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Emphasises the importance of libraries adopting a marketing approach and examines some of the lessons which they can learn from profit‐making organisations. Describes a marketing strategy and some techniques including Friends of the Library, publications, programmes of events, the media and effective presentation of stock. Hampshire County Library′s “Hantsline” provides an excellent example of an overall approach to marketing.

Enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) have provided new challenges in the management of organizations’ internal and external risks, and their adoption has triggered groundbreaking changes to internal audit practices. This study aims to shed light on the use of ERPs in internal auditing by identifying interrelations between postevaluations of the ERPs’ quality dimensions with internal auditors’ satisfaction, intentions to continue using such systems and perceived benefits.

Drawing on a unique data set of internal auditors’ responses on a structured questionnaire, and by using the DeLone and McLean’s (2003) Information Systems success model as the conceptual framework, this study tests the research propositions by using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings report statistically significant positive relationships among all three ERPs’ quality dimensions (system, information and service quality) with internal auditors’ satisfaction and intention to continue using these systems. Moreover, the study found that the benefits perceived by internal auditors were significantly influenced by their satisfaction with the system and their intention to continue using it.

The authors survey ERP postevaluation success factors in two unique contexts: internal auditors and Greece. Thus, the authors ground on previous research findings in diverse professional groups and national environments. In parallel, this study lends conceptual clarity and empirical evidence to a small but growing number of studies examining the implications of individuals’ perceptions, intentions and behavioral reactions in the context of ERP implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the analysis of the characteristics and gaps of a literature fragment from the international scientific publications on performance evaluation in lean production, aiming to generate new knowledge and suggestions for future scientific research.

The authors have adopted “ProKnow-C” methodology, a qualitative research approach that is used for literature selection, identification, analysis and reflection on the established characteristics.

From a bibliographic portfolio of 67 research works, 91 per cent of the works have individual metrics and 84 per cent have sets of metrics. Evaluating the focus of the performance measurement system, 34 per cent of works measure performance, 43 per cent compare performance and only 18 per cent assist in strategic planning. Evaluating the phases of the PMS life cycle, 87 per cent attend to the design, and 66 per cent attend to the activities of data collection, allow diagnosis, evaluate performance and communicate results. However, only 3 per cent of the studies analysed the use of PMS after its implementation and no research evidenced the review of metrics and objectives based on strategic planning.

The search formula to capture the bibliographic portfolio (BP) was limited to the following terms: performance measurement, performance evaluation, performance assess*, performance appraisal, management, indicator*, critical factors, best practices, lean production, lean manufacturing and lean system. The BP was determined based on the limitations set by the research authors: articles published in English and Portuguese languages, from 2000 to 2018, in the Engineering Village, Scopus, EBSCO, Web of Science, ProQuest and Science Direct databases, which were freely available on the internet. Lastly, conceptual knowledge was used to select the articles, so there is a chance that unintentional losses could happen.

As practical implications for practitioners, the authors have identified that a PMS from an organisation that aims to become “lean” needs to be defined and revised considering its strategy, adjusting its set of metrics and targets to the internal and external challenges. As practical implications for researchers, opportunities have been identified to develop longitudinal studies in PMS utilisation and review to understand how the measurement system must evolve over time through changes in the internal and external environments of organisations.

This research adds value because its results allow researchers and practitioners to visualise the boundaries of the knowledge from the BP, about performance management in lean production, and what their gaps are in relation to the reference model of performance evaluation. This research is original because it was not observed in the literature review, a research that used the ProKnow-C methodology for analysis of the alignment and gaps between lean production and performance evaluation.

