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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.

Literature and practice show that the integration of feminine characteristics into leadership in the management of hotel organizations is becoming increasingly important. Although some leading hotel chains claim to further this integration by encouraging women to develop their career paths upwards into the higher management ranks, little research has been conducted into this phenomenon. This is why this study seeks to assess and elaborate the current status of attempts to integrate feminine aspects into leadership within the hotel industry. The qualitative study held among hotel managers demonstrates that the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are confusing. Additionally, when feminine and masculine leadership are considered, these terms are not carefully implemented. Hence, there is a strong need for greater in-depth knowledge and effective training to enhance the successful implementation of feminine and masculine leadership in the hotel industry.

Now well into the 21st century, the world’s most powerful organizations’ highest executive levels and boards of directors still fail to represent a diverse collection of people shaped by unique social identity dimensions according to age, class, culture, ethnicity, faith/spirituality, gender, physical/psychological ability, sexual orientation, and more. Offered in this book is an investigation into why a homophily framework, or a similarity-attraction hypothesis, continues to perpetuate leadership by predominantly Caucasian/White males and reinforces barriers that keep qualified people possessing a multiplicity of social identity dimensions from achieving their full human potential.

To understand interactive processes through which discrimination is reproduced in the workplace, social identity theorists explore connections between ways that people create social identity and that organizations become socially constructed. Social identity theory explains how people seek to develop oneness with groups that help them to develop and/or to enhance positive self-esteem – and to better understand how people develop notions of high-status ingroups and low-status outgroups. Both of these frameworks are central to this book’s attention to difference in organizations. Difference is positioned as a positive advance in organizational dynamics; advocating respect and appreciation for multiple and intersecting social identities – not for profitability and other business case reasons – but because it is morally justified to eradicate inequitable and exclusionary practices in organizations. This book offers an introduction to doing difference research by introducing a number of theoretical underpinnings, addressing methodological challenges, and presenting a wide cross-section of numerous bodies of literature which have been attending to difference work. Chapter 1 is divided into subthemes of: applying social identity theory, emphasizing the “center” and the “margin,” managing organizational climate, and avoiding business case thinking and other flawed models by advocating for real diversity.

Today, the global education market is one of the faster growing sectors, and it has attracted several new actors or what we call educational brokers who are now responsible for shaping national agendas. The newer actors in education are vastly different for the former players in that whereas previous actors engrossed national educational systems through the provision of technical assistance to meet international standards, best practices, and benchmarks, these newer players are for-profit entities that emphasize austerity, leanness, human resource maximization, performance targets, and competition. Therefore, in this new educational landscape, national governments are seen as “clients” who receive “expert” advice from “external consultants” that have an assortment of experiences across different sectors. Education governance is no longer a statist endowed but one that incubates in laborites of best practices resonates with existing case studies and results driven based on Big Date collected. We argue that educational brokers are responsible for the emergence of a hybrid form of education governance that use business and market techniques to reform strategies within the education sector. We conclude by suggesting that collectively educational brokers are using what we call “educational sub-prime mechanisms” – higher interest rates, reduced quality collateral, and less advantageous terms to counterweight higher credit risk – to manage educational portfolios and newer forms of educational risk.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how small and medium‐sized travel agencies as business customers perceive the benefits and barriers of Internet use that related to the development of a positive relationships and loyalty with their service suppliers.

Relevant hypotheses were constructed and a self‐administered questionnaire survey was conducted in the travel industry. Factor analysis and regression analysis were used to test these hypotheses.

The major benefits of Internet use were interactional and transactional benefits. The main barriers of the Internet use were organizational weaknesses, poor IT infrastructure, mistrust of the Internet system and legal issues. While the benefits positively contributed to the service and social bonds, the barriers negatively impacted the development of these bonds. The interactional benefits play a major role to increase switching costs. The customer relationships and switching costs concurrently enhanced the customer loyalty.

Cross‐sectional data were used to explore customer relationships while these bonds are basically a dynamic phenomenon that evolves over time. The travel industry in one country was examined in this study. This limits generalization to other contexts.

Guidelines for practical solutions to reduce the barriers to create business customer value and strengthen customer relationships and loyalty through the Internet were proposed.

This paper improves the understanding of the impact of benefits and barriers of the Internet use on customer relationships and loyalty in the travel industry.

