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Focuses on business‐to‐business services and requirements for different types of quality in suppliers′ relationships with clients. Reviews the relevant literature in the areas of quality, relationship marketing and services. Goes on to classify quality and satisfaction in this area under the headings of “hard”, “soft” and “outcome” quality. Draws attention to the industrial buying literature where the importance of developing and maintaining relationships has been well covered. Proposes different clients will have different requirements, particularly in the areas of hard and soft quality, both between one another and over time. Studying and meeting, where feasible, individual clients′ requirements may improve the relationship and prove profitable for both partners. Concludes by charting some problems and opportunities that arise during a business‐to‐business service relationship and presents the idea of the “relationship cycle” as a means of identifying this process in detail.

Examines the nature of a relatively new financial service, electronic cash. A qualitative study of students’ use of a specific form of electronic cash, namely Mondex, was undertaken. Attitudes and opinions were sought and the results presented within a theoretical framework of likely adoption. It was found that all students compared the performance of electronic cash with the traditional form of cash. A number of problems were encountered by students in relation to security, speed and complexity of use, although in some situations it was a preferred alternative. Concludes that these issues will need to be addressed but that electronic cash may have advantages in certain situations and that marketing effort should be concentrated on identifying niche opportunities or bundling appropriate services onto the card to provide a relative advantage for increasingly discerning consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of network competence to radical innovation.

Technological change associated with human body disposal acts as the form of radical innovation in which network competence is examined. Interviews, observations at industry conferences and secondary data are used for the case studies featured and in which network competence is investigated.

The paper establishes the importance of network competence at the regime and landscape level and the contribution of actors within commercial innovation niches to bringing cremation alternatives to market.

Some of the results are particular to the challenges of network entry and product introduction facing business start-ups and the context of body disposal is unique. Further research should examine network competence and radical innovation in other business fields.

Firstly, the context of human body disposal highlights the importance of institutional actors and social systems in bringing cremation alternatives to market. Secondly, focusing on human disposal encourages exchange amongst readers on a subject which is fundamental to man’s existence, yet the discussion of which many might normally choose to avoid.

The paper connects two areas of academic interest, namely, niche management for sustainability and radical innovation in business markets in which networking and network competence are key to the commercialisation of innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to help researchers and practitioners to understand and respond to consumer complaining behaviour (CCB) by developing a taxonomy that addresses the inadequacies of previous consumer complaining taxonomies and models, simplifies the terminology and covers both traditional and new ways of complaining.

Based on a systematic review of 210 studies, a concept-centric analysis of CCB literature was conducted. Seminal taxonomies and models of CCB are revisited and a critical evaluation of these is presented.

An integrated taxonomy of CCB is proposed which enhances the understanding of complaining in the twenty-first century by clarifying the ambiguities and overlapping constructs in the previous taxonomies.

The integrated taxonomy of CCB eliminates the ambiguity of previous approaches and introduces more coherent constructs in relation to the theory of CCB. The taxonomy comprehensively defines and describes the range of complaining actions to provide a complete framework. As a result, the authors’ understanding of CCB is developed through a focus on complaining actions, their characteristics and what these actions afford companies in their attempts to deal with complaints (i.e. audience and amount of information available).

Practitioners can use the integrated taxonomy of CCB to structure their complaint handling processes to obtain maximum customer feedback, to improve their product/service and to retain customers through satisfactorily addressing their complaints.

Although the literature on consumer complaining is mature, this is the first paper that offers a comprehensive taxonomy that explains CCB while addressing new developments in computer-mediated communications.

In the context of European consumers’ experiences of austerity, this study aims to advance current resilience theory in marketing through developing persistent resilience from a context of austerity influenced consumption.

Following an interpretivist approach, 38 face to face, in-depth interviews were conducted with European consumers from Ireland, UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece who were affected in some way by the global financial crisis.

Building upon limited conceptual and empirical investigations in social geography, the analysis identifies the themes of persistent stressors and temporal orientation as constants, alongside day-to-day coping, relating and pragmatism, consumer adjustment, repertoires of resistance and transformation as key elements of persistent resilience within the consumption context of austerity.

