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11 – 20 of 32Chun-Hua Hsiao and Kai-Yu Tang
The self-service technology (SST) launched outside libraries has received great attention in Taiwan. This automatic book stop (ABS), FastBook, has raised some interesting issues…
Abstract
Purpose
The self-service technology (SST) launched outside libraries has received great attention in Taiwan. This automatic book stop (ABS), FastBook, has raised some interesting issues regarding users’ behavior in the library context. The purpose of this paper is: first, to assess critical variables that contribute to users’ acceptance of SST in the library context; second, to propose an integrated SST acceptance model in terms of technological and individual factors; and third, to further examine the gender differences among all the theoretical relationships proposed in this research model.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a sound theoretical foundation, the authors proposed a research model to investigate users’ intention to adopt FastBook, including both technological and individual factors. The survey methodology and structural equation modeling were used in this study.
Findings
The proposed model successfully accounted for about 92 percent of the total variance explained in attitude and 45 percent in behavioral intention (BI). Individuals’ attitudes toward FastBook had a significant impact on their usage intention. All three technological characteristics (perceived ease of use, usefulness, and reachability) and one individual trait (self-efficacy) were confirmed as critical determinants of attitude. Note that the effect of self-efficacy on attitude was much stronger for male than for female users.
Originality/value
The SST launched outside libraries has received great popularity and extended the library service to readers in Taiwan. This research connected actual users’ experience and the SST literature to provide a conceptual understanding of FastBook adopting process.
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Ivona Mileva, Nadezda Pop-Kostova and Nadica Jovanovska Boshkovska
The study of entrepreneurship has advanced quickly in recent decades; however, despite its extraordinary importance, the information on the influence of family on entrepreneurial…
Abstract
The study of entrepreneurship has advanced quickly in recent decades; however, despite its extraordinary importance, the information on the influence of family on entrepreneurial intentions remains fragmented and hard to compare. Therefore, the main objective of this chapter is to give readers a thorough grasp of family enterprises’ entrepreneurial aspirations. It will also assess how previous experience in family businesses affects one’s ambition to start their own firm. For this matter, the authors will use data acquired from the GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey), the survey carried out among college students in different Balkan countries: North Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Croatia, and Bulgaria. The reader will be introduced to the up-to-date scientific research in the area of entrepreneurial intentions, through receiving an increased understanding of whether the role of parents has influence over the entrepreneurial intentions of their offspring.
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Getu Hailu, Scott R. Jeffrey and Ellen W. Goddard
The agribusiness co-operative sector in Canada has been affected by ongoing changes in economic, political, and social policies. Increased competition from local investor-owned…
Abstract
The agribusiness co-operative sector in Canada has been affected by ongoing changes in economic, political, and social policies. Increased competition from local investor-owned firms and multinational companies, deregulation and globalization of trade and increased concentration of suppliers and purchasers have put tremendous competitive pressure on agribusiness marketing co-operatives. The enhanced level of competitive rivalry may force co-operatives into lowering costs and prices. Improvement in cost or operating efficiency of agribusiness marketing co-operatives may be crucial as changes in regulation, technology, and other market developments bring into question the long-term viability of co-operative businesses. Therefore, information as to the efficiency with which agribusiness co-operative firms operate would be useful.
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…
Abstract
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.
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Keywords
All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.
Benjamin Chesluk, Elizabeth Bernabeo, Siddharta Reddy, Lorna Lynn, Brian Hess, Thor Odhner and Eric Holmboe
– The purpose of this paper is to document everyday practices by which hospitalist physicians negotiate barriers to effective teamwork.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to document everyday practices by which hospitalist physicians negotiate barriers to effective teamwork.
Design/methodology/approach
Ethnographic observation with a sample of hospitalists chosen to represent a range of hospital and practice types.
Findings
Hospitals rely on effective, interprofessional teamwork but typically do not support it. Hospitalist physicians must bridge the internal boundaries within their hospitals to coordinate their patients’ care, but they face challenges – scattered patients, fragmented information, uncoordinated teams, and unreliable processes – that can impact the timeliness and safety of care. Hospitalists largely rely on personal presence and memory to deal with these challenges. Some invent low-tech supports for teamwork, but these are typically neither tested nor shared with others. Formal support for teamwork, primarily case management rounds, is applied unevenly and may not be respected by all team members.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are drawn from observation over a limited period of time with a small, purposefully chosen sample of physicians and hospitals.
Practical implications
Hospitals must recognize the issues hospitalists and other providers face, evaluate and disseminate supports for teamwork, and make interprofessional teamwork a core feature of hospital design and evaluation.
Originality/value
The authors show the nuances of how hospitalists struggle to practice teamwork in a challenging context, and how the approaches they take (relying on memory and personal presence) do not address, and may actually contribute to, the system-level problems they face.
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The Jurassic Park film franchise offers a complex portrayal of gender issues within a long-running science fiction action series, although not one without problematic moments…
Abstract
The Jurassic Park film franchise offers a complex portrayal of gender issues within a long-running science fiction action series, although not one without problematic moments. This chapter examines selected examples from the series to explore this complex picture. These include moments in the series that display female characters such as Ellie Sattler, Sarah Harding and Claire Dearing with power and agency and the top of their respective professions, noting that Jurassic Park is unusual among science fiction films for its presentation of such accomplished female characters. The chapter also addresses the sexualisation of the character Ian Malcolm and the role of the more typical ‘action star’ from later films, Owen Grady. Finally, it considers the question of sex-selection for the non-human characters, namely the dinosaurs, as significant plot points advance upon the premise that the entire dinosaur population in the series consists of non-breeding females, a fact that is later shown to be untrue. The chapter addresses each of these examples through key issues relating to the production, presentation, and violation of the human and non-human living body across the full Jurassic Park series.
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LIBRARIANS in Britain stand at the threshold of great possibilities. Having passed through the ages of the ecclesiastical library, the rich collector's private library, the…
Abstract
LIBRARIANS in Britain stand at the threshold of great possibilities. Having passed through the ages of the ecclesiastical library, the rich collector's private library, the academic institutional library, and the rate‐supported public library—all general libraries —they have reached the age of the special library. The next will be that of the co‐ordinated, co‐operative library service.
Malin Song, Jing Wang, Shuhong Wang and Danqing Zhao
The establishment of free trade zones (FTZs) is an important experiment as part of the reform and opening up policy. This paper aims to focus on the issue of production efficiency…
Abstract
Purpose
The establishment of free trade zones (FTZs) is an important experiment as part of the reform and opening up policy. This paper aims to focus on the issue of production efficiency of environmental protection enterprises in FTZs. Changes in the external and internal environments of enterprises can easily lead to changes in the production efficiencies of enterprises. The establishment of FTZs can change the external environment of enterprises. Knowledge accumulation changes the internal environment of enterprises. However, traditional efficiency analysis has usually ignored the internal and external heterogeneity of decision-making units, resulting in the distortion of the evaluation results.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the relationship between knowledge accumulation and development potential based on financial data of environmental protection enterprises that were listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen A stocks, from 2009 to 2016. Then, through data envelopment analysis cross-efficiency analysis of the listed environmental protection enterprises from external heterogeneity, BP neural network model is set up.
Findings
The results show that the model set up in this paper is stable and reliable. The paper makes policy suggestions such as stimulating trade inside industry, quickening technological progress and enhancing environmental protection.
Originality/value
This paper analyzes the economy, environmental protection, science and technology and education to simulate the external environment of enterprises. Based on the experience data from the completion of Shanghai FTZ, this paper predicts the future development potential of Hainan FTZ enterprises.
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