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A Symposium on preservation of mobilisation requirements was held in late October at the United States Naval Civil Engineering Research and Evaluation Laboratory, Port Hueneme, California. The question was very fully discussed and abstracts of some of the more important lectures, which will interest our readers, are given below.

IT is always something of an embarrassment for a West German librarian to address his British colleagues on the problems of public libraries. What is there of interest in a system which in almost every respect is years behind the development of the English libraries? When I begin to think along these lines of the considerable and, indeed, natural role which the library plays in British society (almost a traumatic experience for a German librarian), then the inequalities of the situation become particularly clear. Even though there are many historical and political causes for this state of affairs, it is still impossible for any correspondent to free himself of a certain psychological handicap.

Building on work that explores the relationship between individual beliefs and ability to recognize discrimination (e.g., Kaiser and Major, 2006), we examine how an adherence to beliefs about gender essentialism, gender egalitarianism, and meritocracy shape one’s interpretation of an illegal act of sexual harassment involving a male supervisor and female subordinate. We also consider whether the role of the gendered culture of engineering (Faulkner, 2009) matters for this relationship. Specifically, we conducted an online survey-experiment asking individuals to report their beliefs about gender and meritocracy and subsequently to evaluate a fictitious but illegal act of sexual harassment in one of two university research settings: an engineering department, a male-dominated setting whose culture is documented as being unwelcoming to women (Hatmaker, 2013; Seron, Silbey, Cech, and Rubineau, 2018), and an ambiguous research setting. We find evidence that the stronger one’s adherence to gender egalitarian beliefs, the greater one’s ability to detect inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment while gender essentialist beliefs play no role in their detection. The stronger one’s adherence to merit beliefs, the less likely they are to view an illegal interaction as either inappropriate or as sexual harassment. We account for respondent knowledge of sexual harassment and their socio-demographic characteristics, finding that the former is more often associated with the detection of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment at work. We close with a discussion of the transferability of results and policy implications of our findings.

The purpose of this case study was to explore senior librarians’ perceptions of successful leadership skills in the 21st century. The data gathered from 10 senior library leaders consisted of demographic information and responses to six open-ended interview questions. From the NVivo 10 analysis, several significant themes emerged regarding successful library leadership skills in the 21st century at two levels: foundational and interpersonal. At the foundational level, technical and knowledge skills form the building blocks for the next level of interpersonal skills. Persuasion and collaborative skills are interwoven with these interpersonal skills, both of which are at the core of the postindustrial paradigm of leadership. These two levels of skills, with an emphasis on persuasion skills, should form the basis of succession planning programs for next generation librarians. Implementing such programs could lead to increased leadership diversity, greater job satisfaction, improved job performance and effectiveness, all of which help retain librarians and ease staff shortages. Further studies are recommended.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the extent to which major contractors are delivering what can be termed “considerate construction”, using case studies of housing and education projects in the UK, identify areas for improvement, particularly in the area of community engagement practices used by contractors.

A list of key themes relating to community engagement is developed and used as a framework for case studies of projects being built by a major, multi‐disciplinary contractor that routinely registers projects with the Considerate Constructors Scheme.

This research found evidence of a range of effective practices, but there is still scope for improvement. Seemingly better examples were found in projects in which the contractor took a partnered approach with both client and community, retained community relation expertise on staff, and took appropriate, timely action.

The case studies are based in the Southeast of England and focus on housing and educational projects, so the lessons learned may not apply in all instances. Practices may also vary from one contractor to another.

The findings have implications for community engagement procedures used in construction projects. There are specific recommendations relating to the professional training of construction project managers, who need to be better equipped to deal with the local general public.

The research complements the existing academic and industry literature on considerate construction and makes both strategic and practical recommendations to enhance on‐site community engagement practices. Thus it is of interest to both researchers and practitioners.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

Meta reviews are central for mapping the state of the field, consolidating the heterogeneous public relations body of knowledge, and pointing to new potential research directions. Habermas is one of the most influential contemporary social theorists and his work has repeatedly been used in public relations scholarship. While some have maintained that his work has been most influential in the development of public relations theory, this stream of research has never been reviewed empirically.

In this paper, the authors present a bibliometric literature review of 263 public relations research articles published between 1980 and 2016 that cite and use Habermas’ work. A network analysis of these publications based on the technique of bibliographic coupling was used to identify common forms of application, research themes, as well as patterns of impact.