Faced with ever-increasing advertising restrictions, sponsorship of sports has been an important promotional avenue for tobacco companies in North America and around the world. This paper examines the corporate sponsorship objectives and strategies of tobacco companies, based primarily on historical documents from the British-American Tobacco Co., which has operations in over 80 countries. The documents are part of the Guildford Depository located in Guildford, England. It contains over six million pages of corporate documents for the British-American Tobacco Company (BAT) from a 40-year span (early 1950s to mid 1990s). Tobacco company sponsorship practices include developing sponsorship evaluation guidelines, extensive prepromotion and post-promotion of sponsored events, making full use of the event site for sponsorship identification, ensuring that sponsored events are televised, and using an extensive array of public relations practices to ensure news coverage of a sponsored event. Other sponsors could benefit from emulating the sponsorship practices of tobacco companies.

In the fall of 1966, a small and informal group of wives whose husbands were classified as Prisoner of War (POW) or Missing in Action (MIA) formed a small and informal group. By December 12, 1969, this group of women had gained such power, influence, and a multitude of disparate followers that twenty-six met with President and Mrs. Pat Nixon at the White House. In part, the POW/MIA story is about a small group of women taking a decisive role to change the United States POW/MIA policy, accentuate the plight of the prisoners, and demand humane treatment by Hanoi—all in a national and global arena.

To facilitate the use of YouTube as an important global video portal for self-directed learning (SDL), it is important to understand YouTube users' distinctive learning experiences across cultures. This study examines factors influencing YouTube SDL based on the personal responsibility orientation (PRO) model. In addition, the two markets, US and Taiwan, were chosen to explore if national cultural differences affect YouTube users' SDL frequency and goals along with PRO variables.

A self-administered online survey of 372 college aged-YouTube users in the US and Taiwan was conducted to obtain the self-reported SDL behavior on YouTube and other demographic and video usage variable information.

Frequent video sharing and information seeking motives likely facilitate general YouTube SDL, while initiating online video search leads to specific goal-oriented SDL such as problem-solving and skill-improvement. Although American students use YouTube more frequently for SDL than Taiwanese students, Taiwanese students use YouTube more for specific skill improvement.

YouTube's social affordance enables YouTube users' informal and SDL across different national cultures and thus the role such social media play in encouraging lifelong learning needs further attention.

This study contributes to understanding how YouTube fosters the informal learning process through functions enabling YouTube users' self-directed information seeking, sharing and engaging with online videos with a cross-national comparison. This study is also expected to offer insights to promote the use of YouTube for SDL as a first cross-national study applying the PRO model in the context of YouTube SDL.

This research aims to examine the extent of e‐marketplace usage from the buyer perspective. Three types of e‐marketplace – third party exchange, consortium exchange, and private exchange – are compared and the impact of the buyer's information technology (IT) purchasing preparedness on the extent of e‐marketplace usage is evaluated.

A web‐based survey of 359 purchasing professionals in the USA is used in the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the extent of e‐marketplace usage among the three e‐marketplace types. Multiple regression methodology is also used to test the impact of IT purchasing preparedness on the extent of e‐marketplace usage.

The results indicate that there is no significant difference among the three types of e‐marketplaces in regard to the extent of current e‐marketplace usage and planned e‐marketplace usage. Additionally, IT purchasing preparedness appears to have a positive impact on e‐marketplace usage.

The research empirically confirms the positive impact of IT purchasing preparedness on e‐marketplace usage. Nevertheless, it was limited to the buyer side and did not examine the interaction of IT purchasing preparedness and other influencing factors.

The research provides useful information for companies who are using or plan to use the e‐marketplace for purchasing. It also helps market participants to choose an appropriate e‐marketplace based upon their own IT purchasing preparedness.

This research fills the gap in the existing e‐marketplace literature and provides empirical evidence for e‐marketplace usage and the impact of IT purchasing preparedness.

Cultural minority employees often display higher rates of voluntary turnover than majority employees, which reduces organizations’ ability to benefit from diversity in the workplace. The purpose of this paper is to identify specific job domains which are responsible for this difference.

Study 1 compares actual turnover motives of voluntarily resigned minority and majority employees, based on seven job domains. Study 2 compares satisfaction with the same domains, and the subsequent relationship with turnover intentions, of remaining employees within the same organization.

