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White papers are commonly produced by for-profit organizations to market high-tech products and services and are often created by technical writers. But writers of this genre have little evidence-based research to guide them. To fill this void, the authors tested a rhetorical move structure with a sample of 20 top-rated marketing white papers and found that, despite the lack of industry standards for white papers, those written for marketing purposes display similar rhetorical moves: introducing the business problem, occupying the business solution niche, prompting action, establishing credibility, and providing disclaimers or legal considerations. Based on the results of this study, the authors advance guidelines for writers of this genre and suggest areas for future research.

Purpose The purpose of this paper in the editorial review of manuscripts to highlight the emergent aspects of original thinking that provide new perspectives on issues central to management. Design/methodology/approach A synoptic perspective of a very broad range of topics covered in research by scholars is provided: education, corporate value, quality, corporate social responsibility, risk behavior, managing reputation, expatriation, growth and creativity. In this particular review, the editor emphasizes those facets of the paper that shed original, new light on management. Also, the areas where research provides a theoretical basis for consulting or managerial practice are highlighted to illustrate how research can be of practical relevance. Findings Some of the insights gained clearly indicate the importance of research. For example, tighter or more rigorous governmental regulations on food quality are unlikely to contribute to the enhancement of firms’ capability in improving food quality. The government needs to do much more than only regulate. Then, there is empirical reaffirmation that guan-xi with government matters: better the relationships, the higher corporate value but only if the firm is in private hands, not for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Then, the Chinese local firms’ nexus with foreign, and international corporations influences their corporate social performance. Even more fascinating, a bank’s risk behavior is dependent on the structural composition of the board of directors. Indeed, research shows that a gender mix in fact lowers the propensity toward taking a high risk. Then, through reflecting upon their deep researches, the authors derive a theoretic framework for coping with reputation loss following a financial restatement. Here, authors showed SOEs to suffer much more in the event of restatement than the privately owned enterprises. Then, in a piece of innovative research of expatriation, authors relate a spectrum of the Chinese cultural values to performance. In a cross-country (civilization) study, the research motivation is: Whether SMEs in China, India and Pakistan are confronting the same environmental challenges? As expected, the answer would be yes in some aspects and no in others. This a significant finding, as the Chinese are raised on a milieu of suppressing one’s emotions: emotional expressiveness can contribute to creativity! Originality/value In this paper, the editor highlights some aspects on the original thinking of the authors within this issue of Chinese Management Studies. Also, the editor highlights on how research contained herein is contributing to managerial (consulting) practice.

Purpose – This paper examines innovation implementation in the public sector. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the “black box” of implementation of innovations and then answer questions of hindrances and opportunities when it comes to implementing innovative ideas in the public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The specific context in this case is a city organization that received funding from the Delegation for Sustainable Cities to put six innovative ideas into practice in a city district. The data collection methods consisted of interviews and observations of meetings where the implementation phase was discussed. Findings – The findings imply that innovative ideas that seemed best on paper often proved to be difficult to implement. The possibility of funding, for example, provided a reason to think “outside the box”, but the system for presenting the ideas in order to obtain the funding was time consuming. The resulting delay meant that, by the time the applications were evaluated, the submitted ideas were no longer necessarily the best available. The findings also imply that one important role of public organizations in implementing innovations is to facilitate the response by its users, here the inhabitants. Research limitations/implications – When discussing innovations and implementation the time aspects is a limitation, the future might imply other effects than the ones visible here. Practical implications – Public sector managers possibilities of organizing to be more innovative can be discussed. From a management perspective focus might thus be on facilitate the implementation of the innovation, since the demand of the new solutions might be other than expected. Social implications – The users of public sector innovations, here the inhabitants, might demand other things that expected, which highlights the need of an ongoing dialogue between city managers and inhabitants. Originality/value – The methodology of following projects in real time proved to be a unique approach for understanding the ”black box” of implementing innovative ideas. The existing paradoxes of managing public sector organizations are thus illustrated.

