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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/01435129810213343. When citing the article, please cite: Thea Farley, Judith Broady-Preston, Tim Hayward, (1998), “Academic libraries, people and change: a case study of the 1990s”, Library Management, Vol. 19 Iss 4 pp. 238 - 251.

The effective management of change is a crucial issue for academic libraries in the 1990s and beyond, as change is impinging on every aspect of their work. Through a consideration of aspects of organisational theory, changes in academic libraries, and human resource management, this paper demonstrates the pressing need for attention to change and its effect on people, in an organisational setting. A case study is used to illuminate a literature review, and to ground the conclusions of the study in the experiences of staff in an academic library in a time of change. The structure of an organisation and the people within it are identified as the two primary concerns which should be central to any strategy to manage change. The structure should be flexible and organic to allow for innovation and creativity. Additionally, human resource management should aim to minimise the negative impact of change by responding to the needs of staff through communication and information sharing, staff involvement, training and development, and job design.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the joint effects of market orientation (MO) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm performance.

Data were collected via a questionnaire survey of star‐rated hotels in China and a total of 143 valid responses were received. The hypotheses were tested by employing structural equation modelling with a maximum likelihood estimation option.

It was found that although both MO and CSR could enhance performance, once the effects of CSR are accounted for, the direct effects of MO on performance diminish considerably to almost non‐existent. Although this result may be due to the fact that the research is conducted in China, a country where CSR might be crucially important to performance given the country's socialist legacy, it nonetheless provides strong evidence that MO's impact on organizational performance is mediated by CSR.

The main limitations include the use of cross‐sectional data, the subjective measurement of performance and the uniqueness of the research setting (China). The findings provide an additional important insight into the processes by which a market oriented culture is transformed into superior organizational performance.

This paper is one of the first to examine the joint effects of MO and CSR on business performance. The empirical evidence from China adds to the existing literature on the respective importance of MO and CSR.