William Dempsey and Richard A. Lancioni
International customer service is critical to the successfulmaintenance of profitable relationships with customers. An overview ofinternational marketing in general is presented…
Abstract
International customer service is critical to the successful maintenance of profitable relationships with customers. An overview of international marketing in general is presented, customer service is examined, and some customer service management suggestions are discussed. The latter, it is claimed, can provide the differential advantage for a firm to gain market share internationally and the solution to long‐term survival.
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William Dempsey and Richard A. Lancioni
International marketing can be a balancing act betweenhigh sales‐maintenance costs and a reductionof business due to poor service. The way in whichinternational customer service…
Abstract
International marketing can be a balancing act between high sales‐maintenance costs and a reduction of business due to poor service. The way in which international customer service fits into a company′s overall international marketing strategy is examined. The emphasis is on the need for customer‐orientation (rather than production orientation). This also affects the practical aspects of logistics and their relationship to customer service. Management′s main aim is to provide the expected level of customer service at the minimum cost, and covering all the logistics activities. To achieve this objective, management should be guided by three interrelated concepts – the total systems concept, the concept of cost trade‐offs, and the minimum total cost concept. Each of these is discussed, and their interrelationship considered. The ways in which international customer service can be used to create competitive advantage and increased profitability is examined.
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Colin Lea, Bob Willis, Mike Judd, Bob Willis, John Beamish and Karen Moore
This conference was the second in the National Physical Laboratory series focusing in turn on each of the non‐CFC options for de‐fluxing soldered electronics assemblies. The first…
Abstract
This conference was the second in the National Physical Laboratory series focusing in turn on each of the non‐CFC options for de‐fluxing soldered electronics assemblies. The first conference was on Controlled Atmosphere Soldering and the third will be on New Solvents.
Neville Douglas Buch and Beryl Roberts
The purpose of this paper is to find an answer the question of whether an educational institution of a fair socio-economic mix of pupils, and an institution favoured with powerful…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find an answer the question of whether an educational institution of a fair socio-economic mix of pupils, and an institution favoured with powerful political connections, made any difference to access, equity, and exclusivity in relation to the transition into secondary education. It undertakes this purpose as a historical investigation of Junction Park State School in the early twentieth century combined with statistical analysis of family backgrounds of scholarship holders and their cohorts from 1915 to 1932.
Design/methodology/approach
The socio-economic study uses a published list of scholarship holders from Junction Park State School for the years 1924-1932. The study compares the scholarship groupings with their different school cohorts for the same years using the data on parental occupations, extracted from the Junction Park State School Admission Records 1915-1931. After refinement the study examines a cohort data set of 4,531 pupils which includes 287 scholarship holders. Parental occupations are categorised into socio-economic groupings with high and low occupational ends. There were 237 parental occupations described among the cohort, 1915-1931, from the admission records.
Findings
The statistical chance of obtaining scholarship is increased for a pupil from “commercial low” and “industrial low” background when the school starts with a cohort that has a large representation from such backgrounds. Pupils who were at the lower end of the socio-economic scale at Junction Park State School did much better in scholarship outcomes than for the state. However, pupils whose family background was at the high end of the professions did marginally better than the state result. For the school between 1915 and 1932, in most socio-economic groupings, the boys outperform the girls in the like-to-like comparisons.
Research limitations/implications
The numeric value is excessively low for the primary producers (high) category and numbers in cohort groupings vary. This study deliberately applied like-to-like comparisons: the number of scholarship holders compared to their own gender for the same socio-economic cohort. Percentile in relation to the study’s total was not used due to numeric variations between cohort sizes. The study is a historical investigation of a formative period before Junction Park State School developed its reputation as a scholarship school in the 1940s, and historical factors relating to the post-Second World War era would have different results for a similar statistical analysis.
Practical implications
The paper presents a case study of particular historical significance; however, a generic principle that institutional status can change access and equity opportunities can be tested within the historical setting. The paper claims that historical investigation provides the groundwork to establish the distinctive actuality. Historical investigation picks up on unusual patterns over time, not necessarily to disprove the sociological model, but more to test the model against actual events.
Social implications
The Queensland social history is connected to the study’s statistical analysis. The data are considered from a perspective that, first, Junction Park had a diverse population of pupils from different socio-economic backgrounds. Second, the school had a solid reputation as a leading school, partly from the political standing of the school leadership, and partly from the strength of its scholarship teachers. Together these factors suggest that pupils at Junction Park State School from the socio-economic backgrounds less inclined to foster educational values were given greater support to achieve better scholarship outcomes.