Is marketing a management technology, a societal provisioning system, or the study of seller and buyer decision processes in increasingly complex contexts, or could it be repositioned as a discipline within the social sciences? Could repositioning avert the growing fragmentation of marketing scholarship? Would it open up new opportunities for significant research in and between these different ways of seeing our discipline? And would perhaps the right repositioning engage marketing with adjacent social sciences in explorations opening up new fields of research, influencing management choice and public policy in the challenges human communities face at all levels? One possible positioning that offers a positive response to these questions is to assert, “Marketing is the study of value co-creation through voluntary economic choice made in exchanges among individuals and entities in and between human communities.” This positioning includes studies in manager and customer choice, work in societal provisioning systems in communities at any and all levels of development, and the growing interests in culture and communication. Links with anthropology, archaeology, history, sociology and economics are then explored. Drawing on empirical work in marketing and in adjacent disciplines the core elements of a dynamic theory of evolutionary change in exchange networks and marketing systems are identified, providing a possible starting point for an exploration of the marketing response to the difficult and complex challenges faced by human communities across the world.

Higher Education (HE) is becoming highly competitive today and therefore, Institutions of Higher Learning need to look closely at improving their customer service strategies. Consumers in the education sector are now much more aware of what exactly they want; and therefore the demand for these services is similar to what they demand for commercial businesses. Customer service has become the centre of management activities which constitutes the basis of competition in the higher education sector today. Universities and colleges should begin by becoming proactive not reactive in the marketing of their services. The Customer Service Quality model has been widely used to study service excellence in a number of service industries; education inclusive.

Close relationships between university scientists and research sponsors or other commercial interests increase the probability that research bias or conflict of interest (COI) will arise in the research process. University researchers can limit the chances that obvious or subtle forms of bias or COI will occur by (1) carefully managing relationships with sponsors and external parties; (2) using research practices that ensure unbiased management of data and publications; and (3) appreciating that bias and COI also occur when researchers begin to assume roles as experts in both public and sponsored venues. Specific good management practices to avoid COI or bias include (1) following institutional polices; (2) frequent self-evaluation; (3) seeking independent program assessment; and (4) reporting potential COI in publications. Drawing on examples from sales and marketing of specialized feed technologies, areas where the industry should increase its focus on training and mentoring to minimize opportunities for ethical conflicts include (1) emphasizing the importance of the quality and relevance of supporting data used for promoting product sales; (2) strengthening supplier training on products and technologies in the context of fair and ethical positioning, so that opportunities for both ethical lapses and misunderstandings are decreased; (3) reinforcing the importance of confidentiality in maintaining customer trust in suppliers; and (4) increasing recognition of COI as it can occur between consultants and their clients for recommendations of technologies in which the consultant has undisclosed financial interest.

A REFERENCE WORK ON THE SCIENCE AND ART OF WRITING A SCIENTIFIC PAPER 1IntroductionMotto:"Some think but do not write, others write without thinking; many think after they write, few write after they think "Theofil SimenschyIn the modern world, marked by hyper-competition, globalization and a great explosion of the means of information and communication among people, dissemination of scientific research findings takes on a particular significance. It is closely connected with the access to information and its speed of propagation, making the current transmission system look strikingly different from the one of the previous century.According to Stiglitz, the marketplace of ideas with all its imperfections does not guarantee, at least in the short term, that the best ideas will prevail (Stiglitz, 2010, p. 426). Identification of the most effective ways and means of making the most of the scientific research results depends not only on the mechanisms for conveying information but also on securing the paternity of problem-solving solutions. Equally important is the way in which the process of communicating the research results is conducted. The holistic approach to communication (Kotler and Keller, 2012, p. 58) interprets this process as the integration of all means and tools whereby the "product" - in this case, research findings - is brought to the attention of all its potential beneficiaries. In order for the user to get the most of scientific research, its concept, writing and dissemination must be entirely accomplished in a systemic manner. This calls for an interdisciplinary approach in which natural, technical and social sciences work together (Homburg and Krohmer, 2009, p. 195). As the abovementioned process is cybernetically-oriented, the reverse connection between beneficiaries and authors of research is ensured. One more thing needs to be added, namely, the success of communicating the research results also depends on the way in which this communication is accomplished. Socrates said that .those who know what any given thing is can also expound it to others, while those who do not know are misled themselves and mislead others" (quoted by Simenschy, 2008, p. 761).Economics - as a subfield of social knowledge - ensures the connection between the nature (the main provider of resources) and satisfaction of human needs, using market as the main agent. Economics stands apart from natural sciences by the multitude of random and undetermined universes (Florescu, 1987, p. 105) in which decisions are taken, making ample room for uncertainty. This, however, should not negatively affect its place in the competition for more scientific knowledge.A certain gap between emerging and developed economies is significantly felt with regard to visibility and dissemination of economic research results. One of the underlying causes of this situation is the modest level of habilitation among those who conduct research on conceiving, writing and publishing scientific papers. The book published by professors Dinu, Savoiu and Dabija comes out to narrow this gap. The synthetic approach to the subject, from the beginning to the end of the process of conceiving, writing and publishing a scientific paper, aims to familiarize the many categories of readers with everything one needs to undertake in order to get the greatest benefit from such a work.The book is intended for a large but well-structured audience made up of undergraduate, master's and PhD students as well as researchers and academics in the field of economics and business administration, in a word, for the entire higher education staff interested in effective dissemination of their research fruitage. Whereas the book is addressed to clearly outlined categories of target audience at the national level, its table of contents and abstract in English, French and German may stir up the interest of scholars and researchers in the field of economics from other Central and Eastern European countries. …

