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Medical doctors seek information in order to satisfy their demanding everyday work practices and professional development endeavours. Information seeking is a continuous goal-related process that has impact on how they perceive and experience their job. The purpose of this paper is to explore the association of doctors’ awareness of medical practice information needs (MPIN), their frequency of using online information resources and the barriers they encountered during information seeking with their overall job satisfaction. More specifically, the research examined the mediating role of these information seeking related variables (information needs, online scholarly resources and information barriers) on doctors’ overall job satisfaction.

The study employed a questionnaire survey of 138 medical doctors working within the context of a University Hospital in Greece. The survey took place between February and March 2014. To test the hypotheses the authors conducted regression analysis, hierarchical moderated analysis and bootstrapping using SPSS macro developed by Preacher and colleagues.

The statistical analysis found that higher awareness of MPIN had an indirect effect on doctors’ overall job satisfaction when they used online information scholar resources. In addition, this indirect effect was contingent on information-related barriers.

This study provides evidence for supporting the pivotal role of doctors’ information seeking preferences in fostering job satisfaction. This is an understudied research area that deserves a unique focus particularly with the constantly expanding medical information space that has impact on doctors’ medical practices and professional activities.

Humanitarian relief organisations such as charities count on donations to provide assistance to people in need when disasters occur. In the UK, about 11,200 charity shops collect second-hand goods from donors to raise funds for their parent charity to support target beneficiaries. As their numbers increase, charity shops are finding it difficult to secure good quality stock. Furthermore, they may need to plan ahead to secure sufficient stock when the economy experiences a downturn. This paper identifies the charity shop's role and its donation flow in the multi-tier supply chain and empirically assesses the barriers that influence intention to donate with a mixed-methods approach.

In order to explore the charity shop's role within the multi-tier supply chain, this study begins with a literature review and then develops a conceptual model. In order to empirically evaluate the barriers that influence intention to donate, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 charity shop managers and collected 222 usable questionnaires from donors. The interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach was applied to examine the interrelationship among barriers and rank their priority.

This paper identifies ten significant barriers that influence intention to donate: lack of good quality items for donation; lack of information on how charity shops make use of donations; lack of familiarity with the donation process; lack of information of what items can be accepted by charity shops; lack of awareness of the impact that donations make; the difficulty of being available at the scheduled times for charity shops' free pick-up services; the difficulty of donating during shops' opening hours; the difficulty of finding parking to access charity shops; and living too far away from charity shops. In particular, the questionnaires' results indicate that lack of good quality items is the most significant barrier. This is also reflected in the ISM model, and thus needs more attention.

The results are very useful for charity shops themselves to understand current barriers to securing good quality stock and to develop potential stock-securing interventions based on these barriers' priority.

Although charity shops have been investigated by several researchers, their supply chain remains insufficiently explored. This paper fills this gap by identifying the charity shop's role and its donation flow in the supply chain and by empirically assessing the supply-side barriers with a mixed-methods approach.

The deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) in higher education institutions is beneficial and critical for attaining sustainable campus goals. However, various barriers hamper the adoption of the technology, and unless these challenges are identified, formulating tailor made solutions to boost deployment will be challenging. Thus, this study aimed to identify the barriers to the deployment of PV in the public university sector in South Africa.

A critical review of the literature was conducted to identify the factors that negatively impact PV deployment. By screening the barriers identified from the literature using a conceptual framework, the barriers that were considered relevant to deployment within a university context were selected. Thereafter, the selected barriers and additional barriers recommended by panellists were verified through a three-round Delphi survey. The factors were either accepted or rejected as barriers in the sector based on the factors' mean score and interquartile range values.

The study observed that 12 barriers hamper PV deployment in the public university sector. The findings indicated that the top five barriers were the lack of incentives, lack of green building targets, lack of financial resources, high initial cost, and lack of clear policy direction. However, the study found that deployment was not hindered because there was resistance to change or uncertainty of recouping investment costs. The deployment was also not hindered because there was a lack of demand from electricity end-users or a lack of suitable installation space.

Given the lack of empirical studies on the subject in the region, the present study contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying the significant barriers that impede PV deployment in the public university sector. Furthermore, insight is provided on measures that relevant stakeholders can take to motivate and support universities to deploy the technology further.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review on encumbrances facing the implementation of GBP in selected African countries. Green building practices (GBP) implementation is germane and promotes the development of a green environment and buildings. Many studies have been conducted on the encumbrances faced with GBP implementation, especially in developing countries. But evidence of a comprehensive study that investigates and analyses these hindrances from different developing countries is missing. Therefore, a systematic review is conducted systematically reviewing the current literature on encumbrances facing the implementation of GBP in selected African countries. Also, the study proffers possible drivers for stakeholders to promote GBP in African countries.