The two studies provided consistent results, revealing that minority employees experience more negative social interactions in the workplace, and experience less opportunities for career advancement. Both factors are shown to be more predictive of turnover intentions as well as actual turnover decisions among minority employees.

This research makes use of a distinction between several broad job domains, two which are shown to predict turnover of minority employees. Future studies should focus on uncovering more specific factors involved in these two particular domains.

Based on the results, the authors advise organizations to pay specific attention to reducing negative social interactions between cultural groups and fostering inclusion, for example, through interventions aimed at intercultural leadership and establishing a strong diversity climate. These activities may also support career advancement of minority employees, but more specific interventions aimed at equality in career perspectives could also help reduce minority turnover.

This paper is the first to directly compare turnover motives and predictors of turnover intentions between majority and minority groups in the same organization.

This section contains a range of topics from diverse, international, primary journals, including: an evaluation of PR effectiveness; a look at total quality management at Girobank, which was the first bank to win a British Quality Award; an examination of the principles of competitive marketing based on a case study; a discussion of how companies can sustain competitive advantage; and a report on retail‐oriented risk for bank branch operations.

Trade construction contractors (TCC) (domestic or nominated subcontractors) are key stakeholders engaged by the main contractors in construction activities. Social media platforms may be germane in promoting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) such as TCC. Studies regarding the role of social media platforms in TCC success are scarce in Nigeria. Therefore, the research investigates trade construction contractors’ success in leveraging social media platforms and the usage’s encumbrances.

This study adopted a qualitative research design using a virtual interview method to solicit data from 26 experts. A purposive sampling technique was utilised to engage selected participants in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. This study achieved saturation from the collected data, and a thematic analysis was adopted to analyse the data.

Findings show that embracing social media platforms by TCC practitioners will improve productivity and profitability. Also, findings reveal that financial constraints, high operation and implementation costs, lack of awareness, hesitation to adopt, unclear benefits, reluctance to deploy a new system and network issues are hindrances faced by trade construction contractors using social media platforms in Nigeria. The study suggested measures to mitigate these hindrances.

The findings stir new insights for TCC practitioners to embrace social media platforms better to reap their full benefits. The outcome would lead to TCC firms’ productivity and profitability.

Smart villages are a currently discussed approach to rural development promoted by the European Union. This approach factors in the diversity of rural areas and the different nature of challenges faced by each area. The central role is assigned to local communities – formation of appropriate characteristics and attitudes that enable the creation of optimal conditions for development. This is also the result of the evolution of a Rural Development Policy, which is driven by the dynamics and direction of change of rural areas and changes in societal perception of change events in rural areas.

The implementation of this development approach at the local level requires a transformation of the current school of thinking on development and the utilization of available resources. The key role in this process is played by local governments, which are part of the local community and also represent its interests.

The chapter combines theoretical and practical issues, and represents a geographic perspective. Its first aim is to answer the question: How can local governments create the right conditions for smart development at the local level? The second aim is to discuss the smart village approach in the context of selected development concepts. This leads to a number of specific recommendations for policymakers. It also helps them to understand the approach, which is vital in the implementation of the aforesaid recommendations.

There has been ample research on the antecedents and consequences of workplace sexual harassment (WSH), a volatile issue in contemporary labor markets. There is, however, a lingering gap in the scholarly literature regarding the organizational practices involved in contending with WSH incidents following their occurrence. By exploring the practices and challenges of sexual harassment commissioners, a mandatory role performed by Israeli human resource practitioners, this study aims to unpack the embedded power dynamics, which construct how WSH is both deciphered and handled within organizations.

In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 sexual harassment commissioners (SHCs) in various business organizations in Israel to explore practitioners' conceptions of the challenges underlying their role. A grounded theory approach was utilized.

The findings demonstrate that, while SHCs seemingly are empowered by their exclusive authority to inquire into an intricate organizational matter, counter practices have emerged to undermine their authority and influence. This negatively affects their ability to reduce the prevalence of WSH. SHCs' attempts to approach WSH utilizing a power discourse are eroded by systematic barriers that channel them toward adoption of the default legal discourse. The latter frames WSH in terms of individual misconduct rather than as a phenomenon stemming from and expressive of organizational and societal gender inequalities.

