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Since 1964 Newcastle University Computing Laboratory has had its own file handling systems for bibliographic records: two systems were developed in parallel for use on an ICL KDF9 computer. In 1967 a third and more sophisticated system compatible with the two KDF9 systems was designed and implemented for use on the newly arrived IBM 360/67. This paper describes the record structure upon which the new system is based. Some of the utilities which make up the file handling system are briefly described, as are some of the projects, both ‘library’ and ‘non‐library’, which have made use of the new system.

For metal additive manufacturing, metallic powders are usually produced by vacuum induction gas atomization (VIGA) through the breakup of liquid metal into tiny droplets by gas jets. VIGA is considered a cost-effective technique to prepare feedstock. In VIGA, the quality and the morphology of the produced particles are mainly controlled by the gas pressure used during powder production, keeping the setup configuration constant.

In VIGA process for metallic additive manufacturing feedstock preparation, the quality and morphology of the powder particles are mainly controlled by the gas pressure used during powder production.

In this study, Inconel-625 feedstock was produced using a supersonic nozzle in a close-coupled gas atomization apparatus. Powder size distribution (PSD) was studied by varying the gas pressure.

The nonmonotonic but deterministic relationships were observed between gas pressure and PSD. It was found that the maximum 15–45 µm percentage PSD, equivalent to 84%, was achieved at 29 bar Argon gas pressure, which is suitable for the LPBF process. Following on, the produced powder particles were used to print tensile test specimens via LPBF along XY- and ZX-orientations by using laser power = 475 W, laser scanning speed = 800 mm/s, powder layer thickness = 50 µm and hatch distance = 100 µm. The yield and tensile strengths were 9.45% and 13% higher than the ZX direction, while the samples printed in ZX direction resulted in 26.79% more elongation compared to XY-orientation.

In existing information retrieval models there are three different ways documents are represented for retrieval purposes: vectors of weights, collections of sentences and artificial neurons. Accordingly, retrieval depends on a similarity function, or means an inference, or is a spreading of activation. Relevancy is considered to be a critical modelling parameter which is either a priori or it is not treated at all. Assuming that relevancy may equally be an emergent entity, thus not requiring any a priori modelling, the paper proposes the Interaction Information Retrieval model in which documents are interconnected, queries and documents are treated in the same way, and in which retrieval is the result of the interconnection between query and documents. Algorithms and experiences gained with practical applications are presented. A theoretical mathematical formulation of this type of retrieval is also given.

In mature global business-to-business (B2B) product markets, management of external sales channels, governed by contractual relationships, is a key determinant of business performance. However, existing sales channel management literature lacks focus on contractual governance and reseller management success. The purpose of the study is to systematically review different governance theories in relation to sales channel management and to show which factors are the most influential in making or keeping external sales channels effective.

A case study on a large B2B information and communication technology (ICT) company is used to reflect on the way the different theoretical governance perspectives explain sales channel management success. Interviews and mini-questionnaires were used to collect data.

Expressions of interdependence and equality alongside persevered personal relationships are important in managing daily business activities and in avoiding bad will at the reseller’s grass-root level. Future-oriented planning, long-term-oriented support and jointly set incentive systems are important for reseller management. Degree of professional management sets resellers apart through shifts in power balance.

A multi-theory governance perspective offers a holistic view over reseller management and provides a comprehensive view over different sales channel management issues and their relative importance.

The findings highlight the importance of long-term orientation and cooperation in setting up a reseller management system to gain and nurture distributors’ trust and commitment towards the manufacturer.

The study is the first to comprehensively use governance perspective in studying reseller management.

The paper aims to identify, prioritize and rank lean practices in the context of an Indian automotive component manufacturing organization using interpretive ranking process (IRP) and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approaches.

Lean practices are identified from the literature. Then, two hierarchical models were are developed using two distinct modeling approaches – ISM and IRP with expert opinions from an Indian automotive component manufacturing organization to analyze the contextual relationships among the various lean practices and to prioritize and rank them with respect to performance dimensions.

In the study, the hierarchical structural models are developed using ISM and IRP approaches for an Indian automotive component manufacturing organization. In ISM-based modeling, lean practices can be categorized into five levels. Top priority should be given to the motivators followed by value chain, system/technology and organization centric practices. IRP model shows the dominance relationship among the various lean practices with respect to performance dimensions.

The models are constructed from the organizational standpoint to evaluate their impact to the implementation of lean manufacturing. The study leverages the organizations to prioritize limited resources as per the hierarchy. Managers get the inter-linkages and ranking of various lean practices, which leads to a better perspective for the effective implementation of lean. The structural models also assist management to assign proper roles to employees/departments for effective lean implementation.

There is hardly any structural model of lean practices in the literature for clustering, prioritizing and ranking of lean practices. The study fills this gap and develops the hierarchical models of lean practices through IRP and ISM approaches for an Indian automotive component manufacturing organization. The results from both approaches are compared for illustrating the benefits of one over the other.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether within the same firm, earnings risk is exacerbated in the fiscal year end (FYE) quarters relative to that of other quarters, more importantly, if this type of earnings risk is unique. Further, the authors discuss solutions to mitigate this type of information risk.