This chapter provides a brief historical review of nature-based solutions (NBS) to address increasing climate extremes in urban areas and their surroundings, tracing their historical evolution to their current moment as du jour solutions to multiple crises. We review how this term has evolved through multiple iterations used across sectors and its current ubiquity in global policy discussion forums like the United Nations (UN) Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), due to its potential as a “swiss knife” to meet multiple global goals in climate, sustainable development, and biodiversity. We evaluate the gaps between the ubiquity of NBS in current geopolitical discourses around urban resilience and sustainability and actual implementation in cities around the world. While countries are increasingly committing to NBS and similar approaches in national climate commitments, lacking data, technical capacity, and funding continue to limit implementation beyond relatively marginal projects insufficient to shifting worsening trends in climate change and biodiversity loss. We close with four guiding principles for addressing these gaps, emphasizing the importance of connectivity and scale, assessing the direct effects of climate change on potential NBS performance, quantification and valuation, and the powerful job-creation potential of NBS in creating resilience to multiple crises, including the current global recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a supposedly “globalising” world, we offer a “localisation” counterbalance from Tanzania and Malawi. Our perspective is purposely anchored in the socio‐cultural perceptions of indigenous employees working within organisations in these two African nations. From these Afrocentric perspectives, as reflected in adages and complementary data, need for achievement, need hierarchies, and expatriate acceptability are heavily influenced by local, social norms. The latter may accord priority to social achievement, social identity, and social need. The article ends with a new technique for gauging the influence of these social factors, with applications to improving the degree of fit between organisational change and community context.

Predictive digital twin technology, which amalgamates digital twins (DT), the internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for data collection, simulation and predictive purposes, has demonstrated its effectiveness across a wide array of industries. Nonetheless, there is a conspicuous lack of comprehensive research in the built environment domain. This study endeavours to fill this void by exploring and analysing the capabilities of individual technologies to better understand and develop successful integration use cases.

This study uses a mixed literature review approach, which involves using bibliometric techniques as well as thematic and critical assessments of 137 relevant academic papers. Three separate lists were created using the Scopus database, covering AI and IoT, as well as DT, since AI and IoT are crucial in creating predictive DT. Clear criteria were applied to create the three lists, including limiting the results to only Q1 journals and English publications from 2019 to 2023, in order to include the most recent and highest quality publications. The collected data for the three technologies was analysed using the bibliometric package in R Studio.

Findings reveal asymmetric attention to various components of the predictive digital twin’s system. There is a relatively greater body of research on IoT and DT, representing 43 and 47%, respectively. In contrast, direct research on the use of AI for net-zero solutions constitutes only 10%. Similarly, the findings underscore the necessity of integrating these three technologies to develop predictive digital twin solutions for carbon emission prediction.

The results indicate that there is a clear need for more case studies investigating the use of large-scale IoT networks to collect carbon data from buildings and construction sites. Furthermore, the development of advanced and precise AI models is imperative for predicting the production of renewable energy sources and the demand for housing.

This paper makes a significant contribution to the field by providing a strong theoretical foundation. It also serves as a catalyst for future research within this domain. For practitioners and policymakers, this paper offers a reliable point of reference.

This paper aims to explore the ways in which social supports can promote enduring attachments to work and improve overall well-being of disadvantaged workers, within the context of social purpose enterprises.

With coordinators, managers and directors as informants, this mixed-methods study uses a survey and interviews to establish the availability and importance of different social supports found in social purpose enterprises across Canada, and to explore the reasons for such support mobilization and the influences that determine whether social supports are sought or accepted.

Findings substantiate the prevalence and importance of work-centred social supports. Social supports can promote more sustainable attachment to work by addressing work process challenges, ameliorating workplace conflict, attending to non-vocational work barriers and building workers’ self-confidence and self-belief. The source of a support, as well as the relationship between support providers and recipients, contributes to whether supports will be beneficial to recipients.

Future studies require corroboration directly from the employees and training participants of social purpose enterprises. The limitations on the sampling and the survey response rate may limit generalizability of findings.

Findings contribute to knowledge on more effective social support provision for improved work outcomes and overall well-being of employees and training participants.

Applying theory from social support research brings greater clarity to the potential of work-centred supports for addressing both vocational and non-vocational barriers to employment and job training for disadvantaged workers.

The number of university students exhibiting mental health concerns have surged considerably in the past decade. Amongst a number of potential contributing factors, this study aims to assess the role of a broader societal phenomenon; the shift in emphasis in our interactions from the physical to the virtual environments. Specifically, a decrease in nature contact and a contrasting increase in smartphone use are identified as two pathways in which this shift may impact negatively on mental health. Previous research evidences both facets as consistent correlates of depression, although limited research extends these associations to the student population or attempts to establish an interaction between the two.

The current study recruited a sample of 380 first-year undergraduate students, via an online survey, to assess if problematic smartphone use (SAS-SV) and nature contact (NCQ) were significant predictors of depression (PHQ-9).

Nature contact frequency and smartphone use were significant predictors of depression.

This is the first study to concurrently assess the impact of smartphone use and nature contact in a student population.