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This article seeks to give an overview of important developments in the book and media industry, from the specific viewpoint of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The article is a viewpoint, a summary of the studies, market research and surveys which the Frankfurt Book Fair has conducted into the situation of the book market, and which it has used to develop its current profile.

The content business is opening up new areas of great potential – digital rights and multimedia formats are taking place alongside the international trade in translation rights. Traditionally linear value chains are becoming intermeshed to form multidimensional “value spaces”. The industry focuses today on cooperating with new partners on new multimedia formats and ideas, involving the creative industries of films, games, books as well as the ICT sector. Knowledge and exchange will become relevant factors. At the same time, digitisation is strengthening the situation of authors and other content producers. By consequence, publishers, agents and booksellers are repositioning themselves.

The Frankfurt Book Fair must always anticipate today what will be influencing the book industry tomorrow. Its purpose is to reflect the book industry while at the same time providing orientation in a world where change is becoming a constant. This article examines the Frankfurt Book Fair's own view of the developments and trends in the industry.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the status, challenges and impacts of the Arab international book fairs, with particular focus on the Muscat Book Fair. This study proposes a framework to assist in the design and organisation of future Arab book fairs.

The study used a variety of methods to obtain data, including questionnaires, site visits (both regional and international), observations and interviews. A literature review was also undertaken which helped determine major worldwide issues related to aspects of book fairs and the publishing industry, focusing on Arab book fairs.

Arab international book fairs remain relatively traditional, however, there are several examples of innovative improvements in some states. Reading habits and literacy trends were found to be influenced by dominant socio-cultural factors, emphasising religion and children’s literature. This seems to have a reverse effect on the publishing industry. Results also revealed a number of disadvantages related to economic downturns and political instability. Despite continuous expansion, Arab book fairs still suffer from various obstacles which affect the publishing industry’s growth. There are other obstacles that they face which are directly associated with distribution and marketing as well as violations of intellectual property laws.

This study proposes a framework for future improvement of the Muscat Book Fair. It discusses the engagement of local cultural institutions, non-profit community and academic organisations, as well as private sector organisations. These will leverage value and help keep abreast of international developments in book fairs/publishing. It is hoped that the proposed framework will be beneficial to those running book fairs at a regional level, and to countries with developing economies.

There have been no previous empirical studies investigating book fairs in the Arab states. This study adds to the currently scarce body of literature related to book fairs and the publishing industry.

This article is a conference report of the Frankfurt Book Fair, compiled so that those not in attendance can read about some of the structured discussions that were programmed.

The author attended lectures and discussions and took notes.

There are many technological changes on the horizon for the publishing industry, which in turn will affect how readers and researchers will access information.

If you couldn't attend the Frankfurt Book Fair, this conference report will allow you to read about some of the opinions on technology expressed by leaders in the publishing industry.

The purpose of this paper is to report on panels and discussions about e‐books taking place at the 2011 Frankfurt Book Fair.

The author chose to attend several panels discussing the current issues and the future of e‐books, particularly in relation to libraries.

Publishers' and libraries' views on e‐books vary widely between countries, but all agree that e‐books are a burgeoning marketplace that is here to stay, although nobody can say in what form.

This international conference allowed for leaders in the industry from multiple countries to come together and share their diverse viewpoints on the topic of e‐books and their value, marketing, and future.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conference report on the issues surrounding the emergence of e‐books discussed during panels and presentations at the 2011 Frankfurt Book Fair (October 12‐16).

This report was generated based on the author's personal observations at the Book Fair, combined with research into the topic of e‐book pricing and purchasing models.

The paper finds that publishers have not yet developed an appropriate business model for pricing and distributing e‐books, which will affect libraries. While this business model is still “up in the air,” libraries should communicate their needs to publishers. Ideally, this can help in creating a model that benefits both publishers and libraries, and therefore the public.

This paper provides a look at the issues publishers are facing from the perspective of one of their major markets – libraries. The unique perspective of a librarian at a publisher's trade fair is given through the hot topic of e‐books – which will continue to be a hot topic in the world of publishers and libraries, at least until a solid business model is established.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview and a few highlights from the author's experience at the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair.

The author visited the Frankfurt Book Fair from October 10 through October 12, visiting a wide variety of vendors across all exhibition halls and attending a number of special presentations. All empirical data are based on personal observations recorded by journal during and directly after each fair visit.

