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Despite being a common term in the literature, there is little agreement about what the word “adaptability” means in the context of the built environment and very little evidence regarding practitioners’ understanding of adaptability. This paper aims to examine what practitioners in the building industry mean when they talk about “adaptability”.

This study adopted a qualitative approach, involving 82 unstructured face-to-face interviews with practitioners from a range of professional disciplines in the construction industry, including architects, engineers, facilities managers, property agents and planners. The interview transcripts were coded inductively to identify themes in the qualitative data.

The interview data revealed a wide range of perspectives on adaptability, particularly regarding terminology, the meanings practitioners associate with adaptability and the way in which these meanings are communicated to others in the industry. The applied meaning of adaptability varied depending on context.

Conflicting language, and different interpretations of adaptability, is a potential barrier to the development of adaptable buildings. A clearer articulation of the meaning of adaptability (particularly by clients) during briefing and design could give rise to a more appropriate level of adaptability in the built environment.

This study has addressed a gap in the existing literature by foregrounding the voices of industry practitioners and exploring their (sometimes very different) interpretations of adaptability in buildings.

The purchase of a car is a highly involved process when compared with other retail experiences. Despite the range of purchase channels available and the increased level of accessible information, the majority of customers still choose to buy a car through a traditional dealer network. The sales process, which is often seen as adversarial, involves a high level of personal interaction and has remained relatively unchanged through the industry’s 100 year history. This paper examines the impact of the introduction of a computer assisted selling process on customers’ perceptions of the overall buying process. This pilot study was undertaken prior to the system’s global roll out and incorporated a range of research methods: CCTV observation, customer and staff interviews. The preliminary findings indicated that the computer assisted buying process was well received by customers.

Examines the role of strategic marketing in public sector services. Looks at the strategic marketing planning process and identifies the barriers which hinder the utilization of synoptic marketing planning in library services. Concludes by putting forward an incremental model of marketing planning which it proposes is more applicable to this sector.

Social influences seem to be important in starting up small ethnic minority businesses in the food industry. Many do not use banks for initial financing, but family or near family. Some pointers are given for support agencies and policy makers.

Research funded by the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust into the ethnic minority food industry in the West Midlands is described. The structure of this sector and identification of the interrelationships within it, from the food manufacturers through to the retail outlets, were examined. Policy implications of these and the reasons for so many food businesses starting up and subsequently failing are presented.

Contends that, although strategic management and marketing techniques have been widely recognized as useful outside the profit‐making sector, strategic planning is one technique which does not appear to have been widely adopted. Reports the development of strategic plans in an educational service for the hearing‐impaired. Discusses the poor applicability of conventional (formalized, comprehensive, linear) planning techniques to the situation of the service and outlines the development of an alternative model, based on a more informal, holistic approach.

The paper reports on research sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as part of its Canon of Knowledge initiative. The paper addresses the issue of what areas currently being taught as part of the discipline of marketing are considered important by business‐to‐business marketing practitioners. It also examines how these differ between the private and public sectors and identifies the tools and techniques felt to be most useful to practitioners.

It is generally accepted that the launch of a new product is critical to its success. Key to this is that manufacturers understand the market segment which is targeted for the launch. However, recent research and criticism suggest that modern segmentation strategies, aligning products with lifecycle typologies do not work. It is no longer possible to align consumers and products into neat and stable lifecycle segments. It is suggested that more importance should be attached to products having a familiarity fit with consumers – what they know and expect from a particular product. These views are moderated by a consumer's enthusiasm or involvement with the product as well as their level of expertise in understanding complex products. This paper aims to look at these issues.

This research looks at consumer perceptions to the changes to two automotive models launched by one of the major manufacturers at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Germany, held in September 2005, to discover which changes had the most appeal and to identify correlations with consumer lifecycles.

Results revealed that consumer lifecycles had no correlation with any of the data, whereas familiarity, expertise and product involvement will provide manufacturers with more accurate segmentation tools in the launch and marketing of new automotive products.

These findings suggest that a customer's expertise, product involvement and familiarity with the product are likely to provide more appropriate market segmentation tools.

This paper reveals useful information on consumer lifestyles and market segmentation tools.

The purpose of this paper is to report on research into the introduction of computer assisted sales processes (CASP) to a retail automotive sales environment. This research specifically aims to examine the effectiveness and implications for automotive dealers, their staff and customers.

Primary research was carried out at three automotive dealer groups, including semi‐structured interviews with dealer managers and sales people, postal questionnaires and focus groups with existing customers.

The study found customer perceptions of the buying experience improved when CASP was used effectively in the sales process. To achieve this it is critical to evaluate the sales force's technology readiness and orientation so that training requirements can be identified. This research found the training needs of the salespeople were seriously underestimated.

The main limitation of the research is that, due to timescales, it is a cross‐sectional study in thee different dealer groups at three different stages of CASP implementation. It would benefit from a further longitudinal research with a larger sample.

The use of CASP and other sales force automation systems is unlikely to lose pace; therefore organisations need to audit their salespeople's skills and use of their systems. Otherwise, the huge investments involved will not provide benefits to the organisation, the sales person or the customers.

This research expands on previous research into customer perceptions of the overall buying experience and contributes to sales force automation theory. It found CASP improves a sales person's effectiveness with the customer and the customer's perception of the whole buying process.