Sara Schumacher and Hillary B. Veeder
This article unpacks the construction of authority in architectural trade journals as multimodal disciplinary communication and how librarians can use these journals to engage…
Abstract
Purpose
This article unpacks the construction of authority in architectural trade journals as multimodal disciplinary communication and how librarians can use these journals to engage student's critical thinking in information and visual literacy instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis of project articles was done in two consecutive issues of ten architecture print trade journals including tracking details about the building types, geographic locations, firms represented, visual coverage, and visual categorizes and conventions.
Findings
The projects represented in the analyzed trade journals were predominately public buildings built by established firms in Europe, North America and Asia. The journals employed various methods for crediting and captioning visuals, showing marked differences in conferring authority on architectural photographers and descriptive versus analytical analysis of visual communications. Overall, visuals in architecture trade journals dominate the article space, with photographs being the most prominent type; however, individual journals differ in disciplinary conventions such as presence of people, use of color and indications of scale and compass direction.
Research limitations/implications
These findings strengthen the case for library print subscriptions to trade journals as useful when facilitating student exploration of disciplinary communication to identify markers of authority, examine bias and apply disciplinary conventions in their own scholarly output.
Originality/value
By interrogating the value of print journals in architecture, findings of this study may influence further research into the significance of print journals in other disciplines and a larger professional discussion about the implications of library trends to providing digital-only journal access.
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Michael Boland and Sara Schumacher
Using return on assets as a proxy for profitability, this study evaluates the sustainability of profits in the food economy with respect to industry, corporate, and…
Abstract
Using return on assets as a proxy for profitability, this study evaluates the sustainability of profits in the food economy with respect to industry, corporate, and business‐specific effects for low‐ and high‐performing firms. The food economy is broken into its four major sectors: food processing, wholesale grocery, retail supermarket, and restaurant. Industry incremental effects are not significantly different between low and high performers except in processing. On average, high performance has been more sustainable than low performance. Corporate and segment sustainability rates were larger for high performers as compared to low performers. Within the retail industry, there is no significant difference between sustainability rates of high and low performers. High performers in the retail industry had significantly greater industry, business‐segment, and total‐sum sustainability rates than the other three sectors, suggesting the retail sector has important characteristics that merit further research.
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Sara Mannheimer and Conor Cote
For libraries with limited resources, digital preservation can seem like a daunting responsibility. Forming partnerships can help build collective knowledge and maximize combined…
Abstract
Purpose
For libraries with limited resources, digital preservation can seem like a daunting responsibility. Forming partnerships can help build collective knowledge and maximize combined resources to achieve digital preservation goals. This paper aims to provide guidance to help libraries with limited resources achieve digital preservation goals by forming partnerships to build collective knowledge and maximize combined resources.
Design/methodology/approach
In 2015, librarians from four Montana institutions formed the Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG), a collaboration to increase digital preservation efforts statewide. The group’s immediate goals were to promote digital preservation best-practices at each individual institution, and to learn about and support each other’s work. The group’s long-term goal was to implement a shared digital preservation service that would fill gaps in existing digital preservation efforts.
Findings
Beyond the cost savings gained by sharing a digital preservation service, the members of DPWG benefitted from shared knowledge and expertise gained during the partnership. The group also functioned as a sounding board as each institution built its digital preservation program, and it became a system of support when challenges arose.
Practical/implications
This paper proposes a five-point plan for creating digital preservation partnerships: cultivate a foundation of knowledge and identify a shared vision; assess the current digital preservation landscape at each institution; advocate for the value of digital preservation activities; implement shared digital preservation services; and sustain group activities and establish structures for ongoing support.
Originality/value
The activities of DPWG provide a model for institutions seeking to collaborate to meet digital preservation challenges. This paper shows that by implementing a structured plan, institutions can build and sustain digital preservation partnerships, thus positioning themselves to achieve digital preservation success.
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This paper was written to help practitioners in the field of arts‐based learning understand the impact that training with its roots in theatre can have and has had on business…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper was written to help practitioners in the field of arts‐based learning understand the impact that training with its roots in theatre can have and has had on business executives – and the causes of that impact.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper was developed by examining the 17‐year experience of Performance Plus… in delivering theatre‐based training to a wide range of large US businesses. It examines the way that drama can affect people in the audience and then, more particularly, how theatre based training affected the behaviors and actions of key management participants. The article then connected those results to the work of philosopher E.F. Schumacher and social scientist Daniel Goleman.
