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ANYBODY whoses daily work involves the planning and spending of money must at all times be concerned by efforts to ensure that value is being obtained for the money spent. Those of us who, as librarians, are spending the money of fellow tax‐payers, are naturally doubly concerned about this problem. In addition, the very phrase “value for money” to a Yorkshireman is a continual challenge, and a point on which he instinctively feels, rightly or wrongly, that he has some secret inborn knowledge.

This paper proposes the concept of sustainability as a forward looking strategic intent of the organizations, which requires financing capabilities and investment. We structure the relationship between financial capabilities, product-led and process-led innovation approaches and corporate financial performance, in particular, we attempt to answer an important question: is sustainability-corporate performance relationship contingent upon the access and use of the financial resources?

We used a sample of Top 100 Sustainable global companies and tested several hypotheses regarding the likely financing policies of sustainable firms underlying their product-led and process-led sustainability approaches and financial performance.

Our results show that investment in R&D and capital expenditures provide a reasonable prediction of financing strategy chosen by the sample companies. Furthermore, our findings show that surplus (deficit) in financial capabilities influence the financing trajectory of the companies. Our results show that financial capabilities of companies, that is, financing choice (conservative vs. aggressive) matter for sustainable development, and sustainability-corporate performance relationship is contingent upon the use of financial resources.

These findings imply that organizations should rethink themselves and be encouraged to evaluate their own progress on the path of sustainability in terms of protection of the environment and the advancement of those communities in which they operate.

This paper develops a classification of global companies’ sustainable development approaches using their investment in R&D and capital expenditures. Furthermore, we also develop classification of companies using their financing capabilities, that is, surplus (deficit) to highlight their impact on the sustainable-corporate performance link.

Recent studies have highlighted the importance of adopting a contingency approach to configuring omnichannel warehouses. Nonetheless, research on how various contextual factors influence the selection of warehouse configuration is scarce. This study fills this knowledge gap by exploring how and why certain configurations fit in different omnichannel contexts.

A case study is conducted with six leading Swedish omnichannel retailers. Focusing on outbound warehouse configurations, data are collected through interviews, on-site observations, and secondary sources. A multistep analysis is made, including both pattern matching and explanation building.

The qualitative analysis reveals 16 contextual factors, of which assortment range, requested online order fulfillment times, goods size and total transactions are the most influential. The study shows how contextual factors create different challenges, thereby influencing the choice of the configurations. In addition to market dynamics and task complexity, the study describes four categories of the factors and related challenges that are particularly important in omnichannels: speed, space, economies of scale and tied-up capital.

The findings highlight the importance of understanding context and imply that multiple challenges may require trade-offs when selecting configurations, for example, regarding what storage, processes and resources to integrate or separate. To confirm, extend, challenge and further operationalize the ideas and observations put forward in this paper, an agenda with future research issues is given for this accelerating, contemporary phenomenon.

Managers could leverage the frameworks proposed for the contextual profiling of their current and future positions. The frameworks provide support for understanding the important challenges and potential trade-offs and developing aligned configurations.

This study is original in the way it provides in-depth, case study findings about contextual factors and their influence on omnichannel warehouse configuration.

THERE were (at the beginning of 1964) 138 daily and Sunday newspapers in the United Kingdom. Some of these, perhaps 20, are nationals with mass circulations ranging from the Financial Times (140,000) to the News of the World (six million). The rest, together with a large number of weeklies, constitutes the provincial press which at its best is one of the main strengths of British journalism.

Aims to describe pregnant women with poor emotional health and the relationship between self‐reported emotional health and prenatal care satisfaction. To this end, 1,265 women who delivered a live‐born singleton infant were interviewed and information abstracted from prenatal records. Concludes that patient assessment of satisfaction with prenatal care may be related to both self‐reported emotional health and delivery of medical care. Identifying and addressing emotional health of prenatal patients may improve compliance with medical recommendations, ultimately improving health outcomes.

Recent literature recognizes the role of warehouses in enhancing the overall logistics performance. Thus, lean thinking has recently found its way in supporting warehouse and distribution centre operations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among warehouse waste reduction practices, warehouse operational performance, distribution performance and business performance.

A two-stage study was conducted. First, a Delphi technique was adopted to develop a relevant questionnaire. Second, this questionnaire was used to measure the degree of waste reduction in the different warehouse activities and to test the developed research hypotheses. The authors test the hypotheses with a sample of Middle Eastern warehouse operators.

There exists a positive relationship between warehouse waste reduction level and both warehouse operational performance and distribution performance. There was no direct relationship between warehouse waste reduction level and business performance. However, results revealed that the relationship between warehouse waste reduction level and business performance was mediated by warehouse operational performance and distribution performance.

The developed instrument provides a guide for logistics managers as to understand how to reduce waste in each warehousing activity. The results also inform logistics managers of how distribution performance can be improved through lean warehousing. The resulting performance improvements in the distribution operations will ultimately be reflected in the logistics performance of downstream retailers.

