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After several years of in‐house development to meet its needs for automated serials control, cuts in staff and resources led Loughborough University to look to commercially‐available packages to further its automation plans. The MicroLinx package from Faxon was selected. The functionality of the system is described, and an assessment of performance given. Loughborough will soon change to BLCMP as part of a wider automation strategy, not without some regrets.

The current paper contributes to the vigorous debate about policies and regulations that would shield financial markets' participants from future events of the financial turmoil. In doing so, the paper aims to broaden the picture of the financial crisis contagion and set it against the background of contemporary European markets. The main purpose of this paper is to present novel aspects of the financial crisis contagion, hence clarifying the contagion theory that still remains confusing and ambiguous for both the academics and financial markets' practitioners.

The paper builds on a simulation model for the financial crisis contagion that is rooted in the qualitative query and backed by semi‐structured interviews with financial markets' participants who possess extensive knowledge about the functioning of European markets and their interconnectedness. With this in mind, the current paper adopts an international investor's perspective on implications that stem from the linkages between European financial markets, flawed regulations and the absence of cross‐border monitoring of the financial crisis contagion.

The findings constitute practical insights into the issues of the financial crisis contagion, hence providing useful advice on policies and regulations that could manage the cross‐market transmission of the financial turmoil and shield financial markets' participants from the episodes of financial crises in the future. The findings reported in this paper also present novel aspects of the contagion processes across the contemporary and systemically important financial markets in Europe.

The practical implications of the current paper gain in significance as the nascent financial crisis sparked off vigorous debate about the need for implementing regulations that would prevent financial markets' participants from the future episodes of global financial crises. At this point, the findings reported in the current paper might be of interest for policy makers and markets' authorities. In addition, the paper attempts to deliver findings that practitioners associated with the contemporary European financial markets would benefit from by understanding the linkages between these markets and ways the financial contagion spreads. Previously, little knowledge of ways financial crises spread across markets caused substantial losses that were incurred by investors.

The current paper addresses the issues of the financial crisis contagion that belong to the group of the most commonly referenced yet least understood notions in finance. Furthermore, the paper focuses on addressing the recently exposed fragility of financial markets' surveillance and regulations. In doing so, the paper employs a pioneering approach to a simulation of the financial crisis contagion by embarking on a qualitative query rather than empirical data. Henceforth, the limitations of the empirical simulations – experienced in the past studies devoted to investigation of the financial crisis contagion – were ameliorated and the findings presented in the paper became of practical use for the markets' practitioners and policymakers.

The study aims to explore supply chain influence (SCI) on the linkages among market orientation, innovation capabilities and firm performance (FP), using the resource-based view as a theoretical backdrop.

Survey data from 182 top managers who are involved in strategy formulation and innovative direction of their companies was collected and analyzed using moderated multiple regression analysis.

Results revealed a moderating role of the SCI in that the proactive market orientation (PMO) and FP relationship is stronger when SCI is high, and innovation commercialization capability (ICC) and FP relationship is stronger when SCI is low.

Firms pursuing high PMO strategy must collaborate with supply chain function to achieve the full effect of PMO. Additionally, as supply chain is critical to meeting customers’ needs, these firms should allow supply chain to exert greater influence to enjoy the positive effects of PMO in addition to ensuring full integration into marketing strategy implementation. Also, firms with high ICC need to limit SCI to maximize the benefit of ICC on FP, just as innovation management needs to be cognizant of other functional areas.

The study investigates the potential moderating role of SCI on the relationships among market orientation, ICC and FP. The study fills a gap in the understanding of the nature and role of supply chain in the marketing–supply chain interaction, and the impact on FP.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and evaluate the role of hybrid forums as tools to address specific controversies related to sustainable practices in localized agro-food systems (LAFS).

In contrast with other conventional public engagement methods, such as citizen juries, consensus conferences, focus groups or deliberative processes, hybrid forums entail a more dynamic and democratic mechanism to reflect and act together, with the aim of constructing a common project around a defined challenge (Callon et al., 2001, 2009). They can offer an enriching and challenging methodological approach in the context of LAFS, especially in the discussion of controversial issues around food chain sustainability. The authors present here a new generation of hybrid forums: HF 2.0.

HF 2.0. represent both a methodological tool and a real experience of dialogic democracy, two interactive aspects which are closely interlinked and rest upon each other. The authors argue that the attractiveness of HF 2.0. is notable in at least two ways: first, they provide a solid democratic and reflective mechanism to stimulate effective dialogue and knowledge-exchange among different stakeholders; second, they contribute as an important methodological evidence-based tool, which can be used as a launching pad for shaping local action groups and community partnerships’ strategies aimed at fostering local development.

This paper attempts to provide a methodological discussion over the experimental use of HF 2.0. in the context of LAFS and assesses their effectiveness in the co-construction of knowledge. The authors explore their pragmatic validity in addressing controversies over local and sustainable seafood via empirical applications in Norway and the UK.

