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This paper aims to study and explore the activities and the use of institutional network resources by industrial business associations (IBAs) to support and facilitate internationalisation processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Other goals are to understand the internationalisation follow-up process and the future vision of IBAs to improve this internationalisation support.

Based on empirical evidence and following an abductive approach, this paper presents a qualitative exploratory field research, providing insights from interviews performed with 20 IBAs based in Portugal.

The findings suggest that the current institutional network support to internationalisation is mainly provided through promotional activities; counselling, training and technical and legal support; information sharing; and cooperation with other institutional entities. Each support category is explored and explained and a new conceptual model is developed to represent these findings. Regarding the internationalisation follow-up, IBAs provide a continuous support for the international operations by using some instruments and mechanisms to assist SMEs after an internationalisation initiative. Finally, collaboration and the use of new information technology are the main aspects to improve IBAs’ support in a near future.

The qualitative methodological approach adopted in this work can imply a larger difficulty to obtain a generalisation of the findings. Another limitation is that the participating IBAs are based in only one country.

Findings can help SMEs to understand the functioning and the benefits of using the institutional network resources of IBAs in overcoming their lack of resources to operate in international markets. IBAs can also understand their current position in terms of internationalisation support and think about new ways for improving this support.

This paper contributes to a better understanding of the influence of institutional networks in SME internationalisation by exploring the specific role of one of the institutional actors rather than focusing on the institutional network as a whole. Therefore, this study details the current activities and uncovers other types of support provided by IBAs that are not based on export promotion programmes. New knowledge is also obtained about the specific information content, information sources and means and channels of information sharing used by IBAs for supporting SME internationalisation.

Five groups of searchers each performed two of four pre‐selected searches on the DIALOG system using ONTAP, the 1975 subset of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. The groups were novices, moderately experienced searchers without ERIC experience, moderately experienced searchers with ERIC experience, very experienced searchers without ERIC experience, and very experienced searchers with ERIC experience. Data were collected on the education, online training, online experience, institutional setting, and personal characteristics of the rearchers. Variables that describe the search process (e.g. number of commands used) and variables that describe the outcome of searches (e.g. recall) were measured by examination of the search transcripts. The results showed that, compared to the experienced subjects, the novices performed surprisingly well. Although, as a group, they searched more slowly than the experienced subjects and scored lower on most (but not all) outcome measures, the differences were not as great as might be expected. Three meaningful patterns were identified among the experienced subjects' searches: (1) the group with the greatest overall experience and the greatest ERIC database experience achieved the highest recall and had the highest values of a subset of search process variables designated ‘search effort’ variables (e.g. number of commands and descriptors, connect time); (2) in general, the moderately experienced searchers with ERIC experience performed the briefest, most cost effective searches (when cost effectiveness is measured in terms of time per relevant reference retrieved). This pattern is attributed to the fact that 75 percent of this group work in academic libraries that charge individual users for online connect time. In this situation pressure to keep costs low appears to be great; (3) the subjects with ERIC experience used more thesaurus terms than the subjects without ERIC experience. The subjects without ERIC experience tended to prefer free text to thesaurus terms. In regard to outcome, only slight evidence was found to support the hypothesis that ERIC database experience leads to greater success in searching.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize activities being undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe to prevent and control COVID-19 in and beyond prisons, activities specifically designed to increase information sharing and to support Member States, to comment on potential impacts of these initiatives at country-level responses and to underline the need for a rights-based approach to managing the pandemic, including the right to vaccination.

The Health in Prisons Programme (HIPP) of the WHO Regional Office for Europe worked with partner organizations to review regularly the evidence on best practices in prison health and use it to inform policy recommendations at the global level. HIPP issued overarching guidance and specific tools to support implementation of measures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 in prisons and other custodial settings. Moreover, to monitor the emergence of outbreaks, the HIPP developed a minimum data set for countries voluntarily to report COVID-19 cases and identify situations in need of direct support.

Since May 2020, the WHO has periodically received data from Member States, leading to the development of country-specific bulletins to support countries and, whenever appropriate, to organize virtual missions to further support ministries and public health bodies responsible for managing COVID-19 in prisons.

The development of a specific set of indicators for prisons enables exploring data in a disaggregated manner. Monitoring response measures developed in prison enables judging their appropriateness to minimize the spread of SARS-CoV2 in prisons and alignment with guidance issued by the WHO.

The following annotated bibliography of materials on orienting users to libraries and on instructing them in the use of reference and other resources covers publications from 1981. A few items from 1980 have been included because information about them was not available in time for the 1980 listing. A few items have not been annotated because the compiler was unable to secure copies of these items.

This chapter explores the recent trend in libraries: that of the establishment of spaces specifically set aside for creative work. The rise of these dedicated creative spaces is owed to a confluence of factors that happen to be finding their expression together in recent years. This chapter examines the history of these spaces and explores the factors that gave rise to them and will fuel them moving forward.

