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Introduction The last century has been one of major changes within most sectors of society. Technological advances, increased customer service requirements, and the globalization of the marketplace are but a [...]

Building brand loyalty has become more important, yet more difficult to achieve in today's marketplace. This research investigates a possible avenue for building brand loyalty that is not directly related to the marketing of the product - attracting individual investors in the brand's corporate parent. A survey of over 500 individual investors revealed that individual investors do tend to buy brands from companies in which they hold stock, and investors may buy stock in a company because they have experience with the brand. In contrast with brand loyalty, where consumers will not buy competitive offerings, individual investors indicated they would buy competitive offerings, suggesting that stock ownership is more likely to lead to repeat purchase behavior, but not brand loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fructose-1,6-bisphosphate-activated L-lactate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.27) from Lactobacillus casei ATCC 393 has been purified to homogenity by including affinity chromatography (cibacron-blue—Sephadex-G-200) and preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis into the purification procedures. The enzyme has an Mr of 132000–135000 with a subunit Mr of 34000. The pH optimum was found to be 5.4 in sodium acetate buffer. Tris/maleate and citrate/phosphate buffers inhibited enzyme activity at this pH. The enzyme was completely inactivated by a temperature increase from 60 °C to 70 °C. Pyruvate saturation curves were sigmoidal in the absence of fructose 1,6-bisphosphate. In the presence of 20 μM fructose 1,6-bisphosphate a Km of 1.0 mM for pyruvate was obtained, whereas fructose 1,6-bisphosphate had no effect on the Km of 0.01 mM for NADH. The use of pyruvate analogues revealed two types of pyruvate binding sites, a catalytic and an effector site. The enzyme from L. casei appears to be subject to strict metabolic control, since ADP, ATP, dihydroxyacetone phosphate and 6-phosphogluconate are strong inhibitors. Immunodiffusion experiments with a rabbit antiserum to L. casei lactate dehydrogenase revealed that L. casei ATCC 393 L(+)-lactate dehydrogenase is probably not immunologically related to group D and group N streptococci. Of 24 lactic acid bacterial strains tested only 5 strains did cross-react: L. casei ATCC 393 = L. casei var. rhamnosus ATCC 7469 = L, casei var. alactosus NCDO 680 > L. casei UQM 95 > L.plantarum ATCC 14917. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of traditional marketing research techniques in an international context suffers from two potentially fatal flaws: the over-reliance on purely quantitative data and through the use of rigidly structured approaches to primary data collection, the inability to gather information on problems/issues not thought of in advance by the developers of the survey instrument(s). A means of overcoming these problems is through the use of "real-lime" marketing research activities; activities targeted at checking and challenging marketplace assumptions. A "real-time" approach to international marketing research as described and contrasted with traditional marketing research techniques. A specific approach to this type of research currently being implemented by an institutional investment company is presented. Managerial guidelines are then given for the consideration, development, and implementation of a "real-time" approach to international marketing research by service companies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]