We issue a double Souvenir number of The Library World in connection with the Library Association Conference at Birmingham, in which we have pleasure in including a special article, “Libraries in Birmingham,” by Mr. Walter Powell, Chief Librarian of Birmingham Public Libraries. He has endeavoured to combine in it the subject of Special Library collections, and libraries other than the Municipal Libraries in the City. Another article entitled “Some Memories of Birmingham” is by Mr. Richard W. Mould, Chief Librarian and Curator of Southwark Public Libraries and Cuming Museum. We understand that a very full programme has been arranged for the Conference, and we have already published such details as are now available in our July number.

This paper investigates online evaluation processes on peer-to-peer platforms to highlight how online peer evaluation enacts neoliberal subjects and collectives.

The paper uses netnography (Kozinets, 2002) to study the online community of Airbnb. It is also based on 18 interviews, mostly with Airbnb users, and quantitative data about reviews.

Results indicate that peer-to-peer platforms constitute biopolitical infrastructures. They enact and consolidate narcissistic entrepreneurs of the self through evaluation processes and consolidating a for-show community. Specifically, three features make evaluation a powerful neoliberal agent. The object of evaluation shifts from the service to the user's own worth (1). The public nature of the evaluation (2) and symetrical accountability between the evaluator and the evaluatee (3) contribute to excessively positive reviews and this keeps the market fluid.

This paper calls for problematization of the idea of sharing in the so-called “sharing economy”. What is shared on peer-to-peer platforms is the comfort of engaging with people like ourselves.

This paper contributes to the literature on online accounting by extending consideration of evaluation beyond the review process. It also stresses that trust in the evaluative infrastructure is fostered by narcissistic relationships between users, who come to use the platform as a mirror. The peer-to-peer context refreshes the our knowledge on evaluation in a corporate context by highlighting phenomena of standardized spontaneity and euphemized evaluation language. This allows evaluation processes to incorporate a market logic without having to fuel competition.

Previous academic literature indicates that the case of the banking crises recovery, in view of implemented regulations and policies, differs across times and countries. This is explained by varied institutional environments in which banking sectors operate, and in which financial crises persist. Therefore, the aim of this study is to prioritize investigation of the regulatory framework in the crisis‐response policies across European countries affected by the current financial turmoil. In order to elicit most accurate results and fill in the gap in existing literature on banking crises, the paper aims to focus on both qualitative and quantitative methodological frameworks in order to ensure that the concerns raised by practitioners are addressed and implications for the regulatory processes instrumented.

The emphasis of the current study has been laid to flag the region‐ and country‐specific vulnerabilities in regulatory framework employed for banking crisis recovery. Additional focus has been put on groups of systemic risk which evolved from the current financial crisis and ways these risks can be ameliorated. Furthermore, the current paper strives to explore the ideas of ways to ameliorate negative outcomes of the global crisis and mitigate common risks with reference to the flawed regulations. Especially, important issues have been raised by the interviewed experts who put forward their opinions on the ways of lifting the regulatory shortcomings and costs of remedies identified in the study and who provided solutions to ensuring the financial stability of European capital markets.

The study highlighted areas of regulations that require immediate attention and which failed to prevent financial markets from the current banking crisis. These findings are then summarized with constructive proposals on how to amend banking sector and financial regulations. The study also provides a cross‐European comparison of the financial crisis‐recovery policies, evaluating solutions adopted in various selected European countries. Henceforth, the empirical model tested the possibility of a tradeoff existing between remedies which involve substantial public funds and exert burden on both fiscal balances and taxpayers, and the speed and effectiveness of the recovery processes. To this point, no tradeoff has been found. Moreover, contrasting the current banking crisis to the past financial market disturbances, highlighted the magnitude of the nascent economic downturn prevailing in Europe.

Since the existing body of literature abounds in studies devoted to investigations of the causes for the current banking crisis, the research focus of this paper has been shifted away from the factors and flawed regulations that trigger banking crises. To this point, the paper has traits of pioneering work.

This paper offers an ethical analysis of visual representation that provides criteria for and sheds light on the appropriateness dimension of marketing communications. It provides a theoretically informed framework for recognizing and understanding ethical issues in visual representation.

An interdisciplinary conceptual review and analysis focuses on four representational conventions, synthesizing ethical concerns, to provide a broader context for recognizing and understanding ethical issues in marketing representation: face‐ism, idealization, exoticization and exclusion. This framework is discussed and applied to marketing communications.

It argues that valuations of communication appropriateness must be informed by an awareness of the ethical relationship between marketing representations and identity. It is no longer satisfactory to associate advertising solely with persuasion, rather advertising must be seen as a representational system, with pedagogical as well as strategic functions. We conclude by discussing the theoretical, research, and managerial implications that arise from an ethics of visual representation.

Urges moving beyond an advertising=persuasion model to encompass representation and culture in marketing communication studies. Contributes to understanding the ethical implications of marketing communication. Challenges marketers and researchers to broaden their conception of marketing communication to one more consistent with an image economy.