A total of 38 published papers were identified from the Web of Science, Scopus database and supported with materials from Google Scholar related to Africa’s GBP. The continent was divided into five regions, and each region covered three countries.

Two themes emerged from the analysed review – encumbrances facing GBP implementation and possible drivers for stakeholders to promote GBP in African countries. A total of 18 encumbrances and 18 drivers were identified from the analysed literature and grouped into 6 sub-themes.

Current empirical articles were reviewed to suggest the drivers for stakeholders to promote GBP that emerged from this paper. Thus, to enrich the results from this paper, primary source data of regional studies of GBP in Africa’s context should be carried out via the mixed-methods design.

A total of 18 drivers were identified for stakeholders to promote GBP in Africa and form part of the paper’s implications. Also, the paper findings would serve as a treasured suggestion for the stakeholders (policymakers, construction practitioners, clients and academics) who are fascinated by the promotion of GBP across African nations.

This is possibly the foremost analysed systematic review study on GBP implementation in Africa. Therefore, it fills the theoretical gap and proffers possible drivers for stakeholders to promote GBP in the African context.

This chapter presents a gap analysis of the perspectives of small businesses and rural librarians in Tennessee in order to develop an implementation blueprint of a public library small business toolkit, a resource that the state’s rural public libraries can create for small businesses in the future.

The chapter reports on select comparison data sets collected via two exploratory online surveys with small businesses and rural public librarians, respectively, in an externally funded planning grant awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Leadership Grants for Libraries (Research category) to the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee.

Findings from the gap analysis of the perspectives of small businesses and rural librarians provide similarities and differences between the two stakeholder groups in terms of

• existing assistance needs of small businesses,

• information-related challenges small businesses experience,

• desired public library use, and

• information-related components of a public library small business toolkit.

existing assistance needs of small businesses,

information-related challenges small businesses experience,

desired public library use, and

information-related components of a public library small business toolkit.

The study is a unique example of action research based on varied levels of participation in rural research and action, learning through collaboration, community inquiry into everyday experiences and potential impact, use of mixed methods, and the situated nature of applications and concrete outcomes. It serves as a pilot case experience and prototype assessment test bed to expand strategies for the entire Appalachian region and other rural environments in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and occurrence, and peculiarities and dynamics, if any, of perceived challenges to the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) in construction site management; using South Africa as context for empirical study.

Literature on the constraints to technology transfer and ICT adoption in construction is used as basis for the study. A national survey of registered persons in South Africa was used to collect qualitative data. A robust multi-stepped analytical approach was used to derive results.

Findings suggest appreciable similarity between literature and primary data, in types of individual challenges and their categories. Lack of technology and management support, and knowledge and information related issues, are relatively more prevalent in site management. There is a fair level of commonality in perception of technical barriers among the various categories of respondents who are active in site management. However, project managers seem to be more sensitive to some inhibiting factors, more than other respondent groups.

Inherent limitations of survey strategy were experienced, but highly qualitative data were collected at a national level. The study highlights the range of barriers to ICT in site management, and compounding effects of technology-, knowledge- and management-related constraints.

The possibility of knowledge-based factors remotely manifesting in other categories was highlighted. There is need to consider all challenges in planning for ICT in projects, and prioritise technology-, knowledge- and management-related challenges. A classification for exploring challenges to ICT in the site management process is also proposed.

Appreciable paucity remains in research focused on ICT in the site management process, as opposed to the popular operations/application focus of IT/ICT studies. Furthermore, there is still scarcity of ICT research in Africa, with regard to the built environment and specifically site management.

This study contributes to research in ICT innovation adoption in the construction industry, by developing a better understanding of the dynamics of perceived challenges to ICT adoption in the site management process; according to types and classifications of challenges, and roles and age groups of stakeholders. The study further sets a baseline for future studies in this area by proposing a frame of categorisation that is focused on site management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers' motives for food choice and to reveal beliefs about organic food.

The paper is based on results of a survey conducted on a sample of 1,010 Polish consumers. The questionnaire included items to identify food choice motives, attributes of organic food and barriers to buy organic products. The data collected was analyzed with SPSS 15.0 using descriptive statistics and carrying out two step cluster analysis to identify consumers' segments. To get better insight into factors decisive to organic food consumption, the segments were profiled according to declared consumption of organic food.

Sensory factors were the most important motives for food choice, followed by price and safety. Consumers with convenience and price orientation in their food choices were less inclined to buy organic products while consumers open to novelties and willing to try new foods more often declared to buy organic products. Polish consumers conceptualize organic food referring to aspects such as healthiness and safety. Despite the developments observed in the organic food sector in Poland, the information related that barriers to buy organic food still prevail.

The choice of validated scale items related to food choice and food related lifestyle was limited and there is a need to further explore Polish consumers food related lifestyle and its relation to organic food consumption. Cluster analysis used to identify segments is a method not based on probabilistic statistics, so it is the researcher's interpretation that is most relevant.

Prior research concerning Polish consumers food choices with relation to organic food consumption is very limited. Such information is particularly pertinent to food manufacturers and distributors to support developing communication strategies to stimulate organic food market development in Poland.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the barriers associated with the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in agricultural supply chains.

The study initially identified thirteen barriers by conducting a literature review and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Subsequently, these barriers were validated and modeled using an integrated Fuzzy Delphi-ISM approach. Finally, MICMAC analysis was employed to categorize the barriers into distinct clusters.

The results provide considerable insights into the hierarchical structure and complex interrelationships between the barriers as well the driving and dependence power of barriers. Lack of information about technologies and lack of compatibility with traditional methods emerged as the two main barriers which directly and indirectly influence the other ones.

The robust hybrid Fuzzy Delphi and ISM techniques used in this study can serve as a useful model and benchmark for similar studies probing the barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption. From a theoretical standpoint, this study expands the scope of institutional theory in explaining Industry 4.0 adoption barriers.

The study is timely for the post-COVID-19 recovery and growth of the agricultural sector. The findings are helpful for policymakers and agriculture supply chain stakeholders in devising new strategies and policy interventions to prioritize and address Industry 4.0 adoption barriers.

It is the first comprehensive, multi-country and multi-method empirical study to comprehensively identify and model barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption in agricultural supply chains in emerging economies.

The purpose is to identify and explore barriers to overcome for developing collaborative innovation between a global service supplier and two of its industrial customers in Sweden.

The research had an action-based research approach in which the researchers were interacting and collaborating with the practitioners in the companies. The empirical part includes primary data from multiple interviews, and two workshops with dialogues with participants from the involved companies. The use of complementary data collection methods gave rich input to understanding the context for collaborative innovation, and to uncovering barriers, to develop solutions for collaborative innovation. The empirical barriers were analysed using theoretically derived barriers from a literature review. The analysis generated four broad themes of barriers which were discussed and led to conclusions and theoretical and practical implications on: the customer's safety culture, the business model, the parties' understanding of innovation and the management of collaborative innovation in supply chains.

The thematic analysis generated four broad themes: the customer's safety culture, the business model, the parties' understanding of innovation and the management of collaborative innovation. These themes where analysed using theoretically derived barriers from a literature review. The industrial context, the understanding of innovation and its management created barriers.

The unique access to the service supplier and its two independent industrial customers adds a rich contextual framing to the process of identifying and exploring the barriers to collaborative innovation. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of an industrial business context, the business logic in terms of business models and for the understanding and management of collaborative innovation.

The high consumption of energy by buildings may have enhanced land degradation, flooding, air pollution and many other hazardous environmental issues. However, green practices in buildings have been proved as one of the successful technologies to mitigate these issues. Past studies have shown lax green practices in Nigerian buildings. Concerning public hospital buildings, this is yet to be explored. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the barriers to green practices and proffer possible policy solutions to promote hospital green buildings.

In attaining these objectives, the view of hospital building contractors, design team, hospital management and policymakers in the relevant ministries/agencies was engaged via virtual interviews. The collated data were analysed and presented in the thematic pattern.

Findings show that green building construction is extremely low in Nigeria, but the worst hit is the health-care buildings across the states. Government/policy-related, organisational/leadership-related, financial-related, technical-related, design team-related and stakeholders’ behaviour-related barriers emerged as the main six themes of barriers affecting public hospital green buildings implementation initiatives. Findings show that proffering possible policies to addressing these barriers may improve public hospital green construction across the states.

This paper is limited to barriers to green buildings implementation in public hospitals in Nigeria, and data collection was through virtual interviews but does not affect the strength of the findings. Thus, this paper suggests that the sub-themes and variables/items that emerged from the collated data as presented in Figure 1 can be further developed quantitatively via questionnaire survey to validate and improve the reliability of results from this paper.

As part of this study’s implications, suggestions from this paper will stir up policymakers’ decisions, to be tailored towards achieving green buildings implementation initiatives in Nigerian public hospitals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is probably the first that attempted to investigate the barriers to green buildings implementation in public hospitals in Nigeria.