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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the agile supply chain management practices adopted by UK clothing retailers in order to effectively manage the supply of innovative, high‐margin, high‐fashion content product offerings in a complex global environment.

A case study approach was adopted examining the whole of the global retail fashion supply chain, from typical UK‐based retailers through to their main production and logistics suppliers based in two low‐cost locations, China and Romania. The cases of the UK retailers were followed by a study tour of China and Romania, where ten cases of fabric and finishing manufacturers, intermediaries and logistic providers were carried out.

Many aspects of accepted risk management and agile practice, such as market sensitivity, postponement activities and collaborative information‐sharing partnerships were apparent in the early product definition and the later product delivery stages of the supply chain. However, the responsibility for supply, including the key aspect of managing the complex supply network, was almost exclusively left to intermediaries located in low‐cost countries. These intermediaries in the main could best achieve agile supply from a significantly underutilized low‐cost country supply network through a traditional adversarial price and lead time auction sourcing process.

While the cases considered reflected what seemed to be a typical and widely adopted approach to managing such a supply chain, this may not, of course, be the only approach taken by organisations in the clothing industry.

By examining a whole supply chain associated with agile supply in an important sector, the paper identifies the relative importance of some existing practices and brings into sharper focus those most relevant to this type of supply. The paper also identifies key elements of contemporary supply chain management practice, namely the growing use of global supply for innovative products and the essential and valuable role played by intermediaries in such supply chains.

Gives introductory remarks about chapter 1 of this group of 31 papers, from ISEF 1999 Proceedings, in the methodologies for field analysis, in the electromagnetic community. Observes that computer package implementation theory contributes to clarification. Discusses the areas covered by some of the papers ‐ such as artificial intelligence using fuzzy logic. Includes applications such as permanent magnets and looks at eddy current problems. States the finite element method is currently the most popular method used for field computation. Closes by pointing out the amalgam of topics.

Although conformable devices are commonly designed to couple with the human body for personalized and localized medicine, their applications are expanding rapidly. This paper aims to delineate this expansion and predict greater implications in diverse fields.

Today’s device technologies continue to face fundamental obstacles preventing their seamless integration with target objects to effectively access, evaluate and alter self-specific physical patterns, while still providing physical comfort and enabling continuous data collection. Due to their extreme mechanical compliance, conformable devices permit the query of signals occurring at interfaces so as to decode and encode biological, chemical and mechanical patterns with high resolution, precision and accuracy. These unique and versatile capabilities allow for a marked change in the approach to tackling scientific questions, with the ability to address societal challenges at large.

Here, this study highlights the current state of these devices in a wide range of fields, such as interactive teaching, textiles, robotics, buildings and infrastructure, agriculture, climate and space, and further forecasts essential features of these devices in the near future.

This study justifies conformable devices’ growing utility through a novel quantitative analysis methodology that indexes peer-reviewed journal articles based on specific keywords, whereby this study tracks keyword frequency over time across specific fields in conjunction with conformability-like topics. The resulting trends’ trajectories provide the foundation for this study’s future projections. This study concludes with a perspective on the possible challenges concomitant with a ubiquitous presence of these technologies, including manufacturing, wireless communication, storage, compression, privacy and sharing of data, environmental sustainability, avoidance of inequality and bias and collaboration between stakeholders at all levels of impact.

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.

Heritage landmarks and historical values often coexist with places and regions of remarkable environmental and landscape wealth. This article studies their capacity to generate global understanding of their territory through the creation of cultural routes. The proposed methodology is verified through the study of the defensive features of the ancient Nasrid Kingdom, the last Islamic territory in the Iberian Peninsula from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, which shaped the Spanish region known as the Kingdom of Granada until the nineteenth century.

To assist in the proposal of new routes, a precise collection of physical data (topography, landmarks, resources, population centres …), existing public paths and protected natural sites was carried out. Those cultural routes relevant to the area of study were also selected and mapped through GIS. A set of indicators prioritised through an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) have evaluated the proposed itineraries.

The methodology enables the integral evaluation of parameters such as natural heritage, existing paths networks, defensive architectural heritage (watchtowers), existing cultural routes or proximity to basic services. The methodology's application allows an index to be obtained that quantifies the global implications of these parameters in the design of new itineraries. This leads to the development of a network with its own narrative that provides a historical, environmental and cultural meaning.

Watchtowers in this region have previously been studied as isolated and locally relevant architectural features. This work studies them from an overall perspective, considering each tower as a piece of a complex defensive and territorial system. Cultural routes arise from this joint interpretation as tools to restore and highlight the interrelationship between architectural heritage and territory and people.

