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The purpose of this paper is to identify the different types of adoption costs faced by organizations involved in the adoption of radio frequency identification (RFID) within supply networks, and to understand how these potential costs affect the likelihood of RFID adoption.

The paper applies an existing generic theoretical framework of costs associated with process innovation adoption to the case of RFID technology. Data are collected by interviewing participants in the RFID adoption process in supply network settings, and by examining a range of publicly available information on RFID development. The data are used to test and expand the theoretical framework.

Of the six main categories of generic process innovation costs, four are identified as applicable in the case of RFID adoption by early adopters: development, switching, cost of capital and implementation. No evidence is found for initiation and relational costs. In addition, a seventh category of costs is identified as applicable to the adoption of RFID in supply networks: ethical costs associated with privacy and health issues.

Further empirical work is required to test the generalisability of the findings. Because RFID technology is still in the early phases of development, the research has been able to consider only early adopters: further work is required as the technology matures to assess the impact of costs throughout the technology development lifecycle.

The work demonstrates that when considering the adoption of RFID managers need to look at a range of potential costs in making the investment decision. Policy makers also need to consider how organizations consider a range of costs that may not be explicitly specified when making adoption decisions.

The paper tests and extends the generic framework of costs associated with process innovations in supply networks. The study also clarifies the various costs involved in the adoption of RFID technologies by early adopters, and their influence on the decision to adopt.

Project management scholars and practitioners have long debated how best to harness social interactions to optimise knowledge exchange and enhance stakeholder alignment and value. This study aims to assist project managers to understand and manage fuzziness and create enduring front-end value. It views the project life cycle as a potential source of co-created value. The paper uses a social capital lens to provide a deeper understanding of the project front-end; it uses a three-dimensional view (structural, relational, cognitive) to explore how stakeholder social capital can overcome front-end fuzziness to enhance decision-making and, thus, value creation.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers from teleconnections companies, which, when combined with secondary data, established the impact, nature and dimensions of social capital within a project management setting.

The research found that social capital can help to reduce complexity, uncertainty and equivocality in the early stages of projects, making them more clearly defined and thus helping to create greater stakeholder value in the later stages of the project. A surprising finding was that some project team members engaged in intentional equivocality to try to promote their own benefits rather than those of the organisation.

This paper reconceptualises the impact of social capital on stakeholder value creation in the front-end of projects. The paper contributes to a more holistic view of the front-end of project management, focusing social capital to reduce the sources of front-end fuzziness.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse internet access and use trends in 11 African countries based on household and individual ICT survey data.

The study uses nationally representative data for households and individuals in residential and semi-residential areas, as defined by national census sample frames for 11 African countries.

While the 2007/2008 African ICT access and use survey demonstrated alarmingly little access to the internet on the continent, together with a large-scale absence of computers and smart phones, compounded by the high cost of connectivity, the mobile phone is now the key entry point for internet use. Internet access has increased significantly across all countries, as a result increasing internet penetration to 15.5 per cent across the 11 African countries surveyed by Research ICT Africa in 2011/2012. Mobile internet requires fewer ICT skills, less financial resources and does not rely on electricity at home, compared to computers or laptops. Other findings highlight the unevenness of internet take-up across and within countries. Thus, while the majority of the countries under investigation demonstrate increased mobile internet take-up, in Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, internet use remains negligible. In those countries where mobile internet is boosting connectivity, this is being driven by social networking applications.

The policy implications of the shift in significant numbers from negligible internet access at public access points serviced primarily by fixed access lines to mobile internet access are significant. Just as traditional reform strategies of increasing competition in the market increased access to voice services more successfully than traditional universal service strategies, mobile again appears to be addressing the internet gap. Competition in mobile markets appears to address the efficiency gap in the market, resulting in an increase in the choice of services and a reduction in prices. Strategies that seek to aggregate users at public access points, funded by complex levies and subsidies again seem to have been overtaken by the increasing availability of mobile internet access, as feature phones and smart phone become more available to individual users.

Understanding prepaid mobile internet further provides a pro-poor dimension to public policies seeking to improve internet access, which historically has been available and affordable to the elite. The rest of the society had to rely on public access points, whether private internet cafés or schools and libraries.

This paper uses primary data that allow a better understanding of internet access and use in Africa. It provides policymakers and regulators with the evidence required for an informed ICT policy and regulation.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on information literacy and library instruction through an extensive annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2017 in over 200 journals, magazines, books and other sources.

The paper provides a brief description for all 590 sources.

