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The article focuses on the White Paper: A Framework for Expansion--the ten year plan of the government for education in Great Britain. It hedges much of its planning by saying there is room for flexibility and many points still remain for decision. It is planned that the public expenditure on maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools will rise from 1475 million pounds in 1971 to 2,000 million pounds in 1981 at 1972 survey prices. This means an assumed growth rate of 3 per cent compared with two and half percent for the decade 1961-62 to 1971-72. Thus, the White Paper shifts the emphasis of public spending and it is important since the growth in numbers in primary and secondary education will ease off in the current decade. The commitment to universal nursery education, in-service education for teachers, improvements in staffing standards, the reduction in class sizes and the rapid acceleration in primary and secondary school improvements to buildings, are the hardcore objectives. The first 16 pages of the report deal with them.

Presents a reappraisal of technical institutions in Great Britain. Problems encountered in higher education; Concept of binary system in polytechnics; Validation of academic programs.

We have called our new series Codetermination and Worker Participation. It is a huge field and what makes it difficult to grapple with is the fact that it is an indeterminate field at the present moment and the terminology means different things to different people. This is particularly true in the case of the term Industrial Democracy, a forceful-sounding phrase which means what the user wishes it to mean. An important part of the training job is to define the field more precisely by separating the component parts and bringing about an understanding of each and how they cross-relate. The area of interest is relatively new in Britain so we have to study what has happened in other countries where it is well-established. In Germany its beginnings go back to the nineteenth century and in France the big change in attitude came with the liberation in 1944. It is only within the last two years or so that worker participation has emerged as an issue in Britain and even now it would be difficult to say how much demand there is for it or where this demand comes from. Employers with conventional hard-line points of view have no enthusiasm for it since they see it as an erosion of management prerogatives. Trade unions are hostile to certain forms of participation which they see as direct interaction between employer and employee resulting in a side-tracking of the trade union. So, who's for it? This is a good discussion point. And the answer you give to this question has a big influence on all that follows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IN an article published in this journal, Reed Moyer [x] introduced a model of a price bargaining process that exists between two members of the distribution channel. It appears that Moyer chose to discuss mainly one type of bargaining power situation, without going into details of the implications of utilizing these sorts of powers, although he refers briefly to such matters. The purpose of this paper is not to offer a substitute for Moyer's theory but, as the title suggests, to generalize it where empirical evidence will lend support to the theory. The paper comprises three parts. Part I describes the model, which is similar to Moyer's model with some extensions. Part II provides some evidence supporting the model, the findings being based upon a research made into part of the UK textile manufacturing and distributive industries. Part III will include a summary and conclusions. It is apparent that the channel of distribution is among the most important segments in marketing studies. Much attention should be devoted to the channel structure by all its members, since the structure influences "channel members'" activities in both the short-run and the long-run. We are familiar with the basic channel structures shown in Table I. This paper will concentrate on the relationships between channel members that exist in the third channel illustrated in the table. Two-fold relationships exist in this channel; those of co-operation and those of conflicts which may take place at the same time and among the same channel members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the job of an industry supervisor. Involvement of knowledge in performing jobs; Skills necessary for the job; Attitudes required for the job.