A viewpoint piece, this chapter combines historical research and historical/comparative analyses to examine the ways by which libraries have supported creative work in the past and how they may continue to do so into the 21st century.

The key threads brought together include a societal recognition of the value of creativity and related skills and attributes; the philosophies, values, and missions of libraries in both their long-standing forms and in recent evolutions; the rise of participatory culture as a result of inexpensive technologies; improved means to build community and share results of efforts; and library experience and historical practice in matters related to creativity. The chapter concludes with advice for those interested in the establishment of such spaces, grounding those reflections in the author’s experiences in developing a new creative space at Virginia Commonwealth University.

While a number of pieces have been written that discuss the practicalities of developing certain kinds of creative spaces, very little has been written that situates these spaces in larger social and library professional contexts; this chapter begins to fill that gap.

An expatriate general manager of Bocagrande, a production division in Central America, wonders whether or not he should appoint Angelica, a professional woman native to the country of Morazan, to an executive position in their almost exclusively male dominated production division in Bocagrande. It was the manager’s decision, but the environment was clearly “machista”, or one characterized by an extreme view of male supremacy common to Latin America and even more extreme in the remotely located production division he managed. Yet Angelica had proven her ability. Could she handle a job in the division, or would she be destroyed by machismo?

The present study analyzes the research articles linking quality management practices (QMP) and quality of work life (QWL). The investigation leads toward the formulation of the hypothesis and developing a conceptual framework of QMP and QWL.

The study uses a systematic literature review to explore the relationship between QMP and QWL using the Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Eric, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and Google Scholar database and identifies critical factors of QMP and QWL using Pareto analysis. Further study proposes a conceptual framework of articles linking QMP and QWL.

A thorough review of the literature identifies three different categories of research articles: “factor identification” articles, “QMP implementation” articles, “scale development” articles, and “influence of QMP on various organizational and employees-related factors” articles. Many studies have attempted to study the relationship and influence of QMP on employee-related factors but not by considering them holistically, thus, underlining the significant gap in the QMP and HRM literature.

To review the literature on QMP and QWL, only a handful of databases were reviewed. Further, the proposed conceptual model is based on the QMP and QWL/HRM literature review, and it is not empirically validated. Further research can be considered to test and validate the proposed conceptual framework empirically.

This study highlights a gap in the existing research studies and an incomplete consideration of employees' aspects of QWL. Researchers and organizations are advised to adopt a broader view while assessing QMP implementation's influence on employees.

This study uses a systematic literature review and Pareto analysis to find the critical factors of QMP and QWL, thus providing a new research avenue for researchers, quality experts and human resource managers to consider all the aspects of employees, that is, QWL of employees, to understand the influence of QMP on employees to achieve firm success.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship between project work and stress. It examines how the conditions of project work negatively impact on an individual’s mental and physical state of well-being, consequentially reducing organisational performance.

The authors systematically review the project management literature for sources of stress or stressors as it relates to Cooper and Marshall’s (1976) model of stress at work. The authors perform a thematic analysis on these stressors to reveal the “sub-stressor” conditions of project work.

A “model of projects as a source of stress at work” is developed. It shows the relationship between the sub-stressors of project work and the ill effects they have on mental and physical well-being of the project workforce.

The findings of this study are constrained by the limits of a literature review process. This study has implications for research on stress in project work, as studies can benefit from the “model of projects as a source of stress at work”, which can be continually advanced to gain insights on the minimisation of physical and mental distress.

Many sectors including health, education, policing, aviation and military provide scenario-based training. In project management, a greater understanding of stressful scenarios and counter measures would improve health outcomes for project staff, human relations and project outcomes.

The study presents a comprehensive model of projects as a source of stress at work. It draws attention to the burden and cost of anxiety and stress placed on the project workforce. It makes the case for organisations and employees to take responsibility for the well-being of project staff.

Even though insect products increasingly receive attention as a sustainable food alternative to meat, consumer acceptance remains low. The purpose of this paper is to test consumer acceptance of two different insect species with varying degrees of processing which led to different degrees of insects’ visibility.

Insect dishes that varied according to species and degree of visibility were presented to participants of a self-administered personal survey within a meal context. Consumer acceptance was measured through the willingness-to-try the different dishes, and a hierarchical linear regression was applied to estimate the role of insect species.

Consumer acceptance can be improved by focusing on different forms of food processing and different insect species. The lower the visibility of insects, the higher the consumer acceptance, independent of insect species. However, this is not sufficient to overcome consumers’ widely held rejection. Main barriers for consumer acceptance seem to be low social and cultural acceptance, fear of trying unknown products and a lack of taste experience.

A huge body of literature has examined determinants of insect consumption, but the majority of these studies did not consider the effects of insect species. The study’s main objective is to close this research gap while checking the most relevant individual traits as identified through a literature review: food neophobia and familiarity, social and cultural norms, awareness of benefits of insect production, meat consumption and socio-demographics.