This study investigates how professional service firms (PSFs) compete in the market. Drawing on strategic marketing literature, a managerial rather than customer perspective is adopted. The study investigates the competitive positions sought by professional service providers and the specific marketing activities actually undertaken to achieve these positions. Thirty-seven depth interviews with senior management from a range of PSFs indicate that firms seek to differentiate themselves by developing long-term relationships, providing better service quality and greater value, and developing brands with strong reputations. Organisations typically seek such interrelated competitive positions simultaneously. A list of marketing activities used by the PSFs to achieve these competitive positions offers practical insights into the specific activities needed to achieve the various competitive positions sought.

Youth's perceptions of the morality of alcohol and other drug use and the perceived legitimacy of laws regulating such use have received scant attention in the international public health literature. To date, the focus has mainly been on emphasizing the health and social disbenefits of substance use in an attempt to counter the perceived psychological benefits (positive expectancies) of use and peer reinforcement. Following exploratory qualitative research, a structured questionnaire was administered to a sample of 611 youths aged 14-17 years. Analysis of the data found that use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana was directly related to moral perceptions: those considering use as 'wrong under any circumstance' were less likely to be users than those who considered it 'ok under some or any circumstance'. Substance use was also related to legitimacy perceptions: those who thought laws relating to alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use were justified were less likely to be users than those who thought these laws were not justified. The implications of these findings for future research and for the design of more effective intervention strategies are discussed. It is suggested that interventions including student discussion of the moral and legal issues surrounding substance use may prove effective in postponing or even preventing substance use, particularly tobacco and marijuana consumption, or reducing the excess use of these substances.

There are few research-based insights into professional service firms' (PSFs) contemporary marketing practices. This is unfortunate as the professional services sector is a key contributor to growth in Australian and other economies around the world. As professional services are unique in a number of ways and their operations and marketing activities inextricably intertwined, the present study investigated the extent to which PSFs practice marketing and whether this differs according to size. Depth interviews were held with thirty seven Australian senior managers in four key industries. We examined the extent of relationship marketing, conceptualised at an overall managerial level as well as four sub-practices identified in research by Coviello and colleagues. We found relationship management and interaction marketing were the most common practices, which is consistent with the inseparability concept, and that relationship management and database marketing were more common in larger firms, which is consistent with their relative resource strength.

No abstract

This study examines the dual effect of country-of-origin (in terms of the country of source or manufacture and country of brand) on Australian consumer evaluations of uni-national and bi-national products. The product selected for this study was an apparel item, a shirt, which can be described as a relatively low involvement product category. The country of manufacture was found to have a dominant influence on product evaluations, suggesting that product quality perceptions generated by the brand do not compensate for the effect on image when production is sourced in less developed countries. Strategic implications are discussed.