This study does not represent the voices of WSH complainants or of top executives. The data focused on SHCs' descriptions of their role challenges.

Implications are suggested regarding the academic education and training of SHCs.

This study sheds light on covert and unspoken barriers to gender equality in the labor market.

The primary objective of this research is to identify and analyze the influence of digital marketing practises on performance of business of manufacturing enterprises in Delhi-NCR. A quantitative and descriptive research design was implemented in this study. 368 participants from various enterprises were chosen. Questionnaires were used to collect data on the benefits and challenges which are perceived of digital marketing, as well as usage and business performance of these enterprises. SPSS v24.0 is utilized to carry out statistical analysis on the collected data. The study discovered that advantages and problems of digital marketing practices influenced the usage of digital marketing. Furthermore, the execution of digital marketing had a prominent influence on sales and total number of customers of these enterprises, and this relationship was moderated by type and size of businesses. It was discovered that using digital marketing strategies increased business profits by raising digital marketing awareness among consumers and various industries. It made digital marketing easier to implement in various businesses. However, research should be conducted for appropriate generalization in a larger scale.

The final chapter of this book captures a diverse range of case studies across teaching and learning and campus stewardship. The five case studies presented here add illustrative insights of global actions, following on from the four case studies presented within previous chapters. These contributions provide compelling and practical insights into how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are broadly addressing SDG2 through student competitions in the first section, and curriculum approaches in subject areas in which ‘food’ and ‘hunger’ might not be expected in the second section. The final section of cases further explores HEIs’ approaches to food security through both a curriculum lens and a student-led campus project. It is a fitting way to close the book since the cases collectively illustrate the potential contribution that any student and/or educator might make to raising awareness of and action towards achieving zero hunger and SDG2.

Aging workers are a diverse group yet research on aging infrequently examines the joint effects of age and gender upon various life domains and decisions. In order to fully understand the experience of a person, you must examine her/his roles and identities as they intersect. Intersectionality extends to the work setting, and the notion of intersectionality is presented as a paradigm that can yield significant insights into the joint consideration of age and gender in the workplace. These relationships have the potential to shape identities, which may in turn influence work perceptions and outcomes. As a result there are important considerations, consequences, solutions, and future research topics, as well as Human Resource practices that are discussed in this chapter.

This study aims to contribute to the literature by addressing two research questions: is there a relationship between e-commerce adoption and performance of SMEs? And, more importantly, does the degree of entrepreneurial orientation moderate the relationship between e-commerce adoption and SME performance?

Data were collected from a sample of 55 manufacturing and service SMEs located in the state of Texas, USA, between 2008 and 2009 using a structured questionnaire. Customized questionnaires were mailed out to the owner-managers of 55 SMEs. A moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the two hypotheses.

The results suggest that e-commerce adoption has a significant, positive influence on SMEs' average sales growth rate and that adopters of e-commerce technology have significantly higher average sales growth rate than non-adopters. The results also indicate that e-commerce adoption positively affects SMEs' annual sales growth rate even more when the sample firms have higher level of entrepreneurial orientation. Overall, the results of this analysis indicate the importance of e-commerce adoption as well as SMEs' entrepreneurial orientation on the performance of SMEs.

The findings of this study can be useful for SMEs in general as a means of understanding how e-commerce adoption positively affects the firm's performance. Such a relationship suggests that e-commerce adoption is an important factor that can enhance firm's internal processes and ultimately performance. Therefore, e-commerce adopters should continue to utilize this technology while non-adopters should consider harnessing the potential of this technology to further streamline their operations and effectiveness.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of e-commerce adoption and entrepreneurial orientation in small firm performance.

To justify an increase in information technology (IT) spending and to understand utilization of limited organizational resources on IT, the correlation between IT and business performance has been of great interest to business managers. However, business managers face issues and challenges in finding out how and to what extent IT is able to deliver the intended benefits. The purpose of this paper is to examine IT evaluation issues and challenges faced by information systems (IS) researchers, IS specialists, and business managers.

This paper begins by reviewing the disparate discussions in past literature on IT evaluation issues and challenges. It then provides a synthesis of the disparate discussions by identifying eight issues and challenges in IT evaluation.