The fair was an excellent chance to learn more about the publishing industry, particularly with respect to the author's prior interests in education and children's and young adult literature. The event is so large, and the vendors so numerous, that all areas of interest to publishers, librarians, educators, booksellers, and others in the book trade are represented.

This report should be of particular interest to those thinking of attending the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time, as well as those who are familiar with the event but were unable to attend in 2012. Educators and library media specialists will find this viewpoint to be written from a perspective that is especially relevant to them and their work.

To examine whether indigenous critiques of globalization and critical theories of modernity are compatible, and how they can complement each other so as to engender more realistic theories of modern society as inherently constructive and destructive, along with practical strategies to strengthen modernity as a culturally transformative project, as opposed to the formal modernization processes that rely on and reinforce modern societies as structures of social inequality.

Comparison and assessment of the foundations, orientations, and implications of indigenous critiques of globalization and the Frankfurt School’s critical theory of modern society, for furthering our understanding of challenges facing human civilization in the twenty-first century, and for opportunities to promote social justice.

Modern societies maintain order by compelling individuals to subscribe to propositions about their own and their society’s purportedly “superior” nature, especially when compared to indigenous cultures, to override observations about the de facto logic of modern societies that are in conflict with their purported logic.

Social theorists need to make consistent efforts to critically reflect on how their own society, in terms of socio-historical circumstances as well as various types of implied biases, translates into research agendas and propositions that are highly problematic when applied to those who belong to or come from different socio-historical contexts.

An effort to engender a process of reciprocal engagement between one of the early traditions of critiquing modern societies and a more recent development originating in populations and parts of the world that historically have been the subject of both constructive and destructive modernization processes.

The connectivity provided by full-service network carriers under the umbrella of airline alliances is increasingly challenged by the services of Middle Eastern airlines via their own hubs, and the rise of new passenger strategies like self-connectivity. While these two developments can potentially benefit consumers with more services and lower fares, the rise of Middle East carriers has been met with opposition by EU and US airlines that call for increased protectionism. In addition, only a few airports in the world actively support self-connections. In this context, this study aims to investigate (1) the markets in which Middle East carriers exert a stronger dominance in terms of the number of passenger connections, (2) whether EU, US, or Asian hubs provide a competitive quality of connectivity in terms of travel time, and (3) whether a significant potential for self-connections is hidden at major airports worldwide. To that end, several datasets of passenger bookings (MIDT), airline schedules, and minimum connecting times between 2012 and 2015 are combined in a connections-building methodology that delivers six market-specific airport connectivity indicators for our benchmarking exercise. Our findings show that although European and some Asian hubs have lost traffic in global markets, they remain competitive from a quality perspective. US hubs have maintained their market share and competitive position. Finally, we identify the airports and airlines with the highest potential to provide self-connecting travel options, which can become an attractive new source of revenue for the parties involved.

The study aims at reviewing a synthesis of disclosure, transparency, and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Prior research overwhelmingly supports that the IFRS adoption or effective implementation of IFRS will enhance high-quality financial reporting, transparency, enhance the country’s investment environment, and foreign direct investment (FDI) (Dayanandan, Donker, Ivanof, & Karahan, 2016; Gláserová, 2013; Muniandy & Ali, 2012). However, some researchers provide conflicting evidence that developing countries implementing IFRS are probably not going to encounter higher FDI inflows (Gheorghe, 2009; Lasmin, 2012). It has also been argued that the IFRS adoption decreases the management earnings in countries with high levels of financial disclosure. In general, the study indicates that the adoption of IFRS has improved the financial reporting quality. The common law countries have strong rules to protect investors, strict legal enforcement, and high levels of transparency of financial information. From the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 105 articles, and in particular, the topic-related 94 articles were analysed. All 94 articles were retrieved from a range of 59 journals. Most of the articles (77 of 94) were published 2010–2018. The top five journals based on the citations are Journal of Accounting Research (187 citations), Abacus (125 citations), European Accounting Review (107 citations), Journal of Accounting and Economics (78 citations), and Accounting and Business Research (66 citations). The most-cited authors are Daske, Hail, Leuz, and Verdi (2013); Daske and Gebhardt (2006); and Brüggemann, Hitz, and Sellhorn (2013). Surprisingly, 65 of 94 articles did not utilise the theory. In particular, four theories have been used frequently: agency theory (15), economic theory (5), signalling theory (2), and accounting theory (2). The study calls for future research on the theoretical implications and policy-related research on disclosure and transparency which may inform the local and international standard setters.