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Limitations of traditional Boolean searching are claimed to be overcome by two alternative search systems: DR‐LINK, a linguistic search system, and TARGET, a relevance ranking system. This paper compares the system and search features of both and describes conceptual differences in system design. A series of test questions was developed to test the retrieval effectiveness of both search systems. A controlled dataset was used to measure the results. System features are compared and discussed. Relevance overlap and search capabilities are evaluated and results are presented.

Solar energy is on a rising trend internationally and in India. The government target of 100 GW solar capacity by 2022 from the present 12 GW is providing a major push for growth in India. However technological development and market competitiveness are pushing down the prices of solar power. The CEO of Amplus Solar has to deal with these challenges to ensure faster growth. He is analysing various options such as expanding the market to include customers who may not be as credit worthy, expanding to foreign geographies, diversification into providing energy efficiency and other services, and entering other markets such as Renewable Energy Certificates, carbon trading, etc.

This article reflects an analysis of the energy issues tackled in national foresight studies to date. The energy sector has not been explicitly mentioned in some of the studies but it is integrated in other sectors. What follows is a summary of the issues on which the different foresight studies are focused. The summary includes the most important topics affecting energy‐related issues for the panel of experts of each country. The article shows, first, a group of general considerations specific for each country. It then shows the types of technologies which have been considered in each foresight study. Finally, before drawing conclusions, it provides a technology table from which it is possible to see which energy technologies have been considered as important in each country.

Over the next few decades, a dramatic expansion will be seen in lifelong learningongoing education following formal qualifications. The expansion of numbers in this sector – typically provided at present by short courses – will outstrip the need for degree level tuition in the formal level sector, and may even outstrip the resources of the potential providers. Since there are, as yet, relatively few commercial providers, it is likely that existing higher education (HE) institutions will be required to meet this demand, though few are as yet planning to do so. A further sector, informal education, is also growing in importance with individuals now rating personal development as more of a priority than even career development. The new technologies, especially those of information and communication technology (ICT), will be especially relevant in this sector. Paralleling these internet developments will be those resulting from the digitization of television, which will significantly overlap the informal education sectors.

In this chapter, the authors undertake a systematic review of the literature to identify research exploring the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT). New ICT include the use of the Internet, mobile communications, and social technologies. The authors find that while interest in the area is increasing, especially among marketing and information systems scholars, there seems to be far less research interest among international business (IB) and strategy scholars. This chapter provides a summary of the research that has been done and discusses some potential future research areas that IB and strategy researchers might wish to pursue. Among these projects are investigating the use of ICT as a tool to aid the internationalization process, improve location choice and entry mode decisions, and identify and create a sustainable competitive advantage. The use of ICT in business is pervasive; As research scholars, we need to build these technologies into our theories and research to help managers determine what works and where certain technologies can help create better performing firms.

National competitive advantage is a model which is widely taught in business schools but there has been limited research into its usefulness for managers and policy makers in particular economies and industries. This research looks at New Zealand, and in particular its wine industry as a context for the national competitive advantage model. The literature discusses the influence that both organisational resources and national competitive advantage have on organisational performance and profitability, examining such factors as domestic demand, the factors of production, related and supporting industry, the nature of domestic rivalry and how organisations are developed and managed. The data was gathered from CEO's of wineries, plus industry and national reports on the performance of the wine industry and the New Zealand economy. The research found that New Zealand suffers from policy inconsistencies, poor performance of senior management and competitive disadvantage in research and development, licensing, value chain management, regional sales and international distribution. Also, new knowledge created in Universities and Research Centres is not being transferred adequately to new and growing firms. However, it performs well in terms of competition policy, taxation and trade liberalisation. The New Zealand wine industry has both extensive and intense competition, has limited access to venture capital and does not have effective cluster development. There is considerable work to be done by the wine industry in terms of developing human capital and innovation if it is to remain internationally competitive. Also, it is essential to work co‐operatively in international markets and to identify clearly defined target market segments.

This article asserts that modern representative democracy was never intended nor designed to function as a democracy and that progress in the past two hundred years has come from the persistence of citizens operating outside established hierarchical power structures. A transformation of modern representative democracy is underway and information and communication technology (ICT) is a key component in the evolution of more participatory democratic governments. The failings of modern representative democracy are highlighted by the decline in voting turnout rates and a high level of dissatisfaction with and distrust of elected political leaders. While advances in technology and the expansion and availability of information can hinder and harm efforts to advance democracy, this article seeks to balance the discourse by emphasizing the potentials and benefits and by seeking solutions to problems in the representative systems. This is approached through the examination of four areas of enormous innovation and experimentation in utilizing ICT to develop new forms of greater citizen participation within representative democracy and for creating more effective direct democracy: voting from home, scientific deliberative polling, electronic town meetings and direct democracy activities. The main conclusion is that ICT has aided forces that favour a stronger infuence by citizens in representative government which is already in the process of being transformed as nations move towards the global economy and citizens insist on more self‐governance.

This paper aims to identify the future trends in the agro‐food sector over the next two decades. Ten national technology foresight studies have been reviewed with the purpose of (i) envisaging the future socio‐economic and technology framework of the sector and (ii) highlighting major agro‐food technology clusters and their future application.

Suggest hybrid e‐commerce strategies can take many forms – ranging from approaches with limited interaction between the physical and virtual entities – to where these two modes are inseparable. Investigates theoretical strengths of synergy models, presenting a series of case studies that illustrate that some companies and industries have hybrid strategies. Sums up that contrary to the former e‐commerce rhetoric, distance is not dead and geography still bears an influence on e‐commerce retail activity.

In the present paper, amixed (quantitative and qualitative) and comparative (Europe vs. North America) analysis is accomplished for the assessment of the production and diffusion of strategy knowledge. With such an analysis we have attempted to identify which countries have the most consolidated and prestigious means for the diffusion of Strategic Management investigation at international level, and what is the character of its scientific production in the field. We have also tried to ascertain whether international or local cooperation plays a substantive and increasing role in the production and dissemination of knowledge on Strategic Management, specially nowadays, when, in despite of the strong existing competition, an ever greater attention is paid to the role played by cooperation.