Search

Current and historical reports were studied to produce a record of significant events associated with Federal financial aid to public vocational education. Federal-state relationships were analyzed for patterns and trends. The study found that: (1) Federal aid to vocational education resulted initially from public opinion favoring a more practical and useful educational system, (2) Intergovernmental relationships in vocational education were generally effective at all levels, and (3) The states showed much individuality in their spending patterns and trends in vocational education, reflecting an overall pattern of rising enrollments and expenditures. (Author/BH)

This article takes a historical perspective to examine technological convergences that occurred throughout the twentieth century in an attempt to gain insights that may be helpful today. It analyzes five case histories where experts predicted that two or more existing technologies would converge to create an entirely new product and market. The cases are studied for their unique points of difference as well as for their commonalities. They lead to the conclusion that despite the confidence and enthusiasm in the forecasts, the convergences typically took decades longer than expected and often materialized in forms that bore little resemblance to the original predictions. Failures occurred for a variety of reasons, ranging from a lack of market acceptance to a waning of one of the original technologies prior to the convergence. The results have implications for businesses and consumers concerned with current predictions of new technological convergences.

This paper explores the potential for business service customers to form separate bonds of commitment with the service firm and the service representative. It examines the role of the individual and identifies six potential antecedents to each type of commitment. It also proposes that both types of commitment will influence the degree of relational exchange between the customer and the service firm. The hypotheses are tested using multiple regression and data from a survey of marketing research managers. The results support the majority of the hypotheses.

Despite the pervasiveness of conversations as a means of transmitting information consumer researchers have not considered the effects of conversations on consumers' information processing. This article discusses those structural properties of conversation that differentiate it from prose and extends literature from the field of communication to develop a set of propositions regarding how these structural properties of conversation affect consumers inference, argument elaboration, and memory. The article concludes with a discussion of possible methods for examining the propositions. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.