It is high time for business and engineering scholars to join forces to advance service research. The editors of two of the top journals in the service area, one from INFORMS’ service science community and one from IEEE’s services computing community, invite you to break out of your disciplinary comfort zone. Parallel special issues have been commissioned to intentionally challenge and disrupt the status quo. This dual special issue is intended to reconcile existing multipronged orientations and approaches to service research. Transdisciplinary service research will leapfrog the current landscape to improve services computing formalisms while concomitantly designing and delivering the highest quality business service systems that can profitably delight customers and clients. In many areas, modern research advances have benefited from multiple perspectives. Transdisciplinary research means reaching out to scholars from other backgrounds. It means that vocabulary, research methods, and historical foundations need to be shared, taught, challenged, and reconciled. It’s going to be hard work. It will take time. But it’s what is needed. This dual-journal call for papers is intended to catalyze transdisciplinary and risk-taking research, and the review policies and procedures for both special issues will be tuned to this end. What is missing has been a research agenda to reconcile business service systems and systems of systems ideals with services computing’s formal methods, standards, best practices, and repeatable processes. New research is essential to address what has become an important inflection point: the business services and services computing research agendas need to be viewed from a common, global, societal lens. At stake is the continued viability of both research streams. Some science and engineering scholars view business services research as a soft discipline, but there is significant respect for formal business process and workflow methods that can deliver model-driven development. Business researchers often view the engineering and computer science perspectives as remiss in addressing the essential and dynamic elements of customer co-production, B2B contracting, and pricing, but there is significant respect for services computing’s role in distributing, cost-effective scaling, and personalization of computing service capability. Both areas are in transition, given the increasing value of big data methods and associated possibilities. Yes, there will be dueling methodologies, ranging from empirical to execution benchmarks to proof, and there will be dueling problems, ranging from NP-complete to novel business strategy frameworks. Potential authors will need to leave their comfort zones behind and work together across disciplinary lines.

The shift of traditional service perspective to a more transformative service orientation given the rise of customer citizenship behavior thought. This concept considers customers as the citizen instead of a mere service recipient. Derived from organizational citizenship behavior, customer citizenship behavior (CCB) phenomenon led significant research interest among academicians and practitioners in recent years. However, the effect of CCB in relation to online commerce community is yet to be tested. It is obvious that online commerce is spreading day-by-day which became another strong medium of marketing. Existing literature stressed on sharing of knowledge and information among online consumers. However, more importance should be given to understand consumer behavior like CCB. As such, it is utmost necessary to study the behavioral pattern of online commerce community. Furthermore, there is a dearth of study that investigated the elements of social capital (structural, cognitive and relational social capital) in relation to CCB. Such social capital also translates into firm value/profits through congenial customer citizenship behavior. Considering such gaps in the existing literature, the present study aims to propose a conceptual framework highlighting the antecedents and consequence of CCB in the context of online commerce community.

