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Study rooms are recognized as a popular feature in academic libraries. The purpose of this paper is to understand how students use the study rooms at the library of the University of Central Missouri.

A short survey was given to students who checked out study rooms keys. Students were asked how they used the rooms and what technology they used in the rooms. In total, 341 valid surveys were returned for analysis.

Students used the rooms mainly for academic reasons. In total, 73 percent of respondents frequently studied alone in the rooms while 56 percent frequently studied in groups. Use of the technology in the rooms, other than the computers (89 percent) was limited.

Due to the voluntary nature of the surveys, results may not be applicable to all study room users. The researchers were particularly interested in the international students but demographic data from the survey indicated that the number of responses from this group may not be representative of the number that are actually using the rooms.

Students indicated they rarely used peripheral equipment, i.e. webcams and microphones, and the library removed them from the rooms and made them available at the circulation desk.

The authors found little research specific to the use of study rooms although available research of library space in general indicated study rooms are highly valued. The findings of this survey suggest that students may be more interested in individual/private spaces for academic work than “group” study rooms.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a narrative review of the food insecurity literature pertaining to university and college students studying in Very High Human Development Index countries. It aims to document food insecurity prevalence, risk factors for and consequences of food insecurity and food insecurity coping strategies among students.

English articles published between January 2000 and November 2017 were identified using electronic databases. Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies assessed the study quality of quantitative research.

A total of 37 quantitative, three mixed-methods and three qualitative studies were included from 80,914 students from the USA (n=30 studies), Australia (n=4), Canada (n=8) and Poland (n=1). Prevalence estimates of food insecurity were 9–89 percent. All quantitative studies were rated weak based on the quality assessment. Risk factors for food insecurity included being low income, living away from home or being an ethnic minority. Negative consequences of food insecurity were reported, including reduced academic performance and poor diet quality. Strategies to mitigate food insecurity were numerous, including accessing food charities, buying cheaper food and borrowing resources from friends or relatives.

Given the heterogeneity across studies, a precise estimate of the prevalence of food insecurity in postsecondary students is unknown.

For many students studying in wealthy countries, obtaining a postsecondary education might mean enduring years of food insecurity and consequently, suffering a range of negative academic, nutritional and health outcomes. There is a need to quantify the magnitude of food insecurity in postsecondary students, to inform the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies to reduce the impact of food insecurity on campus.

This review brings together the existing literature on food insecurity among postsecondary students studying in wealthy countries to allow a better understanding of the condition in this understudied group.

The purpose of this paper is to design a system deployment model that integrates case-based agent technique to develop an eco-responsibility decision support tool for greening educational institutions toward environmental responsibility.

Data were collected through questionnaires distributed among a statistical population that comprised practitioners across educational institutions in Malaysia that implement green practices. The questionnaire measured the feasibility of the developed tool based on factors derived from the literature. Accordingly, descriptive, exploratory and factor analysis approach using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to test the feasibility of the developed tool.

Results from descriptive analysis confirm the tool is feasible based on mean values that range from 4.1619 to 3.6508 on a five-point scale, indicating that the tool is effective in sustaining educational institutions going green. Besides, results from exploratory analysis verify the reliability of the tool based on the acceptable Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient score higher than 0.7 and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value being above 0.5. Finally, results from factor analysis reveal that the developed tool is usable, efficient, helpful, flexible and credible and supports educational institutions in going green at 88.44 per cent of the total variance, suggesting that the respondents are satisfied with the tool.

The sample population in this study comprises only practitioners from educational institutions in Malaysia. Theoretically, this research provides feasibility factors and associated items that can be used in evaluating developed information systems.

Practically, this study develops an eco-responsibility decision support tool to facilitate green strategies and provides information on how practitioners in educational institutions can improve green growth.

This study presents how case-oriented agents aid educational institutions in going green for environmental responsibility. Socially, this research provides the strategies for green practice improvement in educational institutions toward environmental responsibility.

The eco-responsibility decision support tool provides a Web-based platform for promoting ecological protection by supporting the measuring of practitioners’ current green practices for environmental responsibility. Thus, research findings from this study are expected to help decision-makers generate useful insights into environment-friendly strategies to be implemented in educational institutions. Lastly, the statistical tests adopted in this paper can be used to gauge the feasibility of information system application in future.

Presently, existing electric car sharing platforms are based on a centralized architecture which are faced with inadequate trust and pricing issues as these platforms requires an intermediary to maintain users’ data and handle transactions between participants. Therefore, this article aims to develop a decentralized peer-to-peer electric car sharing prototype framework that offers trustable and cost transparency.

This study employs a systematic review and data were collected from the literature and existing technical report documents after which content analysis is carried out to identify current problems and state-of-the-art electric car sharing. A use case scenario was then presented to preliminarily validate and show how the developed prototype framework addresses the trust-lessness in electric car sharing via distributed ledger technologies (DLTs).

Findings from this study present a use case scenario that depicts how businesses can design and implement a distributed peer-to-peer electric car sharing platforms based on IOTA technology, smart contracts and IOTA eWallet. Main findings from this study unlock the tremendous potential of DLT to foster sustainable road transportation. By employing a token-based approach this study enables electric car sharing that promotes sustainable road transportation.

Practically the developed decentralized prototype framework provides improved cost transparency and fairness guarantees as it is not based on a centralized price management system. The DLT based decentralized prototype framework aids to orchestrate the incentivize monetization and rewarding mechanisms among participants that share their electric cars enabling them to collaborate towards lessening CO₂ emissions.

