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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of core competencies, namely, transformational leadership (TFL), entrepreneurial competence and technical competence on financial performance through the mediation effect of innovativeness, among owner-managed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries.

A research model was developed to test nine research hypotheses. Self-report questionnaires designed for this study were sent to SME owner-managers in Malaysia. A total of 178 completed questionnaires were successfully collected. SPSS and SmartPLS were used to perform the data analysis to test the measurement model and structural model.

This paper provides empirical evidence that behavioural innovativeness mediates the relationship between TFL and financial performance, product innovativeness mediates the relationships among entrepreneurial competence, technical competence and financial performance and process innovativeness mediates the relationship between technical competence and financial performance.

The findings of this study are potentially limited by perceptual measures, cross-sectional data and the risk of response bias from a single informant.

Owner-managed SMEs can focus on developing the core competencies to achieve financial performance through innovative products, processes and behaviours. Policymakers and practitioners can gain fresh insights into the complexity of sustaining the business activities and financial performance of SMEs through the core competencies and innovativeness.

The extant literature has revealed that entrepreneurship, leadership, expertise and innovativeness are considered key factors in promoting financial performance, yet little is known about the combined effects of the core competencies on financial performance through innovativeness for owner-managed SMEs in the context of a developing country. The study makes an important contribution to filling this research gap.

To study the behaviour of voids in PBGA solder joints and their influence on the lifetime of lead‐free solder joints.

The behaviour of voids was studied using micro via and land pad PWBs, PBGA components, and by measuring voids in the solder joints. The lifetimes of solder joints were tested using accelerated temperature tests.

Number of factors affecting the solder joint lifetimes were found. The voids were discovered to have a significantly large influence on the solder joints.

The findings can be used to achieve better soldering results, methods, and designs.

In this paper, the effect and the behaviour of voids were studied profoundly. The findings can be valuable to researchers and process personnel.

This paper investigates school library services in the digital age for students with dyslexia and explores the impact of current library services on students’ learning.

A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was designed according to the LAFE (Look and listen, Assistance and accessibility, Format and fit, and Environment) framework for learners with dyslexia and the 5E instructional model and conducted with 11 school librarians.

Results indicated that participants lacked knowledge of dyslexia for appropriate library services. Awareness, IT skills, school administration, funding and parental attitudes would influence the library’s tailored services to dyslexic children, despite the rich resources in these participants’ libraries, including paperbacks, digital resources and electronic devices. Adaptations are necessary to provide accessible services, especially by applying digital technologies, and school libraries can positively impact students’ reading interests, promote knowledge inquiry and strengthen information literacy skills.

While students with dyslexia spend significant time in schools, limited studies focus on school library services in the digital age, especially in Asia. This study fills the gap by systematically exploring the issue with the 5E instructional model.

It is salient to be acquainted with the key elements that determine educational tourists’ decision in selecting an overseas destination while considering the rise of international competition amidst nations concerning international students. There has been a growth in the number of nations committed to attracting educational tourists. This issue is evident in countries involved in higher education (HE), such as Northern Cyprus, identified as an edu-tourism destination. Northern Cyprus can attract a whopping number of tourists, and the higher population is most likely to be made up of international students regardless of its interdiction on direct flights and political pressure. This chapter centres on analysing educational tourists’ motivators in selecting a tourism education destination abroad and on revealing effective recruitment and promotion plans towards attracting them. The chapter includes the descriptions and discussions of educational tourism, the HE industry over the years, globalisation and internationalisation of educational tourism, factors influencing educational tourists’ decision-making process and key elements influencing educational tourists’ decisions in HE institutions. At the end of the chapter, a case study is presented that reports the findings of interviews with educational tourists, overseas recruitment agents and Eastern Mediterranean University staff responsible for promoting the institution. The results identified eight factors affecting educational tourists’ decisions on study destination. Those factors comprise cost, ease of access, location, social factors, quality of education, instruction language, cultural environment and communication quality. The sub-factors of the main eight factors are scholarships, destination’s scenery, safety, friends’ and relatives’ influence and cultural differences. This chapter brings a significant knowledge about the motives that affect educational tourists in selecting at a particular HE destination. Based on the study’s findings, educational institutions may consider various recommendations to redesign their strategies towards attracting educational tourists more effectively. Generally, this study promotes an apprehension about the diverse elements that affect educational tourists’ selection of a destination study. An in-depth understanding of these factors will help education institutions’ decision-makers better develop plans of action to provide desired services to educational tourists, attract and keep them in return.

Given the increasing global focus of many aspects of our society, researchers have taken significant steps in understanding the impact of culture on various psychological states. This review focuses on the stressor–strain relationships within the context of cross-cultural and cross-national studies. Using research findings from the United States as a baseline, we identify common and unique themes concerning the stressor–strain relationships between different countries, and clarify the differences between cross-national and cross-cultural studies. Furthermore, we consider cross-cultural and cross-national occupational stress research from an individual differences perspective. We encourage future studies to adopt this perspective and carefully consider the implications of cultural values on occupational stress research at the individual, group, and country levels.

