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At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as “an analyst and manufacturing chemist,” but when asked by the coroner what qualifications he had, he replied : “I have no qualifications whatever. What I know I learned from my father, who was a well‐known ‘F.C.S.’” Comment on the “F.C.S.” is needless.

The study aims to review state-of-art literature on supply chain resilience in SMEs in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and provides a comprehensive view of insights gained, gaps identified and suggests potential areas of future research.

Using a thorough search strategy, 46 articles were found relevant for this study. Each of these articles was further reviewed, classified and analysed to highlight the development of literature in this field and identify the significant focal area of research in this domain.

The classification of studies indicates a growing number of articles in the last two years with a significant focus on multiple industries and survey-based research design. The study's findings suggest that literature on supply chain resilience in SMEs falls into four categories: supply chain resilience principle, impact of COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs, strategies for developing supply chain resilience and role of Industry 4.0 technologies in supply chain resilience. We also identified knowledge gaps and suggested directions for future research to catalyse studies at the interface of supply chain resilience, SMEs and COVID-19 pandemic.

The generalisability of this study can be limited to a specific population of online databases and selected time periods chosen for a particular period.

The study provides a structured literature review on studies published between 2012 and 2022 for the use of academicians and practitioners. Findings will be of great value for SMEs to improve their resilience during the uncertain business environment.

A rib for aircraft comprising, in combination; a pair of contralateral members, each having upper and lower flanges, webs connecting said flanges, offset surfaces on said webs for securing one member to the other; and means bonding said offset surfaces to‐gether; the offset surfaces providing aligned upper and lower slots between said edges of said flanges, and elongated vertical passages between the webs and the slots.

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the influence of the educational qualifications of board members, including the CEO, on the financial performance of Indonesian listed firms. Indonesia is a developing economy that adopts a two‐tier board system.

This study employs a sample comprising 160 firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Tobin's Q and return on assets (ROA) are used as measures of financial performance. It uses four proxies for board members' educational qualifications, namely postgraduate degrees, degrees obtained from prestigious universities, degrees obtained from developed countries, and degrees in financial disciplines. Regressions are performed separately for the supervisory board, management board, and CEO.

This study provides empirical evidence that the educational qualifications of board members and the CEO matter, to a particular extent, in explaining either ROA or Tobin's Q. For example, CEOs holding degrees from prestigious domestic universities perform significantly better than those without such qualifications.

Even though intellectual competence should appear to be one of the considerations in the appointment of board members, educational qualification is not always a good proxy for superior advising or managerial quality. There may be many other factors that need to be considered, such as experiences, managerial skills, networks, and other skills obtained outside schools. As such, the establishment of a nomination committee, which is expected to provide independent recommendations on qualified candidates to serve in the boardrooms, plays an important role.

Empirical studies focusing on the influence of the educational backgrounds of board members and the CEO on financial performance are still rare in the literature. This study is among the first to address such an issue in the context of a developing economy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the tax aggressiveness among family firms considering their different levels of family involvement. Based on the family influence on power, experience, and culture approach proposed by Astrachan et al. (2002), this study examines to what extent the heterogeneity among family firms generates distinctive (and unique resource) combinations of family involvement that explain different levels of tax aggressiveness.

A sample of 282 small and medium-sized family enterprises and a structural equation modeling approach have been used to study simultaneously the effects of family influence through the power, experience, and culture dimensions of tax aggressiveness in family firms.

The family influences the business’ tax aggressiveness in different ways. As such, the greater the family experience, by the incorporation of second and subsequent generations, the greater the tax aggressiveness; in contrast, greater family power in terms of firm ownership and management negatively affects tax aggressiveness. Additionally, greater alignment of the family and business culture does not exert a significant effect on tax behaviors of family firms.

Tax aggressiveness is a complex activity that should be managed from a global point of view in family firms. Managers should compensate for the negative influence of family governance on tax aggressiveness with the positive effect of the family generations in order to obtain proper and balanced tax management that contributes to the sustainability of family firms.

This study contributes to the understanding of tax behavior heterogeneities among family firms by going further than most research (usually based mainly on comparative ownership aspects between large, publicly quoted family and non-family firms), considering some other more representative factors of family small and medium-sized enterprises, where the influence of characteristics of family management, family generation, and family values can be the main determinants of the firm taxation policies.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically capture the impact of a chief executive officer’s (CEO) personal and organizational characteristics on firm performance in the context of a developing country and to explore whether capital structure mediates the relationship between CEO characteristics and firm performance.

In order to test the hypothesized model, CEO duality, tenure and personal characteristics (age, gender and education) were taken as explanatory variables to study their impact on firm performance. Data were collected from 179 Pakistani companies from 2009–2015. The collected data were processed via panel data regression analysis under fixed effect assumptions.