The findings advocate that electric vehicle sharing has become an essential component of sustainable road transportation by increasing electric car utilization and decreasing the number of vehicles on the road.

The key novelty of the article is introducing a decentralized prototype framework to be employed to develop an electric car sharing solution without a central control or governance, which improves cost transparency. As compared to prior centralized platforms, the prototype framework employs IOTA technology smart contracts and IOTA eWallet to improve mobility related services.

Acculturation profiles based on the self‐oriented, others‐oriented, and perceptual dimensions of acculturative adjustment were derived for MNC employees of American, Canadian, Indian, Japanese, Latin American, Carribean and Nigerian origin. Our finding of significant, target‐specific, intercultural differences is of paramount importance in delineating areas of predeparture expatriate training and development.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the role of management involvement in innovation and its relationships with organizational, technical and marketing innovations. Organizational innovation, which features both administrative and human capital innovation, is introduced as the intermediate construct to test its indirect effects on the influences of management involvement on technical and marketing innovations.

Data were collected from 196 respondents to an online questionnaire that was sent to 2,500 potential participants randomly selected from electronics manufacturing firms across China. Structural equation model using AMOS 18 was used to analyse the data.

The findings reveal that management involvement has a positive and significant impact on all dimensions of innovation featured. It is also found that organizational innovation has a mediating effect on the association between management involvement and technical innovation, though no such effect can be found in the relationship between management involvement and marketing innovation.

Since the study is quantitative using data emanating from the electronics manufacturing industry in China, further empirical study would be useful to verify and complement the results in other industries and other countries.

The findings show that management involvement appears to exert permeating impacts on all strata of innovation, presenting a reminder to practitioners and researchers that clear senior management direction, endorsement and support are essential to innovation pursuits.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge relating to innovation and innovation decisions. By investigating the interrelationships between management involvement and the various dimensions of innovation featured, the study identifies and charts the casual chains that can be used to guide innovation decisions.

The aim of this study is to develop a model grounded by the institutional theory to investigate blended learning (BL) implementation among faculty members in higher education and further validate the model.

Quantitative methodology was employed, and data were gathered through questionnaires among 188 e-learning directors, managers and coordinators at faculty/department in institutions, which implement BL.

Findings reveal that BL implementation by faculty members is significantly influenced by coercive, normative and mimetic pressures. Findings from this study also identified institutional initiatives that influence BL implementation. Accordingly, findings from this study provide insights into the institutional theory perspective toward BL. The findings support higher education to plan and initiate BL policies.

Data were collected from faculty members in universities, colleges and polytechnics only. Besides, this research is one of the limited studies that explore BL deployment from the lens of faculty members.

This research contributes to the existing literature on the institutional theory and BL by presenting significant initiatives as practical suggestions for educationalist and policymakers. Therefore, this study provides practical implications to better understand BL initiatives by providing insights into how institutions can improve faculty members' satisfaction levels, improving course management, enriching teaching quality and enhancing learning content.

The findings provided in this study can be employed to design practices, policies and a culture that support continuance use of BL systems among faculty members to achieve an effective institutional outcome.

This study contributes to existing BL adoption and develops a model to examine faculty member implementation of BL approach. This research has several suggestions for higher education in terms of practice to support adoption of BL. The developed model can also be employed by academics, administration and institutions to determine success initiatives for achieving an appropriate change in adopting BL in their institutions.

The number of leadership education and development programs has increased substantially over the past few decades. However, deliberate assessment strategies aimed at understanding actual student development have not kept pace. The primary reason for this limitation likely involves the challenges that are associated with this type of assessment. When examining leadership one is not only interested in the mere acquisition and retention of knowledge, but the actual application and practice of such knowledge. There are a host of challenges that stand in the way of such assessment. In the present paper we call attention to several of these challenges in an effort to understand what effective leader education assessment could look like. Additionally, we offer two examples of how intentional assessment strategies can be implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of leader education and development.

Since 1973, the pharmacy operations division of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (KPMCP) has used long-term action research programs as the principal method for orchestrating change. This chapter covers the evolution of action research theory within large, complex organizations, with particular attention to health care organizations. Four case examples from KPMCP are discussed in depth and mapped to the recently advanced Roth model of insider action research. This model considers external and internal business context, the perceived need to create new organizational capabilities, as well as insider action research theory and learning mechanisms used in change programs. Issues posed by the Roth model are explored, and new theory is advanced regarding the need for a long-term perspective, the advantages and difficulties posed when managers act as insider action researchers, and the quality of data gathering that takes place during insider action research change programs.

Purpose – Patient safety and adverse events continue to present significant challenges to the US health care delivery system. Mandated reporting of adverse events can be a mechanism to “coerce” hospitals to identify, evaluate, and ultimately improve the quality and safety of patient care. The objective of this study is to determine if the coercion of mandated reporting impacts hospital patient safety scores.

Methods – We utilize the US News and World Report 2012–2013 Best Hospital Rankings which includes patient safety data from US teaching hospitals. The dependent variable is a composite measure of six indicators of patient safety during and after surgery. The independent variable is state mandated reporting of hospital adverse events. Three control variables are included: Magnet accreditation status, surgical volume, and the percentage of surgical admissions.

Findings – Using ordered logistic regression (n = 670 hospitals) we find a positive, but not significant, relationship between state mandated reporting and better patient safety scores.

Implications – This finding suggests that regulatory policy may not actually prompt performance improvement, and our data point to the need for further study of both formal and informal processes to manage patient safety within the hospital.

Originality – While increased reporting of adverse events has been linked to hospitals providing safer care, no research to date has examined whether or not state-level mandates actually lead to improvements in patient safety.