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Spotlights 3M′s “Q90s” quality initiative as part of which, the company′s performance in each of seven areas is benchmarked around the world. Addresses the need to introduce TQM programmes differently to the sales and marketing or manufacturing, engineering and technical functions in a company, according to their different cultures. Shows how the fundamentals of marketing (such as the four Ps) have themselves been used to “sell” TQM to the sales and marketing functions. Examines the difficulties in measuring the success of the quality process in a sales and marketing group.

This paper reports the results of an experimental study examining the joint effect of two group characteristics, responsibility and cohesiveness, on escalation of commitment in an ongoing unsuccessful project. Two levels (high/low) of group responsibility and group cohesiveness were manipulated to examine their effects on group escalation decisions. Forty-eight 3-member decision groups were formed and randomly assigned to four treatment cells with 12 groups in each cell. The results of a 2×2 ANOVA reveal a significant main effect of responsibility on escalation of commitment, as well as a significant interaction of responsibility and cohesiveness. Specifically, groups with both high responsibility and high cohesiveness committed the largest amount of resources to an ongoing unsuccessful project. These results provide support for the proposition that group responsibility and cohesiveness exert significant joint effects on group escalation of commitment in an ongoing unsuccessful project. The findings suggest that periodic changes of group membership to shift responsibility and cohesiveness may generate new attitudes and views to reduce group escalation of commitment.

The purpose of this paper is to apply grounded theory methodology to report on an empirical case which develops emergent theories on the human complexities of managerial decision‐making and the synonymous task of managing.

A structured research approach was applied in gathering and analysing data from all actors within a small private sector enterprise. The key objective was to discover what the owner‐manager and all employees perceived as important issues with regard to the managing of the business during a period of post‐takeover. In‐depth on‐site and off‐site interviews were carried out over an extended period.

Emergent theory exposes actors' disputed perceptions of how the business had been managed and ought to be managed, and, the judgments and decisions that had been made and consequently should be made. Revealed is a complex cognitive and behavioural web of human interactions and deep‐seated management‐employee discord that whilst threatening the actual survival of the business appears not to impede questionable practices, both by management and staff. Through the application of grounded theory methodology emergent constructs are discussed against existing knowledge that exposes new insights into management decision theory and the managing of an enterprise.

The process of theory generation whilst grounded in a substantive inquiry has the capacity to generate further research and tentative explanations at higher levels of understanding. From the research reported, questions beyond the substantive case can develop a broader theoretical and practical agenda – for example, issues of other actors' involvement in management decision making and the intrinsic part psychological factors play in the structuring of decisions.

Based on the finding from an empirical study the paper reveals significant practical managerial issues in the day‐to‐day and strategic managing of an enterprise. From a researcher's perspective, the paper critically demonstrates the functionality of grounded theory in management inquiry.

This paper advances the theoretical and practical necessity for the enlargement of the stock of qualitatively bounded research that focuses on grounded theory applications, management practice and decision theory.

To provide a qualitative, in‐depth, naturalistic, empirical inquiry into entrepreneurial decision‐making, through the application of grounded theory methodology.

Application of original Glaser and Strauss grounded theory methodological approach and subsequent works are situated in the comparatively new context of entrepreneurship and small business management. Gathered data are iteratively analysed to produce emergent conceptual categories and their underpinning properties. Emergent substantive theories of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial decision making are discussed against existing decision and entrepreneurship theories.

First, the examination of the appropriateness of applying grounded theory to investigating complex entrepreneurship issues, as analysed through conceptual categories drawn from an empirical study. Second, the theoretical exploration of emergent entrepreneurship bounded practices and associated tasks of decision‐making. Finally, through the revelation of what is inductively achievable, what can be practically learned by researching naturalistic entrepreneurship.

This process of iterative theory building, whilst grounded in a substantive inquiry, holds the capacity to generate further research questions and tentative explanations at broader formal levels. By cross cutting the boundaries of units of analyses – the entrepreneur or associated actors, for example – this results in the maturation of a complex web of human interactivities. From the research reported, questions beyond the substantive case can develop a broader theoretical and practical agenda. For example, issues such as: buying‐in to an established business, the managing of key skills workers in small enterprises, and, entrepreneurial decision‐making in conjunction with other actors’ involvement.

The application of grounded theory emergent research objectives, whilst originating from particular inductive investigations, can become foundations for better understanding broader entrepreneurship questions and practice‐based researched endeavours.

This paper contributes to the identified need for developing the stock of qualitatively bounded research within entrepreneurship and small business inquiry. It develops understanding of both the theoretical and practical nature of entrepreneurship, the managing of an enterprise and the synonymous task of making decisions.

Despite the increasing sophistication of new product development (NPD) research, the reliance on traditional approaches to studying NPD has left several areas in need of further research. The authors propose addressing some of these gaps, especially the limited focus on consumer brands, evaluation criteria used across different project‐review points in the NPD process, and the distinction between “kills”, “successes”, and “failures”. Moreover, they propose investigating how screening criteria change across project‐review points, using real‐time NPD projects.

A postal survey generated 172 usable questionnaires from a sample of European, North American, Far Eastern and Australian consumer packaged‐goods firms, providing data on 314 new product projects covering different development and post‐commercialization review points.

The results confirm that acceptance‐rejection criteria vary through the NPD process. However, financial criteria dominate across all the project‐review points. Initial screening is coarse, focusing predominantly on financial criteria. Fit with organizational, product, brand, promotional, and market requirements dominate in the detailed screen and pre‐development evaluation points. At pre‐launch, decision‐makers focus on product, brand, and promotional criteria. Commercial fit, production synergies, and reliability of the firm's market intelligence are significant discriminators in the post‐launch review. Moreover, the importance of marketing and channel issues makes the criteria for screening brands different from those of industrial markets.

The study, although largely descriptive and involves a relatively small sample of consumer goods firms, offers new insights into NPD project evaluation behavior. Future, larger‐scale investigations covering a broader spectrum of consumer product sectors are needed to validate our results and to explain the reasons behind managers' decisions.