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A statistical analysis is made of the professional literature of librarians and information scientists in an attempt to uncover the patterns of information flow and to evaluate the abstracting services provided for information workers. Citation analysis of some English language information science journals throws light on the principal sources used by British and American information scientists and the linguistic and national biases in the citations given. The growth of the subject matter published in the field of information science is displayed. Five abstracting services are evaluated. Their scope in terms of the language, country of origin, subject matter and format of the material selected and abstracted is determined. Coverage is assessed in comparison with three bibliographies in this subject area. Currency is determined from NRLSI acquisition dates. Key journals are found from productivity analysis of the abstracted journals. Conclusions are drawn as to the adequacy of the present services and suggestions made for possible improvements.

The SAPPHO Project (Scientific Activity Predictor from Patterns with Heuristic Origins) was launched in 1968, with a grant from the Science Research Council, as a study of success and failure in industrial innovation. Two facts are worth emphasizing in introducing the project briefly. The first is that it had been noted by a number of researchers that, in introducing new products and processes to the market, there is a high failure rate. It varies from 60 to 90 per cent, depending on the sector of industry and the nature of the market. The second fact is allied to this. Innovations appear to happen in clusters, very seldom in isolation. Thus, when the world market for a particular chemical expands and forces up its price, several firms in the industry will encourage research into cost reducing or quantity increasing processes. Of this group of innovating firms, one or two will succeed commercially with a process, others will succeed technologically but not commercially, and some will fail on both counts.

This research aims to report the findings of an exploratory survey administered in the USA, Spain and Costa Rica on leaders' behavior. The purpose of the survey is to understand any differences in transformational leader behavior in three different countries.

This research used a survey instrument applied to USA (113 responses, 35.5 percent response rate), Spain (168 responses, 66 percent response rate) and Costa Rica (100 responses, 40.0 percent response rate). The researchers used different statistical analyses such as structural equation modeling (using AMOS), and ANOVA.

The findings suggest that there is an international measure of leader behavior. When comparing measurement models of leader behaviors in the three countries, differences were found to be more notorious between Spain and both Costa Rica and the USA. However, the individual geographies, histories and vantage points of the Anglo‐Saxon country (USA) versus the Spanish‐Speaking countries (Costa Rica and Spain) seem to have created some differences in leader behaviors.

The research provides insights into the growing body of knowledge on leader behavior. It first shows an international measure of leader behavior and then compares the three countries.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of mentoring in the wider enterprise eco‐system, with a specific focus on the potential of on‐line mentoring for women's enterprise.

The paper offers insights into the approach adopted in taking mentoring experience and practice into a new field as part of a European Commission‐funded project.

Findings to date highlight the need for support amongst women entrepreneurs, across a range of business sectors, in planning for and pursuing business growth. More specifically, the need for bespoke support and advice is highlighted, given that entrepreneurs are not a homogenous group and in light of the additional barriers that women encounter in business start‐up and growth.

The paper describes what is considered to be a unique programme being delivered in the UK, with findings holding wider applicability for policy makers, business support organisations and practitioners across jurisdictions.

This study aims to examine consumers’ responses to two types of loyalty programs: coalition and single-firm programs. This study explains the mechanism underlying the link between this program structure and consumers’ program evaluation by incorporating the type of firm offering the program (i.e. a more hedonic or a more utilitarian disposition), the type of rewards (i.e. presence/absence of experiential rewards) and consumers’ reactance.

Two online experiments were employed to test the proposed framework.

Consumers commonly preferred a coalition program to a single-firm program. This preference for the coalition program was strengthened when a utilitarian-dominant firm offered the program. Additionally, consumers evaluated the program lower when a utilitarian-dominant firm provided experiential rewards. Furthermore, situational reactance toward the program mediated the effect of the program structure on the program evaluation.

This study’s findings suggest that firms should consider whether the value consumers predominantly perceive from the firms is utilitarian or hedonic when launching coalition programs. Consumers may not be pleased by the coalition programs offered by hedonic-dominant firms as much as those provided by utilitarian-dominant firms. Moreover, this study’s results help design reward options. Consumers may not well evaluate the inclusion of experiential rewards when offered by utilitarian-dominant firms. For utilitarian-dominant firms, rewards requiring less time and effort may be more suitable.

This research significantly contributes to the literature on loyalty programs. This study showed that consumers viewed single-firm and coalition programs differently and elucidated the mechanism behind the response.