The eight issues and challenges identified are: evaluation scope, evaluation timing, unit of analysis, level of analysis, different perspectives, different dimensions, different measures, and underpinning theoretical frameworks. It concludes with some suggestions on ways to improve IT evaluation practices.

This paper posits that before a pragmatic IT evaluation approach can be developed, it is necessary to first understand the issues and challenges faced by IS researchers, IS specialists, and business managers in IT evaluation. Having identified the eight issues and challenges, this paper provides pointers on what needs to be considered when conducting IT evaluation.

Most electronic market (e‐markets)‐based research that has been undertaken has primarily focused on the design and development of systems to support electronic trading within national boundaries and it has been implied that conducting business through this medium is beneficial to the organisation. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine the relative significance of economic, social, political and cultural factors and their interconnections in the transition to global e‐markets.

The paper uses an interpretive case study as this facilitates an understanding of how globalisation constructs affect the transition of organisations to the global market environment.

The case study has found the need for organisations to address a wide range of issues if they are to benefit from participation in global electronic marketplaces (e‐marketplaces). The development of information communication and technologies (ICT) has been viewed as a primary factor in the reduction of transaction costs and one which allows for a greater number of suppliers in electronic markets. A large supplier base is seen as an advantage by some since it improves the bargaining position of the buyer. Dealing closely with a small number of suppliers may reduce transaction costs and risk, but such costs and risks have been significantly reduced by the development of internet based e‐marketplaces where the market absorbs a high proportion of both. In the case study, an organisation moving to the e‐market because of the advantages of significantly reduced transaction costs has been seen.

The literature adoption of global procurement platforms stresses the economic benefits. However, few studies have examined the social, cultural and political factors that are part of the globalisation trend and how these impact on companies trying to make a transition to global procurement strategies. In this paper, it is revealed that the trend toward globalisation fuelled by ICT is affected by a complex array of economic, social, political and cultural factors. The economic benefits of globalisation cannot be fully realised without consideration of the social, political and cultural issues.

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon exchange theory to test the moderating effect of perceived inflation on dual commitment among a sample of health professionals in Ghana. The authors test this effect on the unilateral contributions of commitment to the organization and commitment to the professional association.

Survey questionnaires were used to elicit responses from 141 health professionals in Ghana. Least square moderated regression analysis was employed to test the hypothesized relationships.

The authors found that respondents do exhibit dual commitment to the organization and the professional association. The findings also supported the hypothesized moderating effect of perceived inflation on the contribution of the unilateral commitments to dual loyalty. Perceived inflation alters the contributions from the predictors, hence, reducing dual commitment.

The study sampled only public sector employees, but the authors do not consider this a fatal flaw since the public sector in Ghana employs a large percentage (51 percent) of the workforce. Future research should focus on the private sector to increase the generalizability of the perceived inflation construct.

Perceived inflation can have adverse effects on workplace attitudes, including dual loyalty to the organization and to the union. But the finding also suggests that, in periods of inflationary pressures, high affective commitment can benefit the organization. The perceived reduction in the value of the economic exchange clearly has implications for compensation policy for the public sector in Ghana.

Researchers have examined the perception of inflation on consumer behavior, but none has investigated the inflationary influence on workplace attitudes. This study extends the conceptualization of the index of perceived inflation and the psychology of inflation to the management literature. This study is the first to investigate the effect of perceived inflation on commitment.

The purpose of this literature review is to provide an intervention model, which can be used by organisations to combat sexual harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment has been somewhat ignored over recent years, with much of the academic literature focusing on harassment specifically on workplace bullying, or psychological harassment of a generic nature. For the purpose of this review, the authors have specifically reviewed individual and organisational antecedents, particularly focusing on the organisation's culture and training programmes.

A review of the sexual harassment literature has been conducted to examine primary, secondary and tertiary interventions to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.

There are a variety of antecedents of sexual harassment which can be examined; these cover three main categories: groups and individuals; organisational and situational; and societal. Sexual harassment should be seen as an issue which needs to be addressed by the organisation, rather than simply increasing and improving an individual's skills in order to deal with harassment (Fitzgerald and Shullman).

This paper provides an up‐to‐date review of the sexual harassment literature and from this provides a model, which organisations can utilise when attempting to tackle the problem of sexual harassment.

