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The article investigates the institutional setup of e-lending in public libraries in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Our point of departure is that e-lending has necessitated new library collaborations between local, regional and national levels, and therefore, institutional e-lending setups have emerged. The study seeks to provide better understanding of how the institutional setups are structured, how governance logics have shaped them and what tensions and dynamics become visible in the key actors’ problematisations of these setups.

The study is situated in the neo-institutional tradition and applies the institutional logics perspective. The research questions are answered by taking a qualitative approach, grounded in an extensive interview study with representatives of libraries, publishers and policy actors in three Scandinavian countries. To provide in-depth insight into e-lending setups, the scope of empirical material is then limited to accounts the central library and policy actors involved in establishing e-lending.

The analysis shows that the e-lending setups are both similar (especially when it comes to financing), and different across Scandinavia, especially when it comes to centralisation and involvement of librarians in this task. The differences are attributed to the influence of different governance logics (question of administrative autonomy, collaboration in the field and existing legal and political frames), and to what extent the digital and market logics are incorporated or rejected in the field.

The study provides new insights into the question of how Scandinavian public libraries face the consequences of the digitalisation of book distribution and consumption by investigating how they organise their e-lending services. This has not been explored before, notably in a comparative perspective.

This study aims to develop a model for integration of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in resource sharing practices for enhanced service delivery in academic libraries in Southeast Nigeria. Seven objectives guided the study; ICT-based resource sharing practices in academic libraries in Southeast Nigeria; ICT infrastructure for resource sharing; ICT needs of librarians for resource sharing practices; stages of ICT integration in resource sharing; perception of librarians towards ICT-based resource sharing; challenges to integration of ICT in resource sharing practices; design a model for the integration of ICT into resource sharing; all in academic libraries in Southeast Nigeria.

The research design adopted for this study is the mixed research design containing the “descriptive survey” research design and the “research and development, R&D.” The population of the study is 164, comprising all of the librarians in federal universities in Southeast Nigeria. All of the librarians of the five federal universities will be involved in the study. Hence, there was no sampling. The instrument for data collection is a structured questionnaire.

The findings of the study revealed that 88.8% of the librarians use ICT to boost the volume of resources; while 74% of the librarians were positive in all responses pertaining to ICT-based resource sharing practices in the libraries. The study also revealed that ICT infrastructures in the library for resource sharing are highly available and applicable; while computers and internet networks are the most needed gadgets for the operations. Libraries in Southeast Nigeria are in the applying and transforming stages of ICT adoption at a 69.7% response rate; while the librarians have a strong belief and understanding that a lot can be achieved in resource sharing through ICT; and would recommend such. Poor electrification, inadequate funding and unavailability of some ICT technologies were equally identified as challenges. The study conclusively developed a resource sharing model, the Southeast Federal University Library Connect; accessible at https://southeastfeduniconnect.njh.com.ng

The research study is one of the few types of research that has developed a functional model for resource sharing in academic libraries in Southeast Nigeria.

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of corporate governance (CG) on the relationship between credit risk (CRs) and financial performance (FP) of banks listed in the Palestine Securities’ Exchange (PEX) and Amman Securities’ Exchange (ASE).

This study used a hypothesis-testing research design to collect data from the annual reports of 21 banks listed on (PEX) and (ASE). Secondary data, annual reports and disclosures were used between from 2009 to 2019. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used, along with correlation analysis to evaluate linear relationships between variables. Data was collected based on panel data, the VIF was used to test multicollinearity and binary logistic regression was used to develop the research model.

The regression results showed the association between CR and firm performance depends on the measurement of each factor applied. The results showed mixed results between loans to total assets (LTA) and nonperforming loans to total loans (NPLs) with FP. LTA has a significant and positive effect on TOBINSQ and return on equity (ROE), but an insignificant and positive effect on return on assets (ROA). On the other hand, NPLs have a significant and negative effect on ROA, whereas NPLs have a weak and positive effect on TOBINSQ. However, there is an insignificant and positive effect of NPLs on ROE. Moreover, the results demonstrated that CG moderated the relationship between CRs and FP of banks. The practical contribution of this paper, for bank policymakers and authorities, the study’s implications are noteworthy. Understanding the varied impacts of different CR measures on FP can help regulators and policymakers design more tailored and effective risk management frameworks for banks.

