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This is the first of a two‐part article on cultural aspects of alcohol use and includes information on alcohol consumption among Koreans, British, Americans, Jews, Italians, Irish and Hispanics. Drinking practices and customs, like all other lifeways, are culture bound, multi‐faceted, and learned behaviour. People from all ethno‐cultural groups use alcohol in some form, even in those societies where drinking is highly stigmatised or tabooed. Behavioural problems with alcohol misuse are as important as the physiological and psychological variants. There is remarkably little correspondence between the amount of alcohol consumption and behavioural problems encountered when cross‐cultural comparisons of drinking are examined. Learning about cross‐culture comparisons of alcohol use and misuse can have the potential to promote more responsible and sensible drinking behaviour.

This is the second of a two‐part article on cultural aspects of alcohol use. Part I introduced the primary and secondary characteristics of culture and the current information on drinking patterns of selected ethnocultural groups. Part 2 includes other selected primary and secondary characteristics of culture such as age, gender, religious affiliation, education, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. The article concludes with measures whose effectiveness has been questionable in promoting responsible alcohol use and includes some proven and new recommendations.

Research for the case study was conducted using a combination of semi-structured interviews and secondary data sources.

This case traces the international expansion of Sadowsky Guitars’ bass guitar product line. Roger Sadowsky is one of the most respected instrument makers in the world and gained early acclaim for his outstanding repair and restoration work on guitars and basses. Some of his early clients included Prince, Will Lee (The Tonight Show), Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, Jason Newsted of Metallica, Eddie Van Halen and Marcus Miller. Roger’s reputation and the demand for his instruments led to some customers having to wait for more than a year to obtain the chance to purchase a Sadowsky instrument, while others were unable to do so due to financial constraints. In 2003, Roger made the decision to form Sadowsky Japan to begin the contract manufacturing of more affordable Sadowsky instruments in Tokyo, Japan. As the company grew in size, Roger realized he was becoming more focused on running a business than building instruments. Furthermore, his Japanese partners were only interested in serving the Japanese market. This required him to handle the sales and distribution in the remaining parts of the world. In December of 2019, he announced a new, exclusive licensing agreement and distribution partnership between Sadowsky Guitars and Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG. The new agreement allowed Roger to continue running the Sadowsky NYC Custom Shop while Warwick would take over building and distributing the Metro instruments and a less-expensive, Chinese-built version of the MetroExpress instruments.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate-level courses related to marketing and consumer behavior. The case walks students through a real-life scenario when the founder of a well-known musical brand sought to expand internationally as a way to meet growing market demand. Students are asked to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the five key international market entry strategies: exporting, licensing, contract manufacturing, joint ventures and investment (equity/acquisition).

The case works well in the classroom, even if people are unfamiliar with the musical instrument retail industry. Participants are most likely aware of some of the artists and musicians mentioned in the case. Some may also be or know musicians. The instructor should be able to quickly engage participants in a lively discussion about Roger Sadowsky’s vision for his instruments and the opportunities and challenges of expanding product offerings and increasing market share.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

This study draws parallels between the Major and Johnson eras to reclaim a discursive space beyond the media and political battlefields to examine long-term systemic failure of government PR.

As part of a wider study into government communications from 1979 to date, this paper draws on evidence from government archives from the 1990s, as well as contemporary accounts, official documents, media accounts, memoirs and biographies, to examine the PR record of two Conservative administrations divided by three decades.

News management during the Major premiership is worth serious scrutiny, not just as an interlude between two media-friendly Prime Ministers, Thatcher and Blair, but in comparison to Boris Johnson's struggle to contain the news narrative between 2019 and 2022. Both administrations experienced terminal reputational crises during their closing years but their means of managing the news were counter-productive and damaging to public trust (65).

Does this failure in public communication illustrate a systemic dysfunction in government-media relations and, if so, what is the role of government PR in these circumstances?

This article uses a comparison between fixed and moving variables associated with two very different administrations to identify the causes of ongoing systemic failure in government communication.

Action in international marketing is usually preceded by research. Most international marketing research reports are built on a skeleton of currently available international socio‐economic, demographic and social indicators. The author in this paper argues that the currently available indicators used by marketing analysts have in many cases little comparative value and are in many cases inadequate for, or irrelevant to, the requirements of marketing. He uses in illustration the needs of a specific project that had as its objective the prediction of the different levels of retail distribution in Western Europe. The limitations of available international indicators are analysed. Preferable alternatives are proposed. Some of these require original research: others the restructuring of existing data. It is also urged that it is a basic pre‐requisite that international marketing analysis be made at the level of the sub‐national region — not at national level. The formation of a specifically‐oriented Marketing Indicators Working Party is proposed.

SPRING is now well with us, and it is not easy to prophesy what effect the great war will have on our profession, indeed it is impossible to forecast anything whatever about it. So far as libraries are concerned, there are abundant evidences that some librarians have been able to seize the opportunities the time affords them. An interesting example of this is a duplicated list issued by the Bristol Public Libraries offering to readers the titles of the books which in his capital little volume Books and You Somerset Maugham has recommended. It is a pity that the book referred to, which is a small volume of about 80 well‐spaced pages, costs 3s. 6d. Had it been published at 1s. we should recommend that every library should purchase one copy for every five hundred of its readers; and although this would be a large number it would be a thoroughly justifiable purchase, because Maugham, following of course personal standards as every writer must, has selected books which in his own opinion—and his is an opinion of no mean value—are of first hand excellence. In bringing the titles before the public in the way Bristol Libraries has done, Mr. Ross has done a service which most librarians are trying to do in some way or other, but is particularly effective in this particular case. Other libraries are putting out lists of war books, of gardening books, of cookery books and, indeed, on all sorts of practical subjects dealing with the war effort.

This case can be used to teach students how to analyze innovative business models, as well as to trace their reasons for success and failure. The following objectives also align with categories in Bloom’s taxonomy (Forehand, 2010), consistent with the keywords underlined. More specifically, this case will enable students to learn the following: First, to analyze the distinctive features of a social commerce business model, and how these differ from a traditional e-commerce model. This objective maps to Discussion Question No. 1. This objective helps students to understand the value proposition of an unfamiliar business model (social commerce platform) and compare it with that of a familiar business model (e-commerce platform). Second, racing the causes for success and failure of a venture, using frameworks from entrepreneurship and strategy. This relates to Discussion Question No. 2. This objective helps students analyze strategic decisions of an entrepreneur in light of available resource constraints and by applying appropriate conceptual frameworks. Third, developing recommendations to help a new venture sustain its business model in the face of severe challenges. Discussion Question No. 3 covers this objective. This objective enables students to debate possible paths that the startup could take. The discussion on possible paths naturally causes students to create sustainable or viable options.

The case describes the challenge facing Vidit Aatrey, the founder and chief executive of Meesho, a social commerce venture headquartered in Bangalore, India, in October of 2022. While Meesho recorded the second-highest sales (by order volume) during India’s festive season, it also recorded layoffs and business closures. While Meesho’s core business of getting resellers to sell through its online platform seemed to be working, its new business ventures, such as expanding into the grocery business and into Indonesia, had failed and resulted in more than 300 layoffs. Meesho was also pressed for funding: valued at US$4.9bn, the global market for venture capital funding had chilled and now demanded profitability, not growth-at-all-costs. Meesho’s cash burn rate was about $40m per month, and Aatrey was hard pressed to come up with options for profitable growth.

This case is intended for students of management at a master’s level in a course on entrepreneurship. At the authors’ institute, this case is used with MBA students in an elective course on entrepreneurship and also in an elective course in general management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship