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With the speedy growth of information quantity, people need a mechanism to discover automatically the information that interests them. Such a mechanism is called selective dissemination of information (SDI). Describes the design and implementation of an SDI system with the ability of delivering real‐time, personalized news articles. In addition to delivering English news, it delivers Chinese articles also. Focuses on the problems that other researches seldom address. First, discusses how to store and delete news articles efficiently, then describes the user model to let users specify their interests. Finally, presents an efficient method to embed the ability to deliver Chinese as well as English news articles in the system.

Path planning in unknown or partly unknown environment is a quite complex task, partly because it is an evolving globally optimal path affected by the motion of the robot and the changing of environmental information. The purpose of this paper is to propose an online path planning approach for a mobile robot, which aims to provide a better adaptability to the motion of the robot and the changing of environmental information.

This approach treats the globally optimal path as a changing state and estimates it online with two steps: prediction step, which predicts the globally optimal path based on the motion of the robot; and updating step, which uses the up‐to‐date environmental information to refine the prediction.

Simulations and experiments show that this approach needs less time to reach the destination than some classical algorithms, provides speedy convergence and can adapt to unexpected obstacles or very limited prior environmental information. The better performances of this approach have been proved in both field and indoor environments.

Compared with previous works, the paper's approach has three main contributions. First, it can reduce the time consumed in reaching the destination by adopting an online path planning strategy. Second, it can be applied in such environments as those with unexpected obstacles or with only limited prior environmental information. Third, both motion error of the robot and the changing of environmental information are considered, so that the global adaptability to them is improved.

This paper aims to report on a study that used the practice theory lens to understand how Chinese ethnic culture influences restaurant workers' learning through engagement in everyday work practices.

A multiple case study approach was used. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews and site observations. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify how workers learnt the sayings, doings and relatings in their workplaces.

The findings show that the ethnic culture of the participants influences and enriches their learning in practice settings such as small Chinese restaurants.

The understandings presented here need to be verified through more research in different regions and nations. In addition, cross-cultural studies on other ethnic restaurants may contribute to deeper understandings of the influences of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The research contributes to understanding the influence of ethnic culture on practice-based learning.

The understandings gained from the findings of this study form a useful basis for curriculum development and instructional design of training programmes for practice-based as well as work-integrated-learning components of vocational curriculum. Furthermore, awareness of the strengths of the ethnic culture is of interest to owner/managers of small Chinese restaurants to afford supportive learning environments for workers.

This paper seeks to use the balanced scorecard approach to create a performance measurement tool for e‐CRM implementations, distinguishing the criteria which signify higher levels of success in e‐CRM for internet businesses.

A performance measurement tool assessing the success of e‐CRM implementations under the customer, internal business, innovation and learning, and financial perspectives of the balanced scorecard is constructed. A total of 72 internet businesses in Turkey were surveyed about how much their CRM implementations contributed to the improvement in various measures under these four perspectives. These businesses are categorised as those with high versus moderate levels of perceived e‐CRM success. T‐tests are conducted to find out which success criteria distinguish these two groups more significantly.

Companies with higher levels of perceived e‐CRM success claimed significantly higher levels of improvements in customer satisfaction, transaction amounts and frequency, brand image, effective database management and customer targeting, efficient business processes, technology utilisation, excellence and innovation in services, improved sales, profitability and decreased service support costs.

The sample size is relatively small due to the difficulty of collecting data from internet businesses on a strategic issue such as e‐CRM. Perceived e‐CRM success is assessed based on the answers of a single respondent from each business.

With successful e‐CRM programs, internet businesses can experience significant levels of improvements under all the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard, including tangible measures such as financial outcomes and the less tangible indicators such as customer value, innovation, excellence, and efficiency in business processes.

A general strategic management tool is applied to a specific process in internet businesses. Performance in e‐CRM is assessed extensively.

This article aims to seek to provide a performance measurement scale for customer relationship management (CRM) software. The CRM concept is wide, yet prior literature offers only specific approaches. This scale goes beyond specific scenarios, to cover the various perspectives on CRM and provide quantitative validation of the measures.

This paper describes the complete process for conceptualizing and operationalizing this reflective second-order construct, including a thorough literature review, qualitative research and a quantitative study with 208 companies that have implemented CRM software.

Three main, interconnected constructs emerge to measure CRM software performance: customer life cycle, firm performance and operational performance. Retention, loyalty and satisfaction indicators form the customer life-cycle dimension. Firm performance refers to market share, efficiency, product adaptation, and new product launch indicators. The operational dimension includes improvement in sales performance, marketing campaigns, customer service and analysis of customer information.

This scale guides every element involved in CRM software implementation, toward a common objective.

The CRM scale supports CRM software industry players and firms that intend to implement CRM software. The three model constructs provide guidelines about which improvements should be noted with a CRM implementation.

This scale help the companies who intend to implement CRM software conduct their agreement with the other parts involved (consultants, software developers and the firm).

This paper meets an identified need, namely, to provide a CRM software performance measurement scale. The huge, unique sample is exclusive and obtained from a dedicated CRM software developer.