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The introduction stresses the role of the library in the environment and the importance of marketing thinking in the management practice of libraries. The main characteristics of library services as well as the importance and the definition of the perceived quality of services are dealt with. Reveals the current situation concerning research into service quality in libraries, and focuses on the structure of importance and the level of the service quality components in the library at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Maribor, Slovenia. Discusses the reasons for the project and its goals, analyzes the results and submits proposals for the improvement of the overall service quality in libraries.

First part introduces typical tourist programs of health resorts in Slovenia, their competitive advantage and possible routes of development. In the second part certain elements of perceived quality of health resorts in Slovenia are presented, stemming from the national visitor survey. Third part is concerned with the empirical analysis of the profiles of tourists satisfaction with the elements of service quality in two health resorts in Slovenia, and of the correlation between the perceived service quality and tourists loyalty.

Perceived value is an extremely important concept in marketing and many authors have dealt with it in recent years. In Slovenia perceived value of product is a rather neglected aspect of the research. Moreover, nobody has empirically researched the impact of individual factors on perceived value of a product. The researched target group was students – the fastest growing segment among the users of mobile phones in Slovenia. In their research the authors focused on two of the perceived value impact factors: perceived product quality and perceived risk. Based on literature and our own findings, their main researched objective was to design the model of relationships among perceived value, perceived quality and perceived risk. After the model had been tested with the method of structural equation modeling (LISREL 8.0), the authors found that statistically significant relationships (positive and negative, direct and indirect) among the concepts researched exist.

The paper aims to answer the following questions. Is marketing requisitely holistic? Marketing serves managers, governors, owners and employees as well as customers, suppliers and other stakeholders with its activities in order to help company increase well‐being of stakeholders. What about the broader society's well‐being and future? What will follow, once the innovative‐society phase of socio‐economic development creates affluence, which diminishes human ambition to work in order to have? Social responsibility might be the next step in achieving success.

There are new forms of marketing (e.g. societal marketing; relationship marketing; cause‐related marketing; and green marketing) that could help humans accomplishing this task, to some extent. Marketing will have to detect, elaborate and disseminate new data, along with using them for its action; the paper does not tackle the latter, but marketing taking into account the social responsibility of the company in order to help companies.

Companies will namely need more/requisitely holistic bases to develop innovative products, acceptable with social responsibility. Experience says that ethnographers, anthropologists, and other social scientists are becoming necessary in the “open innovation” model and the extremely demanding market of the affluent and nearly affluent society. So is a more systemic/holistic thinking and action of companies, including their marketing.

The paper suggests how marketing must adapt to meet new challenges.

The Narver and Slater market orientation scale is tested in the context of service firms in the transition economies of central Europe and found to be both valid and reliable. The survey examined levels of market orientation in 205 business to business services companies and 141 consumer services companies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. As predicted by the predominantly western marketing literature, those service firms with higher levels of market orientation; were more often found in turbulent, rapidly changing markets; were more likely to pursue longer term market building goals rather than short term efficiency objectives; more likely to pursue differentiated positioning through offering superior levels of service compared to competitors; and also performed better on both financial and market based criteria. A number of different business approaches, however, are evident in the transition economies suggesting that other business orientations may co‐exist with a market orientation creating a richer and more complex set of organizational drivers.

China’s economy is transforming at a brisk pace. A partially dismantled command economy and introduction of competition have fueled consumer demand for a greater selection of innovative new products in the retail market. The challenge for retail buyers is to adjust their procurement processes to respond to consumer needs in an efficient and effective manner. This study examines factors influencing buyer‐supplier relationships in a transition economy. We present a model to explain the factors driving retail buyer dependence on suppliers. We find that retailer evaluation of supplier credibility mediates the relationship between retailer perceptions of a supplier ability to add value to its business and the ability to achieve its desired goals. In part, this is due to the supplier’s market orientation. Interestingly, guanxi ties have no impact on the retailer perceptions of the supplier credibility, but have a positive affect on retailer dependence on its supplier partners.

The purpose of this research is to test the applicability of a model showing the relationship between a set of modified MARKOR scales used to measure market orientation (MO) and a set of organizational antecedents in an emerging market.

The study is conducted using a survey instrument administered to a large national sample of management personnel in various blood collection centers in China. A structural equation modeling approach is used in the data analysis.

The results support the model and show robustness of the scales used as well as a positive relationship between some organizational antecedents and the MO construct.

The results of the study provide some new insights on what managers in non‐profit organizations (NPOs) can do in implementing marketing strategies to improve organizational effectiveness through a greater emphasis on MO.

This is the first study to focus on a state‐controlled NPO whose mission is to deliver social values to its constituents in an emerging economy. The results should prove valuable not just for other organizations in the country but also for other emerging countries whose NPOs are still largely state‐controlled.