Search results

Reports on the recent study “The Stay at Home Generation” from Vegas, the youth market research division of Synovate; it is based on in‐depth interviews with young adults in the UK, the USA and Canada. Outlines results from the Survey of English Housing which show that no fewer than 58 per cent of Englishmen aged 20‐24 live at home with their parents, as do 42 per cent of Englishwomen the same age, while 6.8 million people aged over 18 live at home and include working‐class youth, students and ex‐students alike. Discounts the explanation for this that young people cannot afford their own homes. Points out instead that the average number of children per female has fallen to 1.5, and that the divorce rate has increased: these changes, which are producing “beanpole” families in place of the traditional family tree, encourage parents to devote far more attention to their children and to create home environments that are hard to leave. Concludes that, as a result, today’s young people are much less mature and independent than the previous generation, and less rebellious also; parents now aspire to be their children’s best friends and opinion formers, and are likely to be involved in their children’s purchases.

To understand the nature of young people’s relationship with technology and to endeavour to explode a few myths about their affection for it.

The research took four stages; desk research; interviews with four experts; quant through Synovate’s online panel; qual research groups.

It was found that the majority of young people do not love technology – they love communication and entertainment, and technology is just the facilitator for these; it was also found that a surprisingly large number of young people dislike and actively avoid using technology, particularly those from lower SEGs.

Marketers always presume that young people are very plugged into technology and that they all love it. This article shows this is clearly not the case and the amount of affection and time they spend using information technology has been overstated.

FIGHTING has indeed ceased in Europe and our gratitude, especially in London and its adjacencies, is profound. It is shared by all, of course. War is by no means over and that and the drearier contentions of politics for a month or two, or it may be for years, are likely to act as a brake on many schemes. It is true a substantial Education Act has been achieved during the war but such peace as we have achieved finds none of the great social schemes, other than this, anywhere but in the realm of talk. Older men may well be cynical and more may be sceptical; so, it becomes those who believe a better world is possible to be aware. Hardly a town or county is without a scheme of development of sorts, ranging from entirely new, and always enlarged, central libraries to extended branch schemes. The cold fact is that only in a few cases, if in any, will any building of libraries be permitted yet. That does not mean that scheming is a vain occupation. Librarians realize as other men do that housing needs will overwhelm building resources for a few years and that schools, which are disastrously inadequate to permit the full implementing of the Act of 1944, and hospitals, will be preferred to us. Librarians, however, must be opportunists, too ; they will lose nothing by readiness to seize chances. Let us take what we can get; if, in the many newly‐planned residential centres, satellite towns, or other communities, no elaborate library accommodation is possible, let us reflect that what really matters are a book service and a centre of information, which do not require elaborate buildings, only good librarianship. Then, when the needs of the area are known, an appropriate building may be provided. And, as Mr. Berwick Sayers has suggested, much more temporary buildings than have been erected in late years should be used ; we have too many “good buildings” which are obsolescent—to say the least. It can be assumed now that readers do not need so much inducement to use public libraries as they did formerly, although some do and it is well to insist that temporary buildings are not necessarily unattractive inside or outside.

Mature student numbers across England’s Higher Education (HE) sector have been declining since the rise in tuition fees in 2012. Leading up to Brexit, there is a need to upskill the national workforce to provide services and skills currently sourced from the EU. Mature students play a key role in this process, as HE study can add to existing industry experiences, knowledge, and skills. Hence, the HE sector in England is beginning to evaluate and change the way in which universities and colleges can provide support to mature students from recruitment to the completion of their course.

Institutions can encourage a sense of belonging in mature students through the use of mature student mentors and ambassadors at open days, and as points of contact throughout any course. It is important to create a mature student community to provide an appropriate support network, but equally academic staff should encourage the engagement of mature students with their younger peers.

This chapter provides an insight into relevant research literature and uses examples from a case study based in a small HE provider setting to make practical recommendations for academic staff, support staff, and areas of institutional practice.

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.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effects of market-based and nonmarket-based strategies on firm performance in African countries. This study also investigates host country institutions' effect on the relationship between firm strategies and performance in these countries.

Data of 1,276 firms in five African countries were obtained from two different sources: The World Bank Enterprise Database and The Global Competitiveness Report. Two-stage least squares regression was applied.

Both market-based strategies and corporate political activity (CPA)improve firm performance in the African countries included in the analysis. Institutional development also has a direct positive impact on firm performance. However, the effect of CPA weakens as the host country shifts towards more efficient, market-oriented institutions. Furthermore, the results show that local African firms benefit more from institutional development than foreign firms.

The paper confirms and extends our understanding of the dynamic fit between institutions and strategy by highlighting the moderating role of institutional development on CPA and market-based strategies in enhancing firm performance.

The current study aims to evaluate the utilization of export incentives of the Indian Government. A model conceptualizing the relationships between incentive’s awareness, utilization, perception of utilization on export increase and overall performance was tested.

In total, 107 Indian exporters from the ten major exporting sectors of the Indian economy were chosen. The exporters within the sectors were chosen on the basis of the quota sampling technique. The top-most executive of the exporting house was interviewed using both structured questionnaire and in-depth method.

Results indicated that awareness impacted availing of incentives which led to the perception of enhanced export sales. Enhanced export sales led to the perception of an enhanced overall performance of the firm. Smaller firms believed more as compared to larger firms in the effect of export incentives on export sales growth. Recommendations have been provided to remove lacunae in various incentive schemes and improve utilizations.

The inability to extract firm-level financial data of the value of various schemes availed, exports sales increase, overall performance indicators is a limitation of the study.

The lack of awareness seemed to be the biggest roadblock for the Indian Government to make export incentive schemes successful. The Indian Government needs to customize the offerings of incentive schemes by incorporating the general perceptions of experts/users. Some less-used schemes can be done away with and some new schemes with less paperwork will be more useful.

There is scant literature in the Indian context on the study of export incentive schemes. There is even less empirical primary evidence available. This study is one of the first to provide a model for the utilization of export schemes and has great practical relevance for exporters and Indian Government alike.

Heritage building management serves as a potent catalyst for sustainability, yet it poses a distinctive set of challenges. Achieving a harmonious balance between conserving the building's historical and cultural value and ensuring modern functionality and safety remains a primary concern. The present work proposes a socio-technical approach to the development and use of a digital twin (DT) that will integrate social data related to the use of heritage buildings with building and environmental data.

The paper presents a logical and systematic joined-up management framework to the targeted heritage buildings, according to a “Whole Building” approach. Our approach is informed by the underpinning assumption that a heritage building and even more a heritage neighborhood is a socio-technical, complex and dynamic system, the change of which depends on the dynamic interconnections of materials, competences, resources, values, space/environment, senses and time.

A heritage dynamics approach is adopted to unfold the dynamic nature of heritage and to better inform decisions that can be made in the present and future, achieving people-centered and place-based heritage management. This proposition underlines the heritage transformation as a complex systemic process that consists of nonlinear interconnections of multiple heterogeneous factors (values, senses, attitudes, spaces and resources).

This paper presents a multi-level framework of DTs that interact hierarchically to comprehensively understand, assimilate and seamlessly integrate intricate contexts, even when faced with conflicting conditions from diverse cultural heritage entities. This paper outlines the importance of the iterative system dynamics (SD) approach, which enables adaptive management and ensures the resilience of cultural heritage over time.