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

Energy usage of households accounts for a significant portion of total energy consumption and carbon emissions. Scottish homes today are highly energy consumers emitting on average 3 tonnes of CO₂ per house annually and the amount exceeds the UK average of 2.75 tonnes of CO₂. Moreover, 26% of the households are actually facing fuel poverty and it is therefore a critical task to efficiently manage and minimise energy trends in housing in order to meet carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission reduction and energy consumption cut targets such as 80% overall cuts in carbon emissions by 2080 for the UK, compared with 1990 levels. The study has been undertaken within the Zero Energy Mass Custom Homes (ZEMCH) research network's demonstration projects e.g. ‘ZEMCH 109’. The existing post-council end-terraced house was intended to be extended in South Ayrshire, Scotland in 2012. As part of the project, the Building Environments Analysis Unit (BEAU) research centre has conducted a post occupancy monitoring of the energy and indoor environmental conditions e.g. indoor air temperature, relative humidity and CO₂ levels in the Scottish affordable home which will also continue even after the construction of the newly built extension and the refurbishment of the existing home. It is therefore important for the successful demonstration of the ZEMCH 109 project and for the purpose of this study that a detailed monitoring and a post occupancy evaluation (POE) of the exiting NRGStyle home are performed sufficiently in order to investigate the relationship between energy consumption and the indoor environmental conditions and cross-checked with the accepted standards.

This study aims to investigate suspects underlying motivations to resist cooperation during investigative interviews. The authors propose a tripartite framework (i.e. concerns for identity, relational and instrumental reasons) for understanding motivations to resist, tested through three qualitative studies.

The authors coded semi-structured debriefs about investigators’ experiences with communicative resistance throughout their careers (n = 40; Study 1), with particularly resistant suspects (n = 18; Study 2) and with both investigators and their suspects (n = 11; Study 3). Coders identified examples illustrative of subcategories within the framework.

The authors found that both investigators and suspects cite various motivations to resist. The participants also highlighted the importance of considering these motivations when devising how to mitigate resistance within an investigative interview.

This research examines the understudied topic of communicative resistance and begins to examine motivations that might underlie the phenomenon. Eliciting and understanding suspects’ resistance motivations should be an important component of mitigating resistance using a rapport-based model.

This study aims to explore the opportunities and challenges in activating a Smart Contract to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of Ṣukūk offerings in the Islamic capital market.

The study adopts a mono-method qualitative approach. Data were obtained from survey interviews of two issuances on the fusion of smart contracts in Ṣukūk structures that were Sharīʿah-compliant. A thematic approach was further used to analyze the interview data based on the onion research method while opportunities and challenges of activating the Smart Ṣukūk (SṢ) relied on doctrinal evidence.

The results from the issuances across two jurisdictions showed that deployment of SṢ can resolve contractual ambiguities arising from Sharīʿah interpretations, jurisdictional policies and legal regime issues, which affect Ṣukūk origination and issuances especially on the right of investors in the event of Ṣukūk defaults. Although SṢ is automated, the third party’s presence is not eliminated as the blockchain platform still relies on the validators who are usually blockchain developers functioning as a third party in the Ṣukūk chain.

The study relies on doctrinal literature to explain the features and requirements of SṢ. The empirical approach is limited to interview data based on local SṢ issuances. Future studies need to explore regulators’ role and global standards in cross-border issuance of SṢ with multiple jurisdictions/laws.

The paper concludes that the offering of SṢ using local currency has been successful in the two issuances because of the facilitative regulatory environment. However, addressing Ṣukūk’s challenges in cross-border offerings would require guidance from international standard-setters such as the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions and the Islamic Financial Services Board.

This study is an advanced application of smart contracts to alleviate the related Ṣukūk challenges in the Islamic capital market.

Examines the fifthteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

This paper poses the question of whether the mainstream feminist movement in the United States, in concentrating its efforts on achieving gender parity in the existing workplace, is selling women short. In it, I argue that contemporary U.S. feminism has not adequately theorized the problems with the relatively unregulated market system in the United States. That failure has contributed to a situation in which women’s participation in the labor market is mistakenly equated with liberation, and in which other far-ranging effects of the market system on women’s lives inside and outside of work – many of them negative – are overlooked. To theorize the effects of the market system on women’s lives in a more nuanced manner, I borrow from the insights of earlier Marxist and socialist feminists. I then use this more nuanced perspective to outline an agenda for feminism, which I call “market-cautious feminism,” that seeks to regulate the market to serve women’s interests.

Examines the fifteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.