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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

While Web‐based consumer activity is poised on the brink of dramatic growth, concerns about security have the potential to limit this growth by arousing shopper’s concerns about the Web‐based channel. One key aspect to consumer participation in Web commerce may be the extent to which they perceive risk to their sensitive information. This study describes the creation of a scale to measure perceived Web security. We apply the scale in a causal model to investigate the relative impact of beliefs about Web shopping on intent to purchase products using the World Wide Web. Data from two samples is used to develop the scale and to perform the causal analysis. Our findings indicate the favorable psychometric properties of the scale, and the causal analysis from our sample indicates that security is a greater influence on intent to purchase using the Web than is the ease and utility of purchasing products.

Communication, like quality or professionalism, is one of those words that is constantly bandied around without ever being properly considered; they are universally considered to be a ‘good thing’, the motherhood and apple pie concepts of modern management. By the same token any publication that is designed to help managers, especially managers of NHS Trusts to improve their communication skills must also be considered to be a good idea and of benefit to managers. Whether this slim guide, however, is the best way to achieve better communications for NHS Trusts is debatable. The stated aim of the publication is to provide a ‘short but comprehensive overview of modern communications principles and practice and to show how these can be applied to NHS Trust management’. It would be more accurate to say that this is a short guide to the different terms used to describe communications. This booklet does not provide any real practical guidance on how to apply these techniques in the NHS, or perhaps more importantly, any strategic direction for Trusts which want to improve their communications.

Inventory service levels are a concern of every inventory system. Poor service levels may result in loss of customers and sales, whereas excessive service levels result in loss of money due to large inventories. Although inventory service levels have been discussed widely in the professional literature, the emphasis has been on service levels during replenishment lead times. Overall service levels, which are much more relevant to customers, have received little attention, and the results presented are often mistaken. This article reviews measures of inventory service levels both for single and multiple items, relates single item measures during lead times to their overall counterparts, and shows that overall measures are not only more relevant to customers, but also require lower safety stock from the provider of the goods.

SINCE this is the last time I shall write this page as editor of Work Study I crave your forbearance if it tends to have a more personal note than usual. Of necessity communication through the printed word lacks the intimacy of personal contact. After fifteen years of writing for the same readership I sometimes feel the intense curiosity Bernard Shaw revealed in a letter to a schoolgirl which I was privileged to read. ‘I confess’ he wrote, ‘that I should even like to know what sort of looking animal you are.’

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

This article examines how bidding decisions are being tackled in practice. It appears very likely that in the future, these decisions will have to be made on a sounder, more structured, quantitative basis. The article suggests a formal, yet mathematically unsophisticated way of handling the bidding problem and considers how such an approach can help the decision maker. Such an approach is a valuable addition to the experience, judgment, intuition and common sense of the bidding strategist.

Successful management practice is, to many, an area of mystery. The incredible complexity involved in successful decision making is too often taken for granted. Kotler, a leading authority in the marketing field, has described his discipline as follows:

In calculations of inventory control costs, the effects of stockouts are often assumed or avoided because of the lack of accounting data for reasonable measurements. The authors describe the development of stockout cost models incorporating decisions made by consumers in an actual retail situation. Equations for calculating the revenue differences are based on the consumer decision alternatives. The results of a consumer survey, combined with retail prices for the product lines in question, enable the financial effects of stockouts to be calculated.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.