RECENT investigation has led us to wonder if the remuneration of librarians has made anything like the progress which sanguine people are wont to say it has. Or, since it is always distasteful to harp on payment for work, we ask: has librarianship advanced, as shown in the salaries paid, in a manner commensurate with the services rendered? If the librarian were receiving the acknowledgment that his position, from its nature, ought to command, his salary should compare in some way with the salaries of his municipal colleagues. Does it? It is true the salaries of librarians have advanced, but does not the pre‐war ratio of difference between them and the salaries of the borough accountant, the medical officer, the borough engineer, remain constant? We believe it does. An example occurs to us, where the pre‐war salary of the town clerk was £1,000 and the borough engineer's was the same, while the medical officer received £800. The librarian had £400. To‐day the town clerk has £2,000, the doctor £1,300, and the engineer £1,750, but the librarian has £750. He is still in the same, if not in a worse, position, relatively, than he was before the war. And £750 is not a low salary, as library appointments go now‐a‐days. The simple truth is that municipalities do not, and frankly say they do not, regard librarians as professional men. So, in this line alone, much remains to be done.

The business environment is changing and education at university business schools does not appear to keep pace. This paper aims to identify principles to guide educators in preparing accounting students for automation and artificial intelligence and sets an agenda for future research.

The seven principles are derived from an extensive literature review and the analysis of qualitative data from focus groups, thought leader discussions, interviews and workshops.

The derived seven Cs model includes: critical, conceptual thinking and the spirit of enquiry; complicate, grapple and fail; create, innovate and experience; concise communication; collaboration; consciousness, respectfulness and ethical fibre; and curiosity, lifelong learning and specialized generalists. An inclusive list of future research topics related to the seven Cs model is provided to aid researchers’ agendas.

Although every attempt was made to base this study purely on expert opinions, as reflected in journal articles, conference papers, interviews and focus groups, it is impossible to prevent author biases from slipping into the interpretation and reflection involved in creating the model. Readers will also find some overlap in terms of the accounting business competencies development model’s seven Cs, due to the inter-related nature of the concepts and because the various definitions of concepts have some habits of the mind and social competencies in common.

The seven principles will help business schools and higher education policymakers guide future education developments with a focus on new competencies and reframed skills, as opposed to new knowledge. The model ensures that scholars and graduates have insight into the essential knowledge, attributes and skills that apply to the diverse nature of accounting vocations and can adapt to unanticipated changes.

This new model can be used by business schools to ensure that graduates can fully contribute to a society impacted by automation and artificial intelligence by entering the workplace with the requisite skills. It also responds to critics’ fears about the role of business schools in preparing graduates for the future of work.

The paper contributes in two ways. First, rather than focussing on particular issues or the shortcomings of current education, it identifies broad-based principles from a literature review, interviews, focus groups and workshops. Second, it sets an agenda for future research.

EXCEPT in two instances, the important recent appointments in public libraries have been by way of promotions of the principal assistants. In some of these cases the choice has been a good one, justified by the qualifications and experience of the candidate. There is something to be said for such advancements. A man who has been trained in a library can bring to its management a local experience of undeniable value. On the other hand, it is usually in library systems which have only a mediocre record that such appointments are made; and, unless the new men are quite exceptional, they bring no new ideas or methods to the service. A universal adoption of “ promotions from staff ” would soon mean universal stagnation. The practice should be advocated of throwing open appointments. The ratepayers are entitled to the services of the best available librarians; and library workers should not find avenues of progress definitely closed to them by home‐raised men. We look forward to the time when the promising librarian may hope to progress by graduated stages through assistantship to a small librarianship, then to a larger and finally to a really large office. Such is the ideal way.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate rice farmers’ perceptions on the manifestations of the climate change and identify efficient strategies and determinants of adoption of these strategies in the Republic of Benin.

Surveys were conducted using participatory research appraisal tools and techniques, such as direct observation, individual interviews and field visits through a questionnaire for data collection. A total of 418 rice farmers across 39 villages located in the three climatic zones of the Republic of Benin were interviewed. Farmers’ perceptions, temperature from 1952 to 2018 and rainfall from 1960 to 2018 data obtained from meteorological stations were analysed using descriptive and inferences statistics.

All the surveyed farmers were aware of climate change and perceived diverse manifestations including the delay in rainfall regarded as the most important risk. They perceived that deforestation, no respect for the laws of nature and desacralization of morals, no respect for cultures and the traditional rainmakers are the main causes of climate change. The disruption of agricultural calendar and the reduction in rice yield were perceived as the main impacts of climate change in rice production. They used various approaches to adapt and mitigate climate change effects. The adoption of adaptation strategies was influenced either negatively or positively by the household size, land size, education level, membership to rice farmer’s association, training in rice production, access to extension services, use of improved varieties and the location in climatic zones.

For each climatic zone of the Republic of Benin, weather data were collected in only one meteorological station.

The study showed that it is important to educate rice farmers on the scientific causes of climate change for better resilience. There is an urgent need to train rice farmers in irrigation and water management techniques to cope with climate variability. To promote irrigation, the authors suggest the establishment of a subsidy and credit mechanism by the government. Factors that influenced adoption of efficient adaptation strategies to climate events must be taken into account for future adaptation policies in the Republic of Benin.

This study provided an overview of the perceptions and adaptations of rice farmers along the climatic gradient in the Republic of Benin. Therefore, the knowledge of the determining factors of the adaptation strategies used by rice farmers could be used in the setting up of effective climate change resilience policies in Benin.