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Small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in e-commerce often invest in information technology (IT) to stay competitive. However, whether and how IT capability (ITC) translates into financial performance requires further research. This paper examines the role of ITC in enabling value proposition innovation (VPI) as an important mechanism that improves financial performance for Chinese e-commerce SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that ITC is critical for enabling innovation because it elevates SMEs’ understanding of changing customer needs, especially when SMEs operate on multiple e-commerce platforms (multihome).

We used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and tested the hypotheses that ITC mediated by VPI and moderated by multihoming increases the financial performance of e-commerce SMEs through a survey among 206 Chinese SMEs operating on Taobao.

We find that not only higher levels of ITC lead to better financial performance, but also that the effect is fully mediated by VPI. Moreover, the effect of ITC on innovation is enhanced when vendors operate on multiple platforms.

The study identifies VPI as an important mechanism through which SMEs can leverage their ITC to adapt, innovate and thrive in competition. Our work suggests that using technology to develop innovative ideas and identify opportunities (which are reflected in VPI) is key to success and that doing so is more likely when vendors multihome. Thus, this study contributes to the innovation literature by explicating a concrete link between ITC, multihoming, VPI and increased financial performance. Different e-commerce stakeholders, including SME owners, IT and service providers and e-commerce platforms, can benefit from the findings of this work.

Common availability of digital technologies encouraged companies in almost all industries to focus on exploring various ways of benefiting from their adoption and thus taking steps toward their digital transformation. This paper aims to describe the digital transformation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as a challenging opportunity and identify ways in which companies from the food industry address it.

The paper presents empirical evidence based on a case study of the Polish freeze-drying market and companies operating on it. This study adopted a single case study research method to describe the digital transformation journey of SMEs. The sample constitutes a single sectoral case study with more than one unit of analysis – sixteen companies. The undertaken approach follows an embedded case study design and allows for an extensive and multidimensional analysis of rich empirical data.

The results of this analysis allowed to identify four significant trends describing human resources involvement in the digital transformation of freeze-drying companies in Poland (i.e. visionary top-down, cooperative task-oriented, persuasive bottom-up, chaotic), a detailed catalog of outcomes of digital transformation from the perspective of food industry companies grouped in seven categories and a list of main barriers to digital transformation.

This paper contributes to expanding knowledge on the practices of food industry companies in addressing challenges posed by the development of information technology and the dynamically changing environment after the COVID-19 pandemic. It contributes further to the discussion related to context-, industry- and country-specific barriers to digital transformation, identifying time-related constraints as an essential barrier to digital transformation.

The purpose of this study is to show that the neo-documentary – or complimentary – approach in Library and Information Science by no means is conservative, but highly necessary also in today's digitized media landscape. An example from a digitized photo archive is chosen to demonstrate the importance of a complimentary analysis that considers both material aspects as well as social and mental ones.

By taking Jenna Hartel's description of the neo-documentary turn as point of departure, the paper focuses on one case, the portrait of Johannes Abrahamsen Motka taken by Sophus Tromholt in 1883 and discusses different versions of the photograph from glass plate negatives to digitized versions in different contexts and media.

Many of the same paratextual elements can be found in different versions, also the digitized ones, to help the viewer to establish a historical context, but the images exhibited today are nevertheless no longer the same ones taken by Tromholt at the end of the 19th century. Not only have the material properties changed, but also – and probably even more important in most cases – the social and mental aspects. More re-contextualization is needed for today's audiences to recognize and understand a historical photograph taken in a colonial context. Focusing on document's material elements is not novel within the LIS-field, but the so-called neo-documentary turn was also a reaction on political and technological developments during the 1980s and 1990s. The increased focus on understanding a document in a complimentary way has demonstrated its impact during the last decades and is, at the same time, still work in progress.

As a scholar in the humanities the author can only relate to and therefore analyze what the author can experience and observe on screen level.

In providing a case study, this article illustrates the necessity of employing a complimentary approach when analyzing documents. This also implicates the claim that the neo-documentary turn – or complimentary as it rather should be called – by no means is a conservative one, but a highly necessary one in today's digitized media landscape.

