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The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic interpretation of the scope of knowledge management processes whose intent is to enhance the effectiveness of new product development (NPD).

The paper reviews key concepts in NPD and knowledge management (KM), leading to propositions about the effective management of NPD‐relevant knowledge. It develops a structured, holistic model of organizational KM including practical mechanisms and processes for managing knowledge transfer.

Effective knowledge management needs to: acknowledge the multiple organizational levels at which knowledge is deployed; support the production, elicitation and exchange of tacit knowledge as well as explicit, codified information; hence accommodate and enable both informal and formal, typically IS/IT enabled knowledge processes.

KM is work‐in‐progress, not a one‐time search for an idealised state. Computer‐enabled information systems are necessary but not sufficient elements of a comprehensive approach to KM. Holistic KM should be integral to the organization, working with not against the grain of its technical, social and cultural processes. Senior managers with titles such as “chief knowledge officer” may be crucial in establishing strategic priorities and change programmes, but all NPD personnel bear responsibility for effective KM.

The paper combines propositions about the effective conduct of KM for NPD with a model of holistic KM that involves multi‐level flux and constructive knowledge transition. It identifies practical mechanisms, IS/IT enabled and otherwise, in this context. It suggests that new research to identify effective KM practices in NPD is a priority for KM researchers.

The need to maintain up-to-date technological skills despite an aging workforce makes it imperative that organizations increasingly focus on retraining older employees. This article develops an adult career model based on the acquisition of technological skills and gradual skill obsolescence. The model suggests the importance of retraining and provides practical implications to the development of retraining programs. Suggestions for future research are also offered.

Neuroscientific technologies have begun to change the ways in which we understand, respond to, and treat drug addiction. According to addiction researchers, neuroscience marks a new era because of its potential to locate the causes of addiction within the brain and to treat addiction through altering neurochemistry. However, little is known about how addiction neuroscience and new neurochemical treatments shape individuals' experience of addiction and constitute new arrangements of knowledge and power that shape subjectivity and governance. This chapter addresses these domains by drawing on an analysis of scientific literature about addiction neuroscience and qualitative interviews with people being treated for addiction with buprenorphine, a pharmaceutical treatment for opioid dependence. The chapter charts four major themes in the addiction neuroscience literature (pleasure and the limbic system, rationality and the role of the prefrontal cortex, theories of plasticity, and the role of volition) and explores how each of these is incorporated, adapted, or rejected by individuals being treated for addiction with a pharmaceutical. This analysis demonstrates how neuroscientific ideas are mediated by the lived experiences of those being treated under a neuroscientific model. It also suggests that while neuroscientific interventions, like pharmaceuticals, shape the experience of those being treated for addiction, so too do many other forces, including social circumstances, moral frameworks, the drive for autonomy, and the quest to be “normal.”

It should, we hope, by now be clear that neuroscience not simply warrants but perhaps demands attention from sociologists. However, to-date, debate around the ‘new brain sciences’ has been limited within sociology; it has mostly been ethicists who have opened up discussions on the normative and epistemological issues neuroscience raises. Of course, this is not to say that sociologists and other social scientists have been blind to the developments in the brain sciences; a variety of significant and nuanced analyses have begun to be advanced. There can be no doubt that a rich vein of creative and insightful scholarship in what might be called the social studies of the neurosciences is already in existence, and will surely widen. Yet, we can also see that much work remains to be done. It is our intention that this book will play an important role in the elaboration of scholarship in the field. To this end, we have sought and included a range of perspectives from (medical) sociologists and anthropologists, which vividly illustrate the varied social life of the neurosciences, and brightly illuminates the diverse conceptualisations, approaches and standpoints available to sociological analysts.

To clarify the subject of a project and indicate its limits, investigators must define for readers their work's key concepts. In most information behaviour research, definition of “information” itself is critical, although it may be difficult to do this immediately, as the researcher may be initially unsure of the nature of the phenomenon of interest. A definition may be evolved retrospectively and informed by data collected. In assembling a definition, the investigator may consider whether to draw a distinction between “knowledge” and “information”, whether information is believed to be of the purely “objective” kind and the purposes for which information is required. A decision also needs to be made on whether the researcher's construct of “information” should be imposed on study participants. Whatever the approaches taken, the definition must be at least partially grounded in widely held assumptions and not inspired solely by the need to control the work's scope.

A VERY interesting winter lies ahead for all students and other librarians; for, we suppose, almost immediately attempts will be made to harmonize the practice of the Library Association with the expressed wishes of its last Annual Meeting. We publish some notes in Letters on Our Affairs on the crisis, if it may be so called, but we would add such voice as we have to that of those who plead for moderation. Violent changes are rarely justified, and violent expressions still less rarely, and as there appears to be now a disposition to bury hatchets and to get to work we hope that every advantage will be taken of it.

CRUS (the Centre for Research on User Studies) started operations on 5 January 1976 as an independent research institute attached to the University of Sheffield and funded for its first five years by a grant from the British Library. From a purely utilitarian and financial aspect any library and information centre has to justify its existence from a cost‐benefit point of view, and therefore has to be responsive to the information needs of the community it serves. Thus the ‘determination of users' needs is absolutely essential to the management of an information center …. [It] exists only to provide service to user groups, and its monetary value is in terms of the service to the group[s] that it helps’.

The establishment and growth of an early Australian entrepreneurial firm supplying veterinary services and products is examined. John Pottie established a veterinary practice in Sydney in the 1860’s and then proceeded to develop a large and successful family business that is still trading. By exploring the ingredients for its successful entry and growth, this study seeks to show through one longitudinal case, how entrepreneurship, innovation and marketing were inseparable in contributing to the competitive advantage developed by this business. Two inter‐related and timeless features stand out in Pottie’s success. First, is the manner in which he acted as an entrepreneur, responding to the circumstances of the time and seizing the opportunities presented by changes on both the supply and demand sides in the market for veterinary services and products. Second, is the stress he placed on his own name as a brand, guaranteeing the quality of the integrated package of veterinary products.

Existing literature reports the positive image impact of major sports events on sport tourists. This paper empirically tests the image impact of an overall sports events initiative on a host city, and on intention to revisit from the perspective of general international tourists. The findings show that major sports events, in general, can be useful in reaching out to tourists. However, it questions the utilisation of sports events in destination marketing to general tourists - as awareness of sports events actually depresses tourism atmosphere and service image, as well as the overall destination image. Practical implications and future research are suggested.