Within the disaster risk reduction field the term that is used to encompass all pre- and post-disaster phases such as disaster planning, preparedness, prevention, mitigation, warning, impact, rescue, relief, rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery ( Van Niekerk, 2008 , p. 367), is disaster risk reduction, response and recovery, shortly referred to as DR4. DR4 communication refers to communication, management applied during the disaster management phases. In the Hyogo Framework for Action ( UN/ISDR, 2005 ), that calls for action to build resilience of nations against disasters, information sharing and cooperation, dialogue between parties involved in disaster management, public awareness and media relations is suggested as some of the priorities that should receive attention ( UN/ISDR, 2005 , p. 23). Authors, such as Wisner, Gaillard, and Kelman (2012, p. 1) , also refer to the importance of communication between stakeholders and specifically the fact that disaster risk reduction requires specialist knowledge on communication management. In addition, the South African National Disaster Management Framework (SANDMF) specifically focuses on communication management and communication flow during incidences by identifying this aspect as one of the three enablers of the SANDMF ( South Africa, 2005 , p. 3). Communication responsibilities are even assigned to the Provincial Disaster Management Centre and Municipal, Disaster Management Centre ( South Africa, 2005 , pp. 13–14). Communication is thus regarded as a critical aspect of disaster management ( Coombs, 2012 , p. 17) and assistance with disaster communication management is needed in order to limit current problems experienced with communication in disaster risk reduction and disaster management (see International Wildland Fire Summit, 2003 , Reid and Van Niekerk, 2008 , p. 246). An analysis of disaster (crisis) communication literature showed that it mainly focuses on (i) pre- and post-crisis reputational communication from the profit organisation's point of view ( Avery, Lariscy, Kim, & Hocke, 2010 , p. 192) and (ii) on the profit organisation's expected technical reaction communication during the, crisis, i.e. who to phone to activate response agencies ( Avery et al., 2010 , p. 192; Littlefield et al., 2012 , p. 248). From a disaster risk reduction field, the little information there is on communication, focuses on media engagement during a disaster (see Radford & Wisner, in Wisner et al., 2012 , pp. 761–771; Van Niekerk, 2008 , p. 362). Research on the trans-disciplinary focus of combining the disaster risk reduction and communication management fields, is lacking. This paper conceptualises DR4 communication by: 1. Theoretically placing strategic communication management within the disaster risk reduction, and management paradigm, 2. Defining DR4 communication; and 3. Applying DR4 communication to the South African context. The findings indicate that appropriate disaster communication could assist to lessen the risk and aid disaster recovery ( Hale, Dulek, & Hale, 2005 , p. 112, 114) as communication practitioners could provide strategic information from the environment that could reduce uncertainty in strategic decision-making and ensuring that disaster management goals align with stakeholder expectations in order to save lives and limit the impact of a disaster ( Grunig, 2006 , p. 3, 6; Phillips, 2006a , Phillips, 2006b , p. 34, 35; Valin, 2004 ). Specifically in South Africa, a country where myriad of man-made disasters and 77 natural disasters (between 1980 and 2010) took place ( Preventionweb, 2012 ), communication management has a positive role to play in disaster risk reduction.

Satisfaction from life and every work is the important aim of every one's life. We spent maximum time of our in working or involving in any economic activity which is the main sources of surviving our life. Every employee wants to get higher level of satisfaction from his job. Job satisfaction is the favorableness or un- favorableness with which employees view their work. Job satisfaction is a psychological concept and it is mostly depend upon the internal feeling of employees. There are a lot of independent variables on which job satisfaction is depending. These are educational qualifications, nature of work, pay, job security, promotional opportunities and family & work life balance. The employee's satisfaction improve the productivity and profit so it is importantboth employees and employer also.In this paper researcher tried to explain the concept and factor affecting job satisfaction and their significant relationship with all factors. The commercial banks have embarked on different management strategies as resorts to promote employees job satisfaction. The main purpose of the study is to identify the levels of job satisfaction among employees of public sector bank and the factors contributing to job satisfaction. Keywords: dependent, employee, psychological, strategies, satisfaction, variables.

