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Monthly 1980–2014 data are examined to determine how employment responds to money supply shocks in Canada and the United States. The focus of the analysis is a comparison of the real economies’ responses to the financial crisis and the great recession. Employment is used as a proxy for real output, though it may respond to monetary shocks with a longer lag. Vector autoregression models are specified, estimated, and interpreted. Impulse response functions are examined to assess the impact of innovations in monetary policy. A comparison of the response of employment to monetary innovations allows for evaluation of alternative business cycle theories and of the relative efficacy of Canadian v. U.S. monetary policy. Cross-border impacts are also assessed. Granger causality tests are used to examine whether money supply growth causes unemployment, whether monetary shocks cause higher or lower employment, and distinguish between short-run and long-run effects.

This paper reports the survey results of marketing practices of 87 Chinese small firms in Mainland China. The findings suggest that the broad small firm marketing principles, though specifically generated from the Western countries, contribute to the success of Chinese small firms in China. Interestingly, however, the specific marketing practices of these small firms are different from those of their British counterparts. Research results indicate that higher‐performing Chinese small firms adopt the customer orientation, use a proactive approach in strategic planning, are aware and make use of marketing planning tools, adopt long‐term profit objectives, participate actively in new product development, and introduce new ways of doing business. Also, the higher‐performing Chinese small firms have well‐organised marketing organisation and encourage free communication flow and interaction among employees. To have better control over marketing activities, higher‐performing Chinese small firms frequently use marketing control devices. Thus, care should be taken before making generalisations about marketing in Western situations and in assuming that marketing tools and techniques are equally applicable across all locations.

This paper deals with concept of total productive maintenance (TPM) and its implementation approach. It also presents the identification of critical factors for effective implementation of TPM. The reliability analysis identified potential areas where more concentration is required. The application of hypothesis testing in productivity maintenance should be promoted by parametric test and significantly instrumental in explanation of phenomena. It is also indispensable to better understand quality data and provide guidance to production control.

The various critical success factors of TPM implementation has organised into set of eight performance measure and thirty three sub-factors for getting the in-depth details of each indicator. The paper identifies the reliability of these factors and understands the problem with greater clarity and its ramification. Researcher collected responses from forty one manufacturing organisations through structured designed questionnaire. The reliability analysis was carriedout by calculating the value of Cronbach's alpha method. To draw the meaningful conclusions supported by relevant empirical data, provisional formulation is required, and it was carried by hypothesis testing. In this test, samples are taken from a population with known distribution (normal distribution), and a test of population parameters is executed. It determines the relevancy of facts directs the researcher's efforts into productive channels. The statements were hypothetically tested by calculating the arithmetic value of Chi-Square (χ²) and MINITAB-19 software was used for identification of p-value.

This study identified that main factors and sub-factors of TPM which are critical for implementation of TPM. The study also avoids the complexities involved in implementing TPM by reliability analysis. It is found that all identified CSFs are reliable as Cronbach's alpha is above 0.6. The hypothesis testing shows that all alternative hypothesis statements are acceptable as Chi-Square (χ²) value has satisfied the conditions and null hypothesis are true as calculated p-value is less than the 0.05 for eight identified TPM critical factor.

In this paper researcher provides a comprehensive typology of TPM-CSFs, and its ranking and importance in manufacturing sector. The preparedness of such study related to TPM implementation is becoming a major sourcing base for the world and there is a paucity of such studies. Such studies are equally important in a global context.

The purpose of this paper is to know whether the authors’ productivity pattern of library and information science (LIS) open access journals adheres to Lotka’s inverse square law of scientific productivity. Since the law was introduced, it has been tested in various fields of knowledge, and results have varied. This study has closely followed Lotka’s inverse square law in the field of LIS open access journals to find a factual result and set a baseline for future studies on author productivity of LIS open access journals.

The publication data of selected ten LIS open access journals pertain to authorship, citations were downloaded from the Scopus database and analysed using bibliometric indicators like authorship pattern, collaborative index (CI), degree of collaboration (DC), collaborative coefficient (CC) and citation counts. This study has applied Lotka’s inverse square law to assess authors’ productivity pattern of LIS open access journals and further Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) goodness-of-fit test applied for testing of observed and expected author productivity data.