Findings
The fundamental conclusion of the paper is that drama is an extremely effective tool for helping people learn skills and behaviors they can apply in the everyday routine of business.
Originality/value
Because so little has been written about theatre‐based training, the primary value of this paper is to open readers’ eyes to a new and powerful way to train business executive – and to outlines a few of the many ways that approach can be taken to ensure that management participants in training programs are actively involved and engaged in the programs being presented and as a result embrace the learning from the program in a lasting way.
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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…
Abstract
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.
Stanley J. Paliwoda and Stephanie Slater
The purpose of this paper is to offer an introduction and background as well as a narrative to the development of an economic, social, technological and cultural phenomenon that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an introduction and background as well as a narrative to the development of an economic, social, technological and cultural phenomenon that has been sweeping across national frontiers since first being identified by Theodore Levitt in 1983.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is to trace theoretical development but there is lack of a consensus on this subject and so the perspectives of key authors in this area are reviewed alongside each other to test for signs of possible convergence.
Findings
Globalisation is a set of processes rather than just one. The practice is different from what the authors may have expected in that sales of the leading multinationals are not global but regional. Organisational forms reflect differences in strategic thinking with less uniformity being necessary or imposed. Individuals today recount their daily tasks in terms of using the names of global brands or products as nouns and verbs in everyday language. Attitudes towards globalisation are constantly changing. Equally, globalisation continues to evolve.
Research limitations/implications
What is presented here is an overview of the literature as it applies to international trade where globalisation was earlier hoped to bring an economic rescue to billions of people and liberate them from poverty. Marketing, organisational behaviour, risk assessment and strategic decision making all have important roles to play here and so further research is required to monitor a new global trading situation.
Practical implications
It is hoped to contribute to further thought, discussion and conceptualisation of research in this area. The idea of globalisation and regionalisation is not new but the prevalence of this phenomenon in our daily lives is striking.
Originality/value
As the concept has advanced and developed, more studies have been made of this phenomenon and from different perspectives. Here, it is hope to recount those different perspectives as well as reach certain conclusions as to where it has reached and how far it may be expected to reach.
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The purpose of this paper is to valuate existing building stock with respect to its contribution to a changing and uncertain future, especially in relation to energy performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to valuate existing building stock with respect to its contribution to a changing and uncertain future, especially in relation to energy performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review literature related to existing buildings, climate change and future environmental needs; present energy performance data from ten case studies; and identify inadequacies and scope for improvements with reference to typical housing stock.
Findings
Current policies and programmes are inadequate to the scope and scale of the task; a step‐change in thought and practice is needed.
Practical implications
A massive programme is warranted if the substantial stock of existing buildings is to be adapted to meet identified environmental standards to “save the planet”; a radical re‐conceptualisation of building adaptation is required.
Originality/value
The paper prompts a review of the role of the surveyor in achieving sustainability through adaptation of existing buildings.
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Markus J. Milne, Helen Tregidga and Sara Walton
Through an analysis of corporate sustainable development reporting, this paper seeks to examine critically language use and other visual (re)presentations of sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
Through an analysis of corporate sustainable development reporting, this paper seeks to examine critically language use and other visual (re)presentations of sustainable development within the business context. It aims to provide a framework to interpret and tease out business representations of sustainable development. Such representations are argued to be constitutive of the way that business has come to “know” and “do” sustainable development and, therefore, to constrain and enable particular actions and developments.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a mix of synthesis, interpretive and discourse analysis to locate, interpret and critically analyse a corpus of written and presentational texts produced by a New Zealand business association and eight of its founding members' early triple bottom line reports.
Findings
The business association and its members' reports are shown to present a pragmatic and middle‐way discourse on business and the environment. Through the use of rhetorical claims to pragmatism and action, this discourse suggests that businesses are “doing” sustainability. But critical analysis and interpretation within a wider framework reveal a narrow, largely economic and instrumental approach to the natural environment.
Originality/value
This paper offers a diagrammatic synthesis of the contested “middle ground” of the sustainable development debate, and thereby provides a frame of reference for further interpretational work on organisations and sustainable development.