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To provide insight into the relevant factors for faculty recruitment and retention that can help leadership of business schools to design and implement a tailored policy to recruit and retain academic talent in a highly competitive and international market.

Two surveys were sent out in parallel to deans/directors and faculty of 181 European business schools. A total of 42 important factors were selected and ranked in order of importance for both recruitment and retention of academic talent. In addition the faculty were asked to indicate to what extent they are satisfied with each of the factors in their current situation. Deans/directors were asked to indicate to what extent they felt able to influence each of the factors.

Factors of crucial importance for recruitment and retention were identified, both from the deans and from the faculty perspective. Perception gaps occurred between deans and faculty, as well as satisfaction gaps on important factors: this led to the identification of interesting policy problems and opportunities. Segmentation of the sample facilitated the demonstration of differences in perception between groups of faculty according to gender, age and rank, and between groups of schools according to legal structure, orientation, enrolment, and accreditation status.

Deans/directors of 69 European schools and 350 faculty members in 12 countries completed the survey. The database could be further enlarged to make more detailed analysis possible. Expanding the research to include schools of other continents would enable one to analyse cross‐continent differences between business schools.

The developed framework and the data provide an excellent opportunity for business schools' leadership to analyze the effectiveness of its policy and benchmark the school against a selected peer group.

The survey and the developed framework for analysis are unique and, in this form, have never been done before. The value of the paper is that it presents unique evidence on important factors crucial to faculty management.

THIS journal was represented at a Press Conference last month; and over the drinks and canapés that it is the custom to provide at such occasions, one of the executives of the company throwing the party asked our reporter, “You have changed your name recently, haven't you?”

The purpose of the study was to investigate the feasibility of producer‐driven marketing of differentiated meat, in the context of Australian family farms. Producer‐driven marketing (PDM) is defined as marketing by farm families of their own produce by developing and managing their own supply chains beyond the farm‐gate. Family farms are defined as family operated farms. The framework used compared revenue, costs and uncertainty in various distribution channels.

Six individual case studies were conducted using semi‐structured interviews. The interview protocol included enterprise characteristics that contribute to the ongoing viability of the businesses.

PDM was a feasible entry point for new brands and a profitable alternative to supplying generic product to the mainstream when costs were controlled. It is proposed that PDM was feasible in the context of Australian family farms where the distribution channel chosen reduces variability in the farm‐gate price, captures the marketing margin and minimises negotiation costs, particularly the labour costs to find a buyer.

The feasibility assessment excluded the cost of acquiring new skills which may be significant. The entrepreneurs interviewed already possessed significant marketing and business skills and experience to produce and market a brand through alternative distribution channels.

Producers can potentially increase farm profitability where household labour and skills are available to market produce beyond the farm‐gate. These implications are likely to be relevant in most developed countries, not just Australia.

The phenomenon of producer‐driven marketing is relatively novel in Australian agribusiness with no previous analysis of the profitability and long‐term viability of such an approach in the Australian context.