Performance testing is a way of finding out what a person can do as distinct from what he knows about or what he claims to be able to do. It is therefore rather surprising that such an obviously useful testing method has for so long remained a rather neglected member of the testing family. Paper and pencil tests of aptitude and achievement on the other hand have been in widespread use and a considerable industry has grown up around them. It is not necessary to look very far to see why paper and pencil tests have enjoyed such popularity; they are usually an efficient and economical method of testing. The economic aspect is a particularly important one, since written tests can be given to large groups at a single sitting and marked quickly. Performance tests on the other hand are usually longer and require a lower tester/ candidate ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Further Education is in a ‘flux and re-flux of hopes and ideas’. White Papers, DES Administrative Memoranda, and Reports, succeed each other in rapid succession; advanced 'work is being hived off from Area Colleges to the Polytechnics; and some of the work of lower level to Sixth Form Colleges and Comprehensives; Regional Advisory Councils give or withhold approval for the establishment of new courses; and LEA Education Committees, by their control of the purse-strings, can seriously interfere with the planned development of Colleges. It is with the doubts that afflict FE about their relationships with Industry and Commerce that this article is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade Associations are in an excellent position to influence training within an industry or a part of an industry. With the advent of the Industry Training Boards the general tendency has been for trade associations to pass their training responsibilities over completely to the ITB. They saw their main advantage in securing one of the employer seats on the training board itself and then leaving the initiative to the ITB. At its weakest this action could be seen as a rather negative watchdog exercise. There is another way and it is far more effective and positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE marketing process, in attempting to match goods and services to human wants and needs, is dependent upon a series of interpersonal transactions. For a number of years there has been a good deal of interest in the factors that affect the behaviour of buyers and sellers. Although many behavioural aspects of interpersonal transactions have been analysed, the effects of interaction between culture and personality have received inadequate attention on the part of marketeers. In multicultural marketing as well as in marketing to different subcultures within a culture, an understanding of the relationship between culture and personality is important. The purpose of this presentation is three-fold. First, an attempt will be made to establish personality as an open system operating in and depending upon an environment of cultural inputs. Second, several factors which create difference among personalities will be set forth along with implications for modal personality. Third, the effects of the personality-cultural relationships upon interpersonal transactions will be discussed. Some implications will conclude the paper. Even though the relationship between the human being and his culture is a two-way flow of influence, this presentation focuses upon the effect of culture upon the individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present paper is to review the empirical studies examining psychological characteristics of innovators. In doing so we hope to analyse the existence or absence of such characteristics which significantly distinguish innovators from non-innovators. The search for articles dealing with the above-mentioned characteristics was mainly conducted within the realms of consumer behaviour and rural sociology, those two fields being interested in problems of innovation. More specifically, we searched the following periodicals appearing in the last decade: Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Psychological Reports, Rural Sociology, The Annual Proceedings of the American Marketing Association. Furthermore, we examined all the working papers coming out of the "aid Diffusion Project--Michigan State University" and related PhD dissertations as published in the Dissertations Abstracts for the last five years. Altogether, more than 100 articles and reports, dealing with the impact of personality and demographic differences upon consumer (or adopter, in rural sociology) decisions were examined. This was done in order to determine to what extent psychological characteristics correlate not only with "brand choice" and "buying preference" but also with innovation behaviour. Our definition of "innovation" differs slightly from Thompson's [1] and reads as follows: "the acceptance and implementation of new ideas, processes, products or services." The difference between Thompson's and ours is that Thompson's includes the word generation ("the generation, acceptance and implementation..." etc) while ours omits it. By excluding the word "generation" from the definition, we differentiate between invention and innovation. Invention implies