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Examines how US and British financial institutions are implementing TQM to differentiate themselves from the competition. Discusses how customer satisfaction is achieved through customer care programmes, quality action teams, improved internal and external communications, and quality performance standards. Contends that an emerging trend in the sector is that of quality performance standard setting, measuring and monitoring. States that the financial sector is responding to this challenge by concentrating its focus on providing quality services to its customers. Concludes that customer care programmes, action teams and improved communications are the first step; the next step in maintaining the competitive edge is the establishment of quality performance standards, and devising systems for measuring and monitoring their effectiveness.

Brands increasingly coappear in television programs while research in product placement has primarily focused on the placements of a single brand. Building on research related to product placement and cobranding, this study aims to systematically examine the roles of product competitiveness and brand competitiveness on the effectiveness of brand coappearance on television programs.

Extensive pretesting and four experimental studies were conducted. Real stimuli that had been digitally manipulated with fictitious brands were used in Study 1 (laboratory experiment involved student samples) and Study 2 (online experiment with a national sample) to examine the short- and long-term impacts of product competitiveness on brand coappearance. Real stimuli incorporated actual brands were used in Study 3 (involved advertisers’ key demographic) and Study 4 (alterative television program with a national sample) to examine the impacts of brand competitiveness and its interaction effect with product competitiveness.

The study found that coappearing with a product of high competitiveness significantly enhanced attitudes and purchase intention toward the coappearing products both in the short and long term. Product competitiveness further interacts with brand competitiveness to influence attitudes and purchase intention toward the coappearing brands suggesting a coopetition pattern for brand coappearances. The effect of brand coappearances did not vary substantially for low or high involvement products with or without character interaction.

The study develops a useful framework for explaining and understanding the potential spillover effects in brand coappearances. It contributes to the existing literature on product placement and cobranding, while also paving the way for future research opportunities.

When introducing new brands, marketers are advised to consider coappearance deals with more competitive brands in highly competitive product categories. Conversely, coappearance deals with less competitive brands in less competitive product categories should be adopted to promote well-known brands. Advertisers may also consider product or brand exclusivity arrangements with broadcasters to enhance the effectiveness of the product placement.

Although brand coappearance in media content is likely to continue to proliferate, little is known about the phenomenon and its effects. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to systematically examine the perceptions toward brands coappeared in television programs.

Signs of Safety (SoS) is a strengths-based approach to child protection casework that has been widely adopted in countries across the world. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that aimed to synthesise the many evaluations of SoS that have been conducted to assess their strengths and limitations. The intention is to identify the aspects which should be explored further and those that remain unexamined to inform future evaluations.

The study collated and then examined many of the evaluations that are in the public domain as well as some of those that were conducted within agencies and have not been made publicly available.

At the present time (early 2019), the evidence base for SoS is limited. Independent, robust research needs to be undertaken over time to build on the studies that have been conducted. New research must be designed to fill gaps and be capable of producing the evidence required and it must address its own limitations.

This study is the most comprehensive contemporary review of the evaluations of SoS that have been conducted to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

The origins of the LEXIS‐NEXIS service lie in the defence industry. Specifically its database engine, originally called ‘Central!’, was developed by the Ohio‐based Data Corporation to help the US Air Force keep track of procurement contracts and equipment inventory. This technology was later to prove attractive to the American Bar Association when it began exploring the potential of computer‐assisted legal research in the 1960s: an interest that led to the decision by the Ohio State Bar Association, in 1967, to award a $7000 contract to the Data Corporation. As a consequence, the Central! search engine become the core of a new full‐text searchable computerised database of the Ohio statutes. Called the Ohio Bar Automated Research — or OBAR — service this was later to grow into today's LEXIS‐NEXIS service.