Memories and musings of the long ago reveal revolutionary changes in the world's food trade and in particular, food sources and marketing in the United Kingdom. Earliest memories of the retail food trade are of many small shops; it used to be said that, given a good site, food would always sell well. There were multiples, but none of their stores differed from the pattern and some of the firms — Upton's, the International, were household names as they are now. Others, eg., the Maypole, and names that are lost to memory, have been absorbed in the many mergers of more recent times. Food production has changed even more dramatically; countries once major sources and massive exporters, have now become equally massive importers and completely new sources of food have developed. It all reflects the political changes, resulting from two World Wars, just as the British market reflects the shifts in world production.

The strategic importance of sponsorship of sports events by the tobacco industry has been increasing since tobacco firms have been constrained in their advertising activities. The present study will provide further insight to this critical promotion tool for cigarette brands. Specifically, it will focus on the effects of tobacco companies' sponsorship at the Montreal F1 Grand Prix on adolescents' cognitive and behavioral responses, i.e. identification with cigarette brands and brands' personality, and consumption of cigarettes. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of adolescents before and after the Grand Prix. Both sponsoring and non-sponsoring brands benefited from the Grand Prix, since the perceived brand personality and the identification with the brands were enhanced by the event. These findings tend to confirm that such sporting events are efficient ways to increase cigarette consumption and brand identification, especially for older male adolescents who are interested in car races.

Using data from 184 employed Hispanic‐American and Anglo‐American participants in the United States, the present study examined the relations between four cultural values (i.e., collectivism, power distance, familism, present time orientation) and job choice preferences. Results revealed that (1) collectivism was positively related to the importance of coworkers and working in a diverse organization, (2) familism was related to preferences for jobs with personal time off, and (3) power distance was related to the importance of organizational reputation and promotion opportunities. In addition, the findings revealed that, relative to Anglo‐Americans, Hispanic Americans felt that organizational reputation, flexible work hours, bonuses, and diversity were more important job choice factors. Implications are offered for conducting future research on job choice and developing recruitment practices in multicultural organizations in the United States.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Recent changes in the UK political landscape have brought about cuts in public sector spending. Local authorities, in common with other public sector agencies, are required to make significant cost savings over the coming years. Procurement is an area of public sector administration characterised by considerable costs and inefficiency where the adoption of innovative technologies, such as e‐markets, can be deployed to effect significant costs savings. However, there are many barriers to the adoption of such technologies. The purpose of this paper is to explore and expound the factors that impede local authorities from adopting e‐markets and to present a learning opportunity for procurement managers and other stakeholders involved in technology adoption in local government and the wider public sector.

A case study based on in depth interviews with 17 senior level executives in e‐markets and local authorities on barriers to e‐market adoption in the local government sector is presented. The interviews were transcribed and subsequently coded and analysed using the qualitative data analysis software QSR N6.

A number of factors (risk perception, knowledge deficits, trust, firm size, and organisational readiness) pertaining to Johnson's framework of e‐market adoption barriers were found to affect e‐market adoption and use in the local government sector. Importantly, the study also found factors that are idiosyncratic to the sector that impinged on e‐market adoption.

The scope of the study is limited to examining such barriers from a buy‐side local authority perspective, the findings of which may have implications for the adoption of e‐markets and other e‐procurement technologies in the wider public sector and beyond. The paper also makes a contribution to the literature on e‐market adoption by adding to the body of knowledge relating to institutional theory.

The case study can help local authority and other public sector procurement managers, academic researchers, practitioners, consultants and other professionals involved in technology adoption better understand, and find practical ways to offset, the barriers that impinge on the adoption of e‐markets and other innovative technologies that can reduce costs within public sector organisations.

E‐market adoption has the potential to realise a number of significant cost saving benefits within and between organisations. However, such benefits cannot be realised if there are barriers to their adoption and full utilisation. To date, research on the dynamics of e‐market adoption has largely focused on private sector enterprises with few studies examining this phenomenon in public sector environments. Therefore, e‐market adoption in the public sector has received limited attention in the literature over the past decade. This study examines, and provides empirical evidence of, barriers to e‐market uptake and usage in the local government sector in order to act as a starting point to creating better understanding of such barriers among academic and practitioner audiences.