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Explores the relationship between educational providers and company clients on tailored MBA programmes. Examines the potential benefits and disadvantages of such programmes in terms of the relative number of providers/companies involved, and describes and evaluates the authors′ experience of developing and operating a consortium MBA involving two providers and nine companies. Presents both provider and company perspectives, and concludes that the resolution of potential conflicts resulted in a programme which satisfied the requirements of providers, companies and participants. Further, increased collaboration between educational providers may more accurately respond to the needs of clients, who may wish to use a number of providers in constructing “their” MBA programme.

This study aims to provide a historical understanding of conspicuous consumption phenomena in the context of the UK, between 1945 and 2000. It considers how status-driven consumption has been shaped by economic, technological and cultural factors.

Adopting a periodization scheme, concerning two time structures between 1945 and 2000, this paper is based on research stemming from a wide range of data such as academic studies, research articles, narrative history books, past advertisements, novels and biographies. Rich interdisciplinary data from the realms of political economy, sociology, cultural geography and consumption studies have been synthesized so as to provide a marketing-oriented historical outlook on conspicuous consumption phenomena.

Status-driven consumption in the UK has been heavily influenced by economic policies, cultural changes and public perceptions towards wealth during the second half of the twentieth century. Post-war rationing, youth-driven fashion, free-market economics and technological advances have played a crucial role in forming consumers’ tastes and engagement with ostentatious economic display.

Although the vast majority of marketing studies have approached luxury consumption through a psychological angle, this examination identifies the capacity of historical research to uncover and highlight the interrelationships between socio-economic factors and status-motivated consumption.