TODAY'S CHINESE LEADERS FOLLOW TRADITIONAL CHINESE STRESS ON QUESTIONS OF FORM AND LANGUAGE. ON THE OTHER HAND THE ROLE OF MARXIST-LENINIST MESSIANISM MUST NOT BE UNDERESTIMATED. THE MATTER WAS, HOWEVER, MUCH MORE PRONOUNCED IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC, WHEN MAO CONSIDERED NEUTRALITY A MAY OF DECEIVING THE PEOPLE.
THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE NEW WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) WHICH REPLACES GATT (GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TARIFFS AND TRADE), FOR AFRICA'S PLACE IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. IN PARTICULAR, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE WTO, AND THE NEW DISPUTES PROCEDURE, ARE UNLIKELY TO IMPROVE AFRICA'S RELATIVE POSITION IN THE WORLD CAPITALIST SYSTEM AND MAY, IN SOME IMPORTANT RESPECTS, EVEN UNDERMINE IT. THE ARTICLE ALSO CLAIMS THAT THOUGH THE WTO WAS INTENDED TO REMOVE THE BIAS IN FAVOR OF POWERFUL COUNTRIES, THE REALITY IS QUITE DIFFERENT. AN EXAMINATION OF THE WTO AGREEMENT REVEALS THAT LITTLE OF SUBSTANTIVE NATURE HAS CHANGED. AND CHANGE WILL ALSO NOT COME EASILY OR INEXPENSIVELY. SUBSTANTIAL RESOURCES WILL BE NEEDED TO ENSURE THAT DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ARE NOT OUT-MANOUVERED BY THE DOMINANT MEMBER COUNTRIES. RESOURCES WILL ALSO BE NEEDED TO ENSURE THAT ALL DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WILL HAVE A REPRESENTATIVE PRESENT AT ALL WTO MEETINGS.
The current research systematically develops and empirically validates a scale to measure word-of-mouth communication and investigates two forms of customer commitment and service quality as potential antecedents. The findings support the hypotheses that affective commitment is positively related to word-of-mouth communication but that high sacrifice commitment is not related to word-of-mouth communication. Interestingly, the effect of service quality on word-of-mouth communication appears to be industry dependent. A distinction is made between word-of-mouth activity and word-of-mouth praise.