Inferences were drawn for the set objectives on authorship pattern, collaboration trend and authors’ productivity pattern of LIS open access journals covered in this study. The single authorship pattern is dominant in LIS open access journals covered in this study. The CI, DC and CC are found to be 1.95, 0.47 and 0.29, respectively. The expected values as per Lotka’s law (n = −2) significantly vary from the observed values as per the chi-square test and K-S goodness-of-fit test. Hence, this study does not adhere to Lotka’s inverse square law of scientific productivity.

Researchers may find an idea about the authors’ productivity patterns of LIS open access journals. This study has used the K-S goodness-of-fit test and the chi-square test to validate the authors’ productivity data. The inferences found out from this study will be a baseline for future research on author productivity of LIS open access journals.

This study is significant from the viewpoint of the growing research on open access journals in the field of LIS and to identify the authorship pattern, collaboration trend and author productivity pattern of such journals.

A research study was formed in the Spring of 1991 to survey the perceptions of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) employees in Saudi Arabia concerning their needs and their attitudes regarding library services. The problem of this study was the lack of knowledge about user satisfaction with the library services which are provided at the library of the MFA in Saudi Arabia. The purposes of the study were two‐fold: (1) to measure, evaluate, and analyze user satisfaction with the library services provided at the MFA Library for the employees; and (2) to develop a model for evaluation of all governmental libraries in Saudi Arabia. The data gathering instrument of this study was distributed to 425 employees from the MFA in Saudi Arabia. Usable questionnaires were returned by 280 or 65.88 percent of the participants and were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results of the survey showed that the more education an employee had, the more dissatisfied the employee was with the library's services. Significant differences were also found depending on the rank of the employee, the employee's age, the nationality of the employee, and the number of years the employee had worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The most serious problem was the lack of space and adequate funding.

This paper compares impact of Industry 4.0 / emerging information and communication Technologies (ICTs), for example, Internet of things (IOT), machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and cloud computing, on 22 organisational performance indicators under nine combinations of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and quality management systems (QMS).

Survey of 105 Indian organisations was done about their experience of using QMS, Lean Six Sigma and emerging ICTs. Respondents included both manufacturing and service enterprises of different scales and sectors. The responses collected were compared, and statistically significant difference among them was evaluated using chi-square test.

The study confirmed statistically significant difference among 20 organisational performance indicators under different combinations of QMS, LSS and ICTs. These indicators include quality performance, delivery performance, sales turnover, inventory level and so forth. However, for two indicators, namely, absenteeism and throughput, significant difference in responses was not established.

All possible combinations of QMS, LSS, only LSS tools and ICTs were not studied because of either theoretical impossibility (e.g. using LSS without LSS tools) or practically rare situations (e.g. organisations using ICTs and LSS without QMS). Furthermore, the impact from different sequences of implementing QMS, LSS and ICTs can be studied.

Using this study, practitioners can identify which LSS, Quality System and ICT combination results in best performance and quick success. On theoretical front, the study confirms impact of LSS and QMS on organisational performance.

This study evaluates organisational performance under several possible combinations of QMS, LSS, and emerging ICTs, which was so far unexplored.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight into budgetary practice in UK‐based hotel organizations and an update on previous survey work in this area. The research aims to cover a broad range of budgeting issues, including: the process used in setting budgets, monitoring and review of the budgetary processes, and the human aspects of the budgeting process.

This research used a census‐based questionnaire of hotel organizations' finance directors. The questionnaire consisted of mainly closed questions, with opportunities for further explanation to be given. Statistical analysis tools included Chi‐square tests, Spearman's Rank Coefficient, and ANOVA.

The paper finds that the key reason organizations produce budgets are to aid control, evaluate performance and aid planning. Neither the top‐down, bottom‐up or combination approaches to budgeting dominated in the UK. The results showed a higher rate of the top‐down approach in the UK, compared to previous surveys in other countries. Budgets were generally viewed as the main performance indicator in hotel organizations. There is little use of flexible budgeting, budget committees or budget manuals in the hotel industry. The “human aspects” of budgeting identified some interesting contradictions such as the belief that participation is key in budgeting working, yet there is a lack of participation in practice, most significantly amongst hotel department managers.

Limited information as to budgetary practice in hotels has previously been published, particularly related to the UK. This survey and further findings from the broader research project it is part of identify hotel industry budgetary practice. This aids identifying change over time and provides an invaluable insight into how budgets are used in the industry.