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In the field of information retrieval, some multi‐lingual tools are being created to help the users to overcome the language barriers. Nevertheless, these tools are not developed completely and it is necessary to investigate more for their improvement and application. One of their main problems is the choice of the linguistic resources to offer better coverage and to solve the translation problems in the context of the multi‐lingual information retrieval. This paper aims to address this issue.

This research is focused on the analysis of resources used by the multi‐lingual question‐answering systems, which respond to users' queries with short answers, rather than just offering a list of documents related to the search. An analysis of the main publications about the multi‐lingual QA systems was carried out, with the aim of identifying the typology, the advantages and disadvantages, and the real use and trend of each of the linguistic resources and tools used in this new kind of system.

Five of the resources most used in the cross‐languages QA systems were identified and studied: databases, dictionaries, corpora, ontologies and thesauri. The three most popular traditional resources (automatic translators, dictionaries, and corpora) are gradually leaving a widening gap for others – such as ontologies and the free encyclopaedia Wikipedia.

The perspective offered by the translation discipline can improve the effectiveness of QA systems.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on empowering migrant voices. While many write about researchers struggling to be more ethical, few write about specific methods that might improve the processes of researching multilingually (Temple and Edwards, 2002). The paper reports on one method, the handing over control of the running of the focus group interviews to the Korean parent research participants. In considering the outcomes, the paper examines the resultant situated interactive discourse patterns, the data produced and the cues given for data interpretation. Analysis suggests voice can be empowered in co-ethnic settings pushing back constraining conventions of public face.

The issue arose during the author's PhD study. As an outsider, a monolingual English speaker interested in cross-cultural participatory research in a school setting, the author sought to empower participant voices. The research was informed by pragmatic critical theory; used an ethnographic approach (Charmaz and Mitchell, 1997); relied on Charmaz's (2006) modified grounded theory for thematic analysis; and, in this paper, drew on linguistic ethnography's contextualised approach to linguistic analysis, and Brown and Levinson's (1987) patterns of verbal interaction.

The hands-off approach activated an interview genre with more culturally familiar talk-in-interaction and therefore richer sense making. Analysis showed that constraining cultural norms may be challenged in a host setting when a dominant group member subverts familiar boundaries of silence in public discussion of education. The co-constructed group talk provided clear guidelines for data analysis and for memoing, the foundations of theory building, when using modified grounded theory. Issues around the artfulness of sensitive interviewing were also raised.

Translating and analysing concepts across languages is not within the scope of the paper.

The paper informs practice for monolingual researchers conducting focus group interviews in cross-cultural settings. The paper valorises time spent, commitment and reciprocity in ethnographic research. The research also suggests ways researchers can work with schools and their communities to hear migrant voices and imagine new practices and polices.

The paper studies an under-researched field – specific methods that might improve the processes of researching multilingually (Temple and Edwards, 2002). Few have written about qualitative interviews as interactive events in cross-cultural settings (Talmy and Richards, 2011). The paper is valuable to qualitative researchers interested in methods of ethical knowledge production in cross-cultural settings. It is of value to educational groups, and others, that wish to explore methods of engaging in dialogue with migrant communities.

This paper aims to review current approaches to, and good practice in, information literacy (IL) development in multi-lingual and multi-cultural settings, with particular emphasis on provision for international students.

A selective and critical review of published literature is extended by evaluation of examples of multi-lingual IL tutorials and massive open online courses.

Multi-lingual literacy and multi-cultural IL are umbrella terms covering a variety of situations and issues. This provision is of increasing importance in an increasingly mobile and multi-cultural world. This paper evaluates current approaches and good practice, focussing on issues of culture vis-à-vis language; the balance between individual and group needs; specific and generic IL instruction; and models for IL, pedagogy and culture. Recommendations for good practice and for further research are given.

This is one of very few papers critically reviewing how IL development is affected by linguistic and cultural factors.

With the fierce competition in the cold chain logistics market, achieving and maintaining excellent customer satisfaction is the key to an enterprise's ability to stand out. This research aims to determine the factors that affect customer satisfaction in cold chain logistics, which helps cold chain logistics enterprises identify the main aspects of the problem. Further, the suggestions are provided for cold chain logistics enterprises to improve customer satisfaction.

