Briefly outlines the background to the 1999 Review. Attempts to explore some of the regulatory options for the future legal framework at EU level. Examines the regulatory goals…
Abstract
Briefly outlines the background to the 1999 Review. Attempts to explore some of the regulatory options for the future legal framework at EU level. Examines the regulatory goals, instruments and scope of applicability of the future sector. Pinpoints some of the specific regulatory issues to be addressed with regard to mobile communications.
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Colin Blackman, Paul Nihoul and Robert Queck
Reviews the articles up‐coming in this special issue of Info. Looks at the opening up of the European telecommunication markets and stresses this would not be limited to…
Abstract
Reviews the articles up‐coming in this special issue of Info. Looks at the opening up of the European telecommunication markets and stresses this would not be limited to communications as even non‐aligned markets would become free of excessive public intervention.
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Eva Blozik, Monika Nothacker, Thomas Bunk, Joachim Szecsenyi, Günter Ollenschläger and Martin Scherer
The purpose of this paper is to examine the question of how official bodies, health care organisations, and professional associations deal with the absence of a methodological…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the question of how official bodies, health care organisations, and professional associations deal with the absence of a methodological gold standard for the simultaneous development of clinical practice guidelines and quality indicators, what procedures they use and what they feel are major strengths and limitations of their methods.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a web‐based survey among 90 organisational members of the Guidelines International Network (G‐I‐N) representing 34 countries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. All organisational G‐I‐N members were invited to participate in the survey by following a link provided in the invitation e‐mail.
Findings
The responses of 24 organisations were included in the final analysis. The results indicate a broad variability in the approaches and methods used to develop quality indicators and guidelines simultaneously. The answers of the participants indicated a lack of formal procedures for the simultaneous development. Formal procedures exist in only about half of the participating organisations. In addition, piloting or evaluation of the procedures is almost completely missing. Significantly, respondents mainly reported that the procedure used in their organisation “could certainly be more rigorous”. Besides various strengths, participants reported a considerable number of limitations of the development processes they use.
Originality/value
This survey among G‐I‐N members – despite limitations – gives helpful insights in the state of the simultaneous development of quality indicators and clinical practice guidelines and underlines the need for future activities in methodological standard development and quality improvement of these processes.
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A.K. Khan, M.S. Saxena and S. Chandra
The research of Swarts in Belgium in the early nineties underlines organic fluorine chemistry and the industry that has grown around it. Swarts and co‐workers studied the reaction…
Abstract
The research of Swarts in Belgium in the early nineties underlines organic fluorine chemistry and the industry that has grown around it. Swarts and co‐workers studied the reaction of antimony trifluoride with chlorine‐containing hydrocarbons in great deals as a means of replacing chlorine with fluorine.
Reinhold Sackmann, Michael Windzio and Matthias Wingens
Suggests that youth unemployment is seen in East Germany as a critical life event because not only may it “scar” individuals’ careers but there is the fear that it may be a cause…
Abstract
Suggests that youth unemployment is seen in East Germany as a critical life event because not only may it “scar” individuals’ careers but there is the fear that it may be a cause of other social problems such as criminal and racist behaviour. Bases the study on event‐history and optimal‐matching analysis. Considers seven hypotheses about the impact of unemployment on social mobility career transitions. Findings suggest that unemployment can raise those chances of upward, downward and lateral mobility.
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Sara De Pelsmaeker, Xavier Gellynck, Koen Dewettinck and Joachim J. Schouteten
There is a growing interest in measuring emotions evoked by food products to gain additional insights in how consumers perceive and choose food products. The aim of this study was…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a growing interest in measuring emotions evoked by food products to gain additional insights in how consumers perceive and choose food products. The aim of this study was to investigate if consumers' emotions are influenced by flavour, gender, consumption habits, actual tasting or consumer attitude towards a product. Chocolate was chosen as the product under study as its consumption is associated with evoking several emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
During a between-subjects experiment at a local food fair, consumers (n = 910) evaluated either the name “chocolate”, plain dark chocolate or raspberry flavoured dark chocolate. Participants rated the intensity of 24 emotions and answered the 24 statements of the Attitude to Chocolate Questionnaire.
