Practitioners in the so-called classical professions are increasingly facing competition from non-professionals in what, traditionally, was accepted as 'their' business domains. Non-professionals are, however, not hamstrung by restrictive professional association regulations to the same degree...

Generally the marketing literature suggests that the key to a firm's survival and growth is its satisfaction of consumer needs. This philosophy is embodied in the so-called marketing concept. In order to determine to what extend South African firms succeed in achieving consumer satisfaction,...

Despite reservations about the use of demographic variables for market segmentation purposes it is a method which is widely used. Although this was not a segmentation study as such, the extent to which service quality perceptions are influenced by demographic variables has been investigated. It...

Quality is an extremely difficult concept to define, describe and measure. Consequently, few academics and authors have attempted to model it and research findings on its influence on key business variables such as profitability and market share are confusing and inconclusive. These problems are...

The job performance of employees of South African firms is often viewed as poor, particularly in respect of productivity. Managers are at times perplexed that some employees work hard and are efficient while others underperform. In this study we explore the concept of job performance and...

The high level of human involvement in marketing ensures that it is, and always will be, a dynamic business function. When the impact of accelerating technological developments is added, the dynamism often turns to volatility. The rapidly changing business environment necessitates regular...

The challenge of using scarce and limited resources to satisfy almost limitless needs will, from a management perspective, be like the proverbial cat: it will never go away. The optimal use of human resources, in particular, remains a daunting task. In an economic environment characterized by...

The purpose of this article is to conduct an empirical assessment of the extended service quality model proposed by Zeithaml, Berry Parasuraman. The article provides a brief review of the gap concept as a measurement framework for service quality Issues. This is followed by a description of the...

This study analyses marketing and marketing activities from a consumer's point-of-view. It measures consumer attitudes towards the so-called 4 Ps (product, price, promotion and retailing) and converts these scores to an overall 'attitude towards marketing' index. It also compares the results of...

In the recent past, few services marketing topics have attracted as much attention as the measuring and management of service quality. In this study an instrument developed in the United States of America, which measures the service quality in a South African retail environment, is empirically...