Control of lipid oxidation in cooked ground beef with water and salts*

The effects of exogenous water and salts on lipid oxidation in ground beef were determined. Deionized water, salts, or both, were added to treatment samples. Salts used were sodium chloride, potassium chloride and sodium sulphate, all at 3% concentration. The Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test was used to assess lipid oxidation. Addition of water at a 10% or 20% level had no effect on rancidity. Sodium chloride and potassium chloride reduced TBA numbers. Adding water to those samples containing potassium chloride and sodium sulphate raised moisture content.     

Speak no evil: Known defects in the FTC's used car rule

In 1981, the Federal Trade Commission issued a trade regulation rule on the sale of used cars. This rule required dealers to disclose known defects to prospective purchasers.Under the law at that time, Congress could veto such a rule. It did so. The veto, however, was challenged in court and the United States Supreme Court ruled the veto unconstitutional thus reinstating the rule.Before the rule could take effect however, the FTC (whose membership had changed in the meantime) decided to reconsider whether the rule should contain known defects disclosure. Subsequently, the Used Car Rule was reissued (effective May 9, 1985) deleting this important consumer protection.This article analyzes and criticizes the rationale for the deletion of the known defects disclosure requirement.

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Sag nichts Böses: Die Behandlung bekannter Mängel in den behördlichen Richtlinien zum Verkauf von Gebrauchtwagen in den USA

Zusammenfassung Die Federal Trade Commission (FTC), die amerikanische Handels- und Wettbewerbsbehörde, erließ 1981 eine Richtlinie über den Gebrauchtwagenverkauf. Nach dieser Richtlinie waren Gebrauchtwagenhändler verpflichtet, bekannte Mängel der Wagen gegenüber Kaufinteressenten offenzulegen. Nach damaligem Recht konnte der Kongreß gegen diese Richtlinie sein Veto einlegen, was er auch tat. Dieses Veto wiederum wurde vor Gericht angefochten, woraufhin der oberste amerikanische Gerichtshof entschied, daß das Veto verfassungswidrig sei, und die ursprüngliche Richtlinie wieder in Kraft setzte.Bevor diese Richtlinie jedoch rechtskräftig werden konnte, beschloß die FTC (deren personelle Zusammensetzung sich inzwischen geändert hat), noch einmal zu überdenken, ob die Richtlinie endgültig die Bestimmung zur Offenlegung bekannter Mängel enthalten solle. Schließlich wurde die Richtlinie im Mai des Jahres 1985 ohne diese wichtige Vorschrift zum Schutz des Verbrauchers wieder in Kraft gesetzt.Der Beitrag analysiert und kritisiert den Hintergrund der Entscheidung, die Vorschrift zur Offenlegung bekannter Fahrzeugmängel entfallen zu lassen.

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Stephen J. Nicks is Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice, State of Wisconsin, P.O. Box 7857, Madison, WI 53707, USA.     

Corporate philanthropy in the United Kingdom

The increasing demands placed on private welfare services and calls for business to fulfil its social responsibilities have heightened interest in corporate charitable donations in the United Kingdom. Adjustments to the corporation tax system have been made to encourage companies to give more. The article outlines the legal and fiscal background to company giving, examines its magnitude and reports on a survey of company practice.Christopher J. Cowton is a Research Fellow of Templeton College, The Oxford Centre for Management Studies. His main research interests are in accounting, which he teaches on the College's executive programs and to Oxford University undergraduates and postgraduates. He is the author of a recent research monograph on the disclosure of corporate charitable donations.     

Marketing ethics and the techniques of neutralization

The need for conceptual work in marketing ethics is addressed by examining the five techniques of neutralization as a means for partially explaining unethical behaviors by marketing practitioners. These techniques are often used by individuals to lessen the possible impact of norm-violating behaviors upon their self-concept and their social relationships. Borrowed from the social disorganization and deviance literature, the five techniques of neutralization are: (1) denial of responsibility, (2) denial of injury, (3) denial of victim, (4) condemning the condemners and (5) appeal to higher loyalties. Examples of marketing professionals using each of the five techniques are given, and a conceptual model linking the techniques of neutralization with unethical behavior is presented. Finally, relevant research questions are offered for consideration.Scott J. Vitell is Assistant Professor of Marketing at The University of Mississippi. His most important publications include A General Theory of Marketing Ethics (1986) (with Shelby D. Hunt) and Marketing's Contribution to Economic Development: A Look at the Last 30 Years (1985) (with Van R. Wood). Stephen J. Grove is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Clemson University. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Health Care Marketing, the International Journal of Sport Psychology, the Journal of Sport Behavior, the Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication, Simulation and Games, and several national and regional conference proceedings.     