Findings
The results showed that sensory characteristics have a significant influence on the emotional profiles whereas no difference was found between tasting and not tasting. Gender and prior liking had little to no influence. Finally, the results suggested that consumption frequency and attitudes towards chocolate did have an influence on the emotional profiles.
Practical implications
The results show that producers should try to evoke positive emotions which could be emphasised through marketing. Gender differences for emotional profiling advocate that future research should not only analyse global results but also separately analyse by gender. Moreover, usage frequency and attitudes towards chocolate had an impact on the emotions meaning that future research should consider those when setting up research.
Originality/value
This study further contributes to the growing literature on emotions. It examines the added value of actual tasting chocolate while prior research focuses either just names or just sensory evaluation. Also, this paper further explores to which extent flavour, gender, consumption habits and attitude impact the emotional associations of chocolate.
This paper situates the concept of library as place in its broader context of relevant theory and research in a number of fields, primarily psychology, neurology, geography…
Abstract
This paper situates the concept of library as place in its broader context of relevant theory and research in a number of fields, primarily psychology, neurology, geography, philosophy, and architecture. The term “place” is defined, its powers described, and its role in library administration and design thus revealed to be one of very considerable significance at the highest levels of library mission in any setting.
Tsung-Sheng Chang and Wei-Hung Hsiao
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications has driven enterprises to provide many intelligent services to consumers. For instance, customers can use chatbots to make…
Abstract
Purpose
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications has driven enterprises to provide many intelligent services to consumers. For instance, customers can use chatbots to make relevant inquiries and seek solutions to their problems. Despite the development of customer service chatbots years ago, they require significant improvements for market recognition. Many customers have reported negative experiences with customer service chatbots, contributing to resistance toward their use. Therefore, this study adopts the innovation resistance theory (IRT) perspective to understand customers’ resistance to using chatbots. It aims to integrate customers’ negative emotions into a predictive behavior model and examine users’ functional and psychological barriers.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, we collected data from 419 valid individuals and used structural equation modeling to analyze the relationships between resistance factors and negative emotions.
Findings
The results confirmed that barrier factors affect negative emotions and amplify chatbot resistance influence. We discovered that value and risk barriers directly influence consumer use. Moreover, both functional and psychological barriers positively impact negative emotions.
Originality/value
This study adopts the innovation resistance theory perspective to understand customer resistance to using chatbots, integrates customer negative emotions to construct a predictive behavior model and explores users’ functional and psychological barriers. It can help in developing online customer service chatbots for e-commerce.
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Shakked Dabran-Zivan, Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Roni Shapira, Miri Yitshaki, Daria Dvorzhitskaia and Nir Grinberg
Accurate information is the basis for well-informed decision-making, which is particularly challenging in the dynamic reality of a pandemic. Search engines are a major gateway for…
Abstract
Purpose
Accurate information is the basis for well-informed decision-making, which is particularly challenging in the dynamic reality of a pandemic. Search engines are a major gateway for obtaining information, yet little is known about the quality and scientific accuracy of information answering conspiracy-related queries about COVID-19, especially outside of English-speaking countries and languages.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an algorithmic audit of Google Search, emulating search queries about COVID-19 conspiracy theories in 10 different locations and four languages (English, Arabic, Russian, and Hebrew) and used content analysis by native language speakers to examine the quality of the available information.
Findings
Searching the same conspiracies in different languages led to fundamentally different results. English had the largest share of 52% high-quality scientific information. The average quality score of the English-language results was significantly higher than in Russian and Arabic. Non-English languages had a considerably higher percentage of conspiracy-supporting content. In Russian, nearly 40% of the results supported conspiracies compared to 18% in English.
Originality/value
This study’s findings highlight structural differences that significantly limit access to high-quality, balanced, and accurate information about the pandemic, despite its existence on the Internet in another language. Addressing these gaps has the potential to improve individual decision-making collective outcomes for non-English societies.