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The purpose of this research is to undertake an examination of the impacts of socio‐demographic and economic variables on the probability of purchasing financial products. There is relatively little empirical research that has been taken to understand how the underlying economy affects customers' subsequent financial product purchase behaviours. Understanding this influence would improve prediction of when purchases will occur and hence is important for the Customer lifetime value models of financial service organisations.

Two proportional hazard modelling approaches – Cox and Weibull – are compared in terms of predictive ability on a data set from a major insurance company. The risk factors for purchase are both economic and socio‐demographic.

The results show that the external economic environment is an extremely important influence in driving customers' financial products purchasing behaviours. Furthermore, the results also indicate that Cox's proportional hazard models are superior to Weibull proportional hazard models in this case because of an annual purchase effect.

Financial organisations need to consider the current economic conditions before determining how much marketing effort to undertake.

The originality of this paper is that it considers economic conditions and socio‐demographic variables in modelling the long run purchase behaviour of customers for insurance and savings products. It has a large data set from a major insurance company. It is also one of the first papers to make a detailed comparison between the semi‐parametric and parametric proportional hazard models in the bank marketing area.

The purpose of this study is to assess, in two different live sponsorship environments, the contribution of sponsorship to consumer-based brand equity.

The study adopts a quantitative survey methodology, employing self-administered questionnaires at two UK sporting events (athletics and cricket). To isolate the impact of sponsorship, questionnaires were also distributed to comparison sample groups not exposed to the sponsorship activities. The elements of consumer-based brand equity are operationalized in line with Aaker's (1996) brand equity measurement tool.

Sponsorship can be an appropriate vehicle through which to build consumer-based brand equity; however brand-building success is not guaranteed and is subject to a range of factors impacting upon particular sponsorships, including strength of the sponsor-event link, leverage activities and clutter. The most successful sponsorship displayed marked contributions to building brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty. However, the presence of sponsorship clutter in particular was found to impact negatively upon the perception of quality transferred to a brand through sponsorship.

The use of live event settings limits the ability to tightly control all variables; therefore replication of this study using experimental methodologies is recommended. Nonetheless, findings indicate managers should consider the above mentioned contextual factors when selecting sponsorships in order to maximize sponsorship success.

This study explores the contribution of sports sponsorship to consumer-based brand equity in live sponsorship settings, addressing concerns over the generalizability of previous experimental studies. Equally, this study compares the brand equity-building effectiveness of sponsorship for two sponsors, which differ on a range of contextual factors that impact upon sponsorship success.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the latest mounting evidence reporting associations between the important role of whole grains and fibre in lowering the risk of chronic diseases and health.

A general systematic review was conducted to locate and summarise up-to-date published studies within the field. A Medline search identified human-controlled trials and observational studies published in the past five years.

A total of 49 studies were identified. In observational studies, higher intakes of whole grain and dietary fibre were associated with a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, abdominal adiposity and certain cancers. This was further supported by human intervention trials, which reported benefits for appetite control, blood lipid levels, glycaemic control, digestive health and secondary cancer prevention. Mechanisms may relate to the micronutrients and phytonutrients present in high fibre foods.

Practical advice is needed to help people identify foods rich in whole grains, e.g. breakfast cereals. UK fibre recommendations should be aligned with European guidelines and food labelling regulations, and a whole grain dietary recommendation, e.g. similar to the US guideline of three portions a day, could be introduced. Government and industry should play a role in communicating dietary fibre guidelines and the health benefits associated with whole grain and fibre, particularly insoluble fibre.

This paper develops knowledge about whole grains, health and the importance of establishing whole-grain dietary recommendations.