Results show that the use of Habermas has grown significantly, specifically in the recent decade. At the same time, researchers have a narrow focus specifically on earlier developments in the theory. Finally, we discover three main topical research clusters that have been influenced by the theory: public relations and the public sphere, dialogic stakeholder relationships, as well as public relations and communication ethics.

The findings map out an important stream of scholarship in the field by showing where public relations scholars have been and where the research community has not ventured yet. Based on the results of our analysis, the authors propose directions for research to advance future theory development in public relations using Habermas’ work.

Despite an overwhelming body of empirical evidence which questions both the reliability and validity of interviews as a form of predictive device, (see, for instance, the meta‐analysis by Hunter and Hunter, and reviews by Schmitt and Arvey and Campion) interviews, either with or without supplementary information, continue to be widely used in making decisions on selection, placement, appraisal and promotion (Anstey, Fletcher and Walker, Randell, Carlson, Thayer, Mayfield and Peterson and Ulrich and Trumbo).

Tobacco sponsorship of sports has increasingly been cast as a public issue on the grounds that it supports pediatric smoking by circumventing advertising restrictions and communicating positive brand information to children(28,31,32). Research on tobacco sponsorship effects on children is as yet inconclusive, but growing evidence suggests that sponsorship is an effective medium for building cigarette brand awareness and image among under‐aged youth. Research in this area has been inconclusive in part because it lacks a unified framework in which the various contributions of sponsorship to brand knowledge and use can be analysed holistically. This paper proposes that the brand equity concept(1,2,18) provides such a framework. The paper reviews previous research on tobacco sponsorship and children, and presents findings from a study that assessed the relative contribution of sponsorship to brand awareness among fourteen year‐olds (n=366) in Dunedin, New Zealand. The value of sponsorship‐derived cigarette brand knowledge among youth is expressed in terms of Keller's(18) concept of customer‐based brand equity. The study found that children's awareness of tobacco brands and tobacco sponsorships varied according to their smoking experience, sports interests and gender. Cigarette brands with the strongest event associations were those that sponsored events that had a high appeal for the youth in the study. The brands with the highest unaided recall levels were those that were prominently shown in point of purchase displays in stores frequented by the youth, and included those with the highest sponsorship profiles. The research demonstrates that tobacco companies can achieve significant brand recall among children through sport sponsorship, as well as interest‐based (lifestyle) segmentation and targeting benefits, and brand positioning (personality) benefits. The findings have implications for public policy and industry practice. In policy terms, if the goal of tobacco advertising prohibitions is to denormalise smoking by restricting the positive promotional imagery of cigarettes, then sport sponsorship and point of purchase displays need to be incorporated into advertising legislation. In terms of industry practice, the fact that tobacco sponsorship reaches and influences under‐aged youth stands to be a matter of concern for any entity that does not want this social burden. It is recommended that corporations considering involvement in a tobacco‐sponsored event should evaluate the reach of the event and the potential effects of its promotions on youth. Where a youth‐interest connection has been demonstrated for the event, corporations should weigh the social risks and costs of the sponsorship. For non‐tobacco related entities these costs include the potential negative impacts of tobacco‐linked event cross‐promotions on their own brands and corporate image.

The study examines SMEs' investment in B2B web sites and the relationship between organizational drivers such as adoption readiness and constraints and evaluation of investments. We investigate how these drivers influence the perception of B2B web site benefits and the effect a great understanding of issues has on stakeholder satisfaction in the investment.

A quantitative approach is used to test the hypotheses, which are developed from the literature. Following a pilot study, a survey of 1,000 Australian SMEs with B2B web sites is used to collect the data, which is analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques.

Findings reveal the mediating relationships between organizational drivers and their influence on SMEs' perceptions of benefits and stakeholder satisfaction and support the B2B web site evaluation effectiveness model. Further insights show that SMEs do not understand the complementary nature of the organizational drivers that support strategic alignment and therefore fail to realize benefits from their web sites.

Limitations of the research are noted and discussed with regard to constructs and the views of survey respondents.

Results suggest that SMEs consider reallocation and/or prioritization of resources and business objectives in order to improve their IT investment evaluation practices. This would have a direct impact on the level of IT benefits realized, and ultimately affect the degree of stakeholder satisfaction with B2B web site adoption.

A key contribution is the development of a B2B web site evaluation effectiveness model that supports greater understanding of how SMEs can gain more value from their B2B web sites.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear understanding of the performance of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐marketplace in conducting e‐marketing in the global business environment. The proposed framework is intended to be used as a guide for B2B firms especially small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who wish to adopt a proactive approach in the use of information and communication technology for business efficiency and competitive advantage, and those who wish to explore the internet technologies for marketing activities.

