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Police agency networks are likely to be important for the adoption of policing innovations and the visibility of demonstration projects. This study of police network data has four main goals: to use multivariate models for the influence of agency characteristics on the sort of agency it contacted; to investigate the extent of symmetry of ties in the police network; to examine models for the specific departments chosen as agencies' network contacts; and to identify, through network data, agencies as “relative experts” in several different policing domains.

The paper uses Weiss agency survey data to conduct a variety of analyses of agencies' choices of informal communication partners.

The analysis showed regularities in agencies' choices of contacts. Whether a contact was of the same type or from the same state as the respondent was influenced by the respondent's population and type. There was some evidence of size‐based asymmetry in contacts. The choice of a particular contact was influenced by agency type, population and geographic distance. There appeared to be “relative experts” in specific policing domains.

The results increase understanding of the structure of the agency network. By describing the nature of communication ties on planning issues, the results give essential background for any efforts to encourage the diffusion of policing innovations (or successful practices) by inducing ties between particular agencies. Results can also help predict the potential visibility of demonstration projects if placed in particular agencies.

Social support is a significant factor in the life of homeless people, as it helps them meet their life challenges more efficiently and increases the likelihood of return to a normal life. Social support plays a different role in homeless women’s life, as gender culture often causes them to be exposed to more risks. The purpose of this paper is to identify homeless people’s access to social support from their network members, with a comparison between men and women.

In this study, a survey method was used with an administrated questionnaire. Participants were recruited from among the homeless people (men and women) who used the municipal social services in shelters and social service centers in Tehran. The main variables in this study included frequency of contact, social support, and gender.

The results have shown significant differences between homeless men and homeless women in terms of frequency of contact and receipt of social support. Homeless women contacted their network members more often than did homeless men and also received more support. There seems to be a strong correlation between the receipt of social support and women’s greater ability for social communication, as well as with traditional culture, which considers women to be weak and dependent so that they receive more support compared with men. The weakness of social support, especially among homeless men, requires serious attention; however, homeless women are not in a favorable situation either.

The social networks of homeless people who usually live on the streets and in public places without permanent shelter are weak because of various reasons, including poverty, addiction, immigration, and divorce. The weakness of social support leads to an escalation of their vulnerabilities. Thus, it is necessary, in social policy and services, to improve the social network of high-risk people such as homeless people, which would help the rehabilitation process and reduce the probability of exposure to harm.

Aims to present the findings of a recent study into the availability of social support to unemployed female managers. It is widely recognised that social support is an important factor in determining well‐being during unemployment, yet its role in managerial unemployment has received very limited attention. Previous research has demonstrated that social support is of particular importance to women, with a strong emphasis on emotional support. This paper investigates the experiences of 115 unemployed female managers in terms of social support, an area which, despite its importance, has to‐date received no specific attention. The findings indicate that the social support available to unemployed female managers is not only unsupportive but is severely restricted because of their unique position in society.

Some libraries and information services are quite definitely user‐centred; some think they are but are not always; some seem to be designed for librarians rather than users. The purpose of this monograph is to encourage the development of libraries to meet the perceived needs of users — I hope it will be found useful by librarians and information workers as well as by students.

Webster's New World dictionary defines love as a strong affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons. It implies intense fondness or deep devotion and may apply to various relationships or objects. What distinguishes love from “affection” or “attainment” is that the feelings implied by the latter are not as powerful or deep as those implied by love. Also, love can be treated in a broad sense to mean the feeling of benevolence and closeness (or brotherhood) that people may have for each other.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents and consequences of insurer trust and salesperson trust, as well as the relationships between insurer, salesperson, and customer loyalty in order to build a conceptual model which investigates the relationships of insurer trust and salesperson trust, and finds ways to build trust and customer loyalty in the non-life insurance industry in Taiwan.

The data for this study were collected from the customers of non-life insurers’ policyholder service centres and were analysed using in-depth interviews and questionnaires. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was to assess the proposed research model empirically.

This study finds that firm size did not have a significant effect on insurer trust. Customer trust in the insurer was negatively but not significantly related to customer trust in the salesperson. Additionally, when relatives or friends are insurance salespersons; it is easy to build trust with them.

This study provides non-life insurers with new avenues for promoting and marketing their insurance.

To advance knowledge about the relationship between small firm networks and social capital by considering the network experiences of women business owners. To engage in such research, the paper proposes a conceptual model of business owner networking which is informed by social support theory.

To develop a conceptual model of business owner networking the paper reviews extant small business network research and argues that, while network theory can provide an understanding of the impact which social capital may have on the entrepreneurial process, a concentration on quantitative methodologies has restricted understanding of this. To address the gender bias in small firm network research the paper integrates social support theory into a conceptual model of business owner networks.

