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Qualitative research in the field of market research is ever‐growing and has the capability of changing from sunrise to sunset. This paper aims to add a Native American perspective, one that peers from inside the reservation community outwards, into the non‐native qualitative market research environment.

Introductory description of an indigenous‐based qualitative market research protocol is discussed. A native‐based elder care facility in the reservation environment is used as an example to facilitate conversation on developing an indigenous‐based model as it relates to non‐native qualitative market research methods.

The paper provides information that is useful when preparing proposals and/or selecting firms to employ in the Native American landscape. The roots of this paper can aid readers to build, implement, and understand culturally sensitive processes in developing a native relevant qualitative model that interacts with current and future market systems.

A list of questions is provided for native committees to use when selecting firms to provide qualitative market research services. The question list also provides a template for non‐native consulting firms to use in the proposal development process.

This paper provides an indigenous model of qualitative market research. It is proposed as a valuable tool for both First Nation communities and non‐native consulting firms world‐wide.

Business processes can be broadly classified into strategic processes, operational/value adding processes and enabling processes. There is a growing abundance of literature on the strategic and operational processes, perhaps judged to be appropriate due to their value adding importance and more tangible and sequential nature. Enabling or supporting processes have historically recieved less attention, however with increasing inter and intra networking of organisations these processes are not seen as peripheral but as integral parts of the organisation. A key enabling process is that of maintenance (in the manufacturing sector), this process is sometimes referred to as the maintaining process. In this paper a methodology involving business process re‐engineering is developed and applied to the maintaining process within the chemical industry (Du Pont‐Global). The methodology includes both self‐assessment and proactive change management. Based on the findings improvements to the methodology are suggested.

Effective use of capital is an important strategic tool for any manufacturing company operating in today’s high technology and capital intensive environment. This purpose of this paper is to carry out an investigative study into strategic business processes for capital effectiveness practices (CEP) in industry, by means of a literature review, a survey of a sample of UK and US companies and a case study of the Chemco Corporation.

The insurance industry both in the UK and abroad uses a variety of measures to counter fraud. This short paper, as well as examining these measures, will report on the apparent success the industry is having against fraudsters in the UK. In addition to this some of the more noteworthy cases will be reported upon in order to inform the reader of the differing types of frauds which may be encountered.

For most people, especially those with fixed incomes, household budgets have to be balanced and sometimes the balance is precarious. With price rises of foods, there is a switch to a cheaper substitute within the group, or if it is a food for which there is no real substitute, reduced purchases follow. The annual and quarterly reviews of the National Food Survey over the years have shown this to be so; with carcase meat, where one meat is highly priced, housewives switch to a cheaper joint, and this is mainly the reason for the great increase in consumption of poultry; when recently the price of butter rose sharply, there was a switch to margarine. NFS statistics did not show any lessening of consumer preference for butter, but in most households, with budgets on a tight string, margarine had to be used for many purposes for which butter had previously been used. With those foods which have no substitute, and bread (also milk) is a classic example, to keep the sum spent on the food each week about the same, the amount purchased is correspondingly reduced. Again, NFS statistics show this to be the case, a practice which has been responsible for the small annual reductions in the amount of bread consumed per person per week over the last fifteen years or so; very small, a matter of an ounce or two, but adequate to maintain the balance of price/quantity since price rises have been relatively small, if fairly frequent. This artifice to absorb small price rises will not work, however, when price rises follow on one another rapidly and together are large. Bread is a case in point.

This paper aims to provide an insight into the corporate greed and consequent corporate collapses of companies such as HIH, One.Tel and Harris Scarfe in Australia, while concurrently, Enron, WorldCom and other companies were attracting the attention of the accounting profession, the regulators and the general public in the USA. It is argued that the rise in economic rationalism and the related increased materialism of both the public and company directors and managers, fed the corporate excesses that resulted in spectacular corporate collapses, including one of the world’s largest accounting firms. The opportunistic behaviour of directors, and managers and the lack of transparency and integrity in corporations, was compounded by the failure of the corporate watch‐dogs, such as auditors and regulators, to protect the public interest. If the history of bad corporate behaviour is not to be repeated, the religion of materialism needs to be recognised and addressed, to ensure any corporate governance reforms proposed for the future will be effective.

This study aims to compare the use of risk-sharing and risk-shifting contracts (RSFCs) in Islamic banks using a triple grouping of conservative, moderate and liberal Islamic banks based on the Khaled Khandelwal (KK) model. Six fundamental Islamic contracts are used in this study, namely, Mushãrakah, Mudãrabah, Murãbaha, Salam, Ijãrah, Istisnã. Mushãrakah and Mudãrabah represent profit and loss sharing contracts (i.e., risk-sharing contracts – RSHCs), whereas Murãbaha, Salam, Ijãrah and Istisnã represent RSFCs. This study extends the previous studies by addressing an issue that has been neglected in the literature. The extent to which the two groups of contracts are used is extremely important because of its effect on the valuation of Islamic banks and on their earning quality.

This study aims to analyze, using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, the use of RSHCs and RSFCs made by 72 fully Islamic banks, using a sample that includes banks in most of the countries where Islamic banks are present. Only fully Islamic Banks were considered, that is, banks that are essentially mainstream banks; therefore, banks that include only a specific line of Islamic products, often called the Islamic Window, were excluded. The total number of the sample was 118, but the study was restricted to 72 banks due to the availability of time series data covering the period of study, 2007 to 2015.

The study documents that over the period 2007 to 2015 the moderate banks have better distribution and balance of RSHCs and RSFCs than the conservative and liberal banks. The conservative banks are found to depend greatly on RSFCs, whereas the liberal banks are found to depend almost completely on RSFCs. Unexpectedly, the conservative banks have not shown a noticeable improvement over the period of analysis on their level of reliance on RSHCs. The results show that there is a significant difference in the percentage income distribution of the two contracts between the moderate banks and the conservative banks and between the moderate banks and the liberal banks. However, no significant difference was found between the conservative banks and the liberal banks.

The study uses an alternate rating model for Islamic financial institutions. The study examined the issue of risk sharing and risk shifting contracts usage in banks for a long period of nine years and at a global level and with an additional dimension of three categories of Islamic Banks based on the KK model.

A LETTER from the President of the Library Association (Mr. Berwick Sayers) has been received which we have pleasure in giving prominently.