This study provides evidence that the information risk associated with FYE quarter earnings cannot be explained by other identified risk factors. Solutions to mitigate this risk include strong corporate governance and a more streamlined financial reporting structure.

The paper shows that there is significantly lower earnings response coefficient for FYE quarters than for non-FYE quarters (1984–2015). Furthermore, strong corporate governance and a more streamlined financial reporting structure, either by firms willingly reducing the usage of extraordinary item reporting or by FASB codification changes such as FASB 145, can help mitigate this type of information uncertainty.

This study explains that the causes of the exacerbated information risk associated with FYE quarter earnings identified in prior literature, namely, the “integral explanation” and “manipulation explanation,” are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, the authors deem it futile to disentangle the two. Instead, the authors offer two possible solutions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key facilitating factors for smart sustainable practices (SSP) and develop a project evaluation model (PEM) for SSP implementation in Nigeria and Hong Kong. SSP is coined from the integration of digital technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) to facilitate sustainability practices.

The study employed a quantitative research design approach using empirical questionnaire surveys to solicit the opinions of 69 and 97 construction practitioners in Nigeria and Hong Kong. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to identify the potential survey respondents. The fuzzy synthetic evaluation technique was used to develop the PEMs.

The findings revealed that adequate technical expertise of the SSP processes is critical in enhancing its implementation in Hong Kong and Nigeria; as well as the provision of training programs for specialists in smart and sustainable initiatives. Meanwhile, the study's findings advocated that for an SSP-enabled construction project, its project performance is mainly influenced by the client's satisfaction level and the early involvement of the project teams.

The study's results are limited to the Nigeria and Hong Kong construction industries.

Construction stakeholders such as the clients, developers, contractors can utilize the PEMs to determine and track SSP initiatives implementation in building projects in a reliable and practical way.

No tool has been developed for evaluating SSP initiatives at the project level in the construction industry. Using case studies of Hong Kong and Nigeria, PEM indices were developed to measure and track SSP implementation in construction projects.

It is often the case that policy makers are slow to adopt the results of economic analysis in their policy formulation. Shiftworking is one of those rare cases where policymakers have seized upon something as having particular significance which economists have on the whole neglected. Robin Marris published a seminal work, The Economics of Capital Utilisation, in 1964, but it was not until the later 1970s that further substantial work was undertaken by economists and shiftworking appears to be regarded as hardly worth a mention in the standard labour economics texts. This relative neglect by economists is surprising given the significance and growth of shiftworking in a number of countries. Where data are available it is estimated for instance that, as a rough approximation, the number of workers engaged on shiftwork doubled between 1950 and the mid‐1970s. For the UK one estimate is that between 1954 and 1964 the proportion of manual employees working shifts in manufacturing industry increased from 12 to 20 per cent, and that by 1978 the figure was 34 per cent (that is approximately 1.5 out of 4.27 million employees). Shiftworking has in fact reflected a conflict of goals for the policymakers. On the one hand in both the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the European Commission (EC) concern has been expressed at the possible harmful effects on workers of particular shiftworking patterns and proposals have been made to limit its incidence and control its form (this being particularly the case with nightwork and with the hours of women and young persons). On the other hand, concern with the growing problem of unemployment has led policymakers in other sections of these same bodies to propose an extension of shiftworking, as one particular form of work‐sharing, in order to generate jobs. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of shiftworking for male manual workers in British manufacturing industry in order to cast some light on these issues. In particular supply equations are estimated in order to understand what factors lead workers to select this particular form of work and demand equations to determine the nature of the employer's demand for labour. These structural equations form the basis of a simultaneous system in which plant size (measured in terms of employment) is estimated as a function of shiftworking and a vector of other explanatory variables in order to determine whether in fact it is reasonable to conclude that an extension of shiftworking will generate additional jobs in Britain. Before presenting the regression results it is however necessary to examine in more detail these socio‐economic policy aspects of shiftwork, to clarify the theoretical framework and to discuss some of the problems of estimation which stem largely from data deficiencies, but also involve problems of simultaneity notably in the relationships between shiftworking, capital intensity and plant size.

This article discusses the application of MRP on a microcomputer using the very popular electronic spreadsheet software. The illustration may be more of a managerial exercise than a true real world application, but illustrates the potential of this type of analysis. In fact, in smaller business organisations, on‐going practical planning using MRP could very well be accomplished using these techniques.

This paper aims to describe an internal quality enhancement system based on peer reviewing and summarizes the first results of application at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences.

A peer review framework has been developed to evaluate and further develop the teaching programs and practices. The questionnaire-based peer review program included 22 courses and involved almost 100 lecturers. Peer review outcomes are completed by end-of-semester student course evaluations.

The results allow us to map differences between lecturers and courses and to identify correlations between the assessment criteria applied for peer reviewing.

The implemented framework implies individual, faculty and organizational development to enhance a deeper understanding of how to create quality in teaching programs and processes. Secondly, the peer review program contributes to the establishment of a learning community with a growing common understanding of what is considered good quality in business education.

The paper is valuable as a guide to faculty management wishing to implement a peer review framework within their own institution. The novelty of the presented approach is that it focuses on a semester-long teaching performance including classroom performance, course outlines, teaching materials, course requirements and processes and means of student performance assessments.