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This biographical sketch aims to describe the life and career of William R. Davidson.

The biographical research used in this study draws upon extensive personal interviews with the subject, on some archival research, and on extensive analysis of the subject's published scholarship.

Davidson fashioned a distinguished career as a scholar, teacher, and consultant in retailing management. The founding mission statement for his consulting firm, Management Horizons, included the ambition to “advance the frontier of knowledge in the distribution industries”. His tremendous success in that endeavour over a period of half a century earned William R. Davidson the recognition as a pioneer in marketing.

This article is adapted with permission from a chapter titled “William R. Davidson (1919-): Mr Retailing”, in Pioneers in Marketing, published in 2012 by Routledge.

The purpose of this paper is to give tribute to William R. Davidson and his pioneering work with Management Horizons, the retail consultancy he cofounded along with numerous contributions he and the firm made to marketing thought and retail knowledge.

The essay relies on the corporate history of Management Horizons as well as other publications.

A more complete picture emerges of Davidson's role in bridging the world of academia with the world of practitioners involved in retailing and wholesaling.

The essay discusses Davidson's contributions to marketing as they relate to Management Horizons. But not all his contributions to marketing and retailing thought are presented.

Real life examples related to marketing thought and retail practices are discussed.

The essay offers a unique review of Davidson's role in the creation of one of the most important retail consultancies of the twentieth century.

The purpose of this article is to review the historical development of William Davidson's Retailing Management book that spanned six editions and 35 years and to evaluate its impact on retailing practice and education during that time period.

A participation-observation approach is used by the author whose personal involvement as a co-author of Davidson's book and as a professional colleague of Davidson provided him with unique insights into the development of retailing management and its impact on the profession of retailing. A critical review of Davidson's book is informed by personal reflections of the author.

The 50 years during which Davidson was an active scholar, consultant and businessman were very dynamic in terms of the changes that took place in the environment of retailing, the practice of retailing and the study of retailing. Throughout this period, the academic discipline of retailing changed a great deal, moving through eight very significant intellectual transitions. Davidson was an important participant and contributor to the advancement of the study of retailing throughout this half-century and led the move through most of these great transitions. This contribution is evident in the evolution of retailing management over its 35-year history.

No such prior review and critical evaluation has been published.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the Conferences on Historical Analysis & Research in Marketing (CHARM) from their inception in 1983 through 2007 focusing on the influence of Stanley C. Hollander, who co‐founded the CHARM conference and whose drive and determination fueled its growth for the first 20 years.

This study uses traditional historical narrative based on personal interviews, archival research, and content analysis of CHARM Proceedings.

The history of CHARM is described and Hollander's role in developing the conference is highlighted.

There is no written history of CHARM. This story is a major part of Hollander's legacy.

This monograph progresses from a consideration of definitional issues to the development of a conceptual model for marketing‐logistics interaction and finally to a discussion of the issues of implementation of the model within the context of marketing strategy. Thus, following an introduction, Part II begins with definition of the field and examines the position of physical distribution in relation to marketing. Part III discusses the relationship of physical distribution and macro‐marketing, and is thus concerned about the social, aggregative goals of logistics systems, including the costs of distribution. Part IV continues this argument, examining specifically the influence of physical distribution on channel structure. Part V then focuses on the assumptions underlying the customer service function, asking how physical distribution can influence final demand in the market place. Part VI presents a conceptual model of marketing‐logistics demand stimulation. The operational issues concerned with its implementation are shown in Part VII; and a summary of the relevant points is presented in Part VIII. The concern has been not with presenting either new computational models nor empirical data but with presenting a new perspective on the marketing‐logistics interface. There is a need to reduce the barriers between these fields and to present more useful ways for co‐operation.

Spotlights the principal emphasis of this study as descriptions of the present state and indicators of change in US channel structure. Follows this by speculating briefly about future trends in this structure and its relevance for UK business. Looks ahead to future developments and makes comparisons with the UK in regard to recent developments in US distribution patterns – particularly changing power relationships between institutions. States that though only UK sources have been available for use here, the trends in the US economy should be able to be described with sufficient detail. Concludes that there are lessons for the UK market in dealing with the USA and these should be used.

The purpose of this article is to describe the life and contributions to the marketing discipline of Theodore N. Beckman whose academic career at the Ohio State University spanned some 50 years.

This research used traditional historical interpretation of rare archival documents, depth interviews of two of Beckman's former students, and analysis of Beckman's published work.

The findings are reported as an intellectual biography. The paper reports on Beckman's life and career as an eminent marketing scholar.

Little biographical research has been published in the marketing discipline and to date only a brief sketch of Beckman was published in the Journal of Marketing in 1965.

Using the supermarket technology in Hong Kong as an example, the article shows that the transference of the retail technology from one market to another is highly dependent on the socio‐cultural environment. In effecting an international transfer a retailer may have to be satisfied with an incomplete transfer, proceed in a gradual, evolutionary process and maintain an adaptive interaction with the environment.

A trend has been developing in the United States towards the use of vertical marketing systems. Of the many types of vertical marketing systems, franchising has become one of the most dominant. This is evidenced, in part, by the nearly one‐third of retail sales in 1973 that were through franchised retailers (US Department of Commerce, 1974). The success of the franchise form of distribution hinges upon franchisors and franchisees both contributing skills and resources, frequently however franchisees and franchisors become dissatisfied with the other's contributions and actions. This dis‐satisfaction in some cases leads to substantial friction. Although it is not clear that conflict (friction) will always decrease channel efficiency it is probably safe to assume that continued conflict would be dysfunctional in a franchise channel. It is therefore the purpose of this article to discuss and empirically test several propositions about the franchisee's satisfaction with his franchisor.