What happened The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published a 50-page paper on 27 July entitled ‘Big data and data protection’. The paper gives an overview of the privacy issues that arise from using big data and suggests how to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998. The ICO states that the paper’s aim is to ensure that the different privacy risks of big data are considered alongside its benefits. It emphasizes that the ‘benefits cannot simply be traded with privacy rights’. The paper invited comments by 12 September 2014 and asked for feedback on three specific questions

This essay focuses on some of the adverse practices in business research publications. First, business researchers seem to have lost touch with business practice and to narrow the target group to fellow academics only, reducing the production of useful knowledge. Second, the objectives of business research publications narrow to impact and citations. This view leads to a strict focus on path-breaking theories and a denigration of replication and qualitative studies. Third, an obsession with the .05 significance level and corroborating findings leaves researchers with full file drawers of unpublished papers and could leave journals with a high rate of type I error papers. Fourth, complex, lengthy articles, the importance of carefully crafting a story around the research and a variety of style guidelines make business researchers less productive than they could be. Finally, a blind reliance on ISI's impact and citation scores may not do justice to a researcher's real contribution.

PurposeThis paper seeks to make sense of recent developments in retail planning with reference to the changing agendas on retail planning, the disparate nature of participation in the retail planning debate and the diversity of literature on the subject.Design/methodology/approachThe paper focuses on the work of the National Retail Planning Forum. Specifically, it examines the Briefing Paper Series using it as a way of seeing how the agenda has been changing and policy challenged.FindingsThe paper underlines the importance of distinguishing between evidence based research and rhetoric or advocacy in evaluating policy in retail planning.Originality/valueThe paper provides an accessible short tour of recent issues on the policy agenda whilst also counterpoising some of the underlying retail planning policy issues.

If students do not “solve” problems in Community Service-Learning, what significance does their work have for the community? This is the question that the author asked the social entrepreneur partnered with a global engineering course. The course is a longdistance variant of Community Service-Learning in which students work on sociotechnical problems identified by rural artisans in the craft and textile sector in India. Students collaborate closely with the social entrepreneur who has developed long-standing, on-the-ground relationships with artisans in marginalized communities in India. The course emphasizes the need for collaboration, the nature of community, and the search for low-tech solutions that are socially appropriate, environmentally sustainable, and economically feasible. While Community-Service Learning discourse largely focuses on pedagogical methodology and its transformative effects on students, the voice of the community often goes unheard. Our social entrepreneur's response to the above question reveals surprising qualitative insights about the relational nature of technical documentation and how even partial student “work on paper” can unintentionally empower communities that historically have been considered “untouchable.”.

PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to examine managers' careers, describe and compare career paths between the two most important business sectors in Finland: ICT industry and paper industry. The main research question of this study is: how do the managers construct their careers in ICT and the paper business sectors? Attempts to find out if there exists some regularity in how their careers unfold in these different working environments. What are the main factors in manager's life that direct their careers? Do they differ depending on the business sector? These questions are approached with the help of metaphors, career anchors and career ladders.Design/methodology/approachThe primary research data were gathered in 2002 by interviews in Finnish ICT and paper companies where 30 managers were interviewed. The interviews were held in three companies from ICT sector and three companies from paper industry. Every interview used also a short questionnaire concerning career anchors.FindingsAccording to the research data there can be noticed three types of career paths. These paths are path of a general manager, specialist and project manager. The career in both sectors begins in a position of specialist then directs towards one of these three paths. When comparing eight career anchors between ICT and paper sectors it was surprising that the greatest difference between the sectors existed concerning the security/stability anchor. Secure employment and compensation were more important to ICT managers than to paper managers. Security and stability matters seemed to be more self‐evident for the paper managers.Research limitations/implicationsThe research group consisted of only 30 managers and, therefore, no generalizations to a more extensive group of managers can be made. This paper concerned only two business sectors. The results of this paper cannot be transferred directly to other business sectors.Practical implicationsThis approach can be useful in the area of career research. For example, it has already benefited a career research concerning women ICT professionals. This paper can also benefit managers in ICT and paper sectors.Originality/valueThis paper cover enlighten career researchers about the importance of the business sector.

White papers are commonly produced by companies to market high-tech products and services. But little evidence-based guidance is available to aid novices in their creation. To fill this void, we are engaged in an analysis of this genre, including macro-, micro-, and para-linguistic features, for a sample of 20 recent, top-rated white papers.