Results show that CEO duality has a negative impact on firm performance and that a CEO with a dual role is more inclined toward debt financing. Moreover, a CEO with a longer tenure tends to be opportunistic and prioritize his/her personal interest while making strategic financial decisions, thus creating agency costs for the firm. Furthermore, CEO characteristics like age, gender and education have significant effects on firm financial decisions and firm performance. Finally, the debt and equity ratio partially mediates the link between CEO characteristics and firm performance.

The findings of this study have limited generalizability due to the specific nature of the sample characteristics.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this study is the first to explore the impact of CEO characteristics on capital structure and firm performance. This work is also the first to explore the mediating role of capital structure in the relationship between CEO characteristics and firm performance by using Pakistani data.

In recent years, organisations around the world have been seriously affected by a range of economic, political and social upheavals that have gathered momentum in most parts of the globe. The viability of the conventional (pyramidal) organisational structures is being challenged in conjunction with major shifts in the roles of mid and top managers. In many countries, the pace of the above socio‐economic events and uncertainties is happening at an unprecedented pace. Some markets are showing signs of potential gigantic expansions while others (historically prosperous) are on the verge of complete collapse (Dent, 1991). In responding to the socio‐economic challenges of the nineties, organisations (across the board) have resorted to dismantling the conventional pyramidal structure and adopting so‐called “leaner” structures (see Zeffane, 1992). The most common struggle has been to maintain market share in an economic environment increasingly characterised by excess labour supply (Bamber, 1990; Green & Macdonald, 1991). As organisations shifted their strategies from “mass production” to “post‐fordism” (see, for example Kern and Schumann, 1987), there has been a significant tendency to emphasise flexibility of both capital and labour in order to cater for the niche markets which are claimed to be rapidly emerging, world‐wide. This has resulted in massive organisational restructuring world‐wide.

At the Royal Society of Health annual conference, no less a person than the editor of the B.M.A.'s “Family Doctor” publications, speaking of the failure of the anti‐smoking campaign, said we “had to accept that health education did not work”; viewing the difficulties in food hygiene, there are many enthusiasts in public health who must be thinking the same thing. Dr Trevor Weston said people read and believed what the health educationists propounded, but this did not make them change their behaviour. In the early days of its conception, too much was undoubtedly expected from health education. It was one of those plans and schemes, part of the bright, new world which emerged in the heady period which followed the carnage of the Great War; perhaps one form of expressing relief that at long last it was all over. It was a time for rebuilding—housing, nutritional and living standards; as the politicians of the day were saying, you cannot build democracy—hadn't the world just been made “safe for democracy?”—on an empty belly and life in a hovel. People knew little or nothing about health or how to safeguard it; health education seemed right and proper at this time. There were few such conceptions in France which had suffered appalling losses; the poilu who had survived wanted only to return to his fields and womenfolk, satisfied that Marianne would take revenge and exact massive retribution from the Boche!

To evaluate the control strategy for a hybrid natural ventilation wind catchers and air‐conditioning system and to assess the contribution of wind catchers to indoor air environments and energy savings if any.

Most of the modeling techniques for assessing wind catchers performance are theoretical. Post‐occupancy evaluation studies of buildings will provide an insight into the operation of these building components and help to inform facilities managers. A case study for POE was presented in this paper.

The monitoring of the summer and winter month operations showed that the indoor air quality parameters were kept within the design target range. The design control strategy failed to record data regarding the operation, opening time and position of wind catchers system. Though the implemented control strategy was working effectively in monitoring the operation of mechanical ventilation systems, i.e. AHU, did not integrate the wind catchers with the mechanical ventilation system.

Owing to short‐falls in the control strategy implemented in this project, it was found difficult to quantify and verify the contribution of the wind catchers to the internal conditions and, hence, energy savings.

Controlling the operation of the wind catchers via the AHU will lead to isolation of the wind catchers in the event of malfunctioning of the AHU. Wind catchers will contribute to the ventilation of space, particularly in the summer months.

This paper demonstrates the value of POE as indispensable tool for FM professionals. It further provides insight into the application of natural ventilation systems in building for healthier indoor environments at lower energy cost. The design of the control strategy for natural ventilation and air‐conditioning should be considered at the design stage involving the FM personnel.

WITH this issue we are commencing the twenty‐seventh year of our career as an independent Library Journal and trust that we shall carry on the tradition of our illustrious founder and continue to criticise or praise without fear or favour. During the past twelve months our editorial staff has successfully produced special numbers dealing with Bookbinding, Book Selection, Children's Departments, Classification, and Colonial Libraries. Judging by the correspondence we have received, our efforts have been greatly appreciated by the majority of our readers. Naturally we have not pleased everybody and we have even been dubbed the “little contemporary” in some quarters. However, we can point to an unbroken record of twenty‐six years' endeavour to serve the library profession and we ourselves are justly proud of the contemptible “little contemporary” that did not cease to appear even during the darkest hours of the dread war period.