M. Jett, B. Reuse and G. Kessling
Many small libraries do not have the resources to build a holdings database. Thanks to the avail‐ability of affordable scanners and improved OCR software, a new approach for…
Abstract
Many small libraries do not have the resources to build a holdings database. Thanks to the avail‐ability of affordable scanners and improved OCR software, a new approach for creating an online database is possible. This database is filled through a series of stages. First, the book information and table of contents pages are scanned and converted to text using OCR software. Then, a computer program is used to extract as much information as possible, with a human making corrections and supplying missing information. Finally, the information, which consists of the title, author, ISBN, publication year, call number and other relevant information for books, as well as the entire table of contents, is stored and added to an Ovid database.
Kara Chan, Yu Leung Ng and Jianqiong Liu
The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of advertisements with different female role portrayals in a second-tier city with “first-class opportunities.” Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of advertisements with different female role portrayals in a second-tier city with “first-class opportunities.” Chinese girls and women represent a huge market for personal as well as household goods.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental study was conducted using a convenience sample of 216 male and female participants aged 17-21 years in Changchun, China. Participants were asked to respond to print advertisements using traditional and modern female images including housewife, cute female, female with classical beauty, sporty, career-minded and neutral (tomboy).
Findings
Results revealed that female participants responded more favorably toward advertisements using female images than male participants. There was no difference in the responses to the six different female images among both male and female participants.
Research limitations/implications
Young consumers in China are not sensitive to the different female images used in the print advertisements. Advertisers can, therefore, enjoy flexibility in the selection of female gender roles for advertisements.
Originality/value
Little is known about how marketers and advertisements can best communicate with young consumers in China using advertisements with different female images. This study fills this literature gap.
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Sarena Saunders and Michel Rod
This paper aims to augment traditional investigations of consumer‐brand relationships and suggest alternative ways to consider these interactions. Specifically, the paper employs…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to augment traditional investigations of consumer‐brand relationships and suggest alternative ways to consider these interactions. Specifically, the paper employs consumer associative networks for the purpose of uncovering how various stakeholders perceive the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand brand subsequent to the implementation of a programme designed to enhance consistency of its brand.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilises semi‐structured interviews in a focus group setting to solicit attitudes, opinions and general feedback regarding a new service concept called the Supporting Independent Living (SIL) Program, recently developed by the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand (PGNZ). Results are interpreted utilising community branding and network approaches, such as associative network theory.
Findings
The importance of utilising an associative network approach in investigating brand‐customer relationships is supported. This helps to identify the relationships between firms and their brands and the impact that this has on the brand development of existing, or newly‐created services.
Originality/value
The managerial implications include the suggestion of using a stakeholder approach once the SIL concept is fully operational; particularly focusing on how the brand association information is flowing back to the PGNZ parent brand and how various stakeholders (based on their salience) perceive their relationship with the brand.
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Durga Sankar Rath and A.R.D. Prasad
This paper presents a methodology for automatic identification of bibliographic data elements from the title pages of books. Also enumerates the various steps like scanning the…
Abstract
This paper presents a methodology for automatic identification of bibliographic data elements from the title pages of books. Also enumerates the various steps like scanning the title pages, running optical character recognition (OCR) software, generating HTML files out of title pages and applying heuristics to identify the bibliographic data elements. Much of the paper deals with the surveys undertaken to analyze the characteristics of various bibliographic descriptive elements like title, author, publisher and other elements. The first survey deals with the sequence of the bibliographic data in the title pages. The second survey deals with the font size, font type and the proximity of each bibliographic element on the title pages. The survey results are then used to develop heuristics, in order to develop a rule‐based expert system which can identify the bibliographic elements on the title pages. The results of the system are presented, along with problems encountered.
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Lauren Skinner Beitelspacher, Mert Tokman, Frank G. Adams and R. Glenn Richey
The service‐dominant logic (SDL) concept is reshaping the view of business‐to‐business research and practice. Thus, understanding the role of knowledge‐based operant resources, a…
Abstract
Purpose
The service‐dominant logic (SDL) concept is reshaping the view of business‐to‐business research and practice. Thus, understanding the role of knowledge‐based operant resources, a key component of the SDL paradigm, in the ability of supply chains to shape competitive advantage and performance outcomes is vital. Further, operant resources have a hierarchical structure, with differing effects in building value for a supply chain. This research seeks to explore the effects of different levels of hierarchical operant resources in a retail supply chain setting.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was collected from 300 retailing informants who deal with both key suppliers and customers. The data were examined using hierarchical regression to explore the influence of internal and external operant resources on market performance, subject to the moderating effects of top management support and relationship quality.
Findings
There is a positive relationship between internal and external operant resources with market performance outcomes, but those relationships are subject to support from top management toward retailing supply chain relational initiatives. Thus, intangible, dynamic, customer‐oriented resources play an important role in developing retail supply chains’ ability to achieve a market advantage.
