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The purpose of this paper is to investigate credit rationing across firms in euro zone countries, as it relates to its own sovereign credit ratings.

The authors utilize firm-level data from the Survey on Access to Finance of Enterprises for the period 2009-2013 conducted by the European Central Bank.

A negative association between the rating of sovereign creditworthiness and credit rationing is identified, while credit rationing varies substantially even among countries with the highest quality of sovereign bonds. Credit rationing is lower in sovereigns with high-quality ratings and higher in sovereigns near default. These results remain intact when fundamental firm characteristics (e.g. firm’s age and size, sector of economic activity, financial situation, etc.) are taken into consideration. This indicates that the interconnection of sovereign debt risk with domestic credit market outcomes is robust.

The present study contributes to the relevant literature by performing a detailed analysis of credit rationing for euro zone SMEs and by exploring the link between sovereign credit rating and credit rationing during the sovereign debt crisis period.

The present paper examines the factors influencing the farmers’ uptake of agri‐environmental measures. Empirical evidence from Thessaly, a prefecture in central Greece where the first agri‐environmental measures in Greece were applied, shows that several factors can affect the farmers’ decision to participate. These factors refer mainly to the socio‐economic and farm characteristics of the surveyed farmers. Agricultural education/training of the farmers, the farm’s economic size, participation by neighbors or relatives, age and general education, can influence participation in the agri‐environmental measures, and more precisely in the Nitrate Reduction program. These variables were found also to be the main factors responsible for the extent of participation in terms of land allocation.

This paper investigates the employment dynamics of Greek married women.

Longitudinal/panel data for the period 1995‐2001 and dynamic discrete choice models are used for estimation purposes.

It is found that the probability of being employed is influenced by observed individual characteristics (e.g. human capital, fertility and unearned income), while genuine state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity constitute major sources of observed serial persistence. The results show that lagged employment affects current employment decisions in a systematic way, and that the non‐contemporaneous effects of unearned income and fertility correlate with unobserved heterogeneity. The estimated average partial effects reveal that an employed woman in t−1 has a probability of being employed in t that is almost 50 percentage points higher than for a non‐employed woman.

The presence of state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity imply that the bridging of the female employment gap between Greece and its EU partners is expected to follow a slow, long‐term course.

Greek female labour force participation has been studied only under a static analytical framework. This is the first study to investigate employment decisions of Greek married women in an inter‐temporal setting.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal and describe the divergent viewpoints about cybersecurity within a purposefully selected group of people with a range of expertise in relation to computer security.

Q methodology [Q] uses empirical evidence to differentiate subjective views and, therefore, behaviors in relation to any topic. Q uses the strengths of qualitative and quantitative research methods to reveal and describe the multiple, divergent viewpoints that exist within a group where individuals sort statements into a grid to represent their views. Analyses group similar views (sorts). In this study, participants were selected from a range of types related to cybersecurity (experts, authorities and uninformed).

Four unique viewpoints emerged such that one represents cybersecurity best practices and the remaining three viewpoints represent poor cybersecurity behaviors (Naïve Cybersecurity Practitioners, Worried but not Vigilant and How is Cybersecurity a Big Problem) that indicate a need for educational interventions within both the public and private sectors.

Understanding the divergent views about cybersecurity is important within smaller groups including classrooms, technology-based college majors, a company, a set of IT professionals or other targeted groups where understanding cybersecurity viewpoints can reveal the need for training, changes in behavior and/or the potential for security breaches which reflect the human factors of cybersecurity.

A review of the literature revealed that only large, nation-wide surveys have been used to investigate views of cybersecurity. Yet, surveys are not useful in small groups, whereas Q is designed to investigate behavior through revealing subjectivity within smaller groups.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

Introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this study was to determine faculty preferences and attitudes regarding reference management software (RMS) to improve the library’s support and training programs.

A short, online survey was emailed to approximately 272 faculty.

Survey results indicated that multiple RMS were in use, with faculty preferring Zotero over the library-supported RefWorks. More than 40 per cent did not use any RMS.

The relatively short length of the survey precluded a more detailed investigation of faculty attitudes. The 20 per cent response rate, although typical of surveys of this type, may over-represent those faculty who have strong attitudes toward RMS. These findings support the necessity of doing more research to establish the parameters of the RMS environment among faculty, with implications for support, instruction and outreach at the institutional level.

Surveys should be conducted to establish local faculty RMS usage and preferences, as they may differ from both published findings and local expectations. Because it is unlikely that faculty will overwhelmingly use one RMS, libraries should plan to support multiple RMS.

This study is among the first to investigate the issue of RMS faculty preferences in a liberal arts setting.