bringing something new into being, while innovation implies bringing something new into use. Thompson's definition includes both invention and innovation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous article [1] we discussed the problems of model building in marketing, examined several recent developments and argued that there was a need to measure the current status of marketing model building in Britain. The purpose of this article is to make a partial assessment of the current state-of-the-art in Britain by reviewing some of the most significant British literature. Compared to the wealth of material that is at present emerging from the United States, the amount of published British work on model building in marketing is slight. Details of early British material were given in papers by Ramond [2] and Mercer [3], who listed 65 and 49 items, respectively. A recent bibliography prepare by the authors [4] contains 169 references on mathematical models in British marketing. The paper delivered by Broadbent [5] to a 1965 Market Research Society seminar on marketing models is one of the very few papers of a general nature that have appeared in Britain. In it, he mentions some of the benefits and some of the dangers of the model building approach and outlines a few of the typical applications. Among the advantages he suggests are that models can be an aid to judgment even if they do not point to a single optimal answer, that they can indicate gaps in the information flow, and that they can be of value in planning market research to fill these information gaps. The greatest danger he sees is naivete, either on the part of the manager believing operational research to be the complete answer to all problems, or of the management scientist ignoring real management problems and concentrating on his techniques. A trend which Broadbent identified at that time was that British modelling was essentially more practical, while in the United States there was a: "...tendency to develop a theory of marketing, academically respectable, like physics in its certainty and universality, and remarkably free from application." We believe this trend to have continued; fo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conglomerate companies are one of the more recent phenomena of advanced industrial systems and have been the subject of great controversy and misunderstanding. Problems of definition have been widespread with different authorities viewing conglomerates in a variety of ways. This paper aims to present a considered definition of conglomerates, and to examine the organizational and marketing problems that have faced such companies, with suggestions for some solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 1973 the Department of Employment published Manpower Paper number 7, 'The Quality of Working Life'. This paper aroused considerable interest within the Chemical and Allied Products Industry Training Board, as its publication coincided with the completion of two years' work by a board working party on Organisation Development. Much of the work of this working party had impinged upon subjects which come under the heading of The Quality of Working Life. The board decided, therefore, to continue the working party so that it could examine the board's possible contribution to an improved quality of working life in the industry. To support the working party, the author, as part of a study tour in the USA, was asked to look at what was being done and said about the quality of working life in the USA. These are the impressions he gathered from a variety of people with different interests in the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the use of commercial systems in training clerical workers. In Industrial and Commercial Training, August 1974, Vol. 6 No. 8, Mike Jones and Peter Drake, both of the Engineering Industry Training Board (EITB), wrote jointly about the importance of improving the performance of systems within organizations. Earlier, in October 1970, Vol. 2 No. 10, another member of EITB staff, Margaret Walker, had written an important mile-stone article on clerical training, drawing a sharp distinction between two aspects of competence in clerical work: one, competence in the sensori-motor skills of typing, shorthand and operating office equipment; two, the proper and accurate use of the current office procedures and systems. The point was made that, whereas effort had been put into training for the former aspect, the latter was more critical to efficient performance and had been an area of training which had been grossly neglected. Since 1970, various organizations, notably training boards, have explored the possibilities and problems in this critical area of training in office systems and in doing so these organizations have gradually opened up an entirely new and immensely wide area of study in the training business which is likely to revolutionize the approach to clerical training within the next few years. The main problem is not devising the means of training: it is, rather, devising the means of recording the system. Once it is possible to record, analysis becomes feasible. Once a system can be analyzed, understood and set down on paper, the training which it calls for is comparatively simple.

