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In this series, specifications, properties and test results of microcomputer software for information storage and retrieval are listed and compared. This article is devoted to the previously defined category of end‐user software, sometimes also referred to as bibliographic formatting software. Eight different programs have been tested and assessed: Archivist, BIB/Search, Library Master, Notebook II, Papyrus, Pro‐Cite, The Ref‐Filer and Reference Manager. All programs run under MS‐DOS, though there are also Apple Macintosh versions for Pro‐Cite and Reference Manager. For each of the eight programs about 100 facts and test results are tabulated. All the programs are individually discussed as well.

The more than 3700 data presented in the tables of preceding articles in this series, pertaining to 37 different software packages for information storage and retrieval (ISR), may seem overwhelming to the reader who needs to make a well‐founded choice. To make this task easier, some general questions can be asked with respect to the required ISR application. These questions can be summarised as: What sort of information? How much? For whom? For what purpose? At what cost? The discussion about user needs, typical applications and lists of demands centres around these five basic questions in relation to the categories of retrieval software which were identified in the six earlier articles. They cover the whole range from bibliographic software to advanced full‐text retrieval software.

In this first article of a series, several categories of microcomputer software for information storage and retrieval are distinguished and characterised: (1) classical retrieval systems, (2) end‐user software, (3) indexing programs, (4) full‐text retrieval programs, and (5) personal information managers. In addition, the special retrieval techniques of hypertext and best‐match searching are discussed. The 20‐odd programs which will be assessed in subsequent articles are characterised according to these categories. As an introduction to the coming comparison and assessment, a systematic listing and discussion of properties and functions of ISR software is presented.

An empirical investigation of the consistency of retrieval through Internet search engines is reported. Thirteen engines are evaluated: AltaVista, EuroFerret, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, Lycos, MSN, NorthernLight, Snap, WebCrawler and three national Dutch engines: Ilse, Search.nl and Vindex. The focus is on a characteristics related to size: the degree of consistency to which an engine retrieves documents. Does an engine always present the same relevant documents that are, or were, available in its databases? We observed and identified three types of fluctuations in the result sets of several kinds of searches, many of them significant. These should be taken into account by users who apply an Internet search engine, for instance to retrieve as many relevant documents as possible, or to retrieve a document that was already found in a previous search, or to perform scientometric/bibliometric measurements. The fluctuations should also be considered as a complication of other research on the behaviour and performance of Internet search engines. In conclusion: in view of the increasing importance of the Internet as a publication/communication medium, the fluctuations in the result sets of Internet search engines can no longer be neglected.

This study sought to examine the relation of cultural practices and values with favoritism and nepotism/cronyism. Additionally, this study's purpose was also to examine how trust mediates the relation between culture and favoritism.

Correlations were used for exploratory investigation into the bivariate relations between culture and favoritism and nepotism/cronyism across 97 cultures. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were then conducted to examine the cultural correlates of favoritism and nepotism/cronyism holding all other variables constant. Lastly, partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to examine the mediating role of societal levels of trust.

Bivariate correlations showed that collectivism, familism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance are positive correlates of both favoritism and nepotism/cronyism. Institutional collectivism, future orientation and trust, on the other hand, were negative correlates of favoritism and nepotism/cronyism. Uncertainty avoidance and trust were key correlates of favoritism while familism and future orientation were key correlates of nepotism/cronyism. Trust fully mediated the relation between culture and favoritism but did not mediate the relation between culture and nepotism/cronyism.

This study adds to the current body of literature on culture and favoritism. Notably, the findings regarding different key cultural correlates with respect to favoritism and nepotism/cronyism provide valuable implications for expanding our understanding of the psychological and social nuances of favoritism. Specifically, favoritism in transactions and interactions with those not bound by social commitment relationships may be explained by beliefs while interactions with those with social relationships (e.g., family and friends) may be explained by preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether business students' gender, age and culturally‐anchored values affect their perceptions of their university course experience.

Culturally diverse business students (n=548) studying at an Australian university were surveyed using previously established scales. Multivariate analysis was used to test six hypotheses.

High uncertainty avoidance explained unique variation in the six dependent variables analysed using OLS regressions. These dependent variables were: goals, generic skills, good teaching, intellectual motivation, learning community and learning resources. Each of these variables identified different dimensions of a students' university education experience. High collectivism also explained unique variation for all except for goals. High masculinity only explained unique variation for learning resources. Age only produced a unique variance explanation for good teaching, and gender did not produce any. Nevertheless, most of the six independent variables had significant zero‐order correlations with the six dimensions of university experience examined in this study.

Changes in business students' perceptions over time is a limitation of this study, as it was an exploratory cross‐sectional one.

This study's findings may help universities improve their relationship with their total student population by recognising the non‐homogeneous nature of this business student cohort, especially their culturally‐anchored values.