The conceptual model proposed recognises the interplay between network structures, interactions and contents and argues that consideration of these three network dimensions may provide insights into the impact of gender on business owner networks, social capital and experiences of business ownership. The paper also discusses the methodological implications of this model and proposes a research agenda for future business owner network research.

The paper addresses a recognised gap in extant small business network research and proposes a conceptual model of business owner networking which may be better suited to and more reflective of women business owners' networking experiences.

All aspects of business life necessitate organisation, and communication is no exception. Self‐organisation implies thinking out how best to accomplish one's tasks, and then doing them with a will. Intelligent people recognise the need for planning, but often overlook the vital part played by the will. Weakness of it can cause peculiar difficulties in communication. There are folk who seem to lack any will to communicate, because by nature they are retiring, reticent or simply uncooperative. Others reckon that by keeping information to themselves, or at best passing on only what suits them, they can gain or retain power. If you wish to organise yourself to communicate, you should first examine yourself for signs of these internal barriers. If you find them, you have some self‐development to do to avoid becoming an obstruction to the smooth running of your firm. This can happen whether you work for a large company or a small one. Indeed, a non‐communicator can cause proportionately more disruption in the smaller unit. It is much easier for the key person among five employees to bring them all to a halt for want of information or instructions than for the chairman of a concern five thousand strong, in which delegation is normally practised and other directors are at least partly in the know.

Knowledge loss caused by employee exit has become a significant corporate risk. This paper aims to explore how to measure the impact of knowledge loss. The paper is based on empirical evidence from a five-year longitudinal study.

This paper is based on a longitudinal change project for a large Australian Research Council Linkage Project grant in the period 2008-2013. The method was a single case study using a critical realism paradigm. The project was a transformational change programme which aimed to help make the partner organization a learning organization to minimize the impact of knowledge loss. The partner organization was a large Australian Government Department, which faced the threat of knowledge loss caused by its ageing workforce. The sample was 118 respondents, mainly engineering and technical workers. A total of 150 respondents were invited to participate in the study which involved an annual survey and attendance at regular training workshops and related activities, with a participation rate of 79 per cent.

The results found that knowledge loss has most negative impact in terms of organizational problems including low productivity (morale), strategic misalignment of the workforce (capability gaps), resource cuts (stakeholders unhappy with performance), decreased work quantity and quality (inexperienced employees), work outputs not being used (customers mistrust), longer time to competence (learning cost) and slow task completion (increased search cycle time). The second most significant impact was increased sense of risk associated with work activities and declining capacity to manage the risk. The third main impact was decreased organizational knowledge base: knowledge loss creates knowledge deficit which is unlikely to be filled over time, as shown by the knowledge accounts of surviving employees which remained stable overall. The two remaining measurement constructs – psychological contract and learning organizational capacity – improved, which suggests that the negative impact of knowledge loss may be addressed with appropriate knowledge management.

The research is based on a single case study in a public sector organization. While the longitudinal nature of the study and the rich data collected offsets this issue, it also presents good opportunities for researchers and practitioners to test the ideas presented in this paper in other industry contexts. The complexity and range of the constructs, concepts and scale items is acknowledged. Tables have been used wherever possible to help the reader access the findings.

Knowledge loss is perhaps the greatest corporate risk facing organizations today. This paper provides a method to measure the impact of knowledge loss. Managers may use this to assess the significance of the risk and use this as a business case to take action to minimize the impact of knowledge loss.

Prior research has found knowledge loss has caused decreased psychological contract, lost organizational memory, inefficiency and ineffectiveness and declining capability; however, these concepts are discussed in broad terms only. This paper addresses the need for measurement concepts which helps us understand the nature of the impact of knowledge loss. Five knowledge loss concepts are developed: knowledge resources, psychological contract, learning organization capacity, risk management and organizational problems. The results are based on a large-scale longitudinal study providing empirical evidence of change over a three-year period, situated within the context of a research intervention, i.e. knowledge management programme.

From the perspective of the institution and internationalization speed, the article discusses the internal mechanism of cross-border e-commerce selection mode, as well as the moderating role of social networks as the intangible resource, and expand the theoretical system of corporate internationalization.

Based on the empirical data of 456 multinational e-commerce companies in five first-tier cities in China from 2016 to 2019, our research explores the selection mode of cross-border e-commerce.

The results show that (1) the institutional distance of the host country leads to the exit from cross-border e-commerce platforms in the international expansion of enterprises. (2) The difference in internationalization speed online and offline has become a mediated mechanism for the exit of cross-border e-commerce platforms due to the institutional distance of the host country. (3) The diversity and scale of offline social networks can weaken the impact of differences in internationalization speed on the exit from cross-border e-commerce platforms. (4) The resistance of companies expanding to countries with a weak institutional environment is greater than that experienced when expanding to countries with a strong one.

This study shows, for the first time, how to select expansion mode for cross-border e-commerce. And the paper also centers on the research of the impact of “social network”, a kind of intangible resource, on cross-border e-commerce platform adoption.