This study had limitations that future research might be able to address. First, the small size of the sample used in the study included 21 banks listed on the PEX and ASE. Likewise, the ASE and PEX are considered developing stock exchanges, so the results of this study may differ from those of other stock exchanges. Second, only CRs were considered in this study when examining the association between the profitability of Palestinian banks and ASE. Other studies can be undertaken on other nonfinancial risks, such as operational risk, to measure the differences between them and examine their effects on the profitability of Palestinian and Jordanian banks. Other studies might be performed to compare CRs and its impact on profitability in Palestinian and Jordanian banks with those in other Western and Eastern banks. Furthermore, in addition to TOBINSQ, ROA and ROE, researchers can use other financial indicators to measure profitability. This will contribute to substantiating the present study’s findings.

Although several studies have examined the relationship between CRs and FP in developed and developing countries, the results have been mixed. However, this study is one of the few studies that examined the moderating role of CG in association with CRs and FP, especially on Palestinian and Jordanian contexts. Finally, the findings offer policymakers and practitioners of Palestinian and Jordanian contexts.

The 2008 Chinese melamine milk scandal resulted in six reported fatalities and affected around 300,000 children, of whom 54,000 were hospitalised. Previous studies have used linear approaches to examine the root causes of the melamine milk scandal.

In the present study, we applied a systems approach to the melamine milk scandal to identify the complex systems-level failures across the supply chain leading to the incident and why food fraud incidents such as this occurred in the dairy sector. Additionally, systemic failures associated with food fraud vulnerability factors were considered (i.e. opportunities, motivation and control measures).

48 contributory factors of influence were identified and grouped across six sociotechnical levels across the Chinese dairy system, from government to equipment and surroundings. Lack of vertical integration (processes and communication) contributed to the failure. When viewed from a broader perspective, the melamine milk scandal can be linked to a series of human errors and organisational issues associated with government bodies, the dairy supply chain, individual organisations and management decisions and individual actions of staff or processes.

This approach is of value to policymakers and the industry as it supports public health investigations of food fraud incidents and proactive food safety management.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyse a food safety or fraud incident using the AcciMap approach and the food fraud vulnerability assessment (FFVA) technique. AcciMap analysis is applied to both unintentional and intentional aspects of the incident.

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the unsolicited proposal (USP) and the performance of private participation infrastructure (PPI) projects in developing countries.

The main data set for this study was collected from the World Bank database consisting of 8,951 PPI projects that occurred in developing countries from 1996 to 2020. Hierarchical logistic regression was applied for investigating the effects of USPs on project success. Three moderators, namely, control of corruption, presence of local sponsor and project size were also included in the model to test the impact of their interactions with the USP on the performance of PPI projects. Further, to assess the impact of the effect of USPs, the average marginal effect was calculated. The framework used in this study consists of 18 control variables, three moderators and one noncontrolled independent variable (the USP).

The results of hierarchical logistic regression indicate that USPs have a significant and negative effect on the success of PPI projects occurring in developing countries. The negative effect of a USP weakens with the presence of local sponsors and stronger control of corruption in the host country. However, contrary to the authors’ expectations, the results show that project size does not significantly affect the association between USPs and the success of PPI projects. Moreover, the results of average marginal effects show that the negative impact of USP on the success of PPI projects ranges between 2.4% and 3.8%.

This study quantifies the negative impact of USP on the success of PPI projects in developing countries, which will be helpful for the practitioners to understand the associated risk with USP projects. Furthermore, it also identifies the moderating roles of control of corruption and the presence of local sponsors on the relationship between USP and the success of PPI projects.