Originality/value
This research addresses a need to explore the implications of SDL in a supply chain context by examining the implications of influences of retailer operant resources on the supplier. Further, this research explores the question of operant resources by analysing those resources at various levels within supply chain relationships.
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Christoph Sommer and Ilse Helbrecht
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the administrative problematisations of conflict-prone urban tourism (e.g. noise) as political processes predetermining the future of city…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the administrative problematisations of conflict-prone urban tourism (e.g. noise) as political processes predetermining the future of city tourism. It is shaped by today’s administrative ways of knowing increasing visitor pressure as an issue for urban (tourism) development.
Design/methodology/approach
The problematisation of conflictive urban tourism in Berlin is used as case study and lens to analyse how administrative bodies see conflictive tourism like a tourist city. Drawing on Mariana Valverde’s idea of Seeing Like a City (2011), the paper demonstrates how disparate governmental bodies see and reduce the complexity of conflicts resulting from tourism in order to handle it. The authors use policy documents as the basis for the analysis.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights about how political knowledge on urban tourism conflicts is produced in Berlin. The marginalisation of these conflicts on the federal state level seemingly aces out the calls for action on the borough level (Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg). According to these disparate modes of problematisation, older and younger governmental gazes on conflictive tourism and its future relevance interrelate in contingent combination.
Originality/value
This paper fills a gap in the existing urban tourism literature, by focussing on the definition of policy problems by governmental bodies as powerfully linked to the availability of solutions.
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Charitable food assistance in affluent societies shows a polarisation between growing abundance, on the one hand, and social exclusion, on the other. It establishes a connection…
Abstract
Purpose
Charitable food assistance in affluent societies shows a polarisation between growing abundance, on the one hand, and social exclusion, on the other. It establishes a connection between both sides. In Germany, such charity is especially represented by the so‐called Tafel non‐profit organisation. The purpose of this article will be to explore the structural problems of the non‐profit organisations' charitable practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study encompassed Tafel initiatives, the donating businesses and the people on the receiving end.
Findings
It will be shown that collecting and distributing excess food is at least an ambivalent, to some degree even conflictive means and that it is hardly the solution to the social and ecological problems addressed. Charitable food assistance contributes more to cementing exclusion and excess rather than to overcoming them.
Originality/value
The article will draw conclusions on unrealistic views of exclusion and problematic operations of the movement itself.
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Cecilia Lobo Araujo, Marc Eric Barda Picavet, Cristina Aparecida Pires de Souza Sartoretto, Enrico Dalla Riva and Paulo Sodre Hollaender
This study aims to propose a framework to drive organizations, and particularly multinational enterprises, to understand and internalize a sustainable mindset for implementing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose a framework to drive organizations, and particularly multinational enterprises, to understand and internalize a sustainable mindset for implementing efficient and effective corporate sustainability initiatives and helping them achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Design/methodology/approach
The framework is based on the bidirectional iterative process of the flexible pattern matching methodology. The literature on ecocentric management was examined from top to bottom in its dialogue with corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The bottom-up phase was based on highly visible deviant cases of companies that were significantly recognized for their CSR or for their sustainability programs but became well-known examples of unsustainability. Additionally, an illustrative case was analyzed to examine the mindset in practice.
Findings
The study offers a framework based on six constructs that were identified in ecocentric management literature. It translates the ecocentric management mindset framework into behaviors for organizations that want to conduct efficient sustainable programs that help them achieve the SDGs.
Originality/value
The proposed new framework highlights the conceptual pillars of ecocentric management, and offers practical and theoretical perspectives on how sustainability can be better addressed at the corporate level, and help achieve the SDGs.
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Sirpa Kärkkäinen, Jari Kukkonen, Sirpa Kontturi and Tuula Keinonen
Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health…
Abstract
Purpose
Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. The purpose of this paper is to focus on sixth graders’ (N=21, aged 13–14) health literacy, particularly in relation to the rational use of medicines and the role of pharmacies.
Design/methodology/approach
The socio-scientific issues (SSI) approach by way of the three-stage model, the stages being scenario, inquiry and decision making, was adopted in this intervention study. The study was a qualitative case study and data consisted of cartoons, audio recordings of group discussions and group interviews. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis.
Findings
At the beginning of the intervention, pupils possessed detailed information about the rational use of medicines; however, they did not refer to the role of pharmacy as a source of medicine information which they did after the intervention. They were also more aware particularly how to store and dispose of unnecessary medicines. Their theoretical and practical knowledge related to pharmacy careers and production of medicines was enhanced.
Practical implications
The SSI approach by way of the three-stage model provides an excellent opportunity to schools for local co-operation with the community and familiarization with the careers. Moreover, it offers the possibility to enhance pupils’ health literacy.
Originality/value
The SSI approach is so far less implemented in the context of medicine education and to improve health literacy.