The study develops an original instrument for measuring waste reduction in warehouses, and provides insights into the evolving lean warehousing research area. This is the first scholarly work to uncover the relationships among warehouse waste reduction practices, warehouse operational performance, distribution performance and business performance.

The small size of female founded and owned businesses is discussed as a weakness towards business survival and growth and also as a solid foundation for sustainable innovation (SI) through maintaining stronger ties with suppliers and customers. In smaller businesses, the closeness to the key stakeholders facilitates knowledge transfer and internalisation of knowledge which leads to faster decision making and creating SI. This paper aims to examine networking strategies of established female entrepreneurs and to develop better insights into the extent of social dialogue, collaboration and cooperation maintained between the entrepreneur and her network contacts towards SI and value generation. Successful business sustainability strategies and subsequent outcomes of established female entrepreneurs are also examined. This paper presents the findings from quantitative survey-based research conducted with 240 established female entrepreneurs from the UK and Turkey (120 from each). The respondents were selected on the basis of business survival and success. National culture is used to identify the established authoritative guidelines for social behaviour. Hofstede’s Culture Model is applied to the case countries to describe the sociocultural institutional context. From the business sustainability strategies (BSS) perspective, the findings show that the studied elements of established female entrepreneurs vary between two different cultural environments. And yet, the both group reported a high level of social dialogue, collaboration and cooperation with their network contacts although they demonstrated fundamentally different networking patterns within the context of type of contact; networking motivation; frequency of contact; and helpfulness of contact. Also established female entrepreneurs’ business sustainability strategies show significant differences between the case countries linked to the level of power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance culture dimensions. The paper generates valuable insights into internationalisation strategies for female entrepreneurs and possible areas for facilitation for policy makers.

Due to the importance of efficiency and responsiveness measures rather than just efficiency measures, this research recognizes both measures when considering overall performance of warehouse operations. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to prioritize overall performance measures associated with warehouse operations in manufacturing, third-party logistics service provider and retail industry supply chains.

The study uses an integrated approach that involves the Q-sort method to group measures into four categories. Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process was then used to prioritize individual performance measures within each category and integer liner programming model was used to validate prioritized categories, using the judgment of multiple decision makers across three industries.

The result shows that the financial category is a dominating performance category in managing warehouse operations across all three industries selected. Within the financial category, cost of insurance accounted for 25 percent of total weight of the category, and is considered to be a powerful measure. The financial category is verified by multiple decision makers across three industries, as the most important performance category.

As part of adopting the proposed methodology in practice, it needs to be guided by overall methodology appropriate for industry-specific contexts.

Key novel aspects of this study are to categorize warehouse operations measures and analyze their perspectives in different industries, understand dominant categories of warehouse operations measures in the contemporary supply chain and finally to explore to what extent current practices lead to achieving efficiency and responsiveness in the selected industries.

Librarianship, the comprehensive title Mr. R. Irwin has given to the small, concentrated series of discourses recently published by Messrs. Grafton & Co., is a sort of landmark in our thinking. It is a valiant attempt to establish some sort of arena for librarians ; not, indeed, a “philosophy of librarianship”—that, Mr. Irwin asserts, is not feasible as the term philosophy can be applied correctly only to subjects which are part of philosophy itself, although he admits a philosophy of religion, of science and, tentatively, of history. In spite of this precision, the book is what we ordinary librarians call a philosophy of librarianship. Like all good books, it will be the cause of considerable discussion and probably a good deal of argument, some of which the Editor of a library journal thinks it appropriate to indicate, for the book goes to the roots of current activities. But, in the first place, the author Stands apart as it were to get a comprehensive view and then asserts that librarianship is a word for “ applied bibliography ” and that definition covers every activity, book‐selection, bibliography popularly named, cataloguing, classification and the general exploiting of books. Librarianship is one technique, not several, and he implies that it has suffered from the tendency to teach library subjects as separate techniques, for example, cataloguing and classification which are actually one process. This separation was the result of part‐time and other fortuitous forms of teaching. Since the advent of library schools the tendency of the training and examination courses of the Library Association, and as a consequence of the schools themselves, has been to create a unity of Studies which is the perfect librarian's soundest equipment. That is the briefest Statement is the purpose.

Tests the reliability of an empirical model designed by Szapocznik et al to measure acculturation levels of first‐generation immigrants. Applies model to a demographically diverse sample group of first‐generation Asian‐Indian immigrants in three cities near New York (USA) to establish levels of cultural and behavioural acculturation, and the relevance of demographic variables, such as gender, marital status, religion and occupation. Establishes a series of statistically significant correlations between the variables examined; compares these results with findings of other studies involving different immigrant groups. Asserts that the model provides a reliable basis for assessing acculturation characteristics of immigrants; concludes that the findings of this study provide an objective basis for the development of social and public policy aimed at accommodating acculturation needs of this particular immigrant group.