The study addresses the limited theoretical and empirical focus on persistent resilience and austerity and directly contributes to consumer behaviour and marketing theory in understanding persistent resilience and its implications.

Changes to behaviours as a result of persistent resilience included reducing and stopping consumption, discount shopping, alternative consumption in the form of growing or making and mindful consumption through wastage reduction and re-use.

The study highlights the significant social impact of austerity while also identifying positive outcomes for social relations among family, friends and the wider community.

This study develops and extends Golubchikov’s (2011) theory of persistent resilience through exploring European consumer responses to austerity, identifying key consumption characteristics relevant for marketing theory and practice.

This paper aims to examine how prosumption manifests in an online community, Instructables.com, and its value for those who engage with it. The paper emphasizes its distinctiveness compared to similar phenomena, particularly co-creation.

This work uses a netnography-informed research approach, involving Instructables community observations, participation and 15 online interviews with members of the community.

Prosumption provides personal benefits including hedonic elements of enjoyment and fun, functional elements of monetary saving and self-sufficiency, and cognitive benefits such as problem solving and learning. Further, extra-personal benefits include community-, environment-, market-, family- and friends-oriented benefits.

Personal and extra-personal prosumption benefits generate use and social value, progressing understanding of value through a type of prosumption that the authors term peer-to-peer.

An understanding of the differences among concepts can set expectations, responsibilities and opportunities for both firms and prosumers in an increasingly collaborative marketplace.

By critically analyzing the nature of value through a particular kind of prosumption, the paper makes three theoretical contributions. First, it transforms and broadens the scope of empirical research by clarifying critical distinctions between co-creation and prosumption and establishing them as higher-order concepts. Second, the paper determines the benefits, use and social value participants derive from particular forms of participation in the marketplace. Finally, the paper establishes a new concept, namely peer-to-peer prosumption, which the authors define as a type of prosumption that prioritizes collective, peer-to-peer use and social value over exchange value. The paper contributes to marketing literature on the ongoing evolution of consumer roles and participation in the marketplace, by furthering theorization in this field.

The complexity of customer relationships has been recognized in the relationship marketing literature. Yet, the understanding of how this complexity impacts on the formation and development of different relationship forms is limited. Focusing on the development of customer‐service provider relationships in a financial services context, this paper aims to critically examine the nature and formation of business‐to‐consumer service relationships.

Qualitative methods were employed, with in‐depth interviews undertaken with a sample of UK bank customers.

The complexity of customer relationships was documented by approaching relationships as multidimensional, dynamic and contextual. A relationship typology based on four key relationship components (trust, commitment, buyer‐seller bonds, and relationship benefits) is proposed. This typology suggests that for a relationship to exist it does not necessarily have to encompass an emotional dimension. Moreover, the paper demonstrates the importance of the fit between customers' relational expectations and their experiences with service providers in developing long‐term committed relationships.

The study was limited to the UK context. The extension of this study to other sectors or financial institutions operating in different regulatory and technological environments needs to be tested.

It is crucial that relationships are viewed as multidimensional, taking into account various relationship components. Since different relationship components influence relationships differently, organisations need to develop different relationship marketing strategies for each consumer segment according to consumers' relational expectations.

Building on preceding research, this paper broadens understanding of the complexity of customer‐firm relationships by presenting insight into the affective element of relationships and highlighting the role of the fit between customers' relational expectations and their experiences in relationship development.

This paper presents an interpretive study of older consumers and their potential for ethical consumption. Although latterly marketers are recognising the value of older consumers, research has not yet examined their attitudes and behaviour towards ethical consumption. From the collection of individual interviews conducted for this study, it would seem that older people share a sense of moral responsibility in their purchase behaviour, and as a community are willing to engage in affirmative purchasing and boycotting. Although there are perceived barriers to their participation in broader ethical purchasing activities, they would appear to be a potentially significant force in the consumer resistance movement. The findings suggest that as a group, older consumers should be considered as an important target market for ethical marketers who wish to benefit from their collective sense of social obligation.