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Although standard telecare services have quickly become very successful in many areas, their extension to other groups, including people with learning disabilities, has been delayed by issues such as ethics, and a need for a wider range of technologies. A series of pilot studies have demonstrated over £400,000 of savings in a year, and have enabled improved processes for assessment and prescription to be developed. Four case studies are described and their successful outcomes establish a way forward for Cheshire East Council Community Services to roll out improved provision to support many more service users in the future.

The discussion about firearms in the United States often involves a contentious confrontation between two polarized groups: gun owners and those that might increase regulation of guns. The former group often uses rights-based arguments, including the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, while the latter assesses problems related to gun violence from a collectivist perspective, focusing on the health, social, and policy implications of firearm ownership. The National Rifle Association (NRA) adds to the mix through communicating and lobbying activities.

The chapter uses qualitative data and interpretive methods to gain an in-depth insight into the values of the gun culture and the role of the NRA in this community. Data used are from nine depth interviews with gun owners and field notes derived from participant observation in addition to examination of email communications sent by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.

Three significant values espoused by members of the culture – self-sufficiency, safety, and privacy – are based on the individualist perspective and this perspective is reinforced by public narrative provided by the NRA.

A limitation is the geographic limitation on data collection, although it is expected that rural gun culture does not vary significantly throughout the United States. The study has implications for a more nuanced understanding of the gun debate in the United States by suggesting how the narrative is structured by lobbying groups such as the NRA.

This chapter provides insight into the U.S. gun culture that has not been previously addressed through a consumer culture theory lens.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Claims that the consumer behaviour field, during the last two decades, has become both multinational and multidisciplinary. States that marketing with its consumer behaviour, has become the most import sub‐field, while significant contributions to its understanding have been made by economists, psychologists, sociologists and political scientists. Attempts to prove that integrating the field into comprehensive models has not been very successful thus far, by using a different track. Organizes into 9 sections and addresses, finally, the further development of consumer theory and research. Posits that the majority of studies on consumer behaviour have approached the subject matter at the individual, rather than the group, level. Summarizes that the ‘gospel’ preached is that of individual, proactive, foresightful choice ‐ which is compatible with rationalistic culture, stressing volition and personal responsibility by broadening the field of consumer behaviour

States that marketers require a better understanding of the consumer decision‐making process for selecting services, particularly of the prepurchase information search for professional services which are often selected just after relocation to a new geographical area. Examines the findings of research on this topic, which looked at questionnaires returned by a sample of two hundred new residents about their use of information sources in choosing a professional service. Discusses the managerial implications for marketers of the results of the study, which confirmed the importance of personal sources of information in the search process and showed that most residents were happy with their choices.

This chapter proposes that corporate lawyers be studied as committed to their clients, asking how they advance exercises of power by those whom they have chosen to represent. Currently, corporate lawyers are studied as independent from their clients, asking how they resist client demands. Such research continues despite repeated findings that corporate lawyers are not independent. This chapter explains the puzzling persistence of independence by cultural understandings of both professionalism and law. It recovers a submerged historic voice in which corporate lawyers are judged by their position in a network of relations. It argues that it was the organization of the corporate law firm as a factory which allowed it to become a professional ideal. Market competition has led corporate law firms to move away from a factory model to one in which commitment to clients, not independence from them, is the organizing principle.

Understanding the advantages of brand experience is important for brand managers to more effectively grow satisfied and loyal customers. To date, little research has examined the relationship between brand experience and customer satisfaction, uncertainty, and brand loyalty with sport products. Therefore, this study examined these relationships with golf club products in the golf industry.

Data were collected from golf players in South Korea (n = 386) through online surveys. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to examine the relationship between the variables.

The results revealed that brand experience influences golfers' uncertainty toward other brands. In other words, doubts about the brand will decrease when consumers experience sensory, affective, behavioral, and intellectual interactions with a brand. Interestingly, brand experience does not influence golfers' satisfaction as indicated by previous studies. Also, findings showed that just having experience with a brand does not lead to golfers' loyalty.

This study helps to understand how consumers' direct experiences influence brand beliefs and attitudes. Moreover, this study is significant for sport marketing practitioners since it explores an alternative marketing approach to brand differentiation, which has the potential to attract and retain more customers.