Although the public sector has become a major employer of management consultants, no research has previously been undertaken to investigate the purchase of management consultants in the public sector context. Outlines an investigation into the purchase of management consultants by government...

Proposes that most managers and researchers acknowledge that emerging and newly industrialized markets do not have the same quantity of secondary data as the long‐industrialized economies of North America and Western Europe. Presents the results of a search of available, business‐related,...

As businesses expand further and further in international markets, the role of timely and accurate marketing research to guide decision making becomes increasingly critical. Research to support international marketing decisions has evolved over the past four decades and must change even more to...

This paper examines some of the striking similarities and differences in issues and conceptual structure between three seemingly disparate areas of study over a 50‐year period; distribution channels, internationalisation and networks. The paper questions why these and other areas of study seem...

The vast scope and range of International Marketing is reviewed in its entirety with a view to how the subject is and should be researched and taught. Definitions are questioned, and important gaps, societal trends and present‐day bad practices are identified that ought to feature more in our...

This article presents an approach for measuring consumer preferences in developing countries. The role of marketing research in developing countries and the salient factors which have an impact on how marketing research should be conducted in these countries are briefly discussed. The popular...

An overview of the relevance of marketing to the public sector is given and three main divisions of the UK public sector are identified. The focus of discussion is how and where marketing can be applied best to the public sector and local authority leisure centres are considered as a case...

Researchers and organisational practitioners must become partners in the research effort; both parties must accept the other's knowledge as valid information. A process model is presented, based on applied research, for use in various disciplines of applied research where co‐operation between...

Focus groups are an effective strategy in consumer research if conducted properly. Too often the meaning and origin of focus groups have been distorted by marketing and consumer researchers and the validity of retrieved data is questioned. By looking at the definition and evolution of focus...

Introduces a new approach to the investigation of consumers' reasons for purchasing (or not purchasing) products. The Means‐End Chains model, by shifting attention from product attributes to consumers' personal values, is particularly applicable to segmentation and positioning strategies for...