In the hospital service, where there are so many different disciplines, we have for a long time felt the need for a short course on supervisory skills. The line managers and I have got together and evolved a three-day course for supervisors, irrespective of whether they are head porters in small hospitals, staff nurses, administrators, domestic supervisors or therapists.
The aim of this course is to make course members more aware of their supervisory obligations and to help them to increase existing skills and knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem facing the British economy is to curb inflation, reduce the deficit on the balance of payments, now running at £4,000 million a year, raise company profits to improve new capital investment, improve efficiency and productivity and to contain wage demands. The competitive power of British exports in the world will depend to a large extent on labour costs and managerial competence. Labour costs largely depend on the attitudes and actions of the trade unions, and in full employment their power is considerable. It can have far reaching social and economic effects. Their failure in the past two decades to readjust their philosophy, their organisations and institutional arrangements, created in times of mass unemployment, to conditions of full employment is partly the reason for the present state of industrial relations: backward, inward looking and divisive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on developments in the education sector in Great Britain. Increase in the grant-in-aid of the Open University; Examination of ways in improving skills in dealing with people in a new Training Information Paper; Launch of a major in-depth study of the recruitment and training of 16-year-old leavers by the Rubbers and Plastics Processing Industry Training Board.

This paper has sought to suggest an approach to the marketing of services which has not been discussed in the literature. A service is an activity offered for sale which yields benefits and satisfactions without leading to a physical change in the form of a good. Although there is little agreement on a definition of a service, there is little disagreement with the statement that the service sector of Great Britain economy is large and growing. Many of the service industries have traditionally avoided any really positive marketing activity, nevertheless the expenditure on marketing in certain services industries has reached large sums. The paucity of marketing literature on this topic can only be justified if the problems of marketing services really are basically no different from the problems of marketing other products. Without doubt experienced marketing managers in these areas have worked instinctively in the manner suggested here. However, there seems to be a need to seek to explore a more general approach to this problem and it seems possible that such an approach might speed up the development of a body of knowledge and experience in the field of the marketing of services.

Studies have been undertaken by scholars in recent years to discover the management "gap" that exists between American and European management[l], and between foreign and local firms in developing countries[2]. In most of these studies, it has been found that there is a managerial gap, with the foreign firms performing better than the local firms. All these comparative studies have somehow confined their scope of study to the broad field of general management. This paper attempts to investigate the narrower functional field of marketing management and explains the reasons for the marketing management gap which exists in a developing economy with particular reference to Malaysia[3]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the marketing of industrial products customer service can be a significant determinant of the buyer's attitude to his suppliers and on his eventual purchase decisions. The role of service in influencing buying behaviour is examined in this paper and is based upon research studies currently being undertaken into the marketing of industrial raw materials to the engineering industry. Service is first of all defined and set within a conceptual theoretical framework. The presentation of the field and desk research studies is based upon an attempt to identify what constitutes service as perceived by industrial buyers, then to measure the performance of suppliers against key facets of service. The implications of these findings are discussed in so far as they allow suppliers to develop realistic marketing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the issues surrounding the appropriateness of constructing a theory which seeks to predict changes in nominal income and determine the price-output breakdown, based on M. Friedman's monetary analysis. Comparison of the Quantity Theory and the Keynesian model of monetary analysis; Ways of constructing a simple generalized Keynesian model; Relationship between nominal income change and price and output changes.

Argues that the international monetary system should provide for as much automatic flexibility as possible in order to minimize the excuse provided by balance of payments disequilibra for interventions in international trade and payments. Problem of improving the mechanism of adjustment; Historical perspective on the adjustment problem in light of the liquidity problem.

The article announces the increased cost limits for school facilities and buildings in England and Wales in 1973. According to Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher, cost limits for school, further education, college of education, polytechnic and university projects will be increased by 22 percent effective April 1, 1973. All school projects approved by the Department of Education conform to the requirements of the Standards for School Premises Regulations 1972. School cost limits are net costs per place. They were previously raised by 10 percent, 13 percent and 15 percent, in April 1970, 1971 and 1972 respectively. Allocations to local authorities for nursery building in 1974-1976 will be based on the new cost limits and will total £18.3 million in England and Wales in each year. The additional resources for secondary school building in 1975-1977, as announced in the Government's White Paper, Education: A Framework for Expansion, will now be increased from £20 million to £24.4 million.

The article discusses the conclusion of a report published in May 1973 on accident prevention training in industry. According to the report, safety training should be an integral part of a company's overall policy and everyone--from top management to newest entrant--should be given training in safe methods of working. The report is the result of the first major investigation of safety training by specialists in the theory and practice of learning. It was carried out by the Industrial Training Service for the Department of Employment in Great Britain. Although it was conducted in the paper and board making industry--where the report says, safety and accident prevention are taken seriously by both management and workers--the study provides information and concepts which are valid for industry and commerce as a whole. The report's main conclusions include: (1) board of directors and senior managers should give the same attention to accident prevention as to other management functions; (2) top management should accept that it is as important for them to learn about accident prevention as for workers on the shop floor; there seems to be scant provision at present for advanced safety training for top management; (3) the workforce should be instructed so that they can fully make their significant contribution to day to day accident prevention; a joint effort is required by supervisors and employee representatives, and Safety Committees should be given full management and trade union backing and encouraged and trained to play an active accident prevention role.