Em resposta às pressões institucionais para publicar mais artigos e artigos com impacto, os pesquisadores procuram aumentar a sua produtividade estabelecendo relações de coautoria que acelerem o processo desde a fase inicial de formulação da questão de pesquisa até à publicação em periódico. Entender os motivos, benefícios e dificuldades nas coautorias, em especial usando as experiências de pesquisadores com alta reputação pode ajudar a melhorar a eficácia e qualidade dos esforços de pesquisa. Neste estudo foram analisadas as respostas a seis questões enviadas por e-mail a treze pesquisadores internacionais com alto número de publicações de impacto. Em essência, buscou-se entender aspectos como: a origem das relações de coautoria, a importância de ter coautores, as dificuldades e métodos na organização do trabalho em coautoria, e em que consiste uma contribuição que justifica a coautoria num artigo científico. Os resultados mostram que: (1) os pesquisadores internacionais avaliam positivamente as suas coautorias, (2) muitas coautorias emergem de relações de orientação anteriores ou por afinidade pessoal, mais que por ligação à mesma instituição, (3) a ordem da coautoria é gerida ou definida a priori e de forma ativa, (4) os benefícios relevam-se na especialização e complementaridade de competências, (5) a coautoria é atribuída em função da contribuição, ainda que existam múltiplas facetas que essa pode assumir, e (6) a pressão para publicar e a crescente dificuldade de publicar, em periódicos de topo está na gênese das colaborações. As análises apontam pistas importantes para os jovens pesquisadores brasileiros. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Branding and governance in sports : Best papers from the “Managing Sport” tracks at the EURAM Annual Meeting in Istanbul 2013

This paper draws together selected insights from a range of projects, primarily the Future Foundation's ‘Complicated Lives’ research programme for Abbey National. Unless otherwise sourced, all findings in this paper are based on Complicated Lives 1 & 2 (2001, 2002) The author also draws on research sponsored by a range of clients including Ananova (the future of news), First Direct (e-service monitor, nPower (drivers for online bill payment) as well as nVision's own Changing Lives ongoing programme of research. This paper is based on a chapter of a forthcoming book, Complicated Lives, due to be published in 2003. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.

While Intranets have achieved considerable prominence in larger organizations, and claims have been made for their impact in the business press, there have been few serious academic attempts to measure managerial perceptions of their effectiveness. This paper describes a process directed at developing a simple paper-and-pencil checklist to assess Intranet effectiveness. Using the inputs from a large, international on-line focus group of Intranet experts, items were generated for initial testing. A scale purification process resulted in the distillation of a 15-item checklist to measure Intranet effectiveness, particularly in a public relations context. The checklist demonstrates acceptable psychometric properties. The three dimensions of Intranet effectiveness are identified as operations, culture, and facilitation. The article concludes by identifying managerial applications of the checklist, recognizing the limitations of the approach, and identifying areas for future research.

This is the second of a series of three papers. The first paper of this series criticised the lack of foundation in much current thinking about the strategic role of direct and database marketing. This paper outlines an alternative direction for the industry based on a new model for the role of marketing. Experienced commentators in the field of marketing have argued that it is time for a major re-think of the role of marketing departments and of marketing itself. Both Doyle and Piercy have commented on recent criticisms of marketing, arguing that while marketing is more important than ever, it is not being led by marketing departments. Rather, the delivery of customer value and customer satisfaction is the responsibility of operational divisions and customer service departments. In this paper, the author takes this framework and makes a case for a strategic role for customer database information as a way of facilitating the process of going to market. It is suggested that the current trend towards ‘knowledge management’ should be exploited by the database marketing profession to influence higher levels of corporate strategy.

One major element of faculty assessment across universities and across disciplines is the number of publications. In most universities, faculty members publishing collaborative research papers attract lesser credits than those who publish alone. However, the general trend in academic publications is a shift towards multiple authorship. In this paper, we examine the authorship patterns in top ranked marketing journals from 2000 to 2012. We found that the number of single-authored papers is declining and collaborative research is increasing. Business school deans and research administrators could device faculty reward plans and research grant schemes based on the findings, so that collaborative research and multiple authored papers are not valued lesser than single authored papers.

