The main argument is that the methods and the facilities for designing and controlling multi-country research have evolved from the primitive approach of the 1950's to a sophisticated and versatile methodology which is still being developed and refined, but it is questionable whether this advance has been paralleled in productivity. The paper will consider the possible meanings of 'productivity' in the context of international research - from the simplistic (but still used) arithmetical measurements (cost per interview, etc) to more realistic definitions that take account of the quality of a research study in all its aspects. The long term development of methodology will be illustrated by an outline of techniques, with case examples, in four 'snapshots', at roughly ten year intervals: the late fifties, the end of the sixties, the end of the seventies, and today. The paper will then focus on the period from 1981 to the present, which has seen the most radical and far-reaching changes in the market for international research on both the demand and supply sides.
In this article we present new characterizations of marketing productivity that address current trends in the economy and in information technology. Recent work in the field of management science, building on ideas from engineering, economics and statistics, offers the first satisfactory multi-input, multi-output measure of productivity. It does so in a way that is meaningful to managers, is especially suited for use in the growing service economy, and leads to the real-time control tools that are needed to manage productivity in actual enterprises.
The paper considers general trends of structural change in terms of averages per type of trade. It consists of two parts. The first paper is descriptive, and gives an international comparison of trends concerning average shop size, number of shops per 1.000 inhabitants, the share of independents and concentration in the general food trade. The second paper is more analytical, and considers underlying causes of structural change in terms of productivity and profit. The analysis of productivity focusses on economies of scale, and briefly considers the effects of an extension of shopping hours. The analysis of profits considers the factors that determine average margin per type of trade. The results are used to explain trends of increasing scale, concentration and the declining share of independents.