology to reduce failure rate at high voltage (HV) testing of one of the most critical products, insulator.

The case study is based on primary data collected from a real-life situation prevailing in the industry. The case study methodology adopted here is at one small-scale unit wherein the authors have applied DMAIC methodology and observed and recorded the improvement results, especially, reduction in failure rate at HV testing of insulator and, thus, increase in Sigma level.

The results found after implementation of the solutions are very significant. The rejection percentage has been reduced from 0.5 to 0.1 percent and consequently the Sigma level has been improved from 4.4 to 5.0.

This success story can be a guiding roadmap for other such industries to successfully implement Six Sigma to improve quality, productivity and profitability.

This case study will serve as one of the resource bases for the industries which have till not implemented Six Sigma and benefited from the same.

Improved quality and productivity leads to better economy. This case will help industries to serve the society with better economy with improved quality and productivity.

Though ceramic industries in India are having enormous potential for growth, majority of them, especially, small and medium industries are either not aware of or not implementing Six Sigma to reap its multidimensional benefits of improving quality, productivity and profitability. This study highlights the benefits reaped by small-scale ceramic manufacturing industry opening up the avenues for its application at other such organizations.

In the above example, India is more productive in both, chemicals as well as ceramics. However, while Bangladesh is thrice as productive domestically in respect to ceramics as compared to chemicals, India is only twice as productive in the same product relative to chemicals. It will be worthwhile for Bangladesh to specialise in the production of ceramics in which it has a comparative advantage and for India to specialise in the production of chemicals. Both countries stand to gain through trade provided that for each unit of chemical Bangladesh imports from India it has to part with less than three units of ceramics to India, while India, too, gains if for each unit of chemical it sells Bangladesh it can get more than two units of ceramics. Thus, when trade takes place, it benefits both parties when the ratio of exchange for each unit of chemicals varies between >2 and <3 units of ceramics. The exact rate of exchange would depend on relative bargaining power of the traders. A value nearer to 3 will indicate larger bargaining power for the Indian exporter, and a value nearer to 2 would indicate greater bargaining power for the Bangladeshi exporter. In general, if the relative gains are higher the lower the elasticity of demand for the product and the greater the value addition to the product. Thus, manufactured products generally fetch better exchange as compared to primary products.

In dealing with such a subject one, quite naturally, does so with one's own industry in mind. In the present case the sounding board is the ceramic industry. Even so, I feel that the notes which follow can be accepted equally in relation to almost, if not all, every other industry. That, being so, raises three points. First, what is a trade section?; is there a need for it?; and, what is its value?

Drum pumps of polypropylene, stainless steel or aluminium offered by Serfilco, as well as in Kynar®for difficult‐to‐pump solutions such as ferric chloride and other etchants, and are completely interchangeable with the standard open motor, the explosion‐proof motor or the air motor.

The more recent history of the National Health Service, especially the Hospital Service, has been in the nature of a lumbering from one crisis to another. From the moment of its inception it has proved far more costly than estimated and over‐administered, but in the early years, it had great promise and was efficient at ward level, which continued until more recent times. As costs increased and administration grew and grew, much of it serving no useful purpose, there appeared to be a need for reorganisation. In 1974, a three‐tier structure was introduced by the establishment of new area health authorities, the primary object of which was to facilitate — and cheapen — decision making; to give the district bodies and personnel easier access to “management”. It coincided with reorganisation of Local Government, which included the transfer of all the personal health services and abolition of the office of medical officer of health. At the time and in looking back, there was very little need for this and reviewing the progress and advances made in local government, medical officers of health who had advocated the transfer, mainly for reasons of their own status, would have achieved this and more by remainining in the local government service; the majority of health visitors appear to have reached the same conclusion. They constitute a profession within themselves and in truth do not have all that much in common with day‐to‐day nursing. The basic training and nursing qualification is most essential, however. It has been said that a person is only as good a health visitor as she is a nurse.

The present paper aims to focus on the Indian influence in the transfer of, the business of and consumer markets for Indian products, specifically, textiles from producers in the South Asian subcontinent to the lands to the east of Bali. This aspect of the influence of Indian products has received some attention in a general but not been sufficiently elucidated with regard to eastern Indonesia.

This paper is based on archival research, as well as secondary data, derived from the published sources on early trade in South Asia and the Indian Ocean world. The study includes data about the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, a Dutch-owned company, and its textile trade history with India and the Indonesian islands with a special focus on Patola textiles. Narratives and accounts provide an understanding of the Patola, including business development and related elite and non-elite consumption.

The paper shows how imported Indian textiles became indigenised in important respects, as shown in legends and myths. A search in the colonial sources demonstrates the role of cloth in gift exchange, alliance brokering and economic network-building in eastern Indonesia, often with important political implications.

The study combines previous research on material culture and textile traditions with archival data from the early colonial period, thus pointing at new ways to understand the socio-economic agency of local societies.

Only mapping the purchase and ownership of trading goods to understand consumption is not enough. One must also regard consumption, both as an expression of taste and desire and as a way to reify a community of people.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) pressures, implementation level of GSCM practices and improvement in performance of the Indian ceramic enterprises. The paper also aims at benchmarking the Indian ceramic enterprises based on enterprise size and market orientation (export activity).

The research is based on the empirical study of Indian ceramic industry. Propositions are developed to study: the impact of GSCM pressures, implementation level of GSCM practices, improvement in GSCM performance, and the effect of GSCM pressures on implementation of practices, and impact of GSCM practices on GSCM performance. Data are collected from Indian ceramic enterprises of different sizes. Exploratory factor analysis is performed to segregate the pressures, practices and performance variables into constructs. Two-step algorithm, with log-likelihood measures of distance and Bayesian information criterion, is used to decide the optimal number of clusters. These clusters are compared and benchmarked according to the enterprise size and export activity.

This study finds that the implementation level of GSCM practices is higher in large- and medium-size enterprises as compared to small-size enterprises. Large- and medium-size enterprises have high impact of mimetic and informative pressures and small enterprises have high impact of coercive pressure (CP). Although the CP is high on small enterprises but due to the limited resources, these enterprises cannot afford to implement GSCM practices. The implementation of GSCM practices results into the improvement of environmental and operational performance but decrease in economic performance.

The findings of this study will suggest the policy maker to encourage the diffusion mechanism through a collaborative partnership with larger enterprises to enhance the implementation level of GSCM practices in small-size enterprises.

The novelty of the paper are: it analyzes and benchmarks GSCM pressures, practice and performance for Indian ceramic enterprises by considering enterprises size and export activities as control variables, and it finds the effect of GSCM pressures on the implementation level of GSCM practices and improvement in enterprise performance for Indian ceramic enterprises.