A list of publications related to business is presented. These include "The Training of Trades Union Representatives," "Recommendations for the Training of Shop Stewards," "People and Prosperity," "Cost of Labour Turnover in the Wool Textile Industry," "Guide to VTR," and "Pitmanscript."

The article focuses on the shipbuilding industry in Great Britain and principle of project management. The article takes the example of Vosper Thornycroft (VT), one of the three warship builders in Great Britain. VT has a large repair division handling commercial shipping. In May 1970, following concern expressed by some ship owners at the cost and quality of service they were receiving in the repair field, John Rix, VT's chairman and managing director proposed that a working party, a Project Group, should be formed to investigate this problem. The constitution of this group was extremely imaginative and has proved very successful. Whilst discussing in more detail the VT project team, the article discusses the concept of project management, its origins, and its methods of working. The project team institutes all investigations and then controls the implementation. So often with a committee the investigation deteriorates into mere paper work and lack of enthusiasm because no one but the top man has the control to initiate anything, let alone be accountable. Within VT this never happened and it is a credit to their senior management that responsibility and accountability were handed down the line to the project team who implemented the procedures and controlled the recommendations that had been decided upon.

The article focuses on the curriculum of business studies developed for the sixth formers in Great Britain. This A level project emerged, with its main objective: to see if an A level in Business Studies should be developed in schools. Such a general objective had to be supported by a number of interdependent sub-objectives: 1) that a body of material suitable to the educational needs of the sixth former had to be isolated and appropriate teaching methods developed; 2) that material had to be drawn together in a way which could provide a student with an understanding of the nature and problems of business; 3) that, assuming one and two to be feasible, a programme had to be developed and used in a limited number of schools across the educational spectrum. The two-year programme that emerged owed its strength to the careful integration of syllabus, examination structure and teaching methods, carefully balanced by a support programme. The syllabus content seeks to integrate together four main elements: (a) finance and accounting; (b) the interpretation of quantitative data; (c) the study of human behaviour and (d) the understanding of the economic environment as it affects business.

Focuses on the benefit of metric training on compaies in Great Britain. Examination on cost of metric training scheme; Difficulty on quantification of time in metric training; Factors involved on planning metric change.

Reports the number of students holding awards from local education authorities in Great Britain. Requirements for membership in the Institute of Personnel Management; Information on the technical research and design information launched by the Department of Trade and Industry; Details on the registration of engineers.

Focuses on the training of management and executives in Great Britain. Role of consultants in developing in-firm training courses for companies; Significance of project planning and examination of strategies in areas from marketing to stockholding; Importance of fluency and facility in calculation to technical and commercial staff.