Literature from the B2B e‐marketplaces and operations of e‐marketing fields were analysed, and the findings were synthesised to develop a preliminary conceptual model of e‐marketing. The conceptual model was tested empirically through an online survey from various industries in China, Malaysia, and Singapore.

With significant online and offline publications from both academia and industry, there is a growing awareness of the contribution of the e‐marketing in the global environment. This new marketing paradigm is reported to reshape the business relationships between both consumer marketers and consumers, improving business processes and enhancing the business exposure in the new markets.

The major limitation of this paper is associated with the sample selection. Although the literature findings were international, the empirical study was restricted to China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Therefore, the generalizability of the results may not be applicable for other countries. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents participated were SMEs. Hence, the applicability of findings to large‐scale organisations may be limited.

The framework allows B2B firms to capitalise and understand the e‐marketing opportunities provided by B2B e‐marketplace. The framework also offers guidance to marketing managers a most appropriate approach to adopt B2B e‐marketplace to perform their e‐marketing activities.

Based on the need for a framework for e‐marketing, this study is significance to: SMEs, marketers, information technology practitioners, and all other stakeholders that adopted the internet and other electronic means for marketing purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of electronic commerce (EC) implementation success for small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), and to present outcomes of a comparative study between two countries to reflect the differences in the adoption strategies and explore reasons behind such variations.

Preliminary studies were conducted in both Australia and Singapore prior to a cross‐country survey, which collected the perceptions of small businesses about their experience with internet‐based EC. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify the influencing factors that affect success in the implementation of internet‐based EC.

By regressing overall satisfaction on the 19 influencing factors of EC success, the paper found that five factors: observability; communication channel; customer pressure; supplier pressure; and perceived governmental support, make significant contribution to the adoption of internet‐based EC in Australia; and only three factors: firm size; perceived readiness; and observability, have significant impact in Singapore.

The exploratory nature of the research means confirmatory or causally directional hypotheses could be generated in the future. It would also be insightful to conduct longitudinal studies to confirm the direction, to help clarify causality and test for feedback effects of adoption decisions. There was also no attempt made to control for industry type, which could tested more intensively in a chosen industry. Generalisability to other geographical context could be achieved if the research model can be tested over several other countries.

The study has found that the proposed model can be used in investigating drivers of EC implementation in SMEs, and the empirical data has adequately supported the model. The findings show that the organisational and innovation characteristics are necessary, but to provide a more comprehensive picture in explaining the implementation behaviour of SMEs, one needs to consider other factors and contexts especially when testing the model in different countries. Communication methods employed, government support, external pressure from customers and suppliers have been found to be very important for Australian SMEs in this decision.

A major contribution of this study is that it provides an understanding of what the organisational, technological, communication, and external environmental drivers of EC implementation are. The findings of this study could also help companies embarking upon cross border activities by illustrating the differences in EC adoption between the two Asia‐Pacific nations. The study also provides a close examination of the inhibiting and facilitating factors which can affect EC adoption success. By knowing the relative importance of these factors, SMEs may be spared from expending their limited resources and energy on less important factors which have limited contribution to EC implementation success.

Self-Service Technology (SST) is a disruptive technology that has reshaped customer interactions, increased efficiency, and enabled data-driven decision-making. Its impact continues to evolve as technology advances and customer expectations change, making it a key consideration for businesses in a dynamic landscape. This chapter delves into critical findings regarding the adoption and implications of SST in tourism and hospitality. The relevant studies are sourced from the Scopus database. A mixed literature review methodology was employed to review papers. The literature review findings show facets of SST adoption, shedding light on the intricate relationships between consumer readiness variables, context-specific influences, preferred SST features, and psychological attributes. The study reveals consumer preferences, including convenience, ease of use, and speed of service, as primary drivers of the adoption of SST. The bibliometric analysis reveals the scope for developing SST literature in tourism and hospitality. Collaborations among scholars, research and funding institutions could help provide the impetus. Research in SST security, sustainability, and resilience could help enhance the SST literature. Comparative studies evaluating SST's social and economic implications are also suggested.

There are concerns that despite government initiatives to promote adoption of electronic commerce, SMEs still fail to realise e‐commerce related benefits. It may therefore, seem premature to discuss electronic marketplaces in the context of SMEs. However, if SMEs ignore e‐marketplaces a number of problems can result. E‐marketplaces present a significant threat to SMEs since they increase competition and leave non‐participants vulnerable to more e‐enabled firms. This paper examines the barriers and benefits of e‐marketplace participation by SMEs. The nature of e‐marketplaces is addressed and the benefits of participation are examined. Drawing on the literature, the barriers facing smaller firms in this environment are discussed. Identification of these barriers, such as lack of standards, supply chain integration and global trading, enables a greater understanding of how SMEs can plan effective strategies to gain from e‐marketplace participation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and expound the factors that impinge on the adoption and usage of industrial e‐markets.

