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Several different operational definitions of quality are commonly used in industry. The existence of these different definitions can cause confusion unless their relationships to each other are understood. Offers an explanation of the relationships between those definitions which are based on fitness for purpose, conformance and satisfaction of their customers. It does this by considering the individual transaction as the key element in the generation of quality; and showing how each definition corresponds to a relation between a pair of stages in the transaction. Develops a model of quality from this analysis, and shows how this model can be used to analyse the quality of business operations.

This paper aims to extend the known boundary conditions of the negative binomial distribution (NBD) model, and to test the applicability of conditional trend analysis (CTA) – a key method to identify whether changes in overall sales are accounted for by previous non-buyers, light buyers or heavy buyers – in industrial purchasing situations.

The study tested the NBD model and CTA in an industrial marketing context using a 12-month data set of purchases from an Australian supplier of a range of industrial plastic resins.

The purchase data displayed a good NBD fit; the study therefore extends the known boundary conditions of the model. The application of CTA provided second-period purchasing frequency estimates showing no significant difference from actual data, indicating the applicability of this method to industrial purchasing.

Data relate to just one supplier. Further research across several industries is required to confirm the generalizability and robustness of NBD and CTA to industrial markets.

Marketing decisions can be improved through appropriate analysis of customer purchasing data. However, without access to equivalent competitor data, industrial marketers are constrained in benchmarking the purchasing patterns of their own customers. The results indicate that use of the NBD model enables valid benchmarking for industrial products, while CTA would enable appropriate analysis of purchases by different classes of customer.

This paper extends the known boundary conditions of the NBD model and provides the first published results, indicating the appropriateness of CTA to predict purchasing frequencies of different industrial customer classes.

Displaying appropriate emotions enhances followers’ perceptions toward a leader. The present study examined the moderating effect of leader group-prototypicality on the relationship between leader’s emotion appropriateness and followers’ perceptions toward the leader (i.e., self-sacrifice intentions and effectiveness). Based on a set of 366 Malaysian students’ experimental survey responses, leader group-prototypicality emerged as a significant moderator. Specifically, the effect of leader’s emotion appropriateness was stronger for group-prototypical leaders than non-group-prototypical leaders. Hence, to enhance their perceived effectiveness, leaders should portray appropriate emotions and ensure that they are viewed as representative by their followers.

Marketers frequently lament the lack of representation of marketing in the boardroom and the short tenure of CMOs. The most common explanations offered are that marketing is not perceived as a strategic discipline and that marketers do not demonstrate a strong enough understanding of how the business makes money.

Financial accounting is how “score is kept” in terms of business performance. It is, therefore, in the self-interest of marketers to become familiar with financial reporting. Doing so will allow them to understand how marketing activities are recorded. In addition, academic researchers need to understand the meaning of the financial measures that they often use as the metrics of success when researching marketing strategy questions.

This is especially important since financial reporting generally does not recognize assets created by marketing investments. In order to substantiate a claim that “brands are assets”, marketers must be able to explain how the financial accounting rules misrepresent economic reality and why managers might use a different set of principles for management reporting.

We argue that the misrepresentation of market-based assets has two forms of negative impact for marketers: external and internal. The external problems are that financial statements are not especially informative about the value of marketing for the providers of capital and do not provide a true portrait of the economic resource base of the company. The internal problems are that marketers cannot point to valuable assets that they are creating, nor can they be effectively held accountable for the way that these assets are managed given that the assets are not recorded.

We do not expect immediate radical changes in financial reporting because financial accounting rules are designed with the specific interests of the suppliers of capital (debt and equity) in mind. To influence financial accounting developments, such as encouraging greater disclosure of marketing activity in the notes to the published accounts, marketers must be able to communicate in language understood by accountants and the current users of financial accounts. To aid this we provide guidance for marketers on the purpose and practices of accounting. We also discuss how academic marketing researchers might wish to adjust financial accounting data to capitalize a proportion of marketing expenses for companies where marketing is a primary driver of business performance.

This paper examines the controversy surrounding the use of the Inverted‐Sum‐Of‐Years‐Digits (ISOYD) method of goodwill amortisation and events leading to its banning by the Australian accounting regulatory bodies. Companies using the method claimed that a prohibition would reduce their share price and international competitiveness. On the other hand, efficient capital market proponents argued that the amortisation method was irrelevant to the economic position of a firm in the absence of any cash flow effects. This paper discusses these conflicting views and investigates possible motives for the choice of goodwill amortisation method through a cross‐company analysis of key characteristics. In addition, sharemarket reaction to key events leading to the change of policy was examined using conventional event‐study methodology. The cross‐company analysis revealed significant differences in the goodwill characteristics between ISOYD companies and non‐ISOYD companies which may have motivated their choice. The result of the event‐study found that no significant abnormal return could be unequivocally attributed to any of the key events or announcements.

An introduction is given to some of the resources on the Internet that may be used in academic libraries in Europe. Particular reference is made to accessing other libraries' catalogues, document delivery services, shared information products and campus wide information systems. Several figures of screen outputs are included to provide the reader with an insight into the range of information available. The use of the Bulletin Board for Libraries (BUBL) as a starting point for finding out about resources on the Internet is suggested.

This paper, based on an interview with Richard Freeman, describes the creation and development of the City Disputes Panel (CDP). It is the initiative of Richard Freeman, a solicitor and former merchant banker. The Panel will offer arbitration, mediation and expert determination procedures for dealing with wholesale markets disputes such as may arise in the context of many financial services transactions. Current methods for dealing with such disputes comprise compliance investigations followed by resort to litigation which is costly and time‐consuming. The CDP will offer a suitable forum of financial and legal experts to deal with such disputes effectively and expeditiously.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.

Mr J. C. Rivelt, B.Sc.(Eng.) M.I.E.E., has been appointed Manager of the Aircraft Equipment Division of the English Electric Co. Ltd. He will continue in his present position of Manager of the Luton Division of D. Napier and Son Ltd.