PETER HONEY So we come to the last DIS article in the series and I must say how nice it is to produce it this way - by relaxing around a tape recorder instead of slaving away putting pen to paper! As you all know, the idea is to have a free-ranging conversation about the future of DIS work. We shall probably find that we have some similar ideas about future developments, but there will surely be some different ones also. It is no part of our purpose to reach absolute agreement about what the future holds - indeed, it would all look surprisingly rigged if we did! The previous articles in the series have, for the most part, been concerned with describing a number of techniques such as behaviour analysing, feeding back and mixing. I thought it might be best to start our conversation in this area and gradually build up to some of the wider, and wilder, ideas we might have about how these techniques could be used to good effect. Nigel, perhaps you would like to tell us about how you see these basic techniques developing in the work of your management training team in ICL? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on the marketing policies of retailers and manufacturers, and the protection of consumers of the laws of unfair competition which exist in most member countries of the Common Market. The concept of the law of unfair competition is, however, unknown in English law. Now that the UK is a member of the Common Market British manufacturers and retailers are increasingly confronted by this legislation in their efforts to expand trade, and last October preliminary discussions took place in Brussels to harmonise the laws of unfair competition. The particular sections of these wide ranging laws which I propose to question are the restrictions and prohibitions imposed upon a wide range of premium offers, discounts and rebates, seasonal sales, liquidations, and other special forms of sale. In other words, samples, free gifts, competitions and many forms of deferred rebates such as trading stamps are severely curtailed or forbidden in Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark and Italy. On the other hand, there are no legal restrictions in the United Kingdom on giving away articles to promote goods or services, and independent trading stamp firms are permitted. Moreover, in recent years consumer protection measures have been incorporated in these European laws through a series of amendments and additions. My theme is three-fold: First, the restrictions and prohibitions on marketing practices included in the laws of unfair competition go further than is necessary for the maintenance of fair competition. Their primary objective is the preservation of the status quo. Moreover, many of these laws are out-of-date, cumbersome and arbitrary. Secondly, it is a fallacy that measures designed to protect traders from so-called unfair competition from one another ipso facto protect consumers. Thirdly, the comparative study of the taw of unfair competition undertaken by the EEC as the basis for harmonisation fails to e [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing was the last of the major areas of management activity to be entered by operational research practitioners and it is only in the last decade in the UK that any significant progress has been achieved. The application of mathematical programming techniques to the "product mix" problem is well established, of course, but tends to occur more frequently at the production and in cost minimisation terms and as a useful tool for production planning rather than as a major influence on marketing. Attempts to develop total marketing models have met with varying degrees of success looked at scientifically but their influence on marketing decisions has been somewhat limited in general apart from a few outstanding companies. Simulation techniques are being increasingly applied and they are particularly useful in the light they cast on consumer behaviour; their value too as training devices at all levels from marketing director down to trainee sales representatives should not be underestimated. Within the field of advertising, considerable attention has been given to media scheduling and the results are fairly well known to advertising men. This paper is concerned with a number of applications in other areas of advertising of interest primarily to media owners, in particular newspaper publishers: forecasting of advertisement space and revenue; the pricing problem, i.e. the setting of the advertisement rates, for a media owner; some specific applications of OR in planning for a newspaper colour supplement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From time to time controversy arises regarding the effect that the adoption of trading stamps has on retail prices. In this paper we shall endeavour to consider the main arguments, empirical and analytical, on this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of economic theories in predicting and understanding consumer behaviour has been neglected by marketing practitioners and theorists. This may not be surprising when we consider what traditional economic demand theory has to offer. The purpose of this paper is to discuss extensions to the traditional theories, emphasizing in particular the derived nature of demand for many consumer, as well as capital goods, and also the influence of time on consumption. From the revised corpus of theory, it is hoped that some valuable predictions about consumer behaviour can be made, that may aid our understanding and decision-making in certain spheres of marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TheRE has been considerable research in recent years into the effectiveness of retail store operations, particularly in "chain" companies of supermarkets, using multivariate statistical procedures and computer methods. Little of this research has been fully reported through the academic media since it usually involves analyses of private and confidential information. While there is extensive documentation about the theory of techniques that might be applied, there are few illustrations of the specific types of problems to which these techniques have been addressed, the difficulties that arise in practical execution, and the kinds of answers which they seek to provide. This paper describes a case-study undertaken for a chain company marketing durable goods rather than food products. It outlines in general terms the application of three techniques for assessing store attributes and sales performance, though details of individual store characteristics are not disclosed to protect the company concerned. The overall purpose is to report the potential and limitations of a statistical methodology in the context of a business situation. The specific objectives of the study were: 1) To identify underlying regularities in the characteristics of all stores and assess the relative strength or weakness of each store in relation to these common dimensions. This was accomplished through principal components analysis and factor analysis. 2) To classify the stores according to degrees of similarity among their characteristics and provide a framework for comparing average statistics of retail attributes and performance. This involved a grouping or clustering analysis. 3) To distinguish certain more important diagnostic variables which accounted for most of the variations in sales performance among stores and construct... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

