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The purpose of this paper is to use cognitive age to segment college‐educated Japanese seniors, a grouping of interest to many marketers both within and external to Japan. The intent is to demonstrate the nomological validity of the cognitive age concept by relating it to key externalities and to further assess the viability of cognitive age over chronological age in non‐Western segmentation research.

Both hierarchical and non‐hierarchical clustering are employed to form segments of Japanese seniors based on their average cognitive age, as revealed by both Likert and semantic‐differential scaling. Differences are sought between the two clusters on key segmentation variables.

The results reveal that Japanese seniors who are younger, psychologically speaking, have more positive attitudes toward life satisfaction and aging than those respondents who are cognitively older. The psychologically younger respondents also tend to be more involved in activities and have better health along with economic comfort. The study further demonstrates, in a non‐Western setting, the predictive power of cognitive age over chronological age since the revealed cognitive age segments have the same chronological age.

The fact that average cognitive age relates to one's health makes it a powerful segmentation variable in international segmentation research on the mature market. Basically, cognitive age reveals an aptitude and, when coupled with purchasing power, the viability of senior segments may be assessed more clearly and strategically.

The study validates the usefulness of cognitive age in global segmentation research and illustrates its potential as a better predictor of behavior than chronological age.

It seems intuitive that as firms continue to try and keep in touch with the customers they serve, research should play an increasingly important role in determining the needs and wants of the consumer. Accordingly, as goods and services are tailored to meet these needs, so too does the accompanying advertising. Additionally, there is constant pressure on advertising agencies to produce advertising that consistently meets the objectives of their clients. Marketing departments, in turn, have to justify and be accountable to top management for advertising budgets. Consequently, agencies increasingly have to provide measures of effectiveness (Flandin et al 1992). In order to optimize the process(es) that will meet client objectives, agencies have to ensure that they understand how the consumer thinks and feels. One such approach to understanding the consumer's view is account planning. The main objective of this paper will be to provide a thorough review of the account planning phenomenon in advertising and in so doing, highlight the use of advertising research from a developmental perspective. This paper will describe the account planning process and how it differs from traditional agency practices. The justification for such a paper is the fact that billions of dollars are spent annually on advertising, in the hopes that the advertiser's objectives will consistently be met. If it could be demonstrated that increased attention to the consumer, in the development stages of advertising leads to more effective advertising than when consumer input is limited to the evaluation of advertising, after the fact, this would be of significant interest to advertisers as well as advertising agencies.

Seeks to highlight the potential role of consumer values as a guiding force to technology. Posits, in order to assess these values, that considering the field of futures research in consumer behaviour is warranted. Discusses several models of futures research advancing the Delphi technique as a most appropriate methodology for predicting the future behaviour and preferences of consumers. Focuses on the notion that consumers' values can play a more prominent role in guiding the use of technology insofar as it relates to the production of consumable goods and services. Contends that the information revealed and examined here is vital for anyone concerned with an integrated approach to futures research, in particular for those organisations concerned in this market.

States that the level of consumer involvement in a product category is a major variable relevant to advertising strategy. Suggests product category is often segmented by the level of consumer involvement; however, consumers are rarely segmented. Points out that different involvement clusters have different responses to advertising effectiveness for the same product. Presents a case study segmenting a market using the consumer involvement degree, exploring the characteristics in order to determine the relationship between advertising effectiveness and the level of consumer involvement. Shows results suggesting that a high degree of consumer involvement directed a high advertising effect and is therefore an important indication for advertising strategy.

Providing the services which customers need and want is vital for assuring necessary product and distribution support in a marketing channel. This paper illustrates a method of identifying those customer service needs and aligning suppliers' customer service activities to meet those needs.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

The transitional problems of formerly centrally planned economies have received much attention, in terms of both economic advice and wider academic consideration. In order to develop concrete gap‐bridging measures, micro as well as macro economic concerns need to be addressed and timing and priority issues resolved. Considers the transitional problems of one of the fastest changing economies – that of the former German Democratic Republic, now called the New Lander of the Federal Republic of Germany. Examines the various approaches to closing the important (or strategically significant) gaps. Presents a culturally adapted gap‐bridging model. Shows the model to be a useful framework for the consideration of adaption criteria. Explores the uses of the model as a basis for education and training of various levels of management, and develops a general transition model for education and training which may serve as a paradigm for other Eastern European countries in transition.