This research uses the text mining approach, including topic modeling and sentiment analysis, to analyze the information implicit in customer-generated reviews. First, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model is used to identify the topics that customers focus on. Furthermore, to explore the sentiment polarity of different topics, bi-directional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM), a type of deep learning model, is adopted to quantify the sentiment score. Last, regression analysis is performed to identify the significant factors that affect positive, neutral and negative sentiment.

The results show that eight topics that customer focus are determined, namely, speed, price, cold chain transportation, package, quality, error handling, service staff and logistics information. Among them, speed, price, transportation and product quality significantly affect customer positive sentiment, and error handling and service staff are significant factors affecting customer neutral and negative sentiment, respectively.

The data of the customer-generated reviews in this research are in Chinese. In the future, multi-lingual research can be conducted to obtain more comprehensive insights.

Prior studies on customer satisfaction in cold chain logistics predominantly used questionnaire method, and the disadvantage of which is that interviewees may fill out the questionnaire arbitrarily, which leads to inaccurate data. For this reason, it is more scientific to discover customer satisfaction from real behavioral data. In response, customer-generated reviews that reflect true emotions are used as the data source for this research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an oft‐neglected aspect of qualitative research practice – conducting a pilot – using the innovative approach of “e‐research” to generate both practical and methodological insights.

Using the authors’ “e‐research” pilot as a reflexive case study, key methodological issues are critically reviewed. This review is set in a broader context of the qualitative methods literature in which piloting appears largely as an implicit practice. Using a new and emerging approach (“e‐research”) provides a prompt to review “autopilot” tendencies and offers a new lens for analysing research practice.

The authors find that despite an initial focus on “practical” aspects of data collection within their “e‐research”, the pilot opened up a range of areas for further consideration. The authors review research ethics, collaborative research practices and data management issues specifically for e‐research but also reflect more broadly on potential implications for piloting within other research designs.

The authors aim to offer both practical and methodological insights for qualitative researchers, whatever their methodological orientation, so that they might develop approaches for piloting that are appropriate to their own research endeavours. More specifically, the authors offer tentative guidance to those venturing into the emerging area of “e‐research”.

This paper offers insight into an oft‐ignored aspect of qualitative research, whilst also engaging in an emerging area of methodological interest.

This paper aims to report the results of a study into visitor evaluations of interactions with hotel employees in Mauritius. Given that the island's core tourism product is based on luxury resorts, tourist‐hotel employee interactions possess a potential for determining satisfactory or unsatisfactory holiday evaluations on the part of visitors.

A sample of 103 visitors is interviewed using a semi‐structured guide comprising open‐ended questions. This approach reflects the lived experiences of guests and helps to better assess the role played by nationality when reporting visitor‐staff interactions. Data are analyzed using both thematic analysis and textual analysis software.

Nationality, ethnicity and languages spoken are found to be factors that determine differences in requirements from hotel staff on the part of tourists. Nationality is the strongest discriminator of these requirements.

As with many examples of qualitative research, the findings are time and place specific. Yet nonetheless, the concepts of personal construct theory permit some generalization.

Resort complex staff and management need to note the differences required by guests of different national groupings, and to appreciate that less than warm responses by some clients are not indicative of dissatisfaction.

The paper distinguishes between guests not only on the basis of nationality and ethnicity, but also languages spoken. No similar study relating to resort complexes in Mauritius has been identified. The study also uses two modes of textual data analysis to support the interpretation offered.

In this chapter, we align two approaches on the multinational enterprise (MNE), that is, research on languages and international business, and micropolitics, in order to establish the language-based underpinnings of micropolitical behavior in the MNE.

This theoretical chapter departs from a social, relational perspective on power relationships in the MNE. Power relationships are constituted in multilingual encounters between different language users.