STUDYING the work which has been carried out on the effectiveness of below-the-line promotion is a depressing task. Fundamentally, the problem stems from the failure of conclusions to emanate from the mass of data on this subject. However, in analysing the work done in this field, two time periods need to be defined. First, up to 1969 when little was written on below-the-line effects; and second, from 1969 up to March 1972, when literature was more abundant and of increased value. There is hope, however, that valid empirical work is on the horizon; and that these studies will provide meaningful, practical conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews methods for handling competition in dynamic market models and shows how they are related to the probability of implementation. Moreover, a research strategy is proposed which considers the methods in relation to quantitative considerations of market validity and behavioral factors of implementation. Then, a case-example is described where this research strategy was applied. There are three basic methods that have been used to model competitive effects in sales response research: no competition, exogenous competition and endogenous competition. A research strategy for modelling competition in dynamic market models can be developed within the broader framework of a strategy for model building and implementation. This allows the identification and measurement of pertinent factors which affect the validity of models and their usefulness. These factors can then be managed throughout the research process. The use of a marketing decision model depends upon how well the model represents a real market and also upon how compatible the model is with the organization. Representation of the market is usually measured by goodness of fit, predictive tests and forecasting ability. The fit between a model and its human organizational environment is multidimensional. The amount of attitude change necessary to implement a model depends upon the initial attitudes of potential users toward dimensions of the model.

THERE has been a recent revival of interest in the empirical study of pricing behaviour, although, as Silberston has put it, "it is comparatively rare for the process of pricing to be investigated in detail" [1]. This paper reports the findings of a research project concerned with the procedures followed in the pricing of consumer durables, and attempts to formulate an alternative statement of pricing behaviour to the cost-plus theory. An empirical study was made among seventeen firms in the industry, ranging from smaller organizations manufacturing relatively simple electrical heating apparatus to the industry's larger firms manufacturing washing machines, refrigerators and spin driers. Table I provides a preliminary idea of the state of competition in the product-markets under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the process of change in marketing channels and its cyclical nature. The competitive struggle is characterized as a clash of countervailing interests. The author explores the implications of the rise of franchising for channels and the economy as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines the critical issues facing the British steel industry as its technological basis is transformed. He identifies the need to plan on an international basis if Britain is to meet the Japanese challenge. [This paper was first read at Bradford University's Conference on The Marketing of Advanced Technology, May 1971.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the significance of a good working environment on the efficiency of meetings. A meeting room needs to be the right size and to have certain basic equipment: ample electrical sockets for tape recorders, overhead, slide and film projectors, and so on; paper, pencils, sketch-pads, and a wall-chart or blackboard; the blackboard should be placed well away from the window so that there is no glare or distraction; a built-in wall screen for films and slides can be a useful extra; comfortable chairs, though not so comfortable that people settle back and doze off; a number of small tables which can be arranged into any size or shape. When progress in a meeting is slow and there is much side-tracking and private conversation the trouble may stem from the seating arrangements. Trying too hard to create the right physical conditions for a meeting can have a boomerang effect. The chairs should not be too comfortable or the room too quiet. The correct physical conditions for a meeting are any conditions which help the members to make good decisions. Most meetings, though, are held around a table, and the shape of that table can influence the decision-making. A rectangular table with the chairman at its head encourages status consciousness which may silence the lower-status participants. A rectangular table can turn the meeting into a war-game, for different cliques may take up confrontation positions directly opposite each other. With a circular or U-shaped arrangement, confrontation positions are not possible and this encourages compromise. For an informal meeting an informal atmosphere is needed--which means comfortable chairs and coffee tables, or no tables at all.

