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Risk is indigenous to decision making. Marketing decisions in particular are associated with high risk. This article defines risk, offers insights on how marketing managers may improve their handling of risk, discusses marketers' two key ways of handling risk: various product models and the expected value, considers why finance models are often irrelevant to marketing problems, and offers some insights for marketing managers in dealing with risk.

Considers benchmarking to be an important decision making tool for marketing executives. Describes the value of benchmarking to marketers in improving decision making with respect to the “Four Ps”. Outlines steps for implementing such a program.

While numerous classifications have been proposed to differentiate goods from services, equivalent research on classification systems that could be used both for goods and services has not been explored. Today, in many instances, consumers can select either a physical good or a service to fulfill their needs. Consequently, marketers of services may gain strategic insights by investigating the similarities between goods and services as well as differences. Presents a unified taxonomy that classifies services into convenience, preference, shopping and specialty categories according to customer perceptions of perceived risk, purchase effort and involvement. For this study, 168 subjects evaluated eight services that represented the four categories. Results indicate that this classification system may be as useful in categorizing services as it has been for categorizing goods. Findings suggest that examining services from a consumer point of view offers alternative strategies for the service provider. The level of risk, purchase effort and involvement varies among types of services, not just between services and goods. Therefore, service managers are advised to examine their service from a consumer perspective to identify potential competitors and design effective marketing strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how buyers can more effectively and efficiently utilize technologies to improve their performance and to inform top executives in retail firms how these technologies can be used to improve the overall performance of the retail store.

Using a descriptive approach, the paper identifies current technologies that are being used and shows how technology can be used by retail buyers.

Technologies developed over the past 20 years have changed the way buyers execute their responsibilities with advancements in various technologies; faster transmission of data results in the ability of buyers to immediately react to inventory and pricing issues. However, given that technology investments can exceed millions of dollars, and that many retailers' margins and inventory productivity have been eroding over the last ten years, the stakes for information technology decisions have grown exponentially, so care must be taken in making these decisions.

This subject matter is most important for retail practitioners because it identifies areas where the performance of buyers can be improved. It is also valuable to college professors who teach retailing and buying and to their students because it provides current subject matter that should be incorporated into classes.

This paper identified the most current technologies being used by buyers in a variety of stores to improve their performance. In addition, this paper identified the future trends in technology adopted by innovative retailers.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the responses of women college students to discount stores and category killers in terms of the importance of seven‐store characteristics as well as their expectations for these attributes. Another purpose was to determine differences, if any, between these two store formats. Further the moderating variables of shopping frequency and orientation were introduced to determine if they influenced the results.

Personal interviews were used to collect data from a random sample of women college students from one university through the administration of a structured survey instrument. Statistical analyses were employed to generate the results.

Differences were found in the respondents' perceptions for both importance and expectations for six of the seven‐store attributes. For one characteristic, continuity of supply, no differences emerged and this characteristic was deemed important for both store formats. Moderating variables did not alter the results.

Given the limited nature of the sample, there is a need for replication of this research in other geographic regions, including international sites in order to corroborate these findings. Also, replication with men is needed.

This study provides guidance to both discount store and category killer executives on the types of strategies and tactics needed to better attract and retain women college students.

Attention was directed to women college students, a highly desired but often neglected market segment. Further, continuity of supply, an attribute not often indicated in most retailing texts emerged as very important and highly expected by respondents.

This paper sets out to determine the benefits offered to customers and activities taken by retailers, whether or not they have formal customer loyalty programs, whether there are differences in the benefits/activities of retailers with and without formal loyalty programs and finally, whether specific benefits/activities of retailers can predict whether or not they have formal loyalty programs.

A questionnaire was sent to a random sample of retailers in one US state. In addition, respondents reporting that they had formal loyalty programs received a telephone call lasting less than ten minutes designed to gather further information regarding their loyalty program. χ², Kendall's W and logistic regression analysis were used to test the purposes of this study.

The most used benefits/activities of participating retailers are: demonstrating having the customers' interests at heart, providing financial incentives to selected customers, sending thank you notes to customers, and identifying customer preferences and recording them to guide future actions. In addition, a model was developed that was used to predict those retailers that had formal loyalty programs.

Given the nature of the sample, there is a need for replication to corroborate these findings. A larger‐sized sample would be needed to determine the presence of moderating and mediating factors that should be taken into account, such as size, environment, and competition.

Customer loyalty is one critical key to business success and retaining an existing customer costs far less than acquiring new ones. One way to do this is to create customer loyalty programs that effectively reward one's best or potentially important best customers. Further, these program participants will spend more than the non‐participants.

This empirical research provides support for retailers' usage of loyalty programs. Further, insights are provided into the activities that can be used to retailers' competitive advantage by identifying the types of benefits they can offer.

This “viewpoint” article aims to chronicle the history and evolution of the Journal of Services Marketing from 1987 through 2011, from the vantage point of Professor Charles L. Martin, who served on the journal's Editorial Advisory Board from 1987‐1990 and as Editor from 1990 to the present day.

The article summarizes the events and publisher's philosophy leading up to the founding of the journal, and discusses the policies/practices and content of the journal from 1987 through 2011.

The journal has evolved as the field of services marketing has evolved – from many conceptual, “how to” and idea articles to those more empirically‐based and theory‐driven. However, the journal's commitment to managerial implications or other implications continues.

Understanding the history and evolution of the journal promises to help service researchers better understand the field's archives, identify gaps in the literature and position their research for the future. The paper promises to help service researchers and business practitioners alike to understand that the field of services marketing is not static; rather it has evolved and developed over the years and will continue to do so in the future.

It is useful for any organization – including journals – to periodically document and reflect on its history in order to set its sights on the future.