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This paper is a report of a study that looks at the practice of records management in the public sector in Zimbabwe and the extent to which records management, within Zimbabwe, can be regarded as a profession. The study reveals that records are mishandled and abused suggesting a lack of ethics. Those with the job title records manager have neither specialized training nor a code of ethics. The conclusions drawn are that, in Zimbabwe, records management has not yet been professionalized. The paper then suggests that the adoption of a code of ethics might lead to the professionalization of records management.

Banks in the UK are facing increased competition. As a consequence there is much more emphasis on realising the potential of their extensive branch networks and large numbers of branch staff. One of the effects of these changes is that bank personnel are being placed in proactive marketing roles with the responsibility of cross‐selling a variety of financial services to clients. It is not, however, clear to what extent and how successfully employees are adapting to this new role. Assessment is sought regarding to what extent clerical employees in a UK clearing bank have taken on board this new marketing focus.

The paper wishes to highlight the importance of consumers and consumer movements as an important dynamic of organisational change. This is an area of organisational analysis which has remained relatively underdeveloped but has the potential to greatly influence future developments in organisational theory. The paper will draw on material from the financial services sector, a group of industries which have not attracted a great deal of research interest.

Service quality has attracted considerable attention within the service marketing literature, but despite this, high profile consumer education has not been considered a valuable strategy. Argues that consumer education is a powerful quality strategy in a variety of service contexts and that it is already being used by an increasing number of service organizations. This paper sets out the conceptual relationship between consumer education and service quality prior to developing an information‐education continuum that could help organizations recognize when consumer education might be a useful competitive strategy. The article concludes with a discussion of practical issues that organizations need to consider before implementing consumer education programs.

As a result of recent social and economic changes women have become an important market segment for financial institutions. Documents the differences which exist in the financial service consumption patterns between men and women. Considers a range of factors which might explain the variations in consumer behaviour namely: the gender schema and financial services; changes in household relations and household form; economic activity rates; sexual discrimination; and the advertising strategies of financial institutions. Finally, considers ways in which financial institutions might market themselves more effectively to women.

Postmodernism has provided valuable insights into the cultural significance of shopping and shopping sites in advanced societies. Despite their important contribution, postmodern accounts of shopping behaviour have predominantly focused on shopping in public spaces of malls and high streets. In this paper it will be argued that postmodern accounts of consumer shopping behaviour need to be developed and applied within the home shopping and wider remote shopping context. Directions for future research are proposed.

Observes that, although ethnicity is an important issue in consumer behaviour, it has received relatively little attention in the UK. Indicates that there are considerable variations in occupational and personal pension scheme membership between different ethnic groups. Notes that financial institutions appear to be unaware of these differences and have made few attempts to explore the financial needs of diverse ethnic groups. Discusses some of the ways in which financial institutions could meet the needs of the Asian market for pensions.

There has been considerable recent discussion about the relevance of critical theory to management discourse and its implications for the education of managers. Within this debate, marketing, and by implication, marketing academics, have been extensively criticised by those outside the discipline for failing to embrace more critical theoretical approaches in their work. Unfavourable parallels have been made with management accounting which has a similar academic/practitioner profile but where critical theory was embraced over two decades ago. The objectives of this paper are threefold: to attempt to account for the lack of critical theory in the discipline; to provide a critical evaluation of the usefulness of critical theory in marketing discourse; and to assess some of the practical implications associated with the implementation of critical theoretical approaches in teaching, research and publishing.

Despite data being a hot topic, little is known about how data can be successfully used in interactions in business-to-business relationships, specifically in the boundary spanning contexts of firms working together to use data and create value. Hence, this study aims to investigate the boundary spanning context of data-driven customer value projects to understand the outcomes of such activities, including the types of value created, how resulting value is shared between the interacting firms, the types of capabilities required for firms to deliver value from data and in what contexts different outcomes are created and different capabilities required.

Three abductive case studies were undertaken with firms from different business-to-business domains. Data were coded in NVivo and interpreted using template analysis and cross-case comparison. Findings were sense checked with the case study companies and other practitioners for accuracy, relevance and resonance.

The findings expand our understanding of firm interactions when extracting value from data, and this study presents 15 outcomes of value created by the firms in the study. This study illustrates the complexity and intertwined nature of the process of value creation, which emphasises the need to understand distinct types of outcomes of value creation and how they benefit the firms involved. This study goes beyond this by categorising these outcomes as unilateral (one actor benefits), developmental (one actor benefits from the other) or bilateral (both actors benefit).

This research is exploratory in nature. This study provides a basis for further exploration of how firm interactions surrounding the implementation of data-driven customer value projects can benefit the firms involved and offers some transferable knowledge which is of particular relevance to practitioners.

This research contributes to the understanding of data-driven customer-focused projects and offers some practical management tools. The identification of outcomes helps define project goals and helps connect these goals to strategy. The organisation of outcomes into themes and contexts helps managers allocate appropriate human resources to oversee projects, mitigating the impacts of a current lack of talent in this area. Additionally, using the findings of this research, firms can develop specific capabilities to exploit the project outcomes and the opportunities such projects provide. The findings can also be used to enhance relationships between firms and their customers, providing customer value.

This work builds on research that explores the creation of value from data and how value is created in boundary spanning contexts. This study expands existing work by providing greater insight into the mechanics and outcomes of value creation and by providing specific examples of value created. This study also offers some recommendations of capability requirements for firms undertaking such work.