Within food industry several changes and innovations are affecting the management of the entire supply chain (production, logistics, etc.). As strategy for the survival and competition, digitalization has assumed a crucial role during the pandemic emergence by causing the reconfiguration of traditional chains and business models. Framed in these premises, the research analyses how digital technologies have innovated the sub-chains of bakery products and pasta within food industry with reference to customers' interactions, delivery and marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic emergence.

Moving from a critical literature review about the perspectives of digital technologies within the tradition of food industry, action research has been adopted to analyze in deep a case study of the start-up “ArteBianca Delivery” located in South Italy. Through this method, researchers have been deeply involved within the start-up to face the challenge of transforming the marketing and customer care into digital ones due to the COVID-19 restriction.

Findings provide empirical evidence about the reconfiguration of the traditional business model of a family firm in the food sector into a digital one with the start-up “ArteBianca Delivery”. The marketing, delivery, e-commerce and customer care components of the business models have been supported and enhanced through the adoption of digital tools, such as mobile applications and social technologies useful both for users and for a more urgent digitization of company.

Implications for practice can be identified into the pattern of digital transformation implemented as well as in the opportunity of replication and contextualization of the results to other companies looking for setting up a digital strategy.

Elements of original contribution can be identified into: (1) the exploration of digital transformation in food family firms caused by the pandemic emergence, (2) the contextualization of the digital transformation to the sub-chains of bakery and pasta and (3) the geographical location of the case.

The purpose of this study is to investigate artificial intelligence (AI) as enabler of future library services, with consideration to how prepared are librarians in African university libraries.

This study applied the interpretive content/document analysis of literature harvested from different databases of Scopus and Web of Science. AI could be used to perform daily routines in circulation, serial, reference and selective dissemination of information among others. It could also be applied to the provision of innovative services of recognition of library activities such as answering research quarries, cataloguing and classification of library materials and management of library system software of different databases within the library systems.

It could be deduced from the study that AI would continue to serve as a panacea to future library services irrespective of its geographical context. Due to the evolving nature of knowledge growth, AI having its roots in the field of engineering has been found useful to support future library services. The support accrued from library service delivery in the library profession has made librarians continue to interact with other intelligent machines that can demonstrate human behaviour even though they are not real human beings. The behaviour of machines and AI where human beings play a significant role has brought many renovations in the management of complex tasks of processing, communication, knowledge representation, decision making and suggestions, on potentials of diverse work operations.

The understanding that the present paper portrays in the context of future library services is that there is no way the AI could function without a human interaction perspective when drawing an analogy from computer science, information science and information systems fields of study.

The interest of users across their background would be strengthen if AI advances transformed the handling complex tasks of processing, communication, knowledge representation, decision-making and giving suggestions, among other things. The possibilities of diverse work operations from empirical evidence of studies consulted in recent times gave the authors the impetus to consider AI as the enabler of future library services.

The increasing demands from library patrons have prompted librarians to adapt their methods of delivering services. These emerging technologies have also brought about shifts in approaches to teaching and learning. Consequently, the recent surge in digital technology-driven service innovations has ushered in a fresh paradigm for education and research. In response to these changes, librarians are actively seeking novel and innovative technologies to enhance user experiences within their libraries. They serve as catalysts for introducing modern and advanced technologies, consistently adapting to contemporary tools that enhance their offerings.

This paper focuses on the use of e-resources by research scholars and post-graduate students at Kashmir University. The main aim is to determine the use of e-resources, users skills in handling e-resources and the purpose of their use. Further, this paper aims to highlight the problems faced by research scholars and post-graduate students in accessing e-resources.

The survey was conducted through a structured questionnaire circulated among 250 research scholars, both (M.Phil./Ph.D.) and post-graduate students, from different departments of Kashmir University, and the response rate was 80%. Random sample method was used for the selection of respondents and interacting with them. The responses received from the research scholars to 14 questions are presented in the form of tables.