Presents news briefs in Great Britain as of December 1, 1974. Findings of the report "Woman and Work: Sex Differences and Society," published by the Department of Employment; Provisions of the Education Bill; Publication of a booklet setting out guidelines to assist companies in establishing planned programmes of training for personnel involved in applying computer controlled systems to industrial processes; Growth in the number of higher education students.

Reports on the social demands for higher education in Sweden. Growth of student admission; Nature of offered courses; Need for manpower planning.

In May 1970 I argued in this journal that cost effectiveness should dominate the planning of higher education in the seventies, and in November 1971 outlined steps for its rationalisation. The DES Statistics of Education Volume 5, Finance and Awards for 1970, puts in focus the stark situation of education costs for England and Wales. The total cost was £1,980 millions, an increase of £217 millions over the previous year. The 1971 Blue Book (CMND 4829) shows an overall educational expenditure of £2,953 millions for 1970-71 and highlights the share which higher education received. Over the ten year period 1960-1970 the largest increases were on tuition costs of teacher training, university grants and further education, in that order. In 1969-70 further and adult education received £246.3 millions, teacher training £53.8 millions and the universities £225.6 millions. The size of this sector of education has been projected in the DES Planning Paper No 2 which suggested that twice as many boys and girls will secure two or more `A' levels in 1981 compared with 1968. The number in full-time higher education in 1969-70 (Universities, Colleges of Education and Further Education) was estimated at 443 000 and projections suggested this will rise to 847 000 in 1981-82. Total costs of full-time higher education at 1966-67 prices were estimated to rise to £957 millions. It is in the cold light of these essential statistics that developments in planning higher education for the next five years and how cost effectiveness can be implemented are now considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the present time countries which have gone metric, or intend to, account for 90 per cent of the world's population and 86 per cent of its trade. In the one major exception, the United States of America, the US Department of Commerce has recently brought out a report (A Metric America - a Decision Whose Time Has Come) recommending strongly that America should go metric over a ten-year period, and estimates that this will improve the US balance of payments by $10,000,000,000 a year. What is the position in the UK? Eighty per cent of our exports now go to metric countries; we are joining the EEC, whose members are committed to adopting the new SI system of metric units from the beginning of 1978; and a White Paper (Cmnd 4880) published on 7 February endorses 1975 as the target date for changeover in this country - with one or two minor reservations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the earlier articles in this series have been aimed at the less experienced training officer who is a new boy in a company employing 700 plus. This article is more relevant to the smaller firm, where the training officer may even have to combine this function with other duties. Obviously, some of the points raised in the article will apply also to the larger company, but this is basically a ground floor approach.
The author is one of the training team at the Shoe & Allied Trades Research Association, who, besides running courses, carry out a considerable amount of consultancy work. The majority of companies in footwear manufacture have between 100 and 500 employees.
WHEN A TRAINING OFFICER STARTS WORK TO DEVELOP TRAINING for the first time in a company he has a problem. He may have returned from a training course full of ideas, but how can he apply these ideas; what can he actually do? All too frequently he has been recruited just to maximise the training board grant. This may be an overstatement, but a company's first training officer certainly faces a dilemma. Obviously he must claim maximum grant, but there may be no system for collecting and storing the relevant information. He must first devise and set up such a system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the developments in domain of industrial training in Great Britain as of October 1970. lan Swinden, Director of EITB since its inception, retired recently to take up the post of Deputy Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry. In this post Swinden is to have special responsibilities for industrial relations. The article adds that 35-40 per cent of British workers, whether white collar or manual, have vision defects, either because of poor working conditions or for physical reasons. 2,50,000 eye accidents are reported a year--many more go unreported. Further, the Chemical & Allied Products ITB has published an information paper No. 4 on the Training Implications of Manpower Productivity Agreements. It aims to assist firms who may be contemplating this type of agreement and has been prepared by a team who have had considerable practical experience in this new field. Further, the article adds that it is expected that the major part of the air transport industry in Great Britain will receive more in training grants than was paid in levy for the year 1969-70.