A PILGRIMAGE to West Cornwall can be heartily recommended to any librarian in search of rest, fresh air, and complete change from the monotony of town life. Here he will find abundance of interest and novelty in connection with the habits and customs of the ancient Britons still extant, and derive many impressions of pleasure from the magnificent rock scenery with which the coast abounds. Dairy‐farming, tin‐mining, pilchard fishing, druidical monuments, and wild flowers can also be studied with profit; and even Public Libraries, in a condition of arrested development not uncommon in other districts of England. Cornwall is pre‐eminently the county for Public Libraries. Geographically it is remote from the populous parts of England, and the Great‐Western Railway Company, with commendable forethought, have taken enormous pains to maintain this seclusion by a most pitiful and inadequate service of trains. I was once assured by the Public Librarian of Penzance that no thief would ever raid his institution, for the simple reason that it was impossible to get away quick enough to avoid detection ! A place thus difficult to get away from, is manifestly one which requires strong home interests to make it attractive, and, as theatres, music halls, and other light diversions, find little favour in Cornish towns, the Public Library, with its wealth of varied reading, is practically the only after‐dark resource left. But there are other circumstances which make Cornwall an ideal county for a liberal provision of Public Libraries. The decline of the mining industry has driven many of the men away to other centres, such as South Africa, and it is well‐known that, at the present time, more money is coming into the county from exiled sons abroad than is being made locally. There is thus an enormous surplus of that great natural reader— woman—and to her should be offered in profusion plenty of romantic and other reading as a solace and compensation for the loss of her natural companion—man.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of different temperature cycling profiles on the reliability of lead‐free 388 plastic ball grid array (PBGA) packages and to deeply understand crack initiation and propagation.

Temperature cycling of Sn‐3.8Ag‐0.7Cu PBGA packages was carried out at two temperature profiles, the first ranging between −55°C and 100°C (TC1) and the second between 0°C and 100°C (TC2). Crack initiation and propagation was analyzed periodically and totally 7,000 cycles were run for TC1 and 14,500 for TC2. Finite element modeling (FEM), for the analysis of strain and stress, was used to corroborate the experimental results.

The paper finds that TC1 had a characteristic life of 5,415 cycles and TC2 of 14,094 cycles, resulting in an acceleration factor of 2.6 between both profiles. Cracks were first visible for TC1, after 2,500 cycles, and only after 4,000 cycles for TC2. The crack propagation rate was faster for TC1 compared to TC2, and faster at the package side compared to the substrate side. The difference in crack propagation rate between the package side and substrate side was much larger for TC1 compared to TC2. Cracks developed first at the package side, and were also larger compared to the substrate side. The Cu tracks on the substrate side affected the crack propagation sites and behaved as SMD. All cracks propagated through the solder and crack propagation was mainly intergranular. Crack propagation was very random and did not follow the distance to neutral point (DNP) theory. FEM corroborated the experimental results, showing both the same critical location of highest creep strain and the independence of DNP.

Such extensive work on the reliability assessment of Pb‐free 388 PBGA packages has never been performed. This work also corroborates the results from other studies showing the difference in behavior between Pb‐free and Pb‐containing alloys.

Describes Poetry in the Branches, a multi‐layered, replicable program model, devised by Poets House, New York, to foster the link between librarians, the public and the living tradition of poetry. Provides a comprehensive list of titles of contemporary poetry collections by single authors and anthologies.

High‐density packaging devices have unique characteristics which make their assembly, test and repair very difficult. The only realistic method of rework is to replace the defective component with a new or re‐balled component. Although a wide range of rework techniques is available, degradation in assembly reliability may accompany the process. The formation of brittle secondary intermetallic compounds following CSP rework can adversely affect the mechanical properties of the joint, particularly when they make up a significant proportion of its thickness. Reports on the effects of different CSP rework techniques on intermetallic layer formation. Two PCB pad‐cleaning methods and three flux/paste deposition methods are investigated. The reworked joints are analysed using optical microscopy to determine the extent of intermetallic growth. Their quality is also assessed using shear strength testing prior to, and after, thermal ageing at 1008C to accelerate the growth of intermetallic compounds and evolution of the solder grain structure.

The reliability of 0·5 mm pitch, 208‐pin FQFP solder joints has been studied by experimental temperature cycling and 3‐D nonlinear finite element analysis. Temperature cycling results have been presented as a Weibull distribution. Thermal fatigue life of the solder joints has been estimated based on the calculated plastic strain and isothermal fatigue data on solders. A correlation between the experimental and analytical results has also been made.