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Argues that the aim of marketers should be to build positive relationships with customers. However, the nature of such relationships is unclear. Examines the one‐to‐one relationship between customers and individual employees and highlights key implications for managers.

Four attitudinal components of customer loyalty were synthesised from the services literature and combined to produce a loyalty conceptualisation that excludes repurchase behaviour. This proposed conceptualisation of service loyalty was then modelled in two quantitative studies to determine the effects of potential predictors. The influence of consumers’ evaluative judgements was compared against the effects of relational outcomes. The three evaluative judgement measures were service encounter satisfaction, perceived core service quality and value for money while relational measures comprised social comfort, social regard and friendship. It was found that while personal friendship between customer and service employee was significantly associated with loyalty, service encounter satisfaction was the major predictor. It was also found that the relational factors of social comfort and social regard played indirect roles through their influence on customer’s evaluation of satisfaction and quality. Conversely, friendship was not related to the mediating variables of service encounter satisfaction and perceived core service quality.

The social interaction between customers and individual employees can be critical for business success. Similarly, factors such as customer convenience and value for money are important to repeat purchase. Frontline employees often face the dilemma of how much social interaction is appropriate. Data were collected in a cross‐sectional survey of 406 customers to determine the relative importance of social influence on repurchase intentions across three services. The findings show that social influence variables can be as important as convenience and value for money factors. Further, the data indicate that the nature of the interaction is the critical factor, rather than the amount of social interaction. For naturopathic clinics, the enthusiasm shown by the health care professional is the key factor, whereas in hairdressing salons, making the customer feel relaxed and comfortable is critical.

Economic structural complementarity between country A and country B, or the way the two countries specialize in different industries is a useful tool for the analysis of the likely impact of trade liberalization. Although implicit in earlier work on economic integration, this concept has been overshadowed subsequently, probably because of the “econometrization” of the studies on trade liberalization. This paper aims to discuss first the relevance of the concept of structural complementarity between two economies in the context of regional integration. Second, since the EU and Korea are on the verge of signing a free trade agreement (FTA), it aims to show that measuring economic structural complementarity in the case of these two countries is all the more desirable.

The paper applies a number of indices such as the trade complementarity index and the Kreinin‐Finger similarity of export index to the manufacturing sector.

On the whole the EU and Korea are structurally complementary, implying large potential gains from the FTA. However, the existence of two critical industries, namely road vehicles and electrical machinery are revealed.

The FTA poses some sectoral challenges to the industries, in particular for the EU, and it calls for appropriate strategies in these areas.

This article both clarifies and measures economic structural complementarity, a concept connected with, but not reduced to that of competitiveness. By using several indicators, the present study shows that the manufacturing sectors of the EU and of Korea are on the whole complementary.

Women remain under-represented in leadership positions in both clinical medicine and medical education, despite a rapid increase in the proportion of women in the medical profession. This chapter explores potential reasons for this under-representation and how it can be ameliorated, drawing on a range of international literatures, theories and practices. We consider both the ‘demand’ for and ‘supply’ of women as leaders, by examining: how evolving theories of leadership help to explain women’s’ leadership roles and opportunities, how employment patterns theory and gender schemas help to explain women’s career choices, how women aspiring to leadership can be affected by the ‘glass ceiling’ and the ‘glass cliff’ and the importance of professional development and mentoring initiatives. We conclude that high-level national strategies will need to be reinforced by real shifts in culture and structures before women and men are equally valued for their leadership and followership contributions in medicine and medical education.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

The global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007–2008 had far-reaching consequences for the global economy, triggering widespread economic turmoil. We use the event-study method to investigate whether investors priced the effect of significant events before the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy in European and Asia-Pacific banks. Abnormal returns on the event days range from −4.32% to 5.03% in Europe and −5.13% to 6.57% in Asia-Pacific countries. When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt on September 15, 2008, abnormal returns averaged the lowest at −4.32% in Europe and −5.13% in Asia-Pacific countries. The significant abnormal returns show that Lehman Brothers' collapse was a turning point, and investors paid attention to the precrisis events as warning signs of the oncoming crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how climate change risk reporting might evolve in various world regions in the post COVID-19 pandemic era.

Using a multiple-case study approach and adopting an institutional theory lens, we assess whether the pandemic is likely to strengthen or weaken institutional pressures for climate change risk disclosures and predict how climate-related risk reporting will evolve post-pandemic.

The authors find that climate change risk reporting is likely to evolve differently according to geographical location. The authors predict that disclosure levels will increase in regions with ambitious climate policy and where economic stimulus packages support sustainable economic recovery. Where there has been a weakening of environmental commitments and economic stimulus packages support resource intensive business, climate change risk reporting will stagnate or even decline. The authors discuss the scenarios for climate change risk reporting expected to play out in different parts of the world.

The authors contribute to the nascent literature on climate change risk disclosure and identify future directions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘The Choice between Chip and Wire and High Density Surface Mount Packages (MCM‐X, COB, etc.)’ was the title of the above event. One of a regular series held by ISHM‐France, this technical seminar was attended by over 100 members and non‐members of ISHM who were eager to hear of the latest developments in the field of multichip modules. The eight papers presented are summarised below: