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The purpose of this paper is to examine the reason for, and outcomes of, the New South Wales Land and Property Authority's (Lands) Vision 2013 plan designed to deal with a perceived impending human capital crisis in light of a rapidly ageing workforce. The research questions examined are “Did the perceived crisis eventuate?” and “What was the impact of implementing the plan to combat the threat of an ageing workforce?”

Using a case study approach, the paper incorporates semi‐structured interviews, planning papers and annual reports to critically examine the impact of implementing the Vision 2013 plan. Lands was chosen because in 2005 the ageing workforce issue motivated Lands to investigate how it would successfully manage organisational knowledge then and into the future. With the purpose of promoting discussion and critical reflection, we examine how Lands addressed the perceived crisis and the impact it had on the management of knowledge and human capital.

The ageing workforce crisis appears not to have been as significant as anticipated because of the combination of improved processes and training of new employees, allowing for knowledge transfer, making some old knowledge redundant and creating new knowledge. However, a gap exists between the new processes and tacit knowledge that can only be filled through experience. While the ageing workforce crisis seems to have abated, a new crisis of retention looms on the horizon.

The paper provides a longitudinal example of how a particular employer dealt with the threat of knowledge loss due to the retirement of older workers. It demonstrates that the threat cannot only be thwarted but can also help drive system and process improvements. The lessons learned, the authors argue, can be generalised to the public and private sector; however, they must be tempered within specific local, national and international contexts.

The paper provides a longitudinal observation of a public sector government business enterprise's implementation of a plan to address the issue of an ageing workforce. Many contemporary organisations face this issue so the results of the case study will be of value to those facing similar challenges.

To explore the effectiveness of large‐scale consortia for disseminating local heritage via the web. To describe the creation of a large geographically based cultural heritage consortium in the South East of England and management lessons resulting from a major web site digitisation project. To encourage the improved sharing of experience amongst similar projects in the future.

A selective literature review seeking lessons on sustainable cultural heritage collaboration is presented. The composition of a consortium set‐up with public lottery funding to build a cross‐domain collaborative public web site containing cultural heritage materials from many local authorities and local partners is described. Practical experiences from the first three years of collaboration are presented in a manner loosely based on the European Union Digitisation Policies Benchmarking Model.

Staff in local government libraries, archives and museums have, until recently, lacked experience in major web site publishing and even in the basic digitisation of locally held heritage materials. Local governments in England have traditionally co‐operated within the library or museum sectors, but not across the whole domain. New communication methods and a formally structured consortium have so far enabled the collaborative publication of a major web site allowing cross‐searching of partner materials as well as access to individual sites. More importantly, staff have begun to understand how to proceed in a sustainable way to support the future development of more sophisticated digital primary and learning resources that are preserved for the future and yet accessible to many more people.

The paper notes the importance of shared values, common objectives and a practical approach to collaborative service delivery. It also highlights the challenges in situations where operational staff have multiple responsibilities and project staff may be available only while external short‐term funding lasts. It is suggested that encouraging the documentation of operational experiences and sharing skills through a large‐scale formal consortium can support sustainable development.

The consortium described hopes to form a major part of the future framework for digital cultural heritage services in the South East of England. This paper offers a rare, reflective contribution from experienced, operational service practitioners who have completed a three‐five year digitisation programme offering free public access to materials that serve to support and disseminate local and regional identity.

While mainstream theories in international business and management are foundedeither explicitly or implicitly on studies of manufacturing firms, prior attempts to develop theoryon the internationalization of service firms are sparse and have yet to establish solid andcomprehensive frameworks. The thrust of this study is that value creation logics, a constructoriginally developed by Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) can assist us in better understanding why and how service firms internationalize. The authors extend this construct and propose that the internationalization of service firms must be based on a thorough understanding of the fundamental nature of these firms.

Theoretical study.

The authors put forward propositions concerning the pace of internationalization and the default foreign operation modes in service firms.

The use of value creation logics can be a useful complement to the conventional approaches to the study of service firms’ internationalization. However, the fact that most firms encompass more than one value creation logic complicates the use of firm databases and industry statistics.

The authors suggest that managers in service firms should consider primarily the nature of the value creation logic(s) in their firms when deciding and designing an internationalization strategy.

The study presents a novel theoretical approach and a set of propositions on service firm internationalization founded on the specific characteristics of the service activities.

The purpose of this paper is to comparatively study the library and information services provided by three academic libraries – Baku State University Scientific Library, ADA University Library and Information Services and Khazar University Library and Information Center – located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Various types of library services are examined in terms of funding, acquisition and technical equipment support issues. Also, different subordination conditions (public/private) of the universities help to better understand the current position of academic libraries in different entities.

Most part of the conveyed information was obtained through review of related literature, libraries’ annual reports and personal communication with the directors of the academic libraries, to look for similarities and differences in provided library and information services. The results of the study are comparatively described through multiple tables and charts.

For improving services it is necessary to develop paid forms of library and information services, maintain various training possibilities for library staff in modern librarianship areas, increase the variety and number of public and outreach activities.

As the findings of the paper suggest new forms of library services and activities, it is necessary to continue the topic in further studies to develop practical methods and applications for local library conditions.

The paper can be accepted as the first comparative study of the library information services in academic libraries of Azerbaijan, which gives general overview and analysis of separate service ranges and types. The researchers interested in Azerbaijani librarianship may find it practical.

This paper aims to identify the opportunities in the service marketplace that have arisen because of the changes brought about by the global pandemic (COVID-19).

A conceptual methodological approach is used to analyze trends in the history of service research and discuss how articles presented in this issue help scholars and practitioners with planning for opportunities and confronting challenges in the new (post COVID-19) service marketplace.

This special issue puts forth six viewpoints and seven research articles that outline opportunities in the new service marketplace from regional and global perspectives. Further, the research articles presented in this issue identify four opportunities for managers to consider when designing services in the new service marketplace; these are labeled as reassurance and fear reduction, rethinking physical space and supply chains for multichannel service delivery, the rise of local and community importance and resilience building to combat customer discourtesy.

Managers can understand how the pandemic has profoundly and permanently impacted consumers’ perceptions and expectations for service delivery and processes.

This work presents scholars with a historical overview of trends in service research. The challenges posed by the pandemic represent the beginning of a new era in service research thought and practice as many previously held theories and understandings of consumers’ marketplace behaviors have permanently changed because of behavioral changes that transpired during governmental mandated lockdowns.

E‐marketing is growing at a dramatic pace and is significantly impacting customer and business market behaviors. As a result, most firms have started developing e‐marketing strategies for the web. However, the evolution and strategic direction of e‐marketing strategies in international environments has not been discussed and is the focus of this paper.

In this paper, the authors examine two issues based on extant literature and our previous research in this area. The authors discuss e‐marketing in an international context and develop a framework that will allow researchers and managers to understand the impact of country level effects on e‐marketing strategies. The paper proposes that the evolution of e‐marketing strategies is based on the countries infrastructure and marketing institutional development.

It is found that international e‐marketing strategies are fundamentally changing, and will continue to change, marketing thought and practice in international markets. The paper suggests that the e‐markets of tomorrow may have little resemblance to the markets of today.

The paper suggests that additional conceptual and methodological research is required in this area. Propositions are derived that will provide directions for future research.

Firms need to better monitor their international environments to determine the type of strategy that they need to follow. The proposed strategies are – brick and click strategies, digitization, disintermediation, buying groups and alternative infrastructure, firm driven e‐marketing strategies, and corporate exchanges.

This paper is the first attempt to examine the relationship between a country's infrastructure, marketing institutions and the appropriate e‐marketing strategies.

Exoskeletons are characterized as wearable, mechanical orthoses that augment the physical performance of the wearer, enhance productivity and employee well-being when used in value producing contexts. However, limited research involving exoskeleton usage by service employees in frontline contexts has been undertaken within service research. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of exoskeleton research undertaken within the context of value-producing roles, introduce exoskeletons conceptually to the service research domain, provide new conceptualizations of service exchange interactions involving physically augmented service actors and propose future avenues of exoskeleton research in alignment with key service theories.

A multi-disciplinary structured literature review based on the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses method was undertaken across a variety of literature fields. A final selection of n = 25 papers was selected for analysis from an initial sample of N = 3,537. Given the emergent nature of exoskeleton research and the variety of methodology types used between literature fields, a thematic analysis approach was used for analysing identified papers.

The literature review identified four main themes within role-focused exoskeleton research. These themes informed proposals for future exoskeleton research with respect to key service theories and typologies. The findings demonstrate that the presence of an exoskeleton changes the behaviours and interactions of service employees. The augmented social presence AugSP typology is conceptualized to explain the influences of human enhancement technologies (HETs) within service actor interactions.

This research introduces the AugSP typology to conceptualize the impacts that exoskeletons and HETs impose within technologically mediated service interactions and provides a service-specific definition of exoskeleton technology to guide future service research involving the technology.

The advent of the Internet has created the possibility for exporters to serve international markets using virtual export channels (VECs). This paper identifies the factors that influence success in using these new channels to export markets. The paper suggests that how well firms use the technology is more important than what they use it for. Investment and commitment to the Internet influence successful implementation. Moreover, firms with an existing export sales capability fare better in using VECs.

E‐commerce has changed the way in which business is conducted. One instance of this is that it has made the digitisation of products possible. This shift has severe implications for traditional consumption taxes, which were developed under the premise of a physical presence in a tax jurisdiction. A large number of countries in the world that impose Value‐Added Tax (VAT) on the supply of goods and services, including South Africa, are affected by this shift. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has suggested a number of principles that should apply to consumption taxes in e‐commerce. These principles are intended to provide fiscal climates in which e‐commerce can flourish and ensure taxation systems that secure individual countries’ tax bases. A comparison between the OECD principles and the rules pertaining to the imposition of VAT in South Africa on the supply of digitised products reveals several discrepancies and uncertainties. A baseline survey among VAT specialists in South Africa, conducted in order to substantiate these findings, confirmed these discrepancies and uncertainties in practice.