The labor force of the future.

In the decades ahead, the US labor force will reflect changes in the industrial structure, with declines in some manufacturing industries and expansion in service industries. The services sector is so diverse that the jobs within it cannot be categorized as either high wage or low wage. The service-producing sector employs 85% of professional specialty workers in the US. In general, information on compensation trends indicates that greater increases in compensation have occurred for workers in service-producing as opposed to goods-producing industries. The increase in service sector jobs has created opportunities for women to enter the labor force and, at present, 5 out of 6 women work in this sector compared to fewer than 2 out of 3 men. Productivity growth rates in the service-producing industries vary substantially and are strongly affected by the business cycle. Central to employment opportunities in the years ahead will be the effect of new technology. To date, the aggregate effect of new technology has been increased employment and higher living standards. Although retraining programs should be in place, the scenario of a huge technology-created labor surplus seems unlikely. In fact, a more likely problem is a shortage of labor resulting from earlier labor force withdrawal and demographic aging of the population. Those in the 25-54-year age group will represent a larger share of the labor force in the years ahead. In addition, blacks are expected to account for 20% of the labor force growth in the next decade. Finally, given increasing labor force participation rates among mothers, employers may have to provide more flexible work schedules, assistance with day care, and more attractive benefits packages.     

Third world industrialisation-The consequences for Western Europe

There is growing awareness that some fundamental change has for some time been affecting the major European economies, involving a shift of manufacturing away from the developed market economies of Europe towards the developing countries. The following article analyses the process of European deindustrialisation and discusses some of the possible consequences.     

The effect of phosphate detergent bans on consumer clothing expenditures

Metropolitan sales data from the 1977 Census of Retail Trade were analysed to test whether phosphate detergent bans increased consumer expenditure on clothing: positive effects were found for men's clothing and domestic fabrics (sheets and towels). In areas with medium water hardness the average annual cost in 1977 equalled $11·08 per household. For 1984, the equivalent cost was $14·17 per household. These results are consistent with laboratory studies that show decreased detergency associated with non-phosphate detergents and increased fabric wear associated with carbonate-built detergents, the principle substitute for phosphate detergents. The bans impose the largest cost on hard water areas. In both ban and non-ban areas in 1977 higher laundering costs were associated with higher water hardness. Analysis of 1972 data indicated that water hardness did not affect clothing expenditures significantly when detergents contained large amounts of phosphates.     

Clothing outshopping in a rural Western community

Statistics reveal that over half of all women are gainfully employed outside the home. Professional working women have a certain status to maintain and it is reasonable to assume that their clothing needs might differ from women who are employed in other occupations and who remain in the home. Recent research has shown that considerable shopping occurs out of the local retail trade area (termed outshopping). Product-specific outshopping research has revealed clothing to be a product consumers are willing to out-shop to obtain. Professionally employed women might have to resort to outshopping more often than the other women in order to meet their clothing needs. For this project outshopping was defined to be the percentage of shopping which occurred at least 50 miles from the test site. This research represents the combined efforts of a graduate class studying trends in fashion merchandising; a telephone survey was developed and conducted by the class and responses from 100 female consumers were analysed using multiple step-wise regression. It was predicted and found that clothing outshopping behaviour could be significantly predicted by the degree of satisfaction with local retailing and number of children remaining in the home. Including the two variables professional/non-professional working status, and the age of female respondent as predictors, did not significantly improve the ability to predict outshopping behaviour. The implications for retailers are discussed.     

Dependent care and the workplace: An analysis of management and employee perceptions

This study attempts to identify differences in the perceptions of top management (defined as CEOs, directors, and presidents) and employees (defined as middle and supervisory management) regarding (a) the effects of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and (b) the extent of a firm's responsibility in providing support for those faced with caring needs concerning eldercare, childcare, substance abuse, and mental/physical handicaps. The results indicate that these two groups have significantly different perceptions of the effect of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and on the firm's responsibility in providing support for three types of dependent care.     

Prospects and problems in modeling group decisions

This paper summarizes some of the major issues related to group decision modeling. We briefly review the existing work on group choice models in marketing and consumer research. We draw some generalizations about which models work well when and use those generalizations to provide guidelines for future research.