Originality/value
Statistical analysis is rarely brought to academic history work. There are greater risks in misinterpreting the data. There is also a difficult enterprise of extracting the required information. Nevertheless, the reward from this paper is an insightful view of a large and an innovating Queensland primary school, picking up the details in the life experience of pupils. In that historical process there is a greater degree of accuracy and better interpretive value which can be applied to the sociological model.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the writings of Joseph Schumpeter on economic man to demonstrate that Schumpeter is a precursor of personalist economics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the writings of Joseph Schumpeter on economic man to demonstrate that Schumpeter is a precursor of personalist economics.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper addresses two intertwined questions. What evidence supports the claim that Schumpeter rejected homo economicus? What evidence indicates that Schumpeter actually embraced the human person – the acting person – as a replacement for homo economicus? The evidence is presented in four sections: Schumpeter’s rejection of homo economicus; Schumpeter on economic agency; Schumpeter, a precursor of personalist economics; and final remarks.
Findings
As to the first question, there is no doubt that Schumpeter rejected homo economicus. Regarding the second, the evidence does not indicate that Schumpeter proposed replacing homo economicus with what today we refer to as the acting person. This paper concludes that by insisting on the critical role of the active, spontaneous, and eager-to-initiate change entrepreneur in economic affairs and our understanding of those affairs Schumpeter was a precursor of personalist economics.
Originality/value
To a large extent Schumpeter’s insights regarding economic agency and William Waters role in interpreting those insights have been buried in the economics literature. It was Waters in 1952 who stated that Schumpeter identified the inadequacy of economic man as the efficient cause of economic activity and re-established the human person as the true efficient cause, principally in terms of entrepreneurship.
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This chapter will explore the links between coercive control and ‘rough sex’. The chapter will highlight how easily sexual behaviour within a coercively controlling relationship…
Abstract
This chapter will explore the links between coercive control and ‘rough sex’. The chapter will highlight how easily sexual behaviour within a coercively controlling relationship can be presented as consensual. The chapter will explain how coercive control is typically about compelling a partner to comply with traditional gender norms and this makes consent within such a relationship particularly difficult to assess. However, it will be argued that there should be a strong legal presumption that if a relationship is marked by coercive control that sexual behaviour within it is non-consensual. The chapter will also explore in what circumstances rough sex should be regarded as lawful.
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This chapter provides an analysis of the processes of negotiating identity in the production of improvised performance in the jazz rhythm section. I show that, for jazz musicians…
Abstract
This chapter provides an analysis of the processes of negotiating identity in the production of improvised performance in the jazz rhythm section. I show that, for jazz musicians, identity is an important and complex concern that is managed through the frame of their various role functions. This analysis aims to expand upon symbolic interactionist studies of music and to provide a critique of the “discursive” focus on music in social life.
Lauren Blackwell Landon and William S. O’Keefe
Long-duration spaceflight missions require many hours of pre-mission and inflight training to develop and maintain team skills. Current training flows rely heavily on expert…
Abstract
Long-duration spaceflight missions require many hours of pre-mission and inflight training to develop and maintain team skills. Current training flows rely heavily on expert instructors, while current inflight mission operations are supported by a complex series of support teams at Mission Control. However, future exploration space missions will not have real-time communications with ground-based experts at Mission Control. Portable intelligent tutoring systems may help streamline future training, reducing the burden on expert instructors and crew training time, and allowing for inflight support to mitigate negative effects of the loss of real-time communications. In this chapter, we discuss the challenges of long-duration exploration missions, and outline the myriad possibilities in which intelligent tutoring systems will enhance the crew performance and functioning.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
Daryl D. Green and Deshaun H. Davis
The purpose of this paper is to explore the range of benchmark applications associated with US magnet schools in urban areas.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the range of benchmark applications associated with US magnet schools in urban areas.
Design/methodology/approach
The collection and critical analysis of secondary data from relevant publications are used to evaluate the results of America's magnet schools. Analysis of organizational and leadership theory has been utilized in order to benchmark future successful efforts.
Findings
The paper finds the following key issues: magnet schools have numerous mission goals that prevent them for having a clear strategy, magnet school structures should be customized for the specific communities and promote parental involvement, and magnet schools instruct students who are heavily influenced by pop culture values and challenge traditional values in the school culture.
Research limitations/implications
The paper examines benchmarking applications that are exclusively relevant in US urban schools.
Practical implications
There are several implications for researchers and practitioners related to improving the academic success of low‐performing schools in urban areas in America.
Originality/value
This paper is significant because it presents a theoretical framework for interpreting the impacts of magnet schools in urban schools.