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PurposeDespite growing awareness of ethical and social responsibility (E&SR) issues in academia and industry, investigation of their influence on consumers' buying decisions has been limited. To help fill this gap, this paper reports the findings of a preliminary investigation to establish the key E&SR factors affecting grocery shopping behaviour.Design/methodology/approachThe study drew upon existing literature in the areas of ethics, social responsibility, shopping and store image to identify the individual elements of E&SR. An exploratory qualitative study of E&SR consumers (E&SRC) was then conducted, using seven focus groups, and a typology of key factors of concern to these consumers was derived from analysis.FindingsThe findings identify seven core categories, containing seventy‐one sub‐categories. These interlink to form three main clusters: food quality and safety, human rights and ethical trading, and environmental (green) issues. Shoppers trade off these E&SR factors against standard retail purchasing factors, in particular convenience, price and merchandise range when deciding which shops to use and what products to buy.Research limitations/implicationsThe typology derived from this exploratory research may be used alongside conventional store image factors in future research, to help predict those factors that influence purchasing behaviour. Similarly, it may assist brand and retail managers in profiling, and meeting the needs of, E&SRC.Originality/valueThe research distinguishes differences in how shopper types vary in their behaviour, and proposes a set of implications for managers of the research and areas for further investigation.

This study focuses on the use of export marketing information in small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), an area that has previously attracted little academic research attention. It reports on the application of scales measuring instrumental/conceptual and symbolic export information use, using a random sample of UK exporters, to SME exporters of engineering and IT products. The results show that the scales are applicable within the specific context of the industrial SMEs surveyed and that levels of symbolic export information use are higher in these SMEs than in UK exporting companies as a whole. The latter is explained as a function of a shortfall in two areas: first, in available export marketing information, leading to greater dependence on "guesswork" and intuition; and second, in specialist marketing informationprocessing skills on the part of SME export decision makers. The article concludes by appealing for an extension of export support for SMEs, to include the use of export information as well as simply its acquisition. It suggests that the scales tested here could be used both to diagnose the need for such SME support and to measure its effectiveness.

This article presents the results of qualitative and quantitative investigations into the international background and language skills of export managers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and their export marketing intelligence behaviour. In doing so, it attempts to shed light on the relationship between these two sets of factors, both of which have been identified as affecting export performance. At the quantitative stage, non-parametric statistical analyses were used to identify profiles of export managers’ information gathering, information use and decision-making activities, based on their linguistic ability, their experience of working or living overseas and their exporting experience. The research provides guidelines for SME employers who wish to match export managers’ market intelligence styles with their firms’ overseas market objectives.

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Purpose -To draw together the diverse and diffuse elements of previous research into the determinants of success in export marketing by SMEs. Design/methodology/approach -Groups of export marketing activities derived from the literature and preliminary qualitative fieldwork were incorporated in a questionnaire-based survey of a purposive sample of small exporters in one region of the UK, measuring the frequency of their use against levels of export commitment, involvement, and experience. Findings -Results contradict the traditional view that the longer a company has been exporting, the more likely it is to do well. The study provides evidence to encourage ambitious exporting SMEs to develop active and on-going marketing and information-gathering activities, and to dedicate specific financial and human resources to exporting.Research limitations/implications -The highly focused approach to measuring the relationships between export marketing activities and company characteristics should ideally be further extended, in the context of a wide range of studies relating other organizational, managerial and environmental variables to export success. Practical implications -The findings and conclusions alert marketing intelligence-gatherers to the dangers of conventional assumptions about marketing practice, provide practical guidelines for planners of export marketing strategy, and could form the basis of an easily administered diagnostic tool, all in the SME context. Originality/value -Focusing on behaviour rather than attitudes, the research provides a practical set of criteria against which SME activities can be measured.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify, and explore the importance of, ethical and socially responsible (ESR) factors in Australian consumers' choices of grocery products and stores. Design/methodology/approach -Following an earlier study in the UK, an initial qualitative investigation, then a survey of grocery shoppers in New South Wales, was conducted. Factor analysis explored the structure of the choice factors for grocery products and stores in "main" and "top-up" shopping situations. Finally, four multiple regression equations measured the effects of these factors. Findings -This paper finds that, when "top-up" shopping, ESR consumers are less discriminating than when "main" shopping. The provision of ethically farmed produce has most influence on store choice when "main" shopping, while retailers' fair trading and environmentally responsible policies have the greatest influence when "topping-up". The ethical provenance of goods is the most important factor in product choice.Research limitations/implications -The constructs developed need to be validated internationally. Practical implications -The two large Australian retail grocers may benefit by developing roles as "choice editors" on behalf of their ESR customers; whilst smaller retailers may gain advantage by concentrating on community-based, environmentally friendly and fair trading policies. Manufacturers of grocery products may benefit by emphasizing their products' ESR provenance and their organisations' ethical policies. Originality/value -This is the first study of its kind in Australia. It contributes to the development of an internationally relevant set of ESR shopping choice factors.

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