Major findings of the study reveal that the majority of the students reported using electronic journal resources for various purposes including working on assignments, research proposal writing, literature review writing, research report writing, current awareness and leisurely exploration of ongoing scientific debates through peer-reviewed papers. The challenges encountered in the use of electronic journal resources include a power outage, inadequate bandwidth, slow download speed, inability to access the resources from home, lack of training, lack of awareness, limited access to computers and difficulty in searching. The paper concludes that electronic resources have become an integral part of the information needs of research scholars’ post-graduate students at Kashmir University. Further, it finds that e-resources can be good substitutes for conventional resources, if the access is fast, and more computer terminals are installed to provide fast access to e-resources. Finally, recommendations for improving the use of electronic journal resources are provided.

The paper restrains the study exclusively to use of e-resources by the research scholars and post-graduate students of Kashmir University.

The paper highlights the use of e-resources by research scholars and post-graduate students of Kashmir University and makes some constructive suggestions for the improvement of electronic resources and services. This is the first time an effort has been made to assess the use of electronic resources by post-graduate students at Kashmir University. The study could be used to assess the post-graduate students’ needs for electronic resources at the Kashmir University and other users in higher learning institutions.

The substantial expansion of technology and the efficacy of digital platforms in reaching young audiences have led to enhanced targeting and customization of promotional communications. Notwithstanding the expansion and efficacy of contemporary advertising platforms, scholarly attention has not kept pace with this domain of inquiry. This study aims to assess the antecedents of Google Shopping Ads (GSA) on intention to purchase behavior among the Generation Y and Z cohorts.

The current study used a quantitative approach and snowball sampling technique to gather primary data via a questionnaire and Google Forms, which resulted in the collection of 5,808 questionnaires among the cohort members. A principal component analysis and multigroup confirmatory multigroup structural equation modeling (between Generation Y and Z) were used to assess the research data and model.

The results show positive trust and perceived value associations with intention to purchase, particularly among Generation Y and Z consumers. The findings also show negative irritation, product risk and time risk associations with intention to purchase, especially among the Generation Y cohort, which indicates that young consumers generally do not observe perceived risk due to the usage of GSA.

GSA will continue to grow and become an increasingly important integrated marketing communications tool as the digital landscape develops. It can be concluded that young consumers show a high degree of perceived value and low levels of perceived risk due to the use of GSA. This study, therefore, promotes improved understanding among academics, marketers and businesses of search engine advertising among young cohorts of consumers (Generation Y and Z) in a developing country context.

Although universities have extensive research and initiatives in place that align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is still a significant gap in documenting and assessing these efforts. This paper aims to discuss how academic libraries can apply their information management skills and open-access platforms, to facilitate the discoverability and retrieval of evidence on SDGs.

Introduced by a brief literature review on the role of libraries in contributing to the SDGs in general, the authors draw on their personal experiences as metadata specialists, participating in a project aimed at linking their university’s research output to the SDGs. A case study, from the University of Pretoria’s Veterinary Science Library, is used as an example to demonstrate the benefits of resourceful metadata in organising, communicating and raising awareness about the SDGs in the field of veterinary science.

Through practical examples and recommended workflows, this paper illustrates that metadata specialists are perfectly positioned to apply their information management skills and library platforms to facilitate the discoverability and retrieval of evidence on SDGs.

Although there are increasing reports on the contributions of libraries to support the successful implementation of the SDGs, limited information exists on the role of metadata specialists, as well as those with a practical focus.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of augmented reality (AR) media characteristics on consumers’ purchase intention (PI) for fashion goods within the fashion industry context.

This study establishes five independent variables of salient AR media characteristics derived from existing studies which includes interactivity, vividness, augmentation, simulated physical control and environmental embedding. A quantitative online survey method is conducted with a sample of 172 respondents.

The findings suggest that all five AR media characteristics have a positive and significant influence on consumers’ PI for fashion goods. Among these five characteristics, interactivity and simulated physical control have the strongest positive impact on PI, followed by vividness, environmental embedding and augmentation.

This study provides valuable insights for fashion brands to better understand the media characteristics that consumers may be looking out for in AR experiences that could have an influence on their PI for fashion goods. This study also contributes to the literature by identifying the most influential AR media characteristics in the context of the fashion industry.