Search results

States have intervened with legislation to improve cashflow within construction project supply chains. The operation of the UK’s Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 leads to payment obligations stated either as a contract administrator’s certificate (or equivalent) or an adjudicator’s decision. The purpose of the intervention would be defeated unless there are speedy ways of transforming these pieces of paper into real money. The combination of the legislation, contractual provisions and insolvency law has produced a minefield of complexity concerning enforcement of payment obligations stated in these documents. Unfortunately, the knowledge and understanding required to navigate these complexities have been sorely lacking. The purpose of this paper is to plug this gap.

Legal research methods and case study approaches, using relevant court decisions as data, were adopted.

The enforcement method advised by the court is the summary judgment procedure provided under the Civil Procedure Rules. An overdue payment obligation, either under the terms of a construction contract or an adjudicator’s decision, amounts to a debt that can be the subject of insolvency proceedings. Although the insolvency enforcement method has been successfully used on some occasions, using it purely as a debt collection weapon would be inappropriate and likely to be punished by the court.

The paper contributes to knowledge in two ways: (i) it maps out the factual situations in which these payment challenges arise in language accessible to the construction industry’s professions; and (ii) comparative analysis of payment enforcement methods to aid decision-making by parties to construction industry contracts. It is relevant to the other common-law jurisdictions in which similar statutory interventions have been made.

This paper offers a definition of the core of information science, which encompasses most research in the field. The definition provides a unique identity for information science and positions it in the disciplinary universe.

After motivating the objective, a definition of the core and an explanation of its key aspects are provided. The definition is related to other definitions of information science before controversial discourse aspects are briefly addressed: discipline vs. field, science vs. humanities, library vs. information science and application vs. theory. Interdisciplinarity as an often-assumed foundation of information science is challenged.

Information science is concerned with how information is manifested across space and time. Information is manifested to facilitate and support the representation, access, documentation and preservation of ideas, activities, or practices, and to enable different types of interactions. Research and professional practice encompass the infrastructures – institutions and technology –and phenomena and practices around manifested information across space and time as its core contribution to the scholarly landscape. Information science collaborates with other disciplines to work on complex information problems that need multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to address them.

The paper argues that new information problems may change the core of the field, but throughout its existence, the discipline has remained quite stable in its central focus, yet proved to be highly adaptive to the tremendous changes in the forms, practices, institutions and technologies around and for manifested information.

Celebrate Michael Buckland's impressive legacy to LIS by showing his humanity, generosity and versatility.

This article is walk through a scientific career in LIS. Through personal anecdotes and life history and building upon Michael Buckland's legacy, it summarises the author’s own work seen through the prism of her interactions with Buckland, leading to scholarly contributions articulating significant statements about the field of LIS as well as pointers to past relevant publications.

Michael Buckland has a unique way of putting an end to thorny LIS issues as well as being a documentator extraordinaire.

It is a personal account, as such cannot be evaluated through the classical norms of empirical research as there is no ground truth. This account shows how chance encounters with fellow scholars can have a lasting influence on one's academic career as well as wider impact in a field.

Using resource-based theory and social cognitive theory, this study aimed to investigate crucial resources that new US fashion ventures need to survive the initial stage of business development. It also intended to discover the role and characteristics of founders that contribute to the success of a fashion business, as well as challenges and struggles that fashion entrepreneurs face.

For the study, a qualitative research method with in-depth personal interviews was conducted. Participants were recruited through purposeful sampling methods. Using a grounded theory approach, we analyzed the approximately 308 pages of primary source data, transcribed from the records of the interviews.

Findings were categorized into three major themes. First, financial resources and literacy, marketing, merchandising, as well as legal resources were identified as critical resources at the firm level. Second, at the individual level, four important human agency factors, including intentionality, forethought, reactiveness and reflectiveness were revealed as essential for the success of fashion entrepreneurs. Lastly, relationships and networks were highlighted at both firm and individual levels.

This study contributes to the understanding of fashion entrepreneurship, an understudied area. The study identified critical resources for the success of fashion startups, especially during the initial business development process. The findings also emphasized the importance of human agency factors and networks at both firm and individual levels.

This study examines how informal business networks achieve marketing goals in socially uncertain contexts. Drawing from multiple historical sources, Shangbangs, a type of business network that thrived in pre-1949 China, are analyzed.

The Critical Historical Research Method (CHRM) undergirds a study of Shangbangs’ historicity (i.e. their socio-historically embedded multiplicity, including organizational forms, activities and connotations.

As informal regional, professional, project-based, special-product-based or mixed marketing networks, Shangbangs relied on “flexible specialization” and coupled multiple business needs to market goods and services, business organizations, specific social values and, when necessary, to debrand business rivals.

This analysis extends theories about marketing networks by probing their subtypes, diverse marketing activities, multipronged channels and relationship building with social entities (including underground societies, business associations and guilds) in response to pre-1949 China’s market uncertainties. Substantiating an alternative approach to “flexible specialization” and marketing innovations within the pre-1949 Chinese economy shows how a parallel theoretical framework can complement western-based marketing theories.

This first comprehensive analysis of Shangbangs, an innovative historical Chinese marketing network outside the conventional market-corporate dichotomy, can inform theory building for marketing strategy-making and management conditioned by social contexts.

This paper explores the relationship between board interlocks and firm outcomes by reviewing the most recent peer-reviewed articles examining this research theme.

