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The purpose of this paper is to defend the fast emerging field of behavioral economics which, like marketing, does not require that consumers be rational and, also like marketing, draws on multiple disciplines to answer research questions on consumers' economic behavior.

The paper presents recent work showing how behavioral economists are posing interesting and significant questions and answering them in novel ways.

The basic finding is that behavioral economics has already developed a rich research tradition. It has made a major contribution to understanding economic behavior. It will not soon disappear.

The value in this paper is in demonstrating that there are multiple approaches to understanding consumers' pricing behavior.

Indicates the ways in which manufacturers can overcome resistance to new products and states that, in response to the risk which most consumer perceive in spending large amounts of money on an unfamiliar product, manufacturers tend to keep to new product ranges which are, apparently, similar to existing products. Emphasises that prior to purchase consumers must evaluate a possible purchase to decide whether it can generate satisfaction at least as large as the price demanded for it. Concludes that herein is offered a structure against which particular problems caused by bias and inaccurate perception by consumers, of the underlying characteristics of new products can be evaluated.

Diversity, notably gender diversity, is growing in health care, both at the level of teams and the level of organizations. This paper aims to describe the challenges for team leaders and leaders of organizations to manage this diversity. The authors believe that more could be done to help leaders master these challenges in a way that makes diverse teams and organizations more productive.

Drawing on previously published research, using gender diversity as an example, the paper first describes how diversity can both have a positive and a negative influence on team productivity. Next, it describes the challenge of gender diversity at an organizational level, using Switzerland as an example.

The first part of the paper espouses the causes of gender diversity, undoes some of the myths surrounding diversity and presents a model for effective management of diversity in teams. The second part looks at gender diversity at an organizational level. Drawing from sources inside and outside healthcare, the effects of the “leaking pipeline”, “glass wall” and “glass ceiling” that prevent health-care organizations from leveraging the potential of female talent are discussed.

The authors propose a model developed for intercultural teamwork as a framework for leveraging gender diversity for better team productivity. Proposals are offered to health-care organizations on how they can tip the gender balance at senior levels into their favor, so as to get the maximum benefit from the available talent.

Applying the “how to” ideas and recommendations from this general review will help leaders of health-care organizations gain a better return on investment from their talent development as well as to increase the productivity of their workforce by a better use of diverse talent.

Examines computerised marketing information systems and considers the implications of their role and the major characteristics of such systems and discusses the DEMON model in detail. States that a system is a set of components which interact in a certain manner to achieve its goals; an open system is distinguished from a closed one by the fact that interaction exists with its environment; since most organisations must be considered as open systems, their environment becomes a dialectic part of any systems definition. Concludes that computerised marketing information systems will never be able to replace the questioning human mind.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how origin information for wine products influences retail sales. The growing variety of products and the generally singular origin of wine products makes this market particularly sensitive to origin information. The origin of wine is often perceived as an indicator of quality and is used as the basis of decision making when purchasing wine products. This study empirically tests a portion of Johansson's framework for the use of origin information through both a market survey and a field experiment to determine the predictive value on market position for a group of wine products from the Texas region. The results of the survey and the field experiment were consistent and found that emphasizing the origin of Texas wine significantly influenced retail sales. These results also indicate that special displays and increased retail shelf space do not always have a positive effect on sales of the displayed products. Therefore, it is important for retail managers to first identify whether the image of the wine's origin is perceived positively or negatively before using origin information in store displays.

Investigates the marketing of services, defining the term and describing previous work carried out in this area. Shows how theories of buyer behaviour can help in formulating marketing strategies by the use of examples. Suggest‐that by approaching the marketing of services through the available general theories the time and cost of developing effective techniques may be reduced.

Claims that the consumer behaviour field, during the last two decades, has become both multinational and multidisciplinary. States that marketing with its consumer behaviour, has become the most import sub‐field, while significant contributions to its understanding have been made by economists, psychologists, sociologists and political scientists. Attempts to prove that integrating the field into comprehensive models has not been very successful thus far, by using a different track. Organizes into 9 sections and addresses, finally, the further development of consumer theory and research. Posits that the majority of studies on consumer behaviour have approached the subject matter at the individual, rather than the group, level. Summarizes that the ‘gospel’ preached is that of individual, proactive, foresightful choice ‐ which is compatible with rationalistic culture, stressing volition and personal responsibility by broadening the field of consumer behaviour