The arrival of Nectar has reignited interest in multi-partner loyalty schemes. Industry experts were invited to comment on the implications of the chequered history of other loyalty programmes for Nectar. There are two central issues: first, the set-up of the scheme to make it attractive to consumers, and secondly, the use of customer data to generate actionable insights for the partners. Nectar can justifiably be pleased with its successful consumer marketing. Its next step, turning data into useful actions, will be a major challenge. Some of the difficulties are highlighted and discussed.

Casual business apparel addresses many issues in the workplace. This phenomenon is having a strong impact on the corporate world, including employee production and motivation. Employees in many organisations are being permitted to wear apparel items that are considered non‐traditional for the business setting. Research conducted about casual dress has focused on what is appropriate, and perceptions of changes in standard measures of productivity. Limited research exists regarding the relationship of casual apparel in the workplace and the more complex measures of employee motivation, specifically perceptions of organisational climate. The purpose of this research was to identify the employee perceptions of organisational climate which occur with the implementation of a casual apparel policy and to examine the relationship between demographic variables and the employee perceptions of organisational climate. The sample was 125 corporate management personnel of a US manufacturer. Results of the analysis of the self‐administered questionnaire indicated that employees with lower incomes believe that wearing casual apparel in the workplace will improve their relationships, especially with their supervisor, as well as their sense of belonging to the organisation. In addition, women felt less comfortable with wearing casual apparel in the workplace than did men. Results of this study indicate that casual apparel in the workplace does relate to organisational factors of psychological climate. Wearing casual apparel in the workplace is perceived to help eliminate boss/employee lines. This finding suggests that employees have the potential to be better team players. As a result, productivity, creative thinking and contributions by employees may also increase. Future research should further examine the effects of casual dress on other motivational factors and measures of productivity as well as gender differences. A pre‐/post‐casual dress implementation study needs to be done in order to measure actual changes in motivation and productivity.

The question of ranking journals, institutions, individual academics and specific papers is regularly visited within business and management disciplines. The Mort, et al. (2004) study advances the discussion by examining this theme within the context of academic marketing in Australia and New Zealand. In this commentary I comment on three aspects of the study that are left partially unanswered: why rank journals in the first place, how should journals be evaluated, and to what extent are the aspirations of academics in the region met?

Evaluating and measuring: applying a management perspective on sports : Best papers from the "Sport as as a Business" track at the EURAM annual meeting, Tallin 2011

Managing Sport: Governance and Performance : Best papers from the "Sport as Business" track at the EURAM Annual Meeting, Rome 2010

Discusses the nature and sometimes negative consequences of the dominating marketing paradigm of today, marketing mix management, and furthermore discusses how modern research into, for example, industrial marketing and services marketing as well as customer relationship economics shows that another approach to marketing is required. This development is supported by evolving trends in business, such as strategic partnerships, alliances and networks. Suggests relationship marketing, based on relationship building and management, as one emerging new marketing paradigm of the future. Concludes that the simplicity of the marketing mix paradigm, with its Four P model, has become a strait‐jacket, fostering toolbox thinking rather than an awareness that marketing is a multi‐faceted social process, and notes that marketing theory and customers are the victims of today’s mainstream marketing thinking.

Social trends that raised the value of esoteric expertise, stimulated the creation of knowledge-intensive firms and so created an opportunity to study some organizations that academics had overlooked. A lack of presuppositions, a useful research method, and thoughtful experts in these firms helped to uncover some surprising behaviours. The resulting paper attracted citations and may have stimulated research about knowledge as a business resource and a managerial challenge. However, the topic continues to pose questions for further research.

The College of Commerce and Finance at Villanova University sponsors an annual research awards program. Its objectives are to encourage and reward faculty research efforts. The process of selecting papers to win the award turned out to be far more complex than we initially expected. After many unsuccessful attempts at developing a manageable procedure, we used the analytic hierarchy process to structure the selection process. We have used this approach for the last three years without any serious problems. The faculty and external advisors using the system believe that it can better capture the subjective judgments of the evaluators than any of the previous approaches.