A review of the literature on e‐market adoption was followed by in‐depth interviews with senior managers in buyer, supplier, and e‐market organisations. Senior level executives (15) reported barriers and challenges to the adoption and usage of e‐markets operating in the aerospace and defence and higher education sectors. The interview data is transcribed, coded and analysed using the qualitative data analysis programme QSR N6.

The paper found a number of barriers and challenges related risk perception, knowledge deficits, trust, firm size, and organisational readiness that moderate the adoption and usage of e‐markets in the sectors.

There is unequal representation of buyer and supplier organisations between the two e‐market sectors. However, the case material enabled the research question to be answered and did not compromise the aims of the research.

The case material presented in the paper can help academic researchers, managers, practitioners and other professionals better understand the barriers that impinge on e‐market adoption and find practical ways to mitigate those barriers.

Recently, research on the barriers and challenges to e‐markets has been largely anecdotal and patchy with a paucity of studies noting factors that are likely to be conducive to e‐markets success. This study departs from such studies by offering empirical evidence of the factors in moderating the uptake of e‐markets.

Most studies in electronic government (e-government) sustainability focus on the role of specific actors (stakeholders such as government employees or citizens) in sustaining an e-government project. However, such actors may not have sufficient resources to support e-government sustainability by themselves and must collaborate across different departments and stakeholders to sustain e-government projects. This paper aims to take a social systems theory perspective on sustainable local e-government, where actors cooperate and coordinate in a social system to leverage resources for e-government sustainability in local government contexts in developing countries.

This paper is an interpretive study of two local e-government case studies based on in-depth interviews with local government information technology (IT) managers, local leaders and staff. Data analysis based on constructivist grounded theory is used to understand the role of a social system in sustaining e-government systems in local governments in developing countries.

The original social system theory was developed for industry initiatives and adapted for public organisations in this paper. The unique characteristics of the public sector and e-government innovation are used to identify new components of the social system related to local e-government. Local e-government is sustained through a collaboration between actors in a social system to leverage resources and reduce challenges.

While this is an exploratory study, the cases show that the use of a social system theory consisting of institutional, management, social and economic components requires multiple lenses for investigation. This is a challenging process because it requires different areas of knowledge to carry out the research. The challenges may influence the overall outcome of this study. In addition, the two cases may generate limited insight and experiences as this study was carried out within two local governments in Indonesia. The findings may not provide a strong basis for generalization to other contexts.

This study offers guidance to local government IT departments to improve collaboration in a social system between local actors (such as political, managers and staff) while implementing and using e-government systems.

Sustainable local e-government requires all actors to coordinate and cooperate in a social system to reduce financial, political and technical challenges.

This paper offers new insight into how a local government collaborates in a social system to realize sustainable e-government systems. Collaborating in a social system reduces common challenges and leverages resources to support e-government sustainability.

Individuals are often stigmatized by virtue of their status on various dimensions and as a consequence, they typically evoke negative cognitions, affect, and emotions among observers. In addition, they are often the targets of both access and treatment discrimination in organizations. Thus, we present a model of the cognitive, affective, and cultural influences on stigmatization in organizations, detail how stigmatization affects human resource management processes and practices, and consider strategies that can be used to reduce the problems faced by stigmatized individuals in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate electronic health record (EHR) initiatives at the national/external level. Governments are investing large amounts of money in national EHR systems. These systems are socially and politically complex and a variety of stakeholders (e.g. at the individual, organisational or national level) have an interest in evaluating such systems from technical, economic or patient outcome perspectives. In cognisance of academic research in the area, this paper presents an approach which uses the perspective of one particular type of professional critic, the media, to identify issues and evaluate their impact at a national level.

The work is conducted using an established evaluation framework and formal content analysis of selected relevant articles from the quality press of three selected countries.

Different issues take prominence in centralised vs decentralised EHR approaches. In countries with a decentralised approach issues of standards and interoperability take the fore. Where there is a more centralised approach the media focus is more on project management, budgetary and financial aspects. In all coverage political and economic aspects are emphasised over technical or patient outcome issues.

The paper represents the application of the content‐context‐process framework. It contributes to the information systems evaluation literature at the national/external level.