Our analysis builds on the assumption that the mandated corporate language in the MNE, which often is English, results in a language hierarchy. This hierarchy creates inequality and tension between the languages in use in the MNE. However, language agents, that is, headquarters, foreign subsidiaries, teams, managers, and employees can – individually or collectively – change, challenge, and disrupt this hierarchical order. Their micropolitical behavior is essential for action as it redraws organizational structure, alters the degree of foreign subsidiary autonomy and control, redefines the privileged and the disadvantaged groups in the MNE, and reinforces subgroup formation and dynamics in multilingual teams.

We highlight the important role played by language agents who sit at the interstices of organizational networks in the MNE. The interplay between their actions and motivations and their historical and situational contexts represents an underexplored and undertheorized area of study.

Senior managers in MNEs are frequently very competent or native users of the English language. Appreciating the continued existence of various languages has implications for how different MNE units can effectively connect and operate as an overall entity.

This chapter highlights the languages-based mechanisms that underpin power relationships in the MNE.

This research aims to produce a “mile‐deep” study of the impact of using EIS on a small homogeneous group of undergraduate students during their entire undergraduate education, a period spanning three years.

This research uses a constructivist approach, focusing on 19 in‐depth, holistic case studies to produce “rich pictures”. Data collection is achieved using interviews, focus groups, student diaries, bibliography analysis and observation. The fieldwork lasted three years in order to investigate changing behaviour over time, and measure impact.

These rich pictures reveal a variety of ways in which access to EIS can provide valuable learning opportunities in higher education. This paper focuses on the cross‐case analysis of the change in perceptions and use of EIS over a period of three years and the nature of the intervention that impacted upon this perception and use.

This research indicates that longitudinal studies can demonstrate the impact of resources on individuals. This was a very homogenous group of research participants, it would be very useful to apply this research design to other profiles in order to establish transferability.

Electronic information services provide students with opportunities to interact one another and with vast quantities of information. Research has indicated that learning and cognitive development are intricately linked to opportunities to process and interact with relevant information and the medium used to deliver this information may well have an impact on these opportunities.

The length and depth of this investigation is rare in performance measurement research, impact was measured over time and in depth, on an individual basis.

The paper aims to fill a gap in the literature in relation to the determinants of customer value within the research and development (R&D) industry and word‐of‐mouth. It investigates whether context specific variables, such as organizational type and contract length, change customer value evaluations and the value – intention to repurchase – recommend system.

A survey of Australian customers of a research and development service organization was conducted. Structural equation modelling was used to develop a model investigating factors that affect customer value, intent to re‐purchase, and word‐of‐mouth/recommendation.

Relationship benefits, service benefits and sacrifice all had a significant influence on customer value. Efficient use of time is crucial for sacrifice evaluation. Relationship benefits were larger for government organizations than private organizations. Importance of value to recommend the organization to others was higher for longer contracts and government customers.

Results show that R&D organizations need to concentrate on both the technical service/science aspects and the relationship aspects in their contracts. Government institutions tended to emphasize the relationship benefits while private businesses considered service benefits, relationship benefits and sacrifice nearly equal in their determination of value. Intent to contract R&D organization for further work and the willingness to recommend it to others as a highly specialized and competent service provider seem to be higher for government customers and longer contracts.

This paper investigates customer value in a little researched industry, R&D. The findings are relevant for similar professional business‐to‐business services.

This paper aims to illustrate the scope and challenges of using computer-aided content analysis in international marketing with the aim to capture consumer sentiments about COVID-19 from multi-lingual tweets.

The study is based on some 35 million original COVID-19-related tweets. The study methodology illustrates the use of supervised machine learning and artificial neural network techniques to conduct extensive information extraction.

The authors identified more than two million tweets from six countries and categorized them into PESTEL (i.e. Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal) dimensions. The extracted consumer sentiments and associated emotions show substantial differences across countries. Our analyses highlight opportunities and challenges inherent in using multi-lingual online sentiment analysis in international marketing. Based on these insights, several future research directions are proposed.

First, the authors contribute to methodology development in international marketing by providing a “use-case” for computer-aided text mining in a multi-lingual context. Second, the authors add to the knowledge on differences in COVID-19-related consumer sentiments in different countries. Third, the authors provide avenues for future research on the analysis of unstructured multi-media posts.