This paper suggests that it may be both possible and useful to identify different student customer segments based on students' culturally‐anchored value orientations, which may be valuable to universities in their efforts to attract, retain and grow an ongoing relationship with students, especially international full‐fee paying students.

This paper aims to summarize peer-reviewed journal articles on national cultures and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) behavior, identify the main findings and patterns among those studies and discuss research gaps that need to be addressed in the future.

A systematic review process was utilized to analyze peer-reviewed journal articles on both eWOM and national cultures. The main research questions were defined, then proceeded by the identification of exclusive and inclusive criteria to search for relevant articles, which were further filtered based on abstracts and full texts, and then scrutinized for main findings and major variables such as countries, cultural variables and data collection methods.

An analysis of 52 papers shows that national cultures, primarily Hofstede's dimensions, influence the willingness of individuals to share eWOM, how they write eWOM and the extent to which they use eWOM to make decisions. Although the reviewed studies have provided insightful implications for marketing theory and practice, the present paper has identified a number of important questions that warrant future research attention.

eWOM is continually being employed as a popular source of information for consumers throughout different countries to make their purchase decisions. However, eWOM behavior differs from country to country due to national cultures, and managers' eWOM strategies that work in one country may not be applicable in another. Therefore, there has been an increasing interest in this topic. Nevertheless, it remains unclear which subjects have been addressed and what areas are yet to be investigated. This paper presents a comprehensive review of how national cultures affect eWOM behavior by drawing upon prior research and provides directions for future research contributions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic process and the meaning of symbolic consumption according to the three symbolic needs (i.e. status needs, social needs, status and social needs) to understand how symbolic messages are conveyed when consumers choose a brand.

This paper develops three dynamic models, categorized according to the consumers’ needs. The conceptual framework consists of the six constructs: collectivism/individualism, brand reputation, self-congruence, brand affect, brand identification and brand loyalty. Twelve hypotheses were developed and tested. Data were collected from consumers who had experienced well-known global chain restaurant brands. The three models were tested using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Findings highlight the important mediating role of brand affect in symbolic consumption, which previously has not been revealed empirically. Moreover, it is found that self-congruence does not mediate the relationship between brand reputation, collectivism/individualism and brand affect, despite its prominence in previous symbolic consumption studies. In the status and social needs models, brand reputation mediates between collectivism/individualism and self-congruence, brand identification, brand affect and brand loyalty.

This is the first empirical paper to investigate symbolic consumption in the context of three types of models, according to symbolic needs, in the context of restaurant consumption. The study also identifies the major components of the consumer’s symbolic needs based on the attributes of symbolic consumption. Moreover, this study reveals that when both social needs and status needs are mixed, a hierarchy exists between consumers’ symbolic needs. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to the literature by applying the concept of brand affect to symbolic consumption research and exploring the relationships between the external motivational factors and the internal elements of symbolic consumption.

Considering that the social-cultural context is important as in which the entrepreneurs are embedded to conceptualise entrepreneurial orientation (EO), the purpose of the study is to explicate the influence of the key decision-makers’ internalised cultural values and perceptions of government regulations, to offer nuanced explanations of micro-level variations in EO of firms embedded in the same institutional context.

Using a quantitative approach, relationships are explored in a sample of 201 Malaysian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used for the sample, and an additional test is conducted for a robustness check.

The study finds that three cultural values of the key decision-maker, namely individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, exhibit a significant association with the EO of the firms. Further, the analysis reveals that the positive effects of individualism and masculinity are enhanced when moderated by favourable perceptions of government regulations to entrepreneurship.

The study uses a single key informant in data collection, therefore, the possibility of single-respondent bias. The results must be interpreted in light of these limitations.

The study contributes to the existing literature regarding the relationship between institutions and entrepreneurship. Specifically, it articulates a microfoundations lens to explain the influence of institutions in terms of key decision-makers’ internalised cultural values (informal institutions) and their perceptions of government regulations (formal institutions) on the EO of the firm. It further elucidates the need to embrace informal and formal institutions as interdependent factors instead of treating them as standalone constructs in entrepreneurship research and policy design.

This study aims to determine whether different perceptions based on a learner’s characteristics of age, gender, ethnicity, and duration of stay in Australia provide an explanation of teaching performance evaluations. Perceptions determine interpersonal behaviour (including communication and motivation)and the way a learner believes that they are going to be assessed by the teacher. Thereby, this will impact on a student’s formal evaluation of teaching performance through a student survey of teaching (SST). This study considers the existence of ethnic and gender bias in postgraduate students undertaking accounting‐related courses. The study applies a combination of quantitative online and offline surveys which include SST data and additional questions identifying demographic data to demonstrate that a learner’s evaluation of teaching performance is influenced by the learner’s perceptions. Whilst there were no significant findings related to gender, we identified that students from certain ethnic backgrounds and citizenship, had different perceptions of a teacher’s performance. In addition we identified age and duration of stay in Australia as two demographic elements which were also statistically significant.