A systematic and bibliometric methodology of assessing 369 peer-reviewed articles from the Web of Science (WoS) database was applied. The study also leverages key R-packages litsearchr and Bibliometrix software to enhance the descriptive and thematic literature analysis to identify gaps and opportunities for new research.

This study confirms a rapid increase in articles on this thematic area, over the last decade, with increasing collaboration occurring among researchers in the United States, Europe, China, South Korea and India. Four core research clusters are identified. The first and largest cluster links interlocked directors to issues related to corporate governance and firm outcomes. The second cluster links social network theory, interlocking directorates and firm outcomes. Smaller emerging research clusters include topics related to ownership structure, board size, political connectedness and impacts on firm outcomes. The final cluster examines the influence of board interlocks on market value and firm innovation.

Interlocked directors can have both positive and negative impacts on a wide variety of firm outcomes. This study places great interest in the selection of new directors, ensuring that the selection has aligned with the needs and interests of the company and disclosures of potential competing interests are declared and considered. Equally important are the governance practices used to monitor directors' behavior and to protect the interest of shareholders and the firm. This is particularly relevant in the internal appointment of interlocked directors to critical positions, such as audit committees or instances where interlocked directors may simultaneously hold CEO or executive leadership positions in other companies.

This paper examines the board interlocks literature related to firm outcomes. Additionally, this review identifies several topics and disciplines which, if pursued, could enrich the literature and promise new avenues for future research.

The purpose of this study is to systematically examine the existing literature published on the circulation methods used in academic libraries and to discuss a proposed model for the self-check-in and check-out methods using quick response (QR) codes.

A systematic literature review (SLR) provided a complete overview of circulation systems used in academic libraries for the last more than 140 years. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) method for SLR was used. Several databases such as ProQuest, Emerald, Library and Information Science Abstracts, EBSCO and Google Scholar were searched. Out of 277 papers retrieved in the search, 43 most relevant papers were taken up for the SLR. These were classified into four themes based on the systems of circulation used, namely, manual (5), mechanized (13), automated (5) and networked system (20). Based on the findings of the SLR, a model of circulation system in which QR code technology has been used.

The result of SLR identified 33 systems used in above mentioned four groups. Among this, a large number 48.48% of mechanized systems were found. Each system has limitations either because of devices used or of technology. The present study proposes a QR code-based model at the circulation desk, for which a prototype of Android app has been designed. This would help to initiate the new “self-services” facility to users at the circulation desk.

The proposed model, after its successful implementation, can be adopted by academic libraries. Guidelines and a graphical representation of this study can be used by any researcher for further experimentation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first kind of study in which a QR code-based Android app model has been proposed for library circulation records.

This paper aims to provide a living tribute to the leading autoethnographer, Alec Grant.

Alec provided Jerome with a list of names of people he might approach to write a tribute on his behalf.

The accounts describe the influence that Alec has had both as an educator and as a trusted colleague for the people approached.

While this is a living tribute, it is about one man and could, therefore, be described as a case study. Some people wonder what can be learned from a single case study. Read on and find out.

Alec has carved out a path for himself. In many senses, he chose “The Road Less Travelled”. He has never shied away from challenging “The System” and defending the rights of the marginalized and socially excluded. It is not a road for the faint-hearted.

For systems to change, radical thinkers need to show the way. “Change keeps us safe” (Stuart Bell).

Alec was a well-known and highly respected cognitive behavioural academic practitioner and the author of key textbooks in the field. He then decided to reinvent himself as an autoethnographer. This has brought him into contact with a much more diverse group of people. It has also brought him home to himself.

The study aims to draw lessons from other countries and propose a framework for developing smart libraries in transformation in South Africa. The framework will be useful to policymakers and scholars in library and information science.

This study used a qualitative approach based on a systematic literature review and the researchers’ experience concerning the transformation of smart libraries in South Africa. The researchers selected databases to access full-text, abstract or full-text linking facilities. The researchers generated the study’s literature review using keywords derived from themes. The keywords used include “smart libraries,” “functions of smart libraries” and “smart library infrastructure,” based on the objectives of the study.

The findings reveal that developing smart libraries in South Africa is feasible, but all stakeholders must cooperate and collaborate to create smart libraries. The findings of this study show that South Africa can draw lessons from other countries on the way forward in developing smart libraries. The results indicate that lack of funding, digital infrastructure and technical skills are among the factors inhibiting the development of smart libraries.

The issue of smart libraries has become a key on the agenda on a global scale, and South Africa is no exception to such developments. This study proposes a framework for developing smart libraries based on lessons learned within and outside South Africa.

Drawing on the natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory, the study aimed to examine the mediating role of green innovation (GI) in the nexus between green human resource management practices (Green HRMPs) and sustainable business performance (SBP).

This study adopted the descriptive time-lagged research design. Data were collected from 278 managerial staff of five mining companies in Ghana at different waves within a 3-month interval. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data received using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) statistics (V. 26.0) and Smart PLS (V.4.0).

The study found that Green HRMPs significantly related more to economic performance (EP) than social performance (SP) but did not significantly relate to environmental performance (EnP). Moreover, the results revealed that GI partially mediated the nexus between Green HRMPs and both SP and EP but fully mediated the link between Green HRMPs and EnP.

The relevance of Green HRMPs in ensuring corporate sustainability has been largely established in the extant literature. However, there is an evidential dearth of studies in the literature concerning the mediating role of GI in the nexus between Green HRMPs and SBP, especially in developing economies context. Hence, this study serves as a significant contributing card from Ghana by advancing the NRBV theory.