The ownership structure of a corporation can alleviate the agency problem that arises between shareholders and managers of a corporation, which implies that the ownership composition of a firm may infl uence the level of voluntary disclosure. This study investigates whether the ownership structure of U. S. based multinational corporations affects the managerial decision to voluntarily disclose quarterly foreign segment data. The empirical results show that the three ownership variables of interest, institutional stock ownership, managerial stock ownership and outside blockholder stock ownership are inversely related to the level of voluntary disclosure of quarterly foreign segment data. Therefore, it is inferred that an increase in the proportion of outstanding common stock held by these ownership groups is accompanied by a decrease in the probability that a U.S. multinational firm voluntarily discloses quarterly foreign segment data.

At a recent meeting of the Glasgow Grocers' and Provision Merchants' Association, it was alleged that there are provision merchants in Glasgow who are doing a large business in selling margarine as butter at 1s. 2d. per pound. In commenting upon this statement The Grocer very properly urges that the officials of the Association referred to should take prompt steps to place the facts in their possession before the Glasgow authorities and their officers, and observes that in certain cities and towns—Birmingham, for example—the grocers' associations have co‐operated with the authorities in their efforts to suppress illegal trading, particularly in regard to the sale of margarine as butter. It appears that one of the members of the Glasgow Association expressed the opinion that the Margarine Act has been a failure and that shopkeepers who sell margarine as butter should be charged with obtaining money under false pretences.

One of the commonest excuses put forward in defence of the practice of treating milk, butter, meat, and other foods with ‘preservative’ drugs no longer possesses even the appearance of validity. Several of the large railway companies are adding refrigerator vans in considerable numbers to their rolling‐stock, and this fact should make it no longer possible for defendants to plead that the necessity of sending food‐products a long distance by rail involves the necessity of mixing preservative chemicals with them. Although the excuse referred to will not bear examination, it is a very specious one, and in those instances where evidence has not been brought forward to refute it, it has produced some effect on the minds of magistrates and others. It cannot be too often pointed out that such substances as boracic acid, salicylic acid, and formaldehyde are dangerous drugs, and that their unacknowledged presence in articles of food constitutes a serious danger to the public. Such substances are not foods, and are not natural constituents of any food. In most instances they are purposely introduced into food‐products to avoid the expense attending the proper production, preparation, and distribution of the food, or to conceal the inferior quality of an article by masking the signs of commencing decomposition or incipient putrefaction, and thus to enable a dishonest producer or vendor to palm off as fresh and wholesome an article which may be not only of bad quality, but absolutely dangerous to the consumer. The use of these substances, in any quantity whatsoever, and the sale of articles containing them, without the fullest and clearest disclosure of their presence, is as gross and as dangerous a form of adulteration as any which has at any time been exposed. In no single instance can it be shown that these drugs are, to quote the words of the Act of 1875, matters or ingredients “required for the preparation or production of a food as an article of commerce,” nor, of course, can it be contended that such substances are “extraneous matters with which the food is unavoidably mixed during the process of collection or preparation.” In reality, even under our inadequate and unsatisfactory adulteration laws, through which the proverbial coach‐and‐four can be so easily driven in so many directions, there ought to be no loophole of escape for the deliberate and dishonest drugger of foods. While the presence of preservative chemicals in any quantity whatever in articles of food constitutes adulteration, wherever the quantity is sufficient to allow the production of the specific “preservative” effect of the substance added, that fact alone is enough to make the food so drugged a food which must be regarded as injurious to the health of the consumer—in view of the inhibitory effect which, by its very nature, the antiseptic must produce on the process of digestion. To our knowledge the food market in this country is flooded with all sorts of inferior food‐products which are rarely dealt with under the Adulteration Acts, and which are loaded with so‐called preservatives. There will be no adequate protection for the public against the consumption of this injurious rubbish until the consumer sees the advantage of insisting upon an authoritative and permanent guarantee of quality with his goods, and until manufacturers of the better class at length find it to be a necessity for their continued prosperity that they should supply, apart entirely from their own statements, an independent and powerful guarantee of this kind.