U-commerce: Expanding the universe of marketing

This article introduces several new concepts that lay the conceptual foundation for thinking about next-generation marketing based on ubiquitous networks. U-commerce, orüber-commerce, is predicated on the characteristics of network ubiquity, universality, uniqueness, and unison. It is proposed that the keys to managing network-driven firms are the concepts of u-space and attention analysis. The implications for next-generation marketing in the u-space are explored, with a research agenda identified for scholars and managerial implications recognized for practitioners. Richard T. Watson is the J. Rex Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy and the director of the Center for Information Systems Leadership in the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. He has published in leading journals in several fields as well as authored books on data management and electronic commerce and given invited seminars in nearly 20 countries. He is vice president of communications of AIS and recently finished a term as a senior editor ofMIS Quarterly. He is a visiting professor at Agder University College, Norway, and a consulting editor to John Wiley & Sons. Leyland F. Pitt is a professor of marketing in the School of Marketing, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia. He is also adjunct professor of marketing at Kingston Business School, United Kingdom; the University of Lulea, Sweden; and the Ecole Nationale Ponts et Chaussees in Paris. He has also taught marketing and electronic commerce on M. B. A. and executive programs at schools such as Warwick Business School, London Business School, the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University, and the Graham School of Continuing Studies at the University of Chicago. Dr. Pitt is the author of more than 100 papers in scholarly journals, and his work has appeared in publications such asCalifornia Management Review, Sloan Management Review, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Information Systems Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Communications of the ACM, andMIS Quarterly (for which he also served as associate editor). Pierre Berthon is an associate professor of marketing at Bentley College. He has held academic positions at Columbia University, Henley Management College, Cardiff University, and University of Bath. His teaching and research focus on electronic commerce, market information processing, organization and strategy, and management decision making. George M. Zinkhan is the Coca-Cola Company Chair of Marketing at the University of Georgia. After receiving his doctorate at the University of Michigan, he served on the faculty at both the University of Houston and the University of Pittsburgh. His main research focus is on the areas of communication, advertising, and electronic commerce. His recent coauthored books includeElectronic Commerce: A Strategic Perspective (2000) andConsumers (2002).     

Trends in living conditions and satisfaction among poorer older South Africans: objective and subjective indicators of quality of life in the October Household Survey

The majority of South Africa's older population is income poor and lives in multigeneration households. Since the first democratically elected government came into power in 1994, South Africans have been promised ‘a better life for all’. A range of policies and programmes has been implemented to improve the living standards and quality of life of the poor. The article asks how the older poor have benefited from government interventions in the period 1995–8. Drawing on data compiled from Statistics South Africa's household surveys in 1995 and 1998 (n=20 000–30 000 households), a set of over 35 objective and subjective indicators broken down by income and younger and older households is reviewed. Older households include at least one member over 60 years of age. Results show that access to services and opportunities improves systematically from poor to rich households. Major material gains for the poor and older households during the review period include access to clean water, electricity and home ownership. Older poor households with better access to services and opportunities are more likely to express overall satisfaction with their living circumstances. The study concludes that the most effective mechanism for poverty alleviation appears to be the non-contributory, means-tested state old-age pension, which lifts some households out of the most disadvantaged bottom income group. Policies under discussion promise further opportunities for empowering poor households with older members.     

Das Kreditproblem in der Volkswirtschaft

Ohne ZusammenfassungErweiterte Wiedergabe eines am 15. April 1931 in der Zürcher Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesellschaft gehaltenen Vortrages.     

Recent perspectives on unconscious processing: Still no marketing applications

The history of subliminal research consists of cycles during which investigators report a subliminal finding, others fail to replicate it, but, nevertheless, the finding is publicized and achieves some degree of acceptance among lay audiences. Such cycles have been permitted by (a) inadequately standardized empirical criteria for subliminal effects and (b) lack of consensus on theories of unconscious processes. Recent advances in methods have yielded some replicable subliminal effects and new models of unconscious processes have abandoned some of the controversial motivational assumptions of past perspectives. Nevertheless, cautious interpretation of this recent work maintains the wisdom of a skeptical appraisal of the potential for productive marketing applications.