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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the objectives, tenants, spaces and services of different business center concepts and test whether the existing classifications in literature and in the real estate market draw on significantly different concepts.

After a literature review, data on business centers were collected with a questionnaire among owners/mangers of 139 business centers in the Netherlands. The existing business center concepts are examined whether these concepts are significantly different, using bivariate analyses.

The findings of this study give insight into the business center market, the existing business center concepts and (dis)similarities between the concepts. Although many dissimilarities were found between the business center concepts, like offered services, social spaces and contractual agreements, findings show that the four business center concepts can be offered in similar objects.

New ideas about working and the work environment have caused the business center market to become more differentiated. Some studies have attempted to classify the business center market into several categories or analyzed in detail one specific business center concept. However, these studies did not describe in detail the differences between the concepts. Also there is hardly any empirical research on this sector. This paper addresses gaps in previous research on business centers and demonstrates that there are significant (dis)similarities between the existing business center concepts.

Changes in market conditions and trends often point to the need for changes in the marketing approaches being used. Current market trends such as fierce competition and increasingly demanding customers bring into glaring focus the shortcomings of marketing approaches and vehicles developed in and for earlier times. Corporations are being forced to re‐examine and redefine their marketplace. The need for innovative ways of reaching the customers has never been greater. Such changes call for the development and use of newer sales and marketing tools. Call centers belong to a new breed of potent technology‐driven business tools that evolved in direct response to the changes in today’s business environment. Being rooted in a technological foundation, call centers have superior attributes. They offer more flexibility and simultaneously lower the costs of meeting customer needs. They bring businesses much closer to their customers by establishing a two‐way interactive link with the marketplace. Compared to traditional marketing approaches call centers are designed and developed for the contemporary business environment. They are an ideal tool for today’s rapidly changing global markets.

The implications of the Single European Market for libraries and information services are considered with some examples of what is being done. After a general introduction to 1992, the Plan of Action for Libraries in the EC is considered and the library implications of the five Action Lines. The roles of European Documentation Centres, EC Depository Libraries, European Reference Centres; Euro Information Centres and online databases are considered, together with developments in co‐operation and also the human implications.

Seeing past research, sales managers’ encouragement of their salespeople, tailored to the demands of value-creating sales, should constitute a key success factor for implementing value-centered business models. But prior research is largely silent on sales managers’ encouragement behavior for adopting value-centered business models regarding specific sales manager encouragement behaviors. Hence, this paper aims to examine the moderating effect of in-role and extra-role encouragement by sales managers in value-centered business models on financial firm performance.

The research model was tested empirically on a sample of key informants from 209 firms working in (sales) management positions using regression analysis.

The findings suggest that in-role encouragement behavior is more effective to achieve financial firm performance in value-centered business models. Sales managers should use in-role encouragement to provide their salespeople with a clear structure as a framework for their tasks and work environment and a strategic alignment along the sales organization.

First, while the study included a variety of industries, it only covered countries from the Dach region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), which could limit the generalizability of the findings. To validate the results in additional countries, future research could replicate the research in a cross-country study to test whether the effects differ between countries. Second, the study surveys one key informant per firm on a firm-level leadership tendency. Although leadership culture may promote similar leadership styles or behaviors within one firm, individual leadership behaviors may still vary. Future research should validate the findings using individual sales managers data.

Firm managers must encourage sales managers in value-centered business models to engage in in-role encouragement and avoid extra-role encouragement and thus intensify their micromanagement. Micromanaging the salesforce comprises extensive guidance regarding their expectations and execution toward their salespeople’s work-related tasks and their way of thinking. Furthermore, firms must ask themselves whether their sales managers are capable of micromanaging at all and whether they have the capacity to do so. If not, they must create the appropriate capacities for this. Supplementary, firms should offer regular training for managers on the application of in-role encouragement.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study combining the two rather separately considered research streams of encouragement behavior and value-centered business models regarding the effects on firm performance outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from the assessment of the Police/Business Empowerment Partnership (P/BEP), a community‐oriented policing program, implemented at a retail shopping center in the city of Westminster, California.

A quasi‐experimental design of pre‐ and post‐test was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of P/BEP. Participants' perceptions regarding various safety measures were gathered before and after the implementation of the program.

Pre‐post comparison revealed significant reduction in perceptions of gang activity, auto theft activity and fear of crime at the shopping center after program implementation. Though non‐significant, changes observed in other targeted constructs were also found to be in the desired direction. Overall, analysis indicated that the program helps promote a conducive business environment for the merchants and their customers.

Findings from this evaluation provided evidence that collaborative efforts between businesses and the police do have a positive effect in fighting and preventing crime.

P/BEP is one demonstration of a community's effort in utilizing police resources to target specific problems.

Women entrepreneurs face gender‐specific barriers surrounding access to: networks of information, assistance, finance and investment funds, in addition to socio‐cultural barriers. Business incubation literature indicates the supports provided to tenant incubator companies (including: assistance from incubation managers, access to academic institutions and facilities and access to contact networks), generally increase survival rates and can accelerate growth in turnover, employment levels and export sales. Business incubators could, therefore, offer an ideal environment for women entrepreneurs to overcome many gender‐related barriers. The Irish Government has invested, via “Enterprise Ireland”, over €46 million in campus‐incubators but the gender composition of incubation tenants accessing this state funding has not been explored.

