C management activities at firms involve making consistent decisions over time, about: (a) which customers to select for targeting, (b) determining the level of resources to be allocated to the selected customers, and (c) selecting customers to be nurtured to increase future profitability. Measurement of customer profitability and a deep understanding of the link between firm actions and custom...

Small business support is an important element of industrial development policy in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This paper examines the effect of grant support on small business performance from 1991-95. Around 50 per cent of small businesses in Northern Ireland and 30 per cent of small businesses in the Republic of Ireland received support over this period. In Northern Ir...

Industrial marketing and purchasing is an interesting phenomenon. On the surface it appears as very mundane, a simple day-to-day activity performed by purchasers, sales personnel, and technical specialists; i.e. most often by professions representing ‘middle management’. As such, it is not surrounded with any of the greater prestige ascribed to more hyped business activities, such as financing ...

IntroductIon The traditional channels of marketing are gradually being transformed by, or assimilated into, the global network represented by the Internet and modern information technology (IT) applications. Unfortunately , in most cases, the current IT systems are not fluid and dynamic enough to cope with ubiquitous customers who can contact the firm through a multitude of communication channe...

For most of the rural poor in developing countries, improving day-to-day quality of life requires improvements in agricultural productivity. With the gradual reduction of government support for public agricultural research, extension, and marketing in many of these settings, the dissemination of new agricultural technologies is increasingly shaped by the private sector(Feder, Willett and Zijp 2...

Management has a large effect on the productivity of medium and large firms. But does management matter in micro and small firms, where the majority of the labor force in developing countries works? We develop 26 questions that measure business practices in marketing, stockkeeping, record-keeping, and financial planning. These questions have been administered in surveys in Bangladesh, Chile, Gh...

Animal agriculture in North America has undergone a revolution since World War II. Productivity has increased enormously through the use of animal confinement, genetic selection, scientific feed formulation, and productivity-enhancing pharmaceuticals. There has been a shift to larger production units taking advantage of economies of scale. Critics contend that these changes have reduced the wel...

The area under pulse production has decreased continuously for the last 10 years in Bangladesh. With the expansion of irrigation facilities, the area allocated to production of cereal crops has increased significantly, while pulses have been pushed to marginal lands of low productivity. Additional production of pulses can be achieved by (1) increasing productivity through improved varieties, (2...