Higher education plays an essential role in achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, there are only scattered studies on monitoring how universities promote SDGs through their curriculum. The purpose of this study is to investigate the connection of existing common core courses in a university to SDG education. In particular, this study wanted to know how common core courses can be classified by machine-learning approach according to SDGs.

In this report, the authors used machine learning techniques to tag the 166 common core courses in a university with SDGs and then analyzed the results based on visualizations. The training data set comes from the OSDG public community data set which the community had verified. Meanwhile, key descriptions of common core courses had been used for the classification. The study used the multinomial logistic regression algorithm for the classification. Descriptive analysis at course-level, theme-level and curriculum-level had been included to illustrate the proposed approach’s functions.

The results indicate that the machine-learning classification approach can significantly accelerate the SDG classification of courses. However, currently, it cannot replace human classification due to the complexity of the problem and the lack of relevant training data.

The study can achieve a more accurate model training through adopting advanced machine learning algorithms (e.g. deep learning, multioutput multiclass machine learning algorithms); developing a more effective test data set by extracting more relevant information from syllabus and learning materials; expanding the training data set of SDGs that currently have insufficient records (e.g. SDG 12); and replacing the existing training data set from OSDG by authentic education-related documents (such as course syllabus) with SDG classifications. The performance of the algorithm should also be compared to other computer-based and human-based SDG classification approaches for cross-checking the results, with a systematic evaluation framework. Furthermore, the study can be analyzed by circulating results to students and understanding how they would interpret and use the results for choosing courses for studying. Furthermore, the study mainly focused on the classification of topics that are taught in courses but cannot measure the effectiveness of adopted pedagogies, assessment strategies and competency development strategies in courses. The study can also conduct analysis based on assessment tasks and rubrics of courses to see whether the assessment tasks can help students understand and take action on SDGs.

The proposed approach explores the possibility of using machine learning for SDG classifications in scale.

Security assurance evaluation (SAE) is a well-established approach for assessing the effectiveness of security measures in systems. However, one aspect that is often overlooked in these evaluations is the assurance context in which they are conducted. This paper aims to explore the role of assurance context in system SAEs and proposes a conceptual model to integrate the assurance context into the evaluation process.

The conceptual model highlights the interrelationships between the various elements of the assurance context, including system boundaries, stakeholders, security concerns, regulatory compliance and assurance assumptions and regulatory compliance.

By introducing the proposed conceptual model, this research provides a framework for incorporating the assurance context into SAEs and offers insights into how it can influence the evaluation outcomes.

By delving into the concept of assurance context, this research seeks to shed light on how it influences the scope, methodologies and outcomes of assurance evaluations, ultimately enabling organizations to strengthen their system security postures and mitigate risks effectively.

Studies show that building information modelling (BIM) technology can improve construction productivity regarding the design, construction and maintenance of a project life cycle in the 21st century. Revit has been identified as a frequently used tool for delivering BIM in the built environment. Studies about BIM technology via Revit are scarce in training middle-level workforce higher education institutions. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relevance of BIM technology and offer measures to promote digitalisation in Nigeria’s built environment polytechnic undergraduates via Revit.

Given the unexplored nature of training the middle-level workforce in Nigeria, 37 semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted across Nigeria, and saturation was achieved. The participants were knowledgeable about construction-related BIM. The researchers used a thematic analysis for the collected data and honed them with secondary sources.

Improved visualisation of design, effective and efficient work productivity, automatic design and quantification, improved database management and collaboration and data storage in the centrally coordinated model, among others, emerged as BIM’s benefits. BIM technology via Revit is challenging, especially in Nigeria’s polytechnic education curriculum. The 24 perceived issues were grouped into government/regulatory agencies-related, polytechnic management-related and polytechnic undergraduate students-related hindrances in Nigeria’s built environment.

This study is limited to BIM implications for Nigeria’s built environment polytechnic undergraduates.

This study contributes to the literature paucity in attempting to uncover perceived issues hindering the implementation of BIM technology via Revit in training Nigeria’s built environment polytechnic undergraduates via a qualitative approach.