A study of all “Enterprise Ireland” funded campus‐incubators in Ireland was undertaken between November 2006 and March 2007. A survey of 100 per cent of centre managers explored their background, demands on time, the contact networks and relationships with the academic host in each centre and services provided. For cross‐referencing purposes, some tenants and prospective tenants were also surveyed in relation to tenant expectations and service delivery; the culture of incubation centres; incubation centres' policies are: tenant recruitment and selection.

This paper highlights the under‐representation of women‐owned businesses in Ireland's campus incubation centres.

These findings highlight key areas requiring attention from researchers, policy makers and incubation managers to facilitate best practice.

This paper contributes to current knowledge as there has, to date, been no comprehensive study or evaluation of gender equality, or suitability of services provided, in campus‐incubators.

The location of entrepreneurship centers on university campuses has been the subject of debate as the traditional model of business school centers has been challenged by development of centralized structures. The purpose of this chapter is to explore some of the benefits and challenges when a center transitions from a college-based structure to one that is centrally controlled. This chapter provides a qualitative case study of the transition of an entrepreneurship center from a business college to a centralized model housed under a campus-wide office of research and innovation. It argues that a centralized entrepreneurship center can promote campus partnerships on programming, connect the center more effectively with other centralized resources, increase participation from students and faculty from a wider range of colleges, and provide a platform for cross-college collaboration. A key challenge can be the potential separation from faculty research and curriculum development.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between anthropomorphic cues (i.e. degrees of the humanized profile picture and naming) in artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and business types (utilitarian-centered business vs hedonic-centered business) on consumers’ attitudes toward the AI chatbot and intentions to use the AI chatbot app and to accept the AI chatbot’s recommendation.

An online experiment with a 2 (humanized profile pictures: low [semihumanoid] vs high [full-humanoid]) × 2 (naming: Mary vs virtual assistant) × 2 (business types: utilitarian-centered business [bank] vs hedonic-centered business [café]) between-subjects design (N = 520 Mturk samples) was used.

The results of this study show significant main effects of anthropomorphic cues (i.e. degrees of profile picture and naming) in AI chatbots and three-way interactions among humanized profile pictures, naming and business types (utilitarian-centered business vs hedonic-centered business) on consumers’ attitudes toward the AI chatbot, intentions to use the AI chatbot app and intentions to accept the AI chatbot’s recommendation. This indicates that the high level of anthropomorphism generates more positive attitudes toward the AI chatbot and intentions to use the AI chatbot app and to accept the AI chatbot’s recommendation in the hedonic-centered business condition. Moreover, the mediated role of parasocial interaction occurs in this relationship.

This study is the original endeavor to examine the moderating role of business types influencing the effect of anthropomorphism on consumers’ responses, while existing literature overweighted the value of anthropomorphism in AI chatbots without considering the variation of businesses.

The aim of this paper is to analyse support measures in the USA, Canada and Sweden aimed at encouraging women to start their own business and/or promote growth in women‐owned businesses, and in particular the role of women's business centres. It examines whether existing initiatives of this kind have proven successful in their stated and unstated aims; and if elements of practice are transferable to other countries and contexts. The paper also contributes to the gender mainstreaming debate.

Through in‐depth interviews across four countries with managers of such centres and other business support personnel, policy‐makers and practitioners, the paper constructs a view of how women's business centres fit into the overall policy context, and how they have aided the development of women's enterprise.

The use of international comparisons permits the identification of common approaches to enterprise policy for women. Policy‐makers and practitioners will appreciate the nuanced view of the elements that make up several lauded initiatives aimed at supporting women's entrepreneurship, how (and to what degree) these elements work together and how these elements may be used elsewhere.

The paper suggests the need for more nuanced understanding of client needs, whether male or female, and the role this might play in the delivery of business support.

Policymakers should be clear regarding the objectives of women's centres, as between support principally directed at unemployed/low income groups and increasing the business start‐up rate per se among women (leading to economic growth), and even whether support should be differentiated by gender.

Women's centres are working mainly for the more disadvantaged women, rather than those with real potential as entrepreneurs. Such centres may also reinforce stereotypes of “women's businesses”.

The key contribution of this paper is that, compared to previous work, it provides a more critical perspective on the specifics of women's business centre initiatives, exploring both the processes and outcomes that lie behind the simple output‐related success measures that often characterise mainstream policy evaluations.

The make‐up, structure, functioning and outputs of multi‐person buying decision‐making units, commonly referred to as “buying centers,” have received substantial attention in the business marketing literature. Although most business buying decisions are non‐static in nature, theorists and researchers have been hard pressed to effectively capture the dynamic nature of business buyers’ decision‐making processes. This paper presents a synthesis of recent buying center research and reports the findings of a study which attempted to capture “process effects” in buying center structure during the buying process. Study findings affirm the widely held belief that buying centers change over time and provide interesting insights regarding how these decision‐making units change in